Recommended reading for Service Management

The following books have proved useful and can be recommended.

It is worth noting that they all describe ITIL® as an IT Service Management framework, however Information Services recognises ITIL® as a valuable framework for managing services beyond just classical IT services.

The books are available for loan from Edinburgh University Library. All of the books mentioned below are for ITIL® v2, so are no longer suitable for exam preparation, however the content remains generally applicable as v3 extended rather than changed the best practice advice.

Recommended books

Introduction to ITIL

ISBN: 9780113309733

This book provides an overview of all the ITIL® books comprising the v2 library and provides a broader introduction to the ITIL® framework.

Service Support

ISBN: 9780113300150

Commonly referred to as the "Blue Book", this is the key ITIL® version 2 book covering the daily Service Support disciplines. These include the Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management and Configuration Management processes and the Service Desk function. It is particularly of use for exploring the detail of individual disciplines.

Service Delivery

ISBN: 978011330014

The "Red Book" is the second key ITIL® version 2 text covering the more strategic Service Delivery disciplines. These are Service Level Management, Capacity Management, Availability Management, IT Service Continuity Management and Financial Management for IT Services. As with Service Support, it is a useful reference work providing the detail of these disciplines.

Planning to Implement Service Management

ISBN: 0113308779

Probably the third most useful book within the ITIL® version 2 library, Planning to Implement Service Management presents a generic six step continuous service improvement programme and applies it to the implementation of service management.

The steps are:What is the vision; Where are we now;Where do we want to be; How do we get where we want to be; How do we check our milestones have been reached; How do we keep the momentum going.

The book also contains some useful appendices.

ITIL® Small-scale Implementation

ISBN: 9780113309801

This book provides advice on the adaptation of the ITIL® framework to small IT organisations and has been republished in a version 3 edition. It provides guidance on which processes may be combined and which may be best served by provision by other parties. It may be strongly recommended to School Computing Officers as the advice is of direct relevance to them. In the case of School Computing provision, Information Services will usually take the role of the "third party providers" described in the book.

Please note that the authors presuppose ITIL® knowledge, so ITIL® Small-scale Implementation is best read after undertaking the Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management, or studying both Service Support and Service Delivery.

ICT Infrastructure Management

ISBN: 0113308655

ICT Infrastructure Management is the final major book in the ITIL® version 2 library, covering the technical heart of IT Services; systems, hardware, servers, networks, backups and machine rooms, the areas usually captured by Operational Level Agreements.

It is split into four processes:Design and Planning; Deployment; Operations; Technical Support.

As with Planning to Implement Service Management, ICT Infrastructure Management contains a number of useful appendices covering design, procurement, implementation and acceptance of new ICT systems.