ITIL vs ITSM two widely used terms

Story Highlights

• ITIL and ITSM
• Clear differentiation between ITIL and ITSM

Related Articles

• Four Perspectives of IT Service Management 0 30.May
• ITIL Introduction and ITIL Terms 0 01.Aug
• Service Delivery Strategies 0 07.Aug

True meaning of two widely used terms in IT Infra Operation – ITIL vs ITSM

This article focuses on two widely used terms ITIL and ITSM when we speak about IT Operations or IT Outsourcing. It provides clear differentiation of ITIL vs ITSM. Many of us are aware of these two terms however, I have tried to cover the true difference between these two terms for clear differentiation.

ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library

ITSM – Information Technology Service Management

Both ITIL and ITSM goes hand-in-hand. You can say the ITIL acts as parent and ITSM acts as child of ITIL.

“ITIL is a framework and ITSM is application of ITIL framework”. This determines ITIL is a Science and ITSM is an Art.

Organizations can hire as many as ITIL certified professionals and then try to implement it with the expectation that these professionals have enough knowledge to implement the ITIL framework. However, implementation of a science (ITIL) is difficult without a set of measurable metrics upon which success and benefits can be measured. Typically, the level of effectiveness and benefit gained from the implementation of ITIL is more appropriately determined by how well the ITIL framework is leveraged or used as Art (ITSM) in IT Service Management and how effectively IT Service Management is implemented.

ITIL – Information Technology Infrastructure Library

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) defines the organisational structure and skill requirements of an information technology organisation and a set of standard operational management procedures and practices to allow the organisation to guide IT operation and associated infrastructure. The operational procedures and practices are supplier independent and apply to all aspects within the IT Infrastructure.

• It is standard framework built for managing the IT Infra Operations.
• It provides best practices library for managing IT Infra Operations including supplier and vendors.
• It provides set of processes & procedures that can be used while designing the standards and processes for IT Infra Operations.
• It acts like an mentor and provide guidance to use the best practice library of ITIL.
• It focuses more on “What to do?”

ITSM – Information Technology Service Management

IT service management (ITSM) refers the activities organized and structured in processes and supporting procedures that are performed by an organization or part of an organization to plan, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers.

• It focuses on using the standard framework of ITIL and apply during management of IT Infra Operations.
• It make use of best practice library of ITIL to provide value added services to customers.
• It implements sets of processes & procedures defined in ITIL in a manner that best suites the organization and their customer requirements. Hence, it is an art to implement ITIL.
• IT Service Management uses ITIL framework’s people, process, technology and information components to deliver quality IT services.
• It focuses more on “How to do?”

I hope that you enjoyed this article and able to understand ITIL vs ITSM. These are purely my views based on my experience. Please provide your feedback in comments section or if you need to add any thing to this article. Keep the technology moving…