Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v.3 contains many improvements; however, Gartner clients often report that the increased scope can be overwhelming. It is important to understand not only the theory behind v.3, but also what options exist for implementation.

• ITIL v.3 has been out long enough that the adoption rate is beginning to approach that of v.2.
• The Service Strategy and Service Design volumes of v.3 are frequently cited by clients as inhibitors to a wholesale adoption of this version.
• Most organizations seem to focus only on the Service Operations and Transition volumes as a way to "mature" their v.2 process commitments.

• The entire service life cycle approach advocated in v.3 should be reviewed to determine which elements will add value to your organization.
• If an organization hasn't started on an ITIL implementation yet, then it should bypass v.2 and start with v.3.
• Formal project management rigor should be used to improve success in achieving desired benefits.
• Establish a business case and metrics to guide your v.3 depth and scope of process re-engineering investment.

The ITIL was first introduced in the 1980s. The second version was released in the late 1990s, with a strong emphasis on operational process maturity. The third version consists of five books that were published in May 2007, with an expanded focus on service management. ITIL has become the de facto best-practice guidance for IT service management (ITSM).

For the first year after v.3 was released, we saw very low adoption of v.3 and continued momentum for and growth of v.2 adoption, based on information gathered during client inquires and surveys conducted at Gartner conferences. That began to change in the second half of 2008, and more so in 2009. In September 2009, a Gartner client survey with 201 participants indicated that, while momentum is building for v.3, there are still many organizations primarily focused on v.2. The survey showed that 32% of organizations were implementing v.3, while 21% were continuing to implement v.2. The 32% of organizations that were implementing v.3 in September 2009 represents a dramatic increase from the 12% reported in a June 2008 survey.

Gartner expects to continue seeing more widespread adoption of ITIL v.3, with interest in v.2 gradually fading. By year-end 2012, we expect to see 90% of active ITIL implementation efforts to be based on v.3. However, when clients report that they are "adopting" ITIL v.3, that doesn't mean they have fully embraced the new concepts it contains, such as the service life cycle approach. They may be adopting parts of v.3 in conjunction with parts of v.2.

ITIL v.3 introduced a service life cycle to organize the content and provide a recommended sequence for the various processes. Each of five volumes represents one phase of the life cycle. In theory, an organization would follow the five phases in order, with the final phase leading back to another iteration through the first four phases to account for changes in business needs or simply to further refine the processes.

The five volumes total more than 1,300 pages. Following is a brief description of the major focus of each:

• Defining the various customers that will consume IT services
• Understanding whether there are different constituencies of customers with different needs
• Building a funding mechanism to support customer needs
• Determining methods for managing customer demand
• Developing an IT service portfolio

• Developing an IT service catalog
• Building the service assets
• Creating processes to support the delivery of service, potentially at differentiated levels of quality

• Providing the capability to smoothly move new IT services from design in to production
• Providing for the deployment of enhancements to existing IT services
• Managing the integrity of configurations

• Supporting the successful operations of services that are in production
• Leveraging incident management and problem management to improve the mean time to restore service and to reduce the reoccurrence of problems
• Managing the fulfillment of IT service requests
• Providing guidance on operating an effective and efficient service desk

• Provide methods to iteratively improve the effectiveness and efficiency of services
• Structure the use of service measurement and service reporting processes
• Leverage advice on the definition of critical success factors, key performance indicators and metrics

There is a lot of good content in ITIL v.3, and the service life cycle is a strategic and holistic way to approach service management. Organizations that have strong senior management commitment to embrace ITSM may choose to adhere to the service life cycle.

However, many Gartner clients have reported that they find v.3, particularly the Service Strategy and Service Design volumes, very academic and theoretical. Analogies to college textbooks are fairly common. Many such clients think that v.3 describes an environment so different and more advanced than what they currently have that they fear "we can't get there from here." This has led to organizations being sufficiently intimidated by the much broader scope of v.3 to the point that they have avoided adopting it.

ITIL v.2 has traditionally been read and adopted by the IT infrastructure and operations groups, which are very comfortable with focusing on service support processes like incident management, change management and configuration management. The content in the Service Strategy volume is likely to appeal to a senior management audience, perhaps at the CIO level, or even outside of IT, at the CEO and CFO levels. Because the prior audience that embraced ITIL may be intimidated by v.3, or simply may not see the value of taking such an approach, many have continued to focus on v.2.

During the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first three quarters of 2009, we have seen clients beginning to adopt elements of v.3 by taking a pragmatic approach. Instead of spending a lot of time and energy on the Service Strategy and Service Design processes, they focus on many of the processes that typically get attention early on in an ITIL v.2 implementation. All the v.2 processes still exist in v.3. Some of them, such as problem management, have had minor updates, while others, such as configuration management, have had more extensive improvements.

For example, an organization that has been working on v.2's incident, problem and change processes may be ready to tackle release management. Instead of using the v.2 release management recommendations, the organization chooses to leverage the enhanced v.3 release and deployment management guidance. This approach allows for a gradual adoption of updated content in v.3, without feeling the need to start over.

This tactical and pragmatic approach to v.3 is viable, and we see many clients using it. However, it is still recommended that you at least review the full service life cycle to be better prepared to later embrace more of the strategic elements. such as service portfolio management and demand management.

In September 2009, it was announced by the U.K. Office of Government Commerce that a "new edition" of ITIL would be produced. This doesn't mean ITIL v.4 is in the works, but it does mean that a second edition of ITIL v.3 is on its way. This will more than likely focus on small adjustments and clean-up in the five v.3 volumes, to improve consistency between them and to respond to some feedback from trainers and practitioners. No new concepts are to be included or changes made that fundamentally invalidate prior recommendations. The one volume that was singled out for a somewhat more-extensive update was Service Strategy, acknowledging it was difficult to understand. It will likely be some time before the update is available, so we don't advise waiting if you are ready to begin leveraging v.3 now.

For clients that have not yet started implementing ITIL, Gartner recommends starting with v.3. Review the entire service life cycle, but realize that there are many ways to realize some value from ITIL. Consider a tactical approach focusing on pain points such as incident, problem and change management, rather than being intimidated by v.3.

For clients that have already been implementing ITIL v.2, Gartner recommends you review the updates in v.3 to determine which of the new elements should be adopted as you continue on your journey to mature service management capabilities.

Whichever version is implemented, it is best to treat it as a formal project or, better yet, a program with a series of projects. Using project management rigor will help ensure that the scope is defined, the necessary work tasks are identified and that progress is on-schedule. A well-defined business case to justify the investment of time and money, as well as metrics to demonstrate progress, will focus the effort.

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