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ITIL & ITSM Basics

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • What a “service” is in IT
  • What ITSM and ITIL mean
  • The main ITSM processes in ServiceNow and how they connect

1 IT is a service

Think of a restaurant. 🍽️ You don’t care how the kitchen works. You care that your food comes out hot and on time. IT is the same: people don’t care about servers, they care that email, Wi-Fi, and their laptop just work.

When IT thinks of itself as a service for people, it needs good ways to handle problems, requests, and changes. That’s what ITSM is about.

Key term: ITSM

IT Service Management. How an IT team plans, delivers, and supports the services people use every day.

Key term: ITIL

A well-known set of best practices for ITSM. Many companies follow it. The current version is ITIL 4.

📝 Note: ITIL is a guide, not software. ServiceNow’s ITSM product is built to follow ITIL practices, so the words match: incident, problem, change, and request.

2 The main ITSM processes

Four core ITSM processes and how they connect. Incident: something is broken, fix it fast, for example Wi-Fi is down. Problem: find the root cause behind one or more incidents so they stop happening. Change: make a planned change safely, like replacing the Wi-Fi router, often to fix a problem. Request: someone asks for something new, like a new laptop, through the Service Catalog. Arrows show many incidents leading to a problem, and a problem leading to a change.
Figure 1. Incidents point to problems. Problems are fixed with changes. Requests are for new things.
Process Answers the question Example
Incident “Something is broken. Can you fix it fast?” Wi-Fi is down on floor 3
Problem “Why does this keep happening?” The Wi-Fi router is faulty
Change “How do we change this safely?” Replace the router on Saturday
Request “Can I have something new?” A new laptop or software

⚠️ Common mix-up: A broken laptop is an incident. A new laptop is a request. Incidents are for things that stopped working. Requests are for things people want.

3 Why ServiceNow + ITIL work well

  • Everyone uses the same words, so teams understand each other.
  • Records link together: an incident can point to a problem, and a problem to a change.
  • All of them are tasks (Lesson 19.1), so they share assignment, SLAs, and notes.

⭐ Remember: Incident = fix it now. Problem = find the cause. Change = change it safely. Request = give me something new.

4 Let’s try it: find the four

  1. In the All menu, find the Incident, Problem, and Change application menus.
  2. Open Service Catalog and look at a few items you can request.
  3. Open any problem. Scroll to its related lists. Can you find related incidents?

5 Quick recap

  • ITSM = IT Service Management
  • ITIL = best practices for ITSM (current version: ITIL 4)
  • Core processes: Incident, Problem, Change, and Request
  • Broken = incident. New = request
  • In ServiceNow, these records link together

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 A user wants Adobe Photoshop installed. Incident or request? Show answer

A request. They want something new.

2 The same printer error happens every week. Which process finds out why? Show answer

Problem management.

3 Is ITIL a piece of software? Show answer

No. It’s a set of best practices. ServiceNow ITSM follows it.

Nice work! You finished this lesson. 🎉

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