ITIL Practices
ITIL 4 describes 34 management practices, each a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. A subset of these practices is emphasized at the Foundation level. Practices support the service value chain activities rather than replacing them.
Incident and Problem Management
Incident management aims to minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible; an incident is an unplanned interruption or reduction in service quality. Problem management reduces the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes and managing workarounds and known errors. A problem is a cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents, and a known error is a problem with a documented cause and workaround. The two practices are closely related but have distinct purposes.
Change Enablement
Change enablement aims to maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that risks are properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing the change schedule. A change is the addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services. Changes may be standard (pre-authorized and low risk), normal (assessed and authorized through a defined process), or emergency (needed as soon as possible). Balancing beneficial change against disruption is central to this practice.
Service Request and Service Desk
Service request management supports the agreed quality of a service by handling all predefined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner. A service request is a request from a user or their authorized representative that initiates a service action agreed as a normal part of service delivery. The service desk practice captures demand for incident resolution and service requests and is the single point of contact between the service provider and its users. The service desk strongly influences user experience and how the provider is perceived.
Service Level Management
Service level management sets clear business-based targets for service performance so that service delivery can be properly assessed, monitored, and managed against these targets. It requires ongoing engagement with customers to understand and document their needs. Service level agreements (SLAs) record the agreed targets, which should be related to defined outcomes rather than isolated operational metrics. This practice provides visibility into whether services are meeting expectations.
Continual Improvement
Continual improvement aligns the organization's practices and services with changing business needs through ongoing identification and improvement of services and components. The continual improvement model provides a structured, repeatable approach: it asks what the vision is, where we are now, where we want to be, how we get there, taking action, checking whether we got there, and how we keep the momentum going. Everyone in the organization is expected to contribute to continual improvement. It runs throughout the entire service value system.