Which ITIL version is better v3 or v4?
Owned by AXELOS, ITIL is a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office.
What’s ITIL?
Owned by AXELOS, ITIL is a joint venture between Capita and the UK Cabinet Office. AXELOS is a governing body that licenses organisations to use the ITIL intellectual property, manages the updates of the ITIL Framework and accredits examination institutes. PeopleCert is one of the renowned examination bodies accredited by AXELOS to provide ITIL exams.
Other than the ITIL certification scheme, AXELOS offers various qualifications across different domains like Project Management, ITSM, Agile, TOGAFF, etc.
Since the late 1980s, the ITIL practices have been widely accepted and implemented by organisations across the globe; it is owned by AXELOS, a joint venture created by the Cabinet Office in 2013. AXELOS certifies thousands of professionals in ITIL every month.
The ‘Information Technology Infrastructure Library is a set of best and proven practices for creating and improving an ITSM process in an organisation. It is designed to establish efficient practices and build stable IT environments for growth, scale and change.
The practices are scalable and flexible, making it the most preferred framework. ITIL can even be adapted in line with others like TOGAF, Six Sigma, etc.
The ITIL 4 Foundation book was released on February 18th 2019
ITIL 4 has evolved with a clear transition journey from one scheme structure to the other. ITIL v3 Foundation Certified professionals are encouraged to move straight to ITIL 4 Foundation to keep their skills up-to-date.
Changes in ITIL v4
More than 150 practitioners have actively worked on the ITIL 4 update and have collected inputs from more than 2000 ITIL Professionals across the globe. The changes were measurable and significant for ITIL to sustain itself in the market, professionals across the industry are very positive about ITIL 4, and it is assumed to be helpful for the IT industry.
Though many assume that ITIL is dead over the years, however, it continues to be the standard for the ITSM best practices across the globe in the IT Industry
This much anticipated and awaited launch of Foundation level certification was launched by AXELOS on February 28th 2019.
Main differences between ITIL v3 and v4.
ITIL V3 is the introduction of key elements, concepts and terms which are found in ITIL, The core elements of ITIL V3 will remain same and ITIL 4 will focus more on integration with best practices.
ITIL 4 is going to be end to end operating model starting from creation, delivery and continual improvement of the products and services related to IT product and service industry.
This is the major update in the last ten years; however, during this time IT Service Management has changed a lot, and this was much anticipated and awaited an update. The update will indeed have the practical approach on the adoption of ITIL in conjunction with practices such as Agile, Lean and DevOps.
To keep it simple the most significant criticism of ITIL was the relationship with the ITSM and trends in IT industry and IT Operations which ITIL 4 addresses by making this update driven in accordance with DevOps, Agile and lean. ITIL v3 version of ITSM describes service management in 26 processes and functions that are part of the five life cycles, which are Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.
ITIL v4 has introduced Service Value System (SVS), which provides an end-to-end picture of business value, and also integrates modern concepts such as Lean IT, Agile and DevOps which have picked up recently.
Core to ITIL v3 was a set of 26 processes and functions arranged in a five-step Service Lifecycle consisting of Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. ITIL v4 has taken a different approach, with a Service Value System (SVS) that demonstrates how opportunity/demand is turned into value. It consists of a set of guiding principles, governance, service value chain activities, a set of 34 practices, and continual improvement.
The ITIL Service Value Chain, The central element of the Service Value System, is the Service Value Chain, an operating model that outlines the critical activities required to respond to demand and facilitate business value through the creation and management of products and services. To know more about the changes in ITIL 4, visit the official site.
How has the life-cycle changed?
There is no service life cycle of strategy, design, transition, operation and CSI. Instead of life-cycle, Service Value System has been introduced.
The Service Value System uses the value chain, and the difference between the value chain and the lifecycle is that all the processes turn up in all areas, which is not there in the life-cycle.
Guiding principles in ITIL v4
ITIL 4 has seven guiding principles. they are not new as such, and they are meant to help IT professionals adopt and adapt ITIL guidance to their own specific needs and circumstances.
The ITIL 4 guiding principles are mentioned below:
- Focus on value
- Start where you are
- Progress iteratively with feedback
- Collaborate and promote visibility
- Think and work holistically
- Keep it simple and practical
- Optimise and automate
They allow professionals to define approaches and navigate difficult decisions and should be followed at every stage of service delivery. ITIL 4’s focus on collaboration, automation, and keeping things simple, reflect principles found in Agile, DevOps and Lean methodologies. The guiding principles can be found on the official Axelos website.
What are the processes in ITIL v4?
The significant change from ITIL v3 to ITIL v4 is that the processes have been replaced with practices. With the inputs of a lot of experts about processes being pointless, practices have been introduced in V4. A method is a set of organisational performances to have better performance at work.
There are three general areas of practice:
- General Management practices like Architecture Management, Relationship Management,
- Service Management practice that includes your Asset Management, Problem Management and so on,
- Technical Management Practices like software development and management.
Why should organisations opt for ITIL?
The current processes and management practices should be driven by recent updates. Without this, an organisation will inevitably be less efficient, giving competitors a chance to lure customers away. ITSM practices utilised fortune 500 companies across the globe, some of the top organisations in the world, include HSBC, IBM and even NASA.
ITIL is designed to standardise the procedures for proper IT management, helping businesses efficiently deliver the best quality services.
Who should take this certification?
- Beneficial to anyone who is from the IT Service industry or who wants to know about IT Service management,
- This certification will be beneficial for the professionals who have basic knowledge of the ITIL Framework,
- The professionals who want to enhance IT Service Management using ITIL Framework,
- Professionals working in an organisation who have adopted ITIL as the framework,
- ITIL is globally accepted as the best practice standard for IT Service Management.
Some of the reasons why you should opt for ITIL as ITSM best practice are mentioned below.
- It helps to align IT services with business priorities to achieve organisational objectives
- It helps in increasing the value of the service portfolio while reducing costs and risk
- Increase the competencies, capabilities, and productivity of IT staff and better utilise the skills and experience of the team
- Improve user and customer satisfaction with IT as well as the end-user perception and brand image framework integration.
- ITIL 4 provides a holistic end-to-end picture that integrates frameworks such as Lean IT, Agile, and DevOps.
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