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As the 'align IT with business goals' mantra is sung in every magazine, conference and online discussion group, ITIL's evolution from a process model to a service model is a sensible adjustment. However, companies and organizations that have embraced ITIL v2 are now asking themselves, "now what?"

Shifting gears
The ITIL best practices framework has evolved and matured along with the marketplace, gaining wide popularity after the release of v2 in 1999. A 2007 Ovum research study cites more than 50 percent of its responding companies are now using ITIL best practices.

ITIL v3 was released in 2007. This latest version repackages v2 material and adds service-oriented content for a more business-focused approach to IT. It takes an evolutionary step toward aligning IT processes with business processes, building on the framework established in previous versions.

For all those organizations out there in the midst of an ITIL v2 transformation, do you make the shift to v3 or stay the course with v2? The answer is - it’s up to you.

Stay with v2 if...
If your ITIL v2 implementation is progressing largely as planned, it is best to stay the course. You already have senior management buy-in, a change mid-stream risks de-railing your momentum, and the underlying intent remains largely unaltered from v2 to v3.

If you stay with v2, however, the project team should review v3 as soon as ongoing v2 projects are completed. They should have an after-action task to understand the differences between the two versions, identify changes that will bring additional value to the organization and only then commission work to adjust the processes.

Shift to v3 if...
If, however, your organization has struggled with ITIL-related changes and failed to achieve a common point of understanding among various stakeholders, it may be best to switch to v3 as it will likely facilitate better understanding. The adjusted viewpoint of ITIL v3 better communicates the value of ITIL.

All new initiatives should proceed with v3. Using the service perspective of v3 will permit senior managers to better understand the advantages IT brings to the organization, from both service quality and cost perspectives. Since it is more customizable, ITIL will meet the organization’s needs more closely than with the older method which made use of generic process views. As a result, the odds of success will improve because the solution is designed just for that organization and described in terms that both senior IT and business management will understand.

Core Practices in ITIL v3
The good news? The core of ITIL stays much the same and only the labels have changed slightly. ITIL v3’s core practices are:

v3 Labels		v2 Equivalents and New Content
Service Strategy:		Most v2 Business Perspective processes and some Service Catalogue work; adds new Service Lifecycle Definition processes
Service Design:		All v2 Service Delivery processes and Vendor Management from Business Perspective processes
Service Transition:		Some v2 Service Support processes (Change, Release and Configuration Management); adds new Testing, Knowledge Management and Transition Planning processes
Service Operation:		Most v2 Infrastructure Management processes, some Service Support processes (Incident and Problem Management, Service Desk); adds new Event Management and Access Management processes
Continuous Service Improvement:		Minor parts of all ITIL v2 functions (Service Delivery, Service Support, etc.)

Differences between ITIL v2 and v3
Probably the best way to describe the difference is to look at ITIL v2 as being process-oriented and v3 as more service-oriented. In other words, v2 is more about linear process flows from business to infrastructure where v3 is a hub-and-spoke structure that adds flexibility and addresses the unique challenges of the Web.

One way to visualize the difference is with a Lego set. The basic building blocks always remain the same; it is how you put them together that determines the end result. One configuration gives you a castle; another configuration gives you an airplane. The core building blocks (processes) of ITIL have pretty much remained the same since v1. It is the structure - how they are put together - that is evolving to meet changing organizational needs.

Version 3 is more customizable and, therefore, may be able to better meet individual organization’s needs. Although most of the v2 processes continue to exist, this ITIL refresh is designed to be less complicated to comprehend. This should make it much easier to sell ITIL-based programs to senior management.

In addition, v3 adds flexibility by providing structure to incorporate complimentary best practices such as Six Sigma. It has separate components to address unique challenges of the Web, though Service Delivery and Service Support remain core elements in v3 as they were in v2.

Another benefit of the latest ITIL iteration is it makes team effort between IT and business crucial to success. The previous version left many opportunities for IT to go it alone, risking failure to educate business on the value of IT. Version 3 closes those gaps. However, that will likely prevent companies that can’t or don’t involve the business from implementing ITIL v3 best practices.

Note that IT staff still faces the same challenges as with v2. However the v2 structure permitted process views to evolve from Resources through Services to Business. In v3, this staged approach is eliminated and it relies on more immediate change to a mature view. For example, capacity planning’s primary focus will change from starting with an individual infrastructure resource to that of an IT service or business process. Similarly, the Enterprise Command Center will change from initial individual transaction or job view to that of IT services and business processes. Consequently, IT staffs will have to make that leap in maturity in one bound rather than making a more gradual transition.