ITIL^® Planning to Implement Service Management

The Planning to Implement Service Management part of ITIL answers the question "Where do I start with ITIL?" It explains the steps necessary to identify how organizations might expect to benefit from ITIL and how to set about reaping those benefits. It will help organizations in identifying their strengths and weaknesses, enabling them to develop the former and overcome the latter.

This publication provides guidance on alignment of the business needs to IT. It enables the reader to assess if IT service provision is meeting the requirements of the business. Where the business requirements are not being met it details the steps necessary to ensure the IT service provision does meet the current and future needs of the business.

The aim therefore is to give practical guidance in evaluating the current maturity levels of Service Management and on implementing improvement to the processes. This book is one of the ITIL series issued as part of ITIL that documents industry best practice for the support and delivery of IT services. Although this publication can be read in isolation, it is recommended that it be used in conjunction with the other ITIL titles. Service Management is a generic concept and the guidance in the ITIL titles is applicable generically. The guidance is also scalable - applicable to both small and large organizations. It applies to distributed and centralized systems, whether in-house or supplied by third parties. It is neither bureaucratic nor unwieldy if implemented sensibly and in full recognition of the business needs of the organization