7 Myths About The ISO/IEC 20000 IT Service Management Standard

ISO/IEC 20000 is the universal ITSM (IT service management) standard. ISO 20000 allows IT departments to ensure that their ITSM processes are aligned with the business’s needs and international best practices. The ISO/IEC 20000 standard supports organizations in how they deliver managed services, measure service levels, and assess their performance. So here are seral myths about the ISO/IEC 20000 implementation, documentation, certification, etc.

Myth 1 - ISO/IEC 20000 is for huge organizations only: By clause 1.2, "all requirements in this part of ISO/IEC 20000 are generic and are intended to apply to all service providers, regardless of type, size, or nature of services delivered." As a result, regardless of whether the organization is large or small, public, non-profit, or private, it can adapt to management system standards. Eventually, ISO/IEC 20000-1 assist organizations in defining the goal that must be met and applies to organizations that wish to reap its benefits.

Myth 2 - ISO/IEC 20000 can be useful only to IT infrastructure: The ISO/IEC 20000 standard specifies the requirements for a system for managing information technology services. Without a doubt, regardless of the industry, type of business, or business model, also IT services must be effectively designed, delivered, and continuously improved to meet customer needs. ISO/IEC 20000 has been used in various IT contexts such as cloud services, telecommunications, media services, and so on.

Myth 3 - ISO/IEC 20000 is not vital for internal service providers: On the other hand, several service providers who provide services have discovered benefits from being ISO/IEC 20000 certified. Every move that makes in IT services will be highly visible and will have an impact on the overall performance and image. As a result, all resources, alignments, business processes, and functions must be structured so that roles, responsibilities, and course of action are clearly defined both internally and externally. Through the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle, the standard adds discipline to the management system, ensuring continuous improvement. Being certified by an accredited certification body demonstrates that IT service management is professional and recognized globally, while also increasing productivity to assist in the delivery of services in the face of financial constraints.

Myth 4 - The employee is aware of their responsibilities: True, but what happens when someone leaves the organization? The organization will need to hire new employees and possibly start from nothing. However, having a documented management system, processes, procedures, and related, new employees can be easily guided and integrated into the organization, avoiding downtime, rework, confusion, and time and money. The ISO 20000 awareness training can be helpful in such cases to provide information about ISO/IEC 20000 requirements quickly to new employees.

Myth 5 - ISO/IEC 20000 is based on ITIL; therefore, the service providers should use ITIL as a basic framework: ITIL and ISO 20000 have some similarities and dissimilarities. ITIL is an IT infrastructure library; it is a library of best practices and processes related to IT services and IT infrastructure. ISO/IEC 20000, on the other hand, is a standard for IT service management that is, to some extent, based on ITIL. Another important aspect of ISO 20000 is that all 256 mandatory requirements must be met to comply with the standard requirements; there are no exceptions. It is up to the organization to decide how many processes or functions to implement under ITIL.

Myth 6 - ISO/IEC 20000 will slow down the service management and will make it more undemocratic: It is possible that if an organization creates complex procedures, the service provider staff will not use them properly. The standard requires that service providers use documented processes and procedures. ISO/IEC 20000-1, on the other hand, tells what to do, but the organization can decide how to do it and can choose to make it more flexible and productive.

Myth 7 - To get certified against ISO/IEC 20000 I need to know all about ITIL: That is not correct; an organization can obtain ISO/IEC 20000 certification without knowing anything about ITIL; though, more knowledge is better. When implementing ISO/IEC 20000, having extensive knowledge of ITIL and its version could provide a wide range of benefits to the business, such as improved IT service quality, as well as increased productivity, lower costs and many more.

Source: https://itsms20000procedures.wordpress.com/2022/07/25/7-myths-about-the-iso-iec-20000-it-service-management-standard/