22 March 2015

IT Infrastructure Library or ITIL is a framework that provides structure and best practice guidelines for implementing and maintaining IT Service Management.

ITIL Service Life Cycle

The core of the ITIL framework is the ITIL Service Life Cycle. It provides a comprehensive approach to the various aspects of Service Management.

The ITIL Service Life Cycle has various components. Applying these components ensures that Service Management processes are efficient and effective. It also ensures there’s a balance between a strong, stable structure and an environment that can improve and adapt to business needs.

The ITIL Service Life Cycle provides a structure that enables you to organize information and processes into an interconnected framework.

Without this structure, you would have no way of determining the relative importance of information items or the connections between them.

The ITIL Service Life Cycle also provides guidelines to help understand the structure and the connection between processes and components. It helps determine how changes in an area can affect the whole system or part of it.

You can use the structure to determine patterns of behavior that lead to the occurrence of events. Then you can control or change these events by simply changing the structure.

structure
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patterns of behavior
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events

The ITIL Service Life Cycle contains five key stages:

  • Service Strategy

    In the Service Strategy stage, you determine the underlying principles used for developing the policies, objectives, guidelines, and processes required throughout the Service Life Cycle. You also identify business opportunities. Service Strategy is a critical stage of the Service Life Cycle because the decisions made in this stage impact all subsequent stages.

  • Service Design

    Service Design is the stage in which the required service is designed and developed. The design created in this stage encompasses all aspects of the service and is based on the principles identified in the Service Strategy stage.

  • Service transition

    In the Service Transition stage, you create the framework to ensure that the designed service is effectively and efficiently implemented in the live environment. This stage includes determining risks, constraints, and whether the service will meet business requirement. This ensures that actual performance matches expected performance.

  • Service Operation

    During the Service Operation stage, you perform all activities and processes required to run services effectively. The Service Operation stage ensures that the framework developed in the Service Transition stage is implemented.

  • Continual Service Improvement

    The Continual Service Improvement or CSI stage is an overarching stage for maintaining service quality. You use the CSI stage to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes involved in every other stage of the ITIL Service Life Cycle.

Each stage of the ITIL Service Life Cycle is represented by a volume in the ITIL Core Library. Together, these volumes provide an integrated approach to Service Management throughout the ITIL Service Life Cycle.

Each volume of the ITIL Core Library provides guidance on each of the five ITIL Service Life Cycle stages.

Service Strategy

Organizations can use the Service Strategy volume to develop strategic objective and assess costs and risks. This volume is a guide on how to develop Service Management as a strategic asset.

Guidance is provided across a wide range of expertise, including marketing management, finance, information systems, system dynamics, and industrial engineering.

Service Design

The Service Design volume is a guide to assist the development and design of a service and the Service Management process. This volume describes design principles that convert strategic objectives into a workable service or a portfolio of services.

This volume can be used to create a new service or improve an existing service.

Service Transition

Using the Service Transition volume, you can create a framework that ensures a smooth transition between Service Design and Service Operation. This volume includes guidelines for assessing and controlling risks and managing changes to reduce the chance of unexpected results, failures, or setbacks.

Service Operation

You can use the Service Operation volume for guidance on managing service delivery and operations to meet strategic objectives.

The volume provides best practices, methods, and tools to control operations proactively and reactively. It also contains guidelines for maintaining stability while allowing for necessary improvement and change to design, scale, or service levels. This volume provides service owners and providers with ideas and direction on fixing problems and handling demand.

Continual Service Improvement

As an overall guide, the Continual Service Improvement volume provides guidance for continual maintenance. It also provides guidelines for improving quality of service, creating value for customers, and achieving operational efficiency.

This volume is applicable across the ITIL Service Life Cycle and provides guidance for improvement in service strategy, design, transition, and operations.


To archive organization goals and objectives through ITIL Service Life Cycle stages, you need to understand these core concepts.

  • Processes
  • Functions
  • Feedback
  • Specialization and coordination