ITIL: the de facto framework for IT service management?

As the focus in IT continues to shifts to the customer, IT Service Management (ITSM) has become increasingly important. With ever more organisations deciding to use ITIL to meet this need, are the benefits being assumed without being monitored or does ITIL indeed deserve its position of the de facto framework for ITSM. This report looks at the views of people who work within an IT Service Management environment, finding out how the people who have adopted ITIL think it performs along with their thoughts on ITIL v3, the recently refreshed version. By conducting a literature review to gain an understanding of the issues surrounding IT Service Management, ITIL adoption and by conducting a survey of many ITSM professionals, a number of key findings were established. The results of this research appear to show that ITIL adoption is being driven by improving service quality not by the associated financial gain that may be achieved although this may change if the economic downturn continues. The research also appears to show that the main benefits in implementing ITIL is the structure that it brings to a workplace and that many organisations appear to be using ITIL alongside other frameworks, particularly COBIT. Finally it appears that making people 'ITIL aware' will go a long way in having a successful implementation with evidence there is a general lack of understanding between various stakeholders.