Introduction

ITIL translates to IT infrastructure library. The services have a lifecycle and a distinct role in service management as infrastructure. The five stages of ITIL mentioned previously (service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement) are arranged in a particular order to complete the life cycle of the ITIL process and functions. ITIL v3, the second last update of ITIL, had 26 processes and 4 functions.

Now, you may be thinking, what are processes and functions? Processes are a set of standards, distinguished policies, and guidelines for each service and stage of ITIL. A function is when a group of people or machinery is implemented to carry out certain processes.

Definition

ITIL is an infrastructure that provides a set of best practices for IT services. It gives accurate guidance and information on which mix of services would fulfill their requirements and has top-grade quality. ITIL has five life cycles.

ITIL Service Lifecycle Block Diagram

ITIL Service Lifecycle

First, the enterprise needs to settle its service strategy. In this section, the task is to formulate a service catalog with the help of IT providers and choose a set of IT services that will fulfill the customer’s and the firm’s requirements.

Then the measurement and evaluation begin as a continuous process throughout ITIL. This leads to three other stages- service design, service transition, and service operation, where the IT services will be divided and implemented accordingly.

When this is over, the company must not forget to maintain continuous service improvement (CSI) as quality is one of the top concerns of any firm aiming for customer satisfaction and demand fulfillment. CSI must continue, and thus, once ITIL is incorporated in a company, it becomes an endless lifecycle and is maintained throughout.

In brief these are the events in ITIL Service Lifecycle, with their individual processes:

1. Service Strategy

• Service Portfolio Management
• Financial Management
• Strategy Management for IT Services
• Demand Management
• Business Relationship Management

2. Service Design

• Service Level Management
• Service Catalog Management
• Capacity Management
• Availability Management
• IT Service Continuity Management
• Information Security Management
• Supplier Management
• Design Coordination

3. Service Transition

• Change Management
• Change Evaluation
• Release and Deployment Management
• Service Validation and Testing
• Service Asset and Configuration Management
• Knowledge Management
• Transition Planning and Support

4. Service Operations

• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Event Management
• Access Management
• Service Request Fulfillment

5. Continual Service Improvement