ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) is a series of comprehensive, consistent publications that are used to aid the establishment of a quality IT Service Management framework within an organisation, aligned with the international standard, ISO/IEC 20000. The ITIL philosophy has evolved and is globally recognised as the foundation of IT Service Management best practice, supported by a professional qualification programme.

The latest version of ITIL (v3) consists of a core set of five publications that replaces the previous version of ITIL (published in 2000). The core publications, providing the guidance necessary for an integrated approach as required by the ISO/IEC 20000 standard specification, are:

• Service Strategy

• Service Design

• Service Transition

• Service Operation

• Continual Service Improvement

The core volumes will be supported by complementary titles, addressing the application of the generic core guidelines in particular markets or technological contexts.

As IT services become more closely aligned and integrated with the business, ITIL v3 assists in establishing a business management approach and discipline to IT Service Management, stressing the complementary aspects of running IT like a business. Service Management is a set of specialised organisational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services. The core of Service Management is transforming resources into valuable services.

These capabilities take the form of functions and processes for managing services over a lifecycle, through strategy, design, transition, operation, and continual improvement. Without these capabilities, signifying capacity, competency, and confidence for action, a service organisation is merely a bundle of resources that by itself has relatively low intrinsic value for customers.