It was Einstein who once said “the secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” The world of IT isn’t exactly known for being a creator’s paradise but navigating obstacles within problem management or incident management may take creative solutions. Regardless, it helps to borrow ideas, or in this case systems. One such popular system in IT service management is ITIL.

ITIL is widely considered the gold standard when it comes to IT Service Management (ITSM) best practices and some of the most successful companies in the business have been using it and its multiple iterations over the years. Though we won’t go into detail as to what ITIL is (we’ve got a Definitive ITIL Guide for those who want a complete rundown), it could be quickly defined as a set of suggestions, best practices, and different approaches of how to do ITSM.

Change is inevitable but never easy especially in IT. IT professionals can relate to this statement. When it comes to ITSM, solid change management is a sign of maturity. Why is that? Among the ITIL processes, change management is the most difficult to get right, because it requires the right mix of process, people, and technology. There’s a lot of grey areas when it comes to implementing change management.

Organizations with established ITSM strategy already know how ITSM can transform the IT department from a cost-center to a value-generating driver to offer real business value. As teams modify their service operations to meet increasing needs, IT departments are under more pressure than ever to swiftly execute changes without putting their service levels at risk. This is where organizations can leverage project management best practices along with ITSM best practices to introduce new services.

Business continuity has become a key priority for most management teams and their IT associates. Every single minute lost in downtime can result in potentially bloated overheads and reduced revenues. That said and done, no matter how well-engineered the network is, there will be some issues and problems in its due course of operations. ITIL broadly defines an incident as an unplanned incident that interrupts a service or has the potential to interrupt service if not addressed immediately.