We do not recommend breaking up the ITIL Process Map into portions, and therefore subsets are not available.

The reason for this is that the ITIL processes typically have numerous Inputs coming from, and Outputs going to, related processes (for example, Incident Management is feeding information into Problem Management). A good understanding of those interrelationships is critical for any ITIL initiative, so we took great pains to depict precisely how information is flowing between the ITIL processes.

As a result, destroying these links by breaking up the ITIL Reference Model into portions would deprive you of one of the main benefits you get from our product.

The new set of ITIL books contains some 2000 pages of Best Practice recommendations, while our Reference Process Model consists of about 25 overview diagrams and some 104 detailed process flows, plus 84 checklists and templates.

The ITIL Process Map V3 is therefore not so much about presenting every single detail in a different format – rather, it depicts the essential contents in an easily accessible and understandable way, so that you can instantly make use of the ITIL recommendations in your ITIL project.

By definition, a process model must explicitly state which activities are to be carried out in what order, and what outputs are to be produced for subsequent processes. Redundancies are not allowed – any activity can occur only once within a well-defined process, with clearly assigned responsibilities for its execution.

Books, in contrast, can get away with being less strict. Statements like "Risk must be analyzed and managed during all stages of Service Transition" are perfectly suitable for books. When developing a process model, however, it must be precisely defined how and when risks are analyzed and who is responsible for that task.

In short, creating the ITIL Process Map meant extracting the essentials from the ITIL books, sorting out redundancies, and translating the text-based content into clear-cut activity flows.

This required a lot of expertise and effort - the present version 3 of the ITIL Process Map took about 2 years to develop.

The ITIL Process Map V3 offers complete coverage of the five ITIL V3 core volumes (the 'ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle') Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement.

This includes completely revised versions of all processes known from ITIL V2.

ITIL V3 calls for "coordinated risk assessment exercises", so we assigned clear responsibilities for managing risks by introducing a specific Risk Management process.

Having a basic Risk Management process in place will also provide a good starting point for applying best-practice Risk Management frameworks like M_o_R (as recommended in the ITIL V3 books) .

Compliance is an increasingly important topic for IT organizations, because it must be ensured that IT services, processes and systems comply with enterprise policies and legal requirements. This called for introducing a specific Compliance Management process.

Having a well-defined architecture blueprint in place is very important for IT organizations. As a consequence, we defined specific IT Architecture Management process.

The Transition Planning and Support process was enhanced to provide a full-featured Project Management process.

This will also provide a good starting point for introducing best-practice Project Management frameworks like PRINCE2 or PMBOK (as recommended in the ITIL V3 books). .

The chapter on Demand Management in the Service Strategy book does not offer enough substance to justify a separate Demand Management process and a dedicated Demand Manager role.

At the same time, the Capacity Manager is well placed to perform those activities. The approach to influence service demand in the ITIL Process Map is as follows: The Capacity Manager identifies "Suggestions to Influence Service Demand". Those suggestions will be considered during Service Reviews as part of Continual Service Improvement.

The "Seven-Step Improvement Process" presented in the ITIL V3 books is in fact the description of a methodology which can be universally applied to identify shortcomings in services and processes and to implement improvements. The principles it contains are applied in a number of ITIL processes, most importantly in Service Design (e.g. in the Service Level Management, Capacity Management, and Availability Management processes).

As a result, the "Seven-Step Improvement Process" cannot be treated as a standalone ITIL process, and there is no such process in the ITIL Process Map V3. The "Seven-Step Improvement" principles, however, are included in a checklist.

Service Measurement is embedded into various ITIL Processes: For example, Capacity and Availability Management will be involved in the definition of metrics and measurement requirements during Service Design, and will also take care of the actual data gathering.

The ITIL Process Map treats Service Measurement as part of those processes and does not feature a Service Measurement process as part of Continual Service Improvement. .

Service Reporting is embedded into various ITIL Processes: For example, Service Level Management produces the Service Level Report, which in turn is compiled from other reports like the ones from Capacity and Availability Management.

The ITIL Process Map treats Service Reporting as part of those processes and does not feature a Service Reporting process as part of Continual Service Improvement.

In various parts of the new books, ITIL V3 refers to "Functions" rather than "Processes". For instance, Service Level Management is introduced as a Process and IT Facilities Management as a Function.

Much confusion stems from the fact that in the real world there are often "Functions" and "Processes" with identical names: For example, the Facilities Management team (a "Function") will perform a set of facilities-related activities, which as a whole are called the Facilities Management process.

As a result, the ITIL Process Map V3 features a Facilities Management process even though, strictly speaking, the ITIL books define Facilities Management as a Function. .

Our focus is on the provision of the ITIL Process Map. ITIL process know-how is provided in the form of an ITIL Reference Process Model (the ITIL Process Map). This means we are not classical ITIL consultants - instead our products put you in a position to take your ITIL or ISO 20000 initiative into your own hands.

We will be happy to answer any questions related to the ITIL Process Map and its use in ITIL and ISO 20000 initiatives. However, we see this as product support - if you require comprehensive ITIL consulting services we will do our best to help you with finding a suitable consultant.

We also offer a wealth of ITIL-related information in our IT Process Wiki.

The big and well-known ITIL consultants and suppliers of ITIL-compliant application systems will certainly be able to help you with your ITIL or ISO 20000 initiatives. Choosing one of those vendors, however, typically means entering a longer-term relationship, and vendors are likely to promote their own services and products. Before choosing an external partner it is a good idea to get familiar with ITIL and to set clear goals ("what exactly is to be improved with the introduction of ITIL?" ).

Our idea at ESP-ITIL is to provide you with independent know-how. Our business model is not about selling on-site ITIL consulting, so we are free to focus on perfecting the ITIL Process Map with the best available expertise, without any hidden agenda. With an investment comparable to a small number of consulting days you will be better placed to decide what services and systems are right for you and where to spend your money.