- Context Technology is constantly evolving and continuously transforming the way we work.
- IT challenge IT services are expected to be more agile, more reliable, and better aligned with the business.
- Underlying problem: The speed of change creates technological chaos and operational complexity.
- Proposed solution: ITIL is a reference framework with decades of adoption that helps bring order and standardize IT service management.
- Key message: In environments of constant change, ITIL provides discipline and clarity to connect IT with business objectives.
What It Is and Why It Still Matters
Technology never stands still. Every new tool and every change in the way we work requires IT services to be more agile, more reliable, and better connected to the business. In the midst of this constant evolution, there is a framework that has been helping organizations bring order to technological chaos for decades: ITIL.
What Is ITIL?
ITIL stands for Information Technology Infrastructure Library. Simply put, it is a guide that brings together best practices for managing technology services efficiently, ensuring that IT truly delivers value to the business.
It originated in the 1980s in the United Kingdom, when public sector organizations began to need a common way to standardize the management of their IT services. Since then, ITIL has evolved to become the most widely used framework worldwide.
What Is ITIL Used For?
At its core, ITIL helps organizations structure the work of their IT teams and improve the quality of the services they deliver. It does this by defining principles, practices, and processes that ensure everything works coherently: from how incidents are handled to how new services are designed or changes are planned.
Its goal is not to create bureaucracy, but to provide structure without slowing down agility. ITIL introduces a shared language and a way of thinking that makes it possible to align technology, people, and business around a single purpose: creating value.
ITIL4: What It Is and Why It Still Matters
Key principles of ITIL
Although ITIL has been updated over time, its essence remains the same: service improvement and a strong customer focus.
Some of its most important ideas include:
- Clear processes: They define how each aspect of IT services should be managed.
- Customer-oriented quality: What matters is not only that something works, but that it meets agreed expectations.
- Collaboration and communication: Teams cannot work in silos; value is created collectively.
- Continuous improvement: Every success or failure should be used as an opportunity to learn and evolve.
- ITIL 4: A Version for the Digital Era
In 2019, ITIL 4 was introduced, an update that modernizes the framework to adapt it to today’s environment, where cloud computing, automation, agile ways of working, and DevOps culture coexist.
The major innovation in this version is the Service Value System, a model that describes how all parts of an organization—people, technology, processes, and partners—work together to consistently generate value.
In addition, ITIL 4 directly incorporates influences from modern approaches such as Agile, Lean, and DevOps, demonstrating that service management can be flexible and dynamic without losing control.
What Does ITIL 4 Include?
Have you ever wondered why most medium-sized and large organizations have similar IT team structures, why professionals can move between companies without getting lost, or why the tools they use are so similar?
The answer lies, to a large extent, in ITIL.
ITIL 4 provides a shared language and structure that help organizations operate coherently. It includes several key elements:
- Guiding principles: these are the ideas that guide all decisions in service management. They help prioritize, collaborate, and continuously improve.
- Four dimensions of service: Organization and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and processes. Together, they offer a complete and balanced view of how value is created.
- Six service value chain activities: Engage, Plan, Improve, Build, Design, and Deliver. These are the key stages that turn a customer need into a real, operational service.
- 34 management practices: These describe how processes, roles, and responsibilities within IT should be organized. They include well-known practices such as Incident Management, Service Level Management, and Technology Architecture Management.
Taken together, ITIL 4 acts as a map that guides teams on what to do, who should do it, and how to measure whether the service is truly generating value.
Why is ITIL Still Relevant?
Some people believe that ITIL belongs to the past. However, in an environment where digital services are at the core of the business, its purpose has never been more relevant.
ITIL remainsa guide for structuring chaos, helping translate technical complexity into real value for customers and users.
In practice, it is not about applying every process to the letter, but about using ITIL as an adaptable framework: taking what works, simplifying what does not, and combining it with new ways of working.
Because in the end, ITIL is not a collection of rules, it is a way of thinking about how technology work can drive business success.
