The ITIL originated as a collcction of books, each covering a specific practice within IT service management. After the initial publication in 1989-96, the number of books quickly grew within ITIL VI to more Lhan 30 volumes. In 2000/2001, to make ITIL more accessible (and affordable), IT/L V2 consolidated the publications into 8 logical "sets" that grouped related proccss-guidelincs to match different aspects of IT management, applications, and scrviccs.
In July 2011, the 2011 edition of ITIL V3 was published. It provides a more holistic perspective on the full life cycle of scrviccs, covering the entire IT organization and all supporting components needed to deliver services to the customer. Furthermore, ITIL V3 enables organizations to deliver appropriate services and continually' ensure they are meeting business goals and delivering benefits. The ITIL V3 best practiccs are currently detailed within five core publications that introduce five Service Lifecycle stages: Scrvice Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement Fig. 1.