2.1 Information Technology Infrastructure Library

In the late 1980s, having identified the need for a comprehensive, integrated life cycle for all areas of IT service management, the United Kingdom s Office of Government Commerce conceived the idea of the ITIL.

The ITIL was to be a set of books, documents, and information to provide-guidance on implementing a framework for delivering quality IT services. In addition to the Office of Government Commerce, many organizations and industry experts authored the books of the ITIL. For each book, a single organization wrote the book, with the Office of Government Commerce acting as editor, and other organizations and industry experts provided quality assurance for the processes described in the book. Because of the process used for writing, editing, and reviewing the books, they are not limited to any single person s knowledge or experience. They also are not limited to processes based on a single company s proprietary product.

The ITIL books are a comprehensive, integrated, publicly available framework for process-oriented best practices that provide guidance for improving strategic and tactical IT service delivery and infrastructure management excellence. Because ITIL describes a framework rather than prescribing a specific set of infrastructure management products, it is completely customizable for any enterprise s specific set of applications. ITIL represents best practices because the books are based on the collective knowledge and experience of many IT professionals and experts.

The Office of Government Commerce based ITIL on the principle that operations excellence is the result of a systematic approach to the...