Quick Start—An Overview of ITIL

Service Strategy

Start
 Warning: This will increase
your brain activity
Learning ITIL® is not easy. First, there’s confusion. “What the blank
is ITIL?” Then comes denial. “Why, ITIL, why?” Next acceptance…and
the “I can’t stay awake past one page” phase where your brain shuts
off and you fall into an ITIL-induced coma. This shouldn’t happen.
Sure, ITIL can be a bit dry. But this eBook will help you through it.
We’ll even throw in a few puns and corny jokes to make
sure you’re awake.

So grab a water bottle. Stay hydrated. And turn your

brain on to learn ITIL

First things first, what is ITIL?

The only thing standing between you and learning all about the IT
Infrastructure Library (ITIL for short) is learning to speak the language.
The phraseology. The fuzzwords. Let’s start with a basic definition
and then break it down into five stages. That’s right, five stages you
can count on one hand, so you’ll implement ITIL in no time.

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2 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 ITIL 2011 Glossary Definition
ITIL is a non-prescriptive framework of best practices that a company
uses to set a baseline for IT service delivery. From here they can
strategize, implement new services or changes to current services,
and measure the success—or lack thereof.

Umm…Come again?

Translation:
You know that feeling when you’re watching Netflix and your Internet
goes down? Not fun. You’re not a happy camper. That’s how
employees feel when the systems they use stop running at work—
only it’s your boss who’s not a happy camper. ITIL is the thing that
helps your IT remain afloat and keep everyone happy.

ITIL is a best practice that IT uses to keep your Internet, systems,

apps, and gadgets up and running. Companies use ITIL to improve
the way they provide services. This way your employees and
customers remain happy campers.

To top it off, ITIL is not specific to any industry or type of business

(the non-prescriptive part). ITIL is a general framework customized
to each business’s needs. This can be both good and bad for you,
the implementer. Flexibility and openness is great. But the less
strictly defined a rule is, the harder it is to follow.

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3 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 How does ITIL work? Five Stages at a Glance

You are here.

Service Strategy
Define needs, assets,
and strategy
Service Design
Design services and the
supporting elements
Continual Service
Improvement
Collect data on performance
Compare to strategy standards
Change for improvement

Service Operation Service Transition

Deploy said services. Includes Develop services, the supporting
maintenance, error resolution, elements, and the methods of
and making sure the end-user implementation
is happy

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4 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 Stage 1: Service Strategy
First off, there are two very important terms that you must become
familiar with to learn Service Strategy. These are basic, universal
truths—like gravity and the Force (please don’t sue us, Lucas!).
Note: Make sure to keep an eye out for words marked in red, as
these are terms you should know. Processes. The word alone may make you
feel like grabbing a beer (or doing something
healthier like meditating), but processes
A TERM TO LEARN

Services can make your life a lot easier—especially in

the world of ITIL. The first four stages of ITIL
Means of delivering value to a customer without requiring the consist of a series of processes that resolve
customer to own specific costs and risks. specific tasks for each stage of IT Service
Management.

A TERM TO LEARN

Processes
Structured sets of activities designed to achieve a specific objective.
Processes have four basic characteristics:
• Transform inputs into outputs
• They deliver results to a specific customer or stakeholder
• They are measurable
• They are triggered by specific events

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5 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 Now for the formal definition you’ve been waiting for…

ITIL 2011 Glossary Definition

Service strategy establishes an overall strategy for IT services and for
IT service management

Translation:
This is where you collect information on the business objectives of the
service provider, the demand and needs of potential users, the cost
of the services to the service provider, and how much customers can
be charged for these services. All of this is combined to establish and
later manage the high level policies and standards that govern how
the service provider operates.

Other important features of this stage include the development of

the organization’s ability to collect value (payment) and manage
cost and risks.
Words to Know: Utility and Warranty

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6 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 Now that you totally love learning about ITIL processes, here are
the four main service strategy processes you should know on your
journey to learn all things ITIL.

Service Strategy Processes

A TERM TO LEARN

Service Strategy Management

Develops service concepts in preparation for selection of
services to be provided

A TERM TO LEARN

Service Portfolio Management

Organizes the process by which services are identified, described,
evaluated, selected, and chartered
• Maintains the Service Portfolio:
• Contains Service Pipeline (developing services),
Service Catalog (current services), and Retired Services
• Identifies business value provided by a service
• Answers strategic questions: Strengths, weaknesses,
priorities, risks allocation of resources?
• Tracks investment in service throughout lifecycle

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7 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 A TERM TO LEARN

Demand Management
Responsible for understanding and influencing customer demand
for services and establishing the capacity to meet these demands
• Strategize, Identify, and Analyze
– User profiles
– Workload variations
– Patterns of business activity (PBA)
Ensures customer expectations don’t exceed their budget and
that the service provider is able to meet those expectations

A TERM TO LEARN

IT Financial Management
Managing an IT Service Provider’s budgeting,
accounting and charging
• Enhances decision making throughout the ITIL lifecycle
by promoting cost awareness
• Aids in the reduction of costs to the service provider
• Provides the ability to know different types of cost
(i.e. direct, fixed, variable, etc.)

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8 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 What’s the next stage, you ask…
Read the next eBook to learn all about the Service Design stage.
This is where services are defined to meet all the solution
requirements collected as a part of Service Strategy.

eBook 1 Service Strategy

eBook 2 Service Design

eBook 3 Service Transition

eBook 4 Service Operation

eBook 5 Continual Service Improvement

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9 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 ITIL at a Glance—A Quick Review
For those of you who are short on time, here you'll find all of the
concepts covered in this eBook series (as well as some additional
ITIL facts) in a simple chart. Use this cheat sheet for reviewing the
main concepts.

The 50,000 ft. view of ITIL.

You are here.

Service Strategy Service Design Service Transition Service Operation Continual Service
Service Catalogue Mgt. Request fulfillment Improvement
Strategy Generation Release and
Service Level Mgt. Deployment Mgt. Incident Mgt. Service
Service Portfolio Mgt.
Measurement
Risk Management Supplier Mgt. Change Mgt. Access Mgt.
Service Reporting
Demand Mgt. Availability Mgt. Transition Planning Problem Mgt.
Capacity Mgt. and Support
Financial Mgt. Event Mgt.
Information Security Mgt. Service Knowledge Mgt.
IT Service Content Mgt. Evaluation Mgt.
Service Asset and
Configuration Mgt.
Service Validation
and Testing Mgt.

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10 An Overview of ITIL, Service Strategy

 © 2016 ServiceNow, Inc. All rights reserved.

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