Well, it’s time to say goodnight to another trusty version of ITIL: This time it’s ITIL V3 (a.k.a. ITIL V3/2011, ITIL 2011, etc etc etc.).
As a refresher, ITIL V3 was born in 2007, and was a series of five books– each book describing a step in the ITIL V3 “Service Lifecycle:” Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. In 2011 those five books got a little facelift and some botox, but stayed basically the same. Many organizations invested a lot of time, money, and effort into ITIL V3 training and coaching, aligning their organizations for V3 success.
ITIL 4 was launched in February 2019, and now that it’s been out for a few years, is currently a series of six books. ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition, Create, Deliver and Support (CDS), Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV), High Velocity IT (HVIT), Direct, Plan and Improve (DPI), and Digital and IT Strategy (DITS). Each book has an accompanying class by the same name that teaches the concepts and skills inside. What makes ITIL 4 neat is that there’s a story about an imaginary car rental company that weaves through all of the books, letting readers easily apply the ITIL concepts to a very accessible, real-world business situation. I love this new addition to the books!
Now that ITIL 4 is here, does this mean that you toss out all of your ITIL V3 knowledge? Was your investment wasted? Absolutely not! ITIL 4 builds on ITIL V3 (which builds on ITIL V2), so prior investments are always useful in the current landscape. ITIL 4 is all about flexibility, and incorporating your current ways of working with some new ideas, and crafting a solution that works for your organization… whether the “organization” we’re talking about is your entire corporation, your building, an individual product team, or your small workgroup. And what’s cooler: ITIL 4 isn’t just for IT anymore… because let’s face it; IT isn’t just for IT anymore. Can you think of anything in your world that isn’t IT-enabled? Nope. So ITIL applies to everything.
So let’s talk about how we can make ITIL 4 work for you, and where you can find some good training.
