ITIL  ISO 15000

ISO 15000 certification aims to federate ISO 9000-2000 certification and all ITIL recommendations into a single standard.

ITIL BS15000 alignment is very interesting. BS 15000 is the first worldwide standard specifically aimed at IT Service Management. It describes an integrated set of management processes for the effective delivery of services to the business and its customers.

BS 15000 is aligned with and complementary to the process approach defined within the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) from The Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

BS 15000 Consists of Two Parts: BS 15000-1 is the formal specification and defines the requirements for an organization to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its customers. The scope includes: Requirements for a management system; Planning and implementing service management; Planning and implementing new or changed services; Service delivery process; Relationship processes; Resolution processes; Control processes; and Release processes.

BS 15000-2 is the Code of Practice and describes the best practices for Service Management processes within the scope of BS 15000-1. The code of Practice is of particular use to organizations preparing to be audited against BS 15000-1 or planning service improvements.

Business Drivers: Key business drivers of the standard are: To provide a formal and auditable standard for the delivery of IT Services within an organization. To reinforce and provide accreditation based on the best practice as defined by the BSI Code of Practice for IT Service Management (PD0005) and the UK Governments Internationally adopted IT infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice guidance. To be the foundation of a future ISO international standard.

Reasons and History: The reasons and history behind the standard:

• To provide a business focused ‘road map’ for implementing and maintaining a successful integrated Service Management strategy.
• To provide non-propriety and public domain guidance for the service industry.
• To define the processes required to identify and manage the level and quality of service being provided to customers, along with the resources and cost needed to achieve it (not re-inventing the wheel).

Where ITIL fits in: ITIL forms a layer between in house procedures and the code of practice, so imagine the metaphor of a five tiered pyramid, the bottom layer of building blocks are the in house procedures, the second layer of building blocks are ITIL Best practice. The next layer is the code of practice which ITIL helps us achieve, then comes the standard (BS15000) and finally the pinnacle is ISO. Now before all you cynics out there think “we are already certified” there is a huge difference between certified for the sake of it and being certified to support the business need!