The first international standard for service management has recently gained a guidebook for use. ISO/IEC 20000 is a service management system standard that allows organisations to demonstrate excellence and best practice in IT service management. This standard allows IT service-providers to achieve conformance to a service management standard which requires them to continuously improve their delivery of IT-related services.
The standard was originally developed to reflect the best practices guidance contained within the Information Technology Infrastructure Library framework (ITIL), but it also equally supports other IT service management frameworks and approaches. The standard was first developed in 2005 and has since been revised in 2011 and 2018. In essence, ISO/IEC 20000:1-2018 specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving a service management system (SMS).
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The International Organisation of Standards (ISO) recently released a practical guide for this framework and standard, which has been created to offer guidance on how to get the best out of an SMS, particularly by using ISO/IEC 20000. Entitled ISO/IEC 20000, IT service management – Service management – A practical guide, it enables the implementation of practices that are beneficial and add value to an organisation in a clear and proficient manner. The guidebook provides an easy-to-use overview of the requirements needed to implement the standard effectively and proposes other standards and frameworks that can be used to fulfil the requirements.
The guide was developed by ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission technical subcommittee ISO/ITC 1/SC 40, IT Service Management and IT Governance. The guide is largely aimed at showing users the standards’ functionality and assisting with use. According to Dr Suzanne van Hove, who was involved in the development, “This new handbook shows how ISO/IEC 20000 is relevant in today’s digital environment and how it fits nicely with popular SMS methodologies such as Lean, Agile and DevOps.”
ISO/IEC 20000 is available for both individuals and organisations.
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