ITIL Foundation is the first publication of ITIL 4, the latest evolution of the most widely adopted guidance for ITSM. Its audience ranges from IT and business students taking their first steps in service management to seasoned professionals familiar with earlier versions of ITIL and other sources of industry best practice.
A book by Mark Basham, Lief Andersson, Virginia Araújo, Craig Bennion, Joseph Caudle, Stefan Cronholm, Pavel Demin, Domitien Dijon, Marie DiRuzza, Phyllis Drucker, John Edmonds, Douglas Fidler, Alfonso Figueroa, James Gander, Ann Gerwitz, Hannes Göbel, Bob Gribben, Damian Harris, Simon Harris, Denise Heinle, Matthew Helm, Peter Hero, Jessica Hinkal, Frantz Honegger, Peter Hubbard, Dmitriy Isaychenko, Marcus Jackson, Stéphane Joret, Michael Keeling, Claudine Koers, Shirley Lacy, Anton Lykov, Celisa Manly, Caspar Miller, James Monek, David Moskowitz, Christian Nissen, Mark O’Loughlin, Tatiana Orlova, Ben Page, Mitch Pautz, Tatiana Peftieva, Donka Raytcheva, Nicola Reeves, Frances Scarff, Nikolai Schmidt-Ott, Mark Smalley, Chris Whitehead, Paul Wilkinson, Martin Wolf, Sarah Woodrow, Ulla Zeeberg.
At this new stage in the development of the IT industry, AXELOS is delighted to present ITIL 4, the latest step in the evolution of IT best practice. By building on our experience and bringing fresh and forward-looking thinking to the marketplace, ITIL 4 equips your business to deal with the challenges currently faced by the industry.
The adoption of ITIL as the most widely used guidance in the world on IT service management (ITSM) will continue with ITIL 4. It ensures continuity with existing ways of working (where service management is already successful) by integrating modern and emerging practices with established and proven know-how. ITIL 4 also provides guidance on these new methods to help individuals and organizations to see their benefits and move towards using them with confidence, focus, and minimal disruption.
ITIL 4’s holistic approach raises the profile of service management in organizations and industries, setting it within a more strategic context. Its focus tends to be on end-to-end product and service management, from demand to value.
ITIL 4 is the result of a great amount of global research and development work across the IT and service management industries; this work has involved active practitioners, trainers, consultants, vendors, technicians, and business customers. The architect team has collaborated with the wider stakeholders and users of ITIL to ensure that the content meets the modern requirements of continuity, innovation, flexibility, and value.
ITIL training provides individuals with a structured approach for developing their competencies in the current and future workplace. The accompanying guidance also helps organizations to take advantage of the new and upcoming technologies, succeed in making their digital transformations, and create value as needed for themselves and their customers.
ITIL Foundation is the beginning of your ITIL 4 journey. It will open your mind to the wider, more advanced guidance provided in the other ITIL publications and training that will support your growth and development. Welcome to the new generation of IT best practice!
According to the World Trade Organization, services comprise the largest and most dynamic component of both developed and developing economies. Services are the main way that organizations create value for themselves and their customers. Almost all services today are IT-enabled, which means there is tremendous benefit for organizations in creating, expanding, and improving their IT service management capability.
Technology is advancing faster today than ever before. Developments such as cloud computing, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), machine learning, and blockchain have opened fresh opportunities for value creation, and led to IT becoming an important business driver and source of competitive advantage. In turn, this positions IT service management as a key strategic capability.
To ensure that they remain relevant and successful, many organizations are embarking on major transformational programmes to exploit these opportunities. While these transformations are often referred to as ‘digital’, they are about more than technology. They are an evolution in the way organizations work, so that they can flourish in the face of significant and ongoing change. Organizations must balance the need for stability and predictability with the rising need for operational agility and increased velocity. Information and technology are becoming more thoroughly integrated with other organizational capabilities, silos are breaking down, and cross-functional teams are being utilized more widely. Service management is changing to address and support this organizational shift and ensure opportunities from new technologies, and new ways of working, are maximized.
Service management is evolving, and so is ITIL, the most widely adopted guidance on IT service management (ITSM) in the world.
