ITIL Version 3

ITIL is often considered alongside other best practice frameworks such as the Information Services Procurement Library (ISPL), the Application Services Library (ASL), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), the Capability Maturity Model (CMM/CMMI), and is often linked with IT governance through Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT). In a recent survey, seventy-seven percent of survey respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that "ITIL does not have all the answers". ITIL v3, published in May 2007, comprises 5 key volumes.

The goal of Incident Management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service quality and availability are maintained. The wider adoption and awareness has led to a number of standards, including ISO/IEC 20000 which is an international standard covering the IT Service Management elements of ITIL. ITIL Version 3 PRINCE2 has become increasingly popular and is now the de facto standard for project management in the UK.

IT Service Management in the broader sense overlaps with the discipline of IT portfolio management, especially in the area of IT planning and financial control. The IT Service Capability Maturity Model uses the CMM maturity measurement model.

The widely accepted "yellow books" are an integral element.