What is ITIL? The framework behind successful IT operations

When a city’s traffic system runs well, you barely notice it. Lights are timed just right, lanes are clearly marked, and drivers follow the rules of the road. But take away the structure and it doesn’t take long for things to unravel — gridlock, frustration, and near-misses at every turn.

IT teams run into the same problem. Without clear workflows or a shared method for prioritization, service delivery breaks down. Requests pile up, issues slip through, and teams burn out as they react to issues instead of solving them.

That’s where ITIL comes in. It brings structure to the chaos through a flexible set of best practices that IT teams use to move in sync — faster and with fewer collisions. This guide provides a closer look at how ITIL works and how you can apply its principles within monday service.

Key takeaways 

• ITIL is a framework for managing IT services more effectively. It lays out practical guidance on how organizations should deliver and support technology across the business.
• The framework has evolved to stay relevant in a digital-first world. What began as a collection of manuals in the 1980s is now a flexible, modern approach aligned with Agile, DevOps, and cloud-based service delivery.
• Using ITIL can lead to more consistent service, faster issue resolution, and more effective resource allocation. Organizations that apply it well often see rapid improvements in reliability, visibility, and cost control.
• Getting started with ITIL doesn’t mean overhauling everything at once. You can begin with a few key practices, like incident management or SLA tracking, and build from there.
• monday service makes it easier to put ITIL into practice. The platform’s structured workflows, real-time dashboards, and automation features enable teams to apply ITIL principles without extra overhead.

What is ITIL? 

ITIL, once known as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a flexible framework made up of 34 best practices that help organizations manage and improve their IT services. While the full name has been dropped, ITIL has kept its original focus: helping IT teams deliver a better, more consistent service in the modern workplace.

Originally developed as a set of government-issued manuals in the 1980s, ITIL is one of the most widely used approaches to IT service management (ITSM). It’s not a one-size-fits-all standard but a set of adaptable guidelines that organizations of all types and headcounts use to reduce disruption and deliver smoother service experiences.

What are the specific benefits of ITIL for your business? 

At its core, ITIL makes IT more strategic. It helps teams move beyond simply fixing issues to shaping how its technology supports the business. Here’s what it could mean to your business.

Predictable, standardized IT processes

ITIL encourages teams to use consistent workflows so they don’t need to improvise every time something breaks. Using clear processes, it’s easier to respond with focus and keep services running without unnecessary delays.

Higher service quality

ITIL is built around understanding what customers need and finding ways to meet those needs more effectively. The framework gives teams a structure for improving over time and addressing issues before they escalate. As an example, the University of Oxford’s IT service department used ITIL to reduce the number of major incidents from 8 per year to just 2, demonstrating its effectiveness in improving service reliability.

Greater transparency and visibility

Clear documentation, roles, and reporting structures bring everything into focus, making it easier to track performance and identify inefficiencies, all while weighing up cost control. ITIL bridges communication gaps between IT and the rest of the business, transforming IT from a behind-the-scenes support function into a visible, strategic partner.

Improved cost efficiency

With a structured approach to managing IT assets and processes, ITIL lets teams do more with less. Redundant work drops out of the picture as businesses improve their resource utilization and reduce operating costs without sacrificing service quality.

That efficiency adds up: in a recent global survey, over half of IT leaders reported a measurable drop in operating costs after adopting ITIL, with 26% seeing savings of up to 10% and 31% cutting costs by as much as 20%.

Better change management

One of ITIL’s core strengths is its approach to managing change, and there’s plenty of it in IT. According to the monday.com world of work report, 67% of tech teams report changes to their operational lineups this year, with 68% experiencing adjustments to their job duties, and 77% using new or different tools. ITIL supports all these transformations using built-in best practices for planning, testing, and rolling out changes. As a result, IT teams minimize service disruptions and implement updates more smoothly, so innovation drives forward without compromising stability.

Stronger alignment between IT and business strategy

Perhaps the greatest benefit of all is the strong collaboration ITIL encourages between IT and business leaders, ensuring every technical initiative links to a broader strategic goal. This approach means IT projects and workflows are prioritized effectively in line with what really matters.

ITIL best practices and strategies 

Successful ITIL implementation requires a mindset shift to the core principles of ITIL. The following strategies build a foundation for more consistent and effective service management.

1. Keep customer value top of mind

Every process, service, and decision within the ITIL framework should ultimately support the customer’s needs — otherwise, why are you doing this? Effective ITIL thinking requires teams to think beyond technical fixes and prioritize outcomes, keeping IT efforts in check with what matters most to the business and its users.

2. Embrace continuous improvement

ITIL encourages organizations to evaluate performance regularly and identify areas for enhancement. Like the Agile methodology, ITIL is iterative by nature and applies across the entire service lifecycle, from strategy to operations. Small, consistent adjustments over time can lead to significant long-term gains.

3. Invest in ITIL certifications

Building ITIL knowledge through certification is a strategic way to strengthen your organization’s approach to service management. Certification programs offer structured training in core concepts, terminology, and best practices, enabling individuals and teams to apply ITIL effectively and consistently. While certification is often associated with IT roles, Trevor Wilson, an ITIL 4 Trainer, asserts, “Many people make the mistake of believing that ITIL pertains solely to IT professionals.” 

Head of Service Delivery at the University of Reading, Aaron Kingsbury, agrees that education in this framework has advantages for the whole business.

While ITIL started as IT-aligned, it has its benefits when discussing service management best practices in other functions. IT is leading in most enterprise service management (ESM) system transitions. A key reason for that is that our methodologies are very well matured and a template for others.

4. Leverage the right ITIL platform

The right environment can make or break your ITIL implementation. A dedicated service platform like monday service makes it easier to apply structured processes and provide transparency across teams. With flexible features and scalable systems in place, organizations can reinforce ITIL principles without adding unnecessary complexity.

Excel at ITIL service management with monday service 

monday service provides a customizable, easy-to-use platform that provides visibility into every part of your service operation. From managing service tickets to coordinating complex changes, monday service brings ITIL best practices to life, without the complexity of traditional ITSM tools.

Each of the following capabilities maps directly to common ITIL service management practices, enabling teams to follow the framework while adapting it to your organization’s needs.

Maintain consistency with managed data structures

Standardization is a key ITIL principle, and monday service helps enforce it across your workflows. Keep data organized and consistent with features like Managed Columns and Item IDs, which your team can use to capture and reference information consistently — critical for process reliability and performance tracking.

Example: When logging a new incident, your team can use a managed dropdown to select the incident type from a predefined list, such as hardware failure, access issue, or service outage, then assign a unique Item ID to each ticket. By doing so, incidents are categorized consistently across departments, making it easier to run reports and track resolution trends over time.

Centralize and accelerate incident response with automated ticketing

Resolve issues more efficiently by managing all incidents and service requests in one centralized location. AI-powered, customizable ticket workflows help you route, prioritize, and assign requests based on urgency, type, or service level agreement (SLA.) You can view each ticket in full business context, linked to users, systems, or ongoing projects, so your team can respond with clarity and speed.

Example: When an employee submits a request for software access, monday service automatically converts the request into a ticket, assigns it to the appropriate support group, and tracks it through to completion. Approvals, notifications, and updates are all handled in-platform, reducing delays and ensuring the request is handled according to company policy.

Automate routine tasks to reduce manual work

Routine service requests and communications can drain IT bandwidth. Automated workflows reduce time on repetitive tasks like ticket classification, status updates, or approvals. This improves consistency, cuts response times, and frees agents to focus on more strategic work.

Example: A critical ticket that remains unresolved past its SLA can automatically escalate to a team lead, trigger an alert in Slack, and update the ticket’s priority, all without a technician lifting a finger.

Enhance real time IT team collaboration

Often, service issues require support from business functions beyond IT. To achieve this cross-departmental collaboration, monday service integrates with tools like Slack, so updates, approvals, and status changes happen where your teams are already working. You can also add collaborators directly into service workflows to keep communication focused and in-context.

Example: When a data access request involves both your IT and legal teams, a legal approver can be looped into the workflow directly in monday service. Notifications are sent in Slack, and the approver can review and respond without switching platforms, helping the request move forward without bottlenecks.

Track SLAs and service performance with real-time analytics

To stay aligned with ITIL service levels, you need visibility. Service analytics dashboards in monday service allow you to track KPIs like SLA compliance, response times, and ticket volumes so you can make better decisions and adjust quickly when service levels slip.

Example: If a trend in the dashboard shows rising ticket volumes based on login issues alongside a drop in SLA compliance, the IT manager can investigate root causes and reallocate resources accordingly.

The evolution of the ITIL process framework

If you’ve worked with ITIL in the past, you might still picture it as rigid and process-heavy. But ITIL has changed, and understanding that shift helps make sense of how a flexible platform like monday service fits right in. Since its introduction in the 1980s, each version of the framework has expanded its scope and refined its structure to align more closely with modern ways of working. Here’s a quick overview of how ITIL has evolved.

ITIL version 1 (1989)

The original version of ITIL was developed by the UK government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) to improve the quality of IT services in the public sector. It consisted of a collection of 30+ books, each covering a different aspect of IT service management.

ITIL version 2 (2001)

Version 2 consolidated and streamlined the sprawling documentation from v1 into a more manageable format, focusing on the service support and service delivery lifecycle. This version gained global traction, becoming the foundation for formal ITSM practices in both public and private sectors.

ITIL version 3 (2007, refreshed in 2011)

Version 3 introduced a full-service lifecycle approach, framing IT services as strategic assets that deliver business value. It also placed greater emphasis on continual improvement and long-term service design rather than mere operational efficiency.

ITIL version 4 (2019 to present)

The most recent and current version, ITIL 4, reflects the realities of digital transformation, emphasizing agility, flexibility, and integration with other modern methodologies like Agile, DevOps, and Lean.

3 pillars of ITIL 4 

Central to ITIL 4’s flexible and integrated model are 3 categories of management practices, each representing a core aspect of service management. These pillars support organizations in connecting their IT capabilities with broader business goals while staying grounded in delivering incredible value to customers.

ITIL technical management

This pillar focuses on the specialized skills and processes required to build, maintain, and support the underlying technologies that power services. The following 3 practices are typically the domain of system administrators, developers, network engineers, and other IT specialists.

• Deployment management
• Infrastructure and platform management
• Software development and management

ITIL general management

The 14 organizational practices in this category extend beyond IT and can apply across departments. They establish the structures, policies, and strategies needed to support long-term success. Examples include:

• Continual improvement
• Risk management
• Information security management
• Workforce and talent management
• Financial management

ITIL service management

Service management is at the heart of ITIL. This pillar focuses on how businesses design, deliver, and continually improve their services to meet the needs of users and the business.

17 practices in this pillar cover both proactive and reactive aspects of service delivery, supporting the full lifecycle of a service. Some examples include:

• Incident management
• Problem management
• Change enablement
• Service desk
• Service level management
• Service request management

A quick note on incident management vs. problem management

While these two terms are often confused, incident management and problem management serve very different purposes within the ITIL framework. Both are critical to maintaining reliable IT services, but they focus on different timeframes, goals, and approaches.

• Incident management is about restoring service as quickly as possible when something breaks or isn’t working.
• Problem management is about finding and eliminating the underlying causes of recurring or significant issues to prevent future incidents.

Organizations that treat these as separate but connected practices are better equipped to respond to urgent issues in the short term while reducing overall disruption in the long term.

monday service: The platform IT teams love to use

Whether you’re starting fresh or refining how your team delivers IT services, monday service offers the clarity, flexibility, and structure you need to put ITIL into practice. It’s built for modern service teams who want process without rigidity, visibility without clutter, and automation without complexity.

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. Here’s how to begin applying ITIL principles using monday service:

1. Map out your core service workflows: Identify your most common incidents or service requests and use monday service to standardize how they’re logged, tracked, and resolved.
2. Create structure with templates and managed fields: Use managed columns, item IDs, and ticket templates to ensure consistent data collection across your team.
3. Automate repeatable actions: Set up automations to classify incoming tickets, send SLA alerts, and route tasks to the right people, so nothing is overlooked or forgotten about.
4. Track and improve with real-time dashboards: Create dashboards to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) such as SLA compliance, backlog volume, and team workload. Use these insights to improve continuously.
5. Expand and adapt: As your team gains confidence, layer in more ITIL practices like change enablement or problem management, all within the same platform.

With monday service, your team can move faster, operate more consistently, and stay aligned with what the business actually needs — which is exactly what ITIL was meant to do. Get a free monday service trial to start applying ITIL best practices with built-in structure, real-time visibility, and the flexibility to scale your workflows as you grow.