The scale of ITIL V3

[last updated 11th September 2008]

People are starting to realise how different ITIL v3 ("The Refresh") is from ITIL v2, and how much more extensive the scope and ideas are. There is no doubt that the re-engineering has been extensive. The following diagram makes that clear. A bit like a DOS-based command-line-driven utility being rewritten as a Windows GUI with workflow. The original routines are still in there somewhere but the manuals sure look different! Saying it is an add-on is like saying a Chev Corvette is an add-on to an LS1 V8 motor, or Windows is an add-on to MS-DOS. Sure ITIL2 is still in there somewhere but not so as you'd notice.

Even though OGC are trying to make ITIL3 more integrated than ITIL2, it is a good bet that users will concentrate on the Service Transition and Service Operation books (at least initially), in the same way as we focus on the red and blue books in ITIL2, so that ITIL3 will have its own "lost processes", as I call them. If true, this will serve to mitigate the increase in scale considerably.

Please forgive the fact that in any flat diagram there will be some over-simplifications or even distortions, but the key ideas this diagram tries to impart are:

• ITIL2 is still there in ITIL3
• Not only has ITIL3 expanded ITIL2 along the same dimensions that V2 considered (made it "longer" by over a dozen more processes) it has also expanded it in a whole new dimension (made it "wider", changed it from a line to a plane).
• There was actually much more to ITIL2 than the ten processes in the red and blue books, but often you wouldn't know it to hear folk talk. Some of the processes making ITIL3 "longer" are these "lost processes" being brought back into the core. Others aren't - they are specific to running a lifecycle.

Note: IE7 seems to sit around for a while then finally format the page so you can see all of this...

[Updated: and now with all of the process-like "elements" listed in the ITIL V3 Qualifications Scheme. See also ITIL V3 Processes and especially The IT Skeptic's Unofficial List of ITIL Version 3 Processes]

This diagram is not copyright - it is placed in the public domain. It would be appreciated if you would retain the attribution to the IT Skeptic and place a link to www.itskeptic.org if you use it.

Sooner or later it is going to dawn on people that they do need to retrain (upgrade), they do possibly need to change the way they do things (service lifecycle), and there are more than twice as many processes to learn and implement.

Personally I think it is a good move - there had to be a quantum step and one assumes it is aligned with the majority of the feedback. People hate change so there will be much howling and gnashing of teeth, but in a few years I think we will view V2 as quaint. It might be quite a few years though, and in the interim I believe we will see two streams of ITIL: the big boys and the top guns doing ITIL version 3, and the lesser mortals and beginners doing ITIL version 2.

OGC and TSO think they are going to sunset ITIL2 round about end of 2008. I think they don't have a snowflake's chance. Pink Elephant say the ITIL2 Practitioner certifications will survive at least "until late 2008".

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