ITIL Service (Version 5) module: an enterprise-wide approach to service thinking
Georgina Otubela – lead author
What is the core concept behind the ITIL Service (Version 5) module?
It’s about enabling value in digital organizations by putting value co-creation with customers, providers, partners, and technology at the center of delivery.
Equally, it focuses on the flow of value across the service lifecycle and breaks down organizational silos to bring service, product, and operations communities together.
Where product-focused professionals have, historically, been on the sidelines of ITIL thinking, this module involves them directly: improving relationships and service quality by “baking in” service for users from the outset and bringing service people into product delivery.
These approaches will help organizations work in a more seamless and holistic way: improving service, increasing collaboration while delivering products more fit for purpose, with service in mind, and improving product support.
A more practical ITIL guide for a variety of job roles
By listening to and incorporating community feedback, we have designed the ITIL (Version 5) modules to be more practical than previous versions.
This means breaking down activities into:
• Purpose
• Scope
• Key actions
• Inputs
• Outputs
• Success measures
• Roles
In addition, a fictional ITIL car hire scenario is woven into the guidance to show how the activities can apply to introducing new initiatives, such as how a service wrap-around works with hiring a vehicle, ensuring quality, and managing maintenance.
And this guidance caters to a wide range of professional roles: from traditional service support functions to service owners, delivery leads, operations support, digital product managers, architects and anyone accountable for delivering value to the business.
This guidance and certification will be valuable for people already progressing in their careers, but also provides the next logical step for those new to ITIL, helping them move from day-to-day operational support to strategic and leadership responsibilities.
Providing an AI-native approach
The ITIL Service module assumes many organizations already use AI and offers guidance on using it responsibly and effectively across all service activities.
AI approaches are embedded in each of the chapters and address areas such as service design (analyzing patterns and user behaviour), testing/validation, and operations (predicting incidents and supporting faster resolution).
Again, it suggests practical ways to embed AI. For organizations not yet embracing the technology, there is practical guidance on human-centred approaches to customers and users.
A complementary companion module to ITIL Product (Version 5)
As ITIL (Version 5) promotes a more collaborative approach between digital product and service management, the Service and Product modules are complementary.
In the Service module, each chapter of the guidance pinpoints whether an activity is either service-dominant or product-dominant. It encourages shared ownership of outcomes and continual collaboration by showing how to design service into a product and involve service professionals in early development discussions.
While this will herald a mindset shift across both service and product functions, it’s a necessary step to create a new normal: delivering a shared focus for product and service that benefits customers and users.
Taking ITIL beyond IT
The ITIL Service module is not solely about addressing an IT problem but presenting ways of embedding value that are applicable enterprise-wide, as everyone is responsible for delivering better service.
This can apply to any part of an organization: from the service desk to people in leadership or tech operations and architect roles – providing top-down, bottom-up and end-to-end guidance to deliver optimal service.
But the guidance also recognizes the importance of human elements, such as safety culture: allowing people to speak up about what works or not in services and create a culture of safety and collaboration that benefits the lifecycle from design to end delivery.
And with organizations’ increasing obligation to become more sustainable, the topic of sustainability and continual improvement is threaded through the guidance.
A key part of the ITIL (Version 5) qualification scheme
Within the ITIL Managing Professional designation, I see ITIL Service as the central piece that brings together strategy, end user experience, and service with value co-creation and digital product capabilities at its core.
The guidance is there to help professionals think about and understand the service journey and value chain of their organizations and how to embed continual improvement into all of their activities.
The ITIL Service module gives practitioners an immediate capability to simplify processes and empower them to adopt a common-sense approach to approvals and risk. They can assess where they are now and optimize their organization’s service journey, underpinned by human empathy.
Lead author for the ITIL (Version 5) Service module, Georgina Otubela, has worked for more than 20 years in service roles – from service desk to service management and other leadership positions in industries including finance, property, gaming and insurance. She now works as a product delivery manager within her organization’s service and project management area.
Discover how ITIL Service (Version 5) can help you design, deliver, and continually improve value across your organization.