Glossary

ITIL

Also called: ITIL 4 · ITIL framework

The most widely adopted framework of IT service management practices, describing what to manage rather than prescribing a tool.

ITIL is the reference framework for IT service management. It describes practices — incident, request, problem, change enablement, configuration, asset, knowledge, service catalogue, service level, continual improvement — and what each is for. ITIL 4 frames them as practices within a service value system rather than as a rigid lifecycle.

ITIL says what to manage; it does not say which product to buy, and it certifies people rather than software. That is the distinction worth holding when a requirement asks for "ITIL compliance": a person can hold an ITIL qualification, and a tool can be assessed for whether it supports the practices, but those are different things assessed by different schemes.

On this site: ITSM & PinkVERIFY →

Related terms

Enterprise service management

Applying the discipline of IT service management — catalogue, requests, SLAs, knowledge — to services delivered by any area of the organization.

ITSM

The practice of managing IT as a set of services with owners, commitments and evidence, rather than as a collection of technology.

ITSM platform

The software that runs IT service management — portal, catalogue, incidents, requests, changes, assets, CMDB, knowledge and service levels — as one operation.

ITSM practice

A set of organizational resources designed to perform work or achieve an objective within service management.

PinkVERIFY

Pink Elephant's certification scheme verifying that a tool genuinely supports ITSM processes, in functionality and in terminology.

Service value system

The ITIL 4 model whose core is a value chain running from plan and improve through to deliver and support, fed by practices and governed by guiding principles such as focus on value and…