ITIL, the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, was created by the British Government in the 1980's to address growing complexity in the management of IT infrastructure. It is based on many of W. Edward Deming's quality principles, and Walter Shewhart's Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle, which the Western world was just finding out about.
ITIL originated as a voluminous set of books which were simplified during versions 2, and 3, down to 5 books. In 2019 ITIL 4 was released, adding considerations for cloud-based management, DevOps, and Agile.
ITIL 4 emphasizes looking at an organization as a Service Value System (SVS).
Four dimensions that comprise a SVS are:
- Organizations and People
- Information and Technology
- Partners and Suppliers
- Value Streams and Processes
In addition, ITIL 4 covers governing the SVS, Continual Improvement, and multiple areas of practice, in which ITIL principles can be applied.
Mike Berry Red Rock Research