Customer Reviews

ITIL Lifecycle Publication Suite Books

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There will be many that feel ITIL v3 is lacking in parts, however, these will be the same people that felt ITIL v2 wasn't required when it was originally published.

There is a large amount of work in ITIL v3 and those who are displaying the signs of resistance towards it will simply need time to see that it is in fact the new commonsense approach for IT Service Management.

Let's begin...

All five books start with a common section that reviews Service Management as a Practice. In here you will find what you would expect. What is Service Management, What are Services, Business Processes discussed and a good section that explains the concept of the Service Lifecycle.

Service Strategy
Includes a section on Service Strategy Principles. Where the concept of service assets are raised against the three differnt Service Provider types. The book then moves into some heavy duty stuff where Service Strategy itself is defined as four distinct phases. This is real heavy going so don't try to read it at the end of a busy day.

Service Strategy then looks at organizational considerations as well as addressing the imporant issue of organizational culturee, before rounding out with a link to the other four volumes, a section on technology and finally the risks, challenges and critical success factors.

Service Design is next and it (like Transition and Operations) has two dominant sections. The first on Service Design principles looks at the concepts and activities of service design (things like identifying service requirements and design constraints). The other major section looks at the Service Design processes (Catalogue Management, Service Level Management, Capacity Management, Availability Management, IT Service Continuity Management, Information Security and Supplier).

The Service Design book finishes with technology, organizational issues, technology, implementation and challenges, risks, critical success factors.

Service Transition follows the pattern of Service Design. The principles section of Transition is very short; but then you have over 110 pages on processes (Transition Planning and Support, Change Management, Service Asset and Configuration Management, Release and Deployment, Evaluation and Knowledge Management).

Service Transition concludes with the same topics as Transition.

Service Operation continues the pattern, but throw in a sizeable chunk on the four defined functions (Service Desk, Application Management, IT Operations Management and Technical Management). The processes covered are event management, incident, problem, request fulfilment and access management).

Finally, the Continual Service Improvement volume. Issues dealt with here include Governance, Deming and benchmarks. Processes covered are the 7 step improvement process, service reporting, service measurement and some other topics which I would call concepts, rather than processes (ROI for CSI, Business questions).

The book introduces some techniques for CSI which is where Deming is expanded, assessments and gap analysis is covered and benchmarking gets a mention.

Finish off with technology, implementation, risks and challenges and that is the five books.

Service Strategy - 257 pages
Service Design - 317 pages
Service Transition - 251 pages
Service Operation - 251 pages
CSI - 215 pages

Approximately 10% is a direct repeat in each book (the opening sections).

For those who have been understanding and applying the underlying concepts of ITSM since version 2, this is a natural evolution of the framework, and many of the IT shops are currently using one or more ITIL process.
I just want to point out some things that I found on this new version:
- some topics from ICT IM (infrastructure management) are now incorporated as part of the Service Lifecycle. For example Strategy and Event Management. In the past this two processes were NEVER taught in ITSM Foundation classes. The same can be said for Security and Application Management. Now they are part of the service lifecycle, wich is good for those who already knew this was necessary, but it could be very complex for those people completely new in ITIL.
- small but certain portions of the books are completely "copy and paste" excerpts from the previous V2 books, while other parts are improved and of course there are a LOT of new material.
I strongly suggest you buy first Design, Transition and Operations book. Specially the Operations book. And after a carefull understanding, proceed with Strategy and CSI.
Someone can say this books are really expensive. Yes, they are. But I just can think how much an IT degree (MBA) costs in this days. This is really a MBA in managing an IT organization. So the investment worths it, because you get the knowledge MOST of the world class IT shops are using.

I was excited to learn that the OGC was looking to 'evolve' ITIL but I've not been overly impressed with the output. Granted I've only finished reading two of the five books in the suite but have seen little in them to necessitate a five book re-write. And the style in which it is presented sends shivers down my spine. If I'd not been previously experienced in ITSM I'd have been intimidated by the material.

The point of the suite was to provide IT managers with a systematic approach to plan, design, implement, manage and improve IT process management. In other words they spent a lot of time throwing a project management wrapper around the ITSM processes... not exactly rocket science unless you were one of those that threw common sense out the window to religiously follow a consultant's 'expert' opinion and ended up mired in an undisciplined and incomplete ITSM installation.

I do credit them with the separation of the Service Management methodologies. It was due and makes more sense. I think that this section will benefit many who have struggled with the Service Catalog in Version 2.

Overall, I think readers will suffer through a lot of noise in these books trying to find the truly 'evolved' items that were promised.

If you want to improve the capability of your IT organization, the best and easiest way is by adopting best practices and processes. ITIL provides the proper framework to start improving your IT organization's capabilities. Compiled from over 300 sources over a period of 30 years, these books contain some of the best knowledge and practices that the IT world has to offer. ITIL is not merely theory, but PROVEN best practices. Although its concepts do not apply to every situation in all organizations, it nontheless provide the best theoratical and proven principles for maximizing the resources and capabilities of IT to deliver business value. The central theme of ITIL is merging business needs with IT so they can be closely aligned.

I have a ITIL v3 Expert certification and these books are a must if you want to pass the exams. The exams are tricky and definitely will test the small details contained in these books. Do not think you can pass the ITIL Intermediate certification exams by merely mastering the ITIL foundations materials.

The drawbacks are first the cost, which is prohibitively expensive, and the ambiguity of the issues. These 5 books were written by multiple authors who are experts in ITIL. As with many such works, these books try to harmonize different opinions in many matters into a unified body of work. The result is that answers to many questions have no definitive, or at best ambiguous, answers. For example, in Service Design book, the Continuity Management process has 4 stages. The generally accepted wisdom is that Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is performed in the Requirements phase. But not quite firmly, says the Service Design book. BIA can also be performed in the Initiation stage, but the book never explains which portion of BIA are done in the Initiation stage vs the Requirement stage. So much for clarity...


This package has 5 books of ITIL:

1)Service Strategy
This is the book that all CIOs and upper level IT managers should read. It gives the proper 10,000 feet view of IT and how to direct its resources and capabilities based on business analysis, demands, and requirements. It covers Financial, Demand, and Service Portfolio Management.

2)Service Design
This book has the most ambiguity. Service Design is involved with converting business strategy and requirements into IT processes and architecture to deliver business value in the form of increased utility and warranty. HIghly recommended to all enterprise architects (SOA, database, application, infrastructure etc).

3)Service Transition
Covers transitioning the new designs or improvements to IT processes and architecture to the IT Operation. This book is must for QA and Change Management personnel. Operations Manager and Application Managers should also read this book. The most important process in Service Transition is the Change Management which this book covers well.

4)Service Operation
Covers the best ways to run IT operation to deliver business value of utility and warranty. It strongly advocates balance in operational interests. For example, a good operational group is neither reactive or proactive but balances the two interests. Strongly recommended to all operational managers.

5)Continual Service Improvement
The most simplest and least ambiguous of the 5 books. Contains many clear and unequivocal answers. Especially recommended to project managers and Change Managers. CSI should be implemented in all phases of IT.


These books are not perfect and certainly could have less ambiguity. But the knowledge contained in these books are worth their considerable weight in gold.

As I said is a bit heavy to digest these books; however if you are in business lon enough and seen many ITIL implementations and adopted variations then these books are a perfect source to enable you stepping ahead and do your ITIL job.

I ordered the ITIL Service Design book. It is missing pages 125-140. Page 124 starts a sentence which is not finished. Page 141 is obviously in the middle of a new section. The book does not look like pages were ripped out. It is simply missing 16 pages! Of course I did not discover this until Amazon's return policy had expired.

Set of books are in excellent condition and were delivered on the date as requested. Very valuable set of reference books that I highly recommend.

Required reading for anyone who either manages IT service delivery, is part of the service delivery infrastructure, or plans on being at some point in their future. The ITIL Service Lifecycle is a bit like having the roadmap for success all laid out before you in exhaustive detail. All that remains to be done is execute, measure and improve your processes based on your particular business experiences, customers and/or market space

It's expensive but it's an essential reference for anybody who is serious about implementing an Information Technology (IT) help desk. Mandatory. Remember that there will be a currency exchange fee.

This was a great find for me and an inexpensive way to purchase required material for certification classes. Shipping was prompt. Great experience all around.