What is the ITIL framework?

As a IT Business Analyst, you might be involved in numerous projects and initiatives but that is not all you would be doing.

The Business Analysts might also be in charge of supporting the applications and processes in an organization.

This means ensuring that the applications remain functional enough to support the business needs.

This is accomplished with the application of the ITIL framework.

So what is ITIL ?

ITIL stands for The IT Infrastructure Library. It is a standardized way of delivering IT services.

ITIL is a structured framework that is used to help the organization manage risk, build customer relations, set up effective practices, and establish a stable IT environment.

It is a framework that was created to regulate the selection, planning, delivery and maintenance of IT services within a business with the aim of improving the efficiency and stability of service delivery.

What is the ITIL process framework ?

The ITIL process framework is made up of five books.

Each book is made up of the best practices in each phase of the IT service management (ITSM) lifecycle.

The books are:

  1. Service Strategy: this defines the business goals, the customer requirements and the alignment between the two.
  2. Service Design: this defines planning and organizing people, infrastructure, communication and elements of a service in order to improve the quality and relationship between the service provider and their users.
  3. Service Transition: this is used to recommend the change management and release best practices.
  4. Service Operation: this is used to recommend ways in which to manage IT services on a regular basis.
  5. Continual Service Improvement: this is used to recommend how organizational policy updates and improvements should be made.

ITIL has numerous certifications that help IT professionals get the trained and qualified and these certifications include the following :

  1. Foundation: This is an entry-level certification that tests the IT professional’s knowledge of the key concepts, elements and terminology used for the ITIL service lifecycle.
  2. Practitioner: This exam tests the IT professional’s knowledge of organizational change management, communication and metrics.
  3. Intermediate: This level is composed of different exams that tests the IT professional’s knowledge of service lifecycle and service capability.
  4. Expert: this levels tests the IT professional’s knowledge of the complete ITIL scheme. The IT professional must complete 17 credits from previous exams, the Managing Across the Lifecycle exam and an Expert exam in order to get the Expert certification.
  5. Master: at this level the IT professional would need to explain how they chose their areas of study, principles, methods and techniques that they use to fulfill the organizational objectives. There is no certification exam at this level but the candidate must complete a series of written assignments and oral interviews.

So why should organizations use ITIL ?

Organizations should use ITIL framework because it is not just a certification, it is also about applying the standardized best practices in all aspects of IT management.

ITIL training is especially important for service desk analyst‘s who are the support analysts who handle the end user’s service desk ticket.

They triage the tickets and resolve those ones that they can such as password reset and escalate others to other teams such as applica

Some of the advantages of using ITIL include the following :

  1. Improved service timelines that leads to increased customer satisfaction
  2. Improved resource utilization.
  3. Reduced operational costs due to the application of best practices.
  4. Improved alignment between IT departments and the business.
  5. Increased visibility of IT costs and assets
  6. Streamlined service response management