1.4 Navigating the IT Infrastructure Library

Following consultation with Service Management organisations and User groups, CCTA designed the diagram shown in Figure 1.1. This illustrates that the new library series will comprise five principal elements, each of which will have interfaces and overlaps with each of the other four. The elements are:

• the Business Perspective
• managing Applications
• deliver IT Services
• support IT Services
• manage the Infrastructure.

Figure 1.1-Jigsaw Diagram

The Business Perspective book will cover a range of issues concerned with understanding and improving IT service provision, as an integral part of an overall business requirement for high quality IS management. These issues include:

• Business Continuity Management
• partnerships and outsourcing
• surviving Change
• transformation of business practice through radical Change.

The Service Delivery book looks at what service the business requires of the provider in order to provide adequate support to the business Users. To provide the necessary support the book covers the following topics:

• Capacity Management
• Financial Management for IT Services
• Availability Management
• Service Level Management
• IT Service Continuity Management
• Customer Relationship Management.

The Service Support book is concerned with ensuring that the Customer has access to the appropriate services to support the business functions. Issues discussed in this book are:

• Service Desk
• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Configuration Management
• Change Management
• Release Management.

The ICT Infrastructure Management book includes:

• Network Service Management
• Operations Management
• Management of Local Processors
• Computer Installation and Acceptance
• Systems Management. (covered here for the first time).

Lastly, the book on Applications Management will embrace the software development lifecycle expanding the issues touched upon in Software Lifecycle Support and Testing of IT Services. Applications Management will expand on the issues of business change with emphasis on clear requirement definition and implementation of the solution to meet business needs.

The major elements of the ITIL books can be likened to overlapping jigsaw puzzle pieces (or perhaps better as tectonic plates), some of which have a precise fit, and some of which overlap or do not fit together accurately. At the highest level, there are no strict demarcation lines. Indeed, if we consider further the analogy of tectonic plates, sliding over and under one another, joining and separating, then the earthly problem of points of instability or friction caused by the imprecise nature of the pieces has an IT Infrastructure Library equivalent. It is precisely where process domains overlap or where demarcation lines cannot be clearly drawn that many management problems arise. We cannot stop all the problems from occurring (just as we cannot stop earthquakes) but we can provide advice about how to prepare for and deal with them.