ITIL

Term Definition
ITIL is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, which is a framework of best practice approaches intended to facilitate the delivery of high quality information technology services. ITIL outlines an extensive set of management procedures that are intended to support businesses in achieving both quality and value for money in IT operations. These procedures are supplier independent and have been developed to provide guidance across the breadth of IT infrastructure, development, and operations.

ITIL was developed in the 1980s but was not widely adopted until the 1990s. This wider adoption and awareness has led to a number of standards, including ISO/IEC 20000, which is an international standard covering the IT Service Management elements of ITIL. ITIL is often considered alongside other best practice frameworks, such as the Information Services Procurement Library (ISPL), the Application Services Library (ASL), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), the Capability Maturity Model (CMM/CMMI), and is often linked with IT governance through Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT).

ITIL is built around a process-model based view of controlling and managing operations often credited to W. Edwards Deming. The ITIL recommendations were developed in the 1980's by the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) of the UK Government in response to the growing dependence on information technology and a recognition that without standard practices, government agencies and private sector contracts were independently creating their own IT management practices and duplicating effort within their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects resulting in common mistakes and increased costs. ITIL is published in a series of books, each of which covers a core area within IT Management. The names ITIL and IT Infrastructure Library are registered trade marks of the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which is an Office of the United Kingdom's Treasury's. The content of the books is protected by Crown Copyright.

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