Definition

IT service management (ITSM) is a theory for IT system management that focuses on the area of customer relationships in respect to the way IT contributes to the business. Thought it shares commonalities with other process improvement methodologies, it is not considered part of such frameworks. The ITSM process helps IT divisions to better interact with end-users and business customers in the sense that the IT staff provides these groups with a service.

Business applications

ITSM as a practice enables the IT unit to consider the ways in which it provides services to other business units and its end users. Like other improvement methodologies, its practice has grown quite popular with enterprises in the past few years. However, ITSM does not typically include such IT-related groups as project managers or program managers, and in some cases software engineers. ITSM helps IT align its services more closely with the overall needs of the business, and it often helps IT staff to consider users as customers and systems as less operation-specific and more service-oriented.

Concerns

Although the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) includes ITSM as a component, ITSM is not synonymous with ITIL, though many still insist on using the two terms interchangeably. It is important to realize that ITSM and ITIL are two distinct disciplines.

Technical details

Many process methodologies have contributed to the ITSM discipline, and several include examples of ITSM within their frameworks, including:

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP)

Application Services Library (ASL)

Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF)

Business Information Services Library (BISL)