ISO 20000

ISO/IEC 20000 is the first international standard for IT Service Management. It was developed in 2005, by the BSI Group. It is based on and intended to supersede the earlier, BS 15000.

ISO 20000 comprises two distinct documents: a specification for a service management system, and a code of practice. Together, these form a top-down framework to define the features of service management processes that are essential for the delivery of high quality services.

Formally: ISO 20000-1 ('part 1') "promotes the adoption of an integrated process approach to effectively deliver managed services to meet the business and customer requirements".

It comprises ten sections:

• Scope
• Terms & Definitions
• Planning and Implementing Service Management
• Requirements for a Management System
• Planning & Implementing New or Changed Services
• Service Delivery Processes
• Relationship Processes
• Control Processes
• Resolution Processes
• Release Process

ISO 20000-2 ('part 2') is a code of practice, and describes the best practices for service management within the scope of ISO 20000-1. It comprises the same sections as 'part 1' but excludes the 'Requirements for a Management system' as no requirements are imposed by 'part 2'.

ISO 20000, like its BS 15000 predecessor, was originally developed to reflect best practice guidance contained within the Information Technology Infrastructure Library|ITIL ( Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework, although it equally supports other IT Service Management frameworks and approaches including Microsoft Operations Framework and components of ISACA's COBIT framework.

Academic resources

• International Journal of IT Standards and Standardization Research, ISSN: 1539-3054 (internet), 1539-3062 (print), Information Resources Management Association

See also

• ISO/IEC 27001

External links

• The ISO 20000 User Group