What are the Key Changes in ITIL V4 Vs ITIL V3?

What are the Key Changes in ITIL V4 Vs ITIL V3? Let’s discuss and share your valuable insights. Please try to keep one point per reply, so that it would be more easier to digest.

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ITIL Service Lifecycle Replaced With Service Value System (SVS) & Service Value Chain(SVC) within it

This is a visual move from the ITIL v3 service lifecycle flywheel to a model:

ITIL service lifecycle

Source: AXELOS, ITIL v3 (2011)

To this:

Source: AXELOS, ITIL Foundation ITIL 4 Edition (2019)

And the service value chain with it:

Source: AXELOS, ITIL Foundation ITIL 4 Edition (2019)

With ITIL 4:

The center of the SVS is the service value chain, a set of broadly connected activities for a service provider.

ITIL 4 introduces the concept of a value stream, which is a journey through these activities.

The service lifecycle(ITIL v3) i.e. service strategy, service design, service transition, and service operation with continual service improvement (CSI) represented by a value stream:

  1. Plan,
  2. Improve,
  3. Engage,
  4. Design and transition,
  5. Obtain / build,
  6. Deliver and support.
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Processes Are Practices Now

ITIL V3 defines 26 processes across the service lifecycle. In ITIL 4, these 26 processes have been replaced by 34 “practices”

Some of them are new, but many of these practices were formerly known as processes.

So the ITIL V3 processes are still alive, and what is more, the authors of ITIL 4 state that ITIL V3 is still valid guidance that can be used for defining service management processes.

But it is also worth noting that ITIL 4 is not prescriptive about processes, and gives service providers more freedom to design tailor-made processes that work for the organization.

Reference : ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3 | YaSM Service Management Wiki

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ITIL V4 Dropped Service Lifecycle Except Continual Improvement(Part of SVS & SVC)

ITIL V3 introduced a service lifecycle comprising five service lifecycle stages (service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement). The ITIL V3 processes are distributed across this service lifecycle; for instance, the incident management process is part of the service operation stage.

The idea behind organizing the ITIL processes was to establish a Deming-like plan-do-check-act cycle focused on continual improvement.

ITIL V4 has dropped most references to the service lifecycle, but the continual improvement has remained a key concept. For example, continual improvement is an element of the service value system. The service value chain with its six activities (plan, improve, engage, design and transition, Obtain/build, deliver and support) is very similar to the ITIL V3 service lifecycle.

Reference : ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3 | YaSM Service Management Wiki

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ITIL V4 Dimensions Vs ITIL V3 Systems Approach (Old Wine in A New Bottle - Added Value Streams Flavour)

ITIL 4 defines four dimensions to ensure a holistic approach to service management with Service Value System(SVS) and focuses on value creation for customers and users:

  1. Organizations and people,
  2. Information and technology,
  3. Partners and suppliers,
  4. Value streams and processes.

ITIL V3 do not call it four dimensions but introduces the “systems approach” with connected assets and service components like people, information, technology, partners, and processes. Of course Value streams are not there.

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7 Guiding Principles of ITIL V4 Taken From 9 Principles of ITIL Practitioner Book(V3 Addendum)*

The nine guiding principles (for ITSM):

  • Focus on value
  • Design for experience
  • Start where you are
  • Work holistically
  • Progress iteratively
  • Observe directly
  • Be transparent
  • Collaborate
  • Keep it simple.

Note - These nine guiding principles are not part of the original ITIL V3 publications, but they have been adopted from “ITIL® Practitioner Book”, a more recent addition to the ITIL V3 portfolio.

Now ITIL4 includes seven ITIL guiding principles with minor changes:

  • Focus on value
  • Start where you are
  • Progress iteratively with feedback
  • Collaborate and promote visibility
  • Think and work holistically
  • Keep it simple and practical
  • Optimize and automate
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IT General Management Processes Not Changed A Bit in ITIL V4

  • Knowledge Manage­ment
  • Service Financial Manage­ment
  • Strategy Manage­ment

IT Service Management Processes Not Changed A Bit in ITIL V4

  • Availability Management
  • Monitoring/Event Management
  • Capacity/Demand/Performance Manage­ment
  • Change Enable­ment/Change manage­ment/Change evaluation
  • Incident Management
  • Problem Management
  • Service Catalogue Manage­ment
  • Service Configu­ration Manage­ment
  • Service Conti­nuity Manage­ment
  • Service level manage­ment
  • Service request manage­ment
  • Service valida­tion and testing

To know & note the changes in the processes/practices here:

  1. General Management: ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3 | YaSM Service Management Wiki
  2. IT Service Management: ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3 | YaSM Service Management Wiki
  3. Technical Management: ITIL 4 vs. ITIL V3 | YaSM Service Management Wiki
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ITIL 4 - Optimize & Automate Focus(Without prescribing how)

We know Automation and AI makes the lives of IT pros simpler and along with customer expectations and satisfaction.

Therefore, the new “optimize and automate” guiding principle is a great addition as overworked and heavy lifted IT service desks to benefit from technology assistance. See the diplomatic wording(In BOLD) without even saying use Six Sigma/5S, Automation, AI or whatever next available method/tech.

“Resources of all types, particularly human resources, should be used to their best effect. Eliminate anything that is truly wasteful and use technology to achieve whatever it is capable of. Human intervention should only happen where it really contributes value.”

We needed someone to say it sooner or later. Hats off ITIL V4 :heart:

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Value Co-Creation & Collaboration

The most significant difference is here in the way value is created. According to ITIL 4, the value is no longer provided by the service provider alone. It is an effort of co-creation and collaboration between the service provider and the customer. The customers become part of the development and service teams and regard themselves as a team that delivers value. Customer feedback is constant, which helps in course correction and helps create value.

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The most obvious change

ITIL V3 Prescriptive, Defined
ITIL V4 Non-Prescriptive, Tailor-made

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Enterprise-Wide Approach

ITIL V3 - Siloed Approach
ITIL V4 - Integrated Approach like DevOps, AIOps, and Agile Way Of Working

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