ITIL 4 & 5 — Practices Quick Reference
General Management Practices (14)
| Practice | Purpose | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Continual Improvement | Align all practices with changing business needs | High |
| Information Security Mgmt | Protect CIA triad across the organisation | High |
| Knowledge Management | Maintain and share organisational knowledge | Medium |
| Measurement & Reporting | Support good decision-making through data | High |
| Organisational Change Mgmt | Ensure changes are absorbed and adopted | High |
| Portfolio Management | Ensure the right mix of programmes and projects | Medium |
| Project Management | Ensure projects achieve objectives on time/budget | Medium |
| Relationship Management | Establish and nurture stakeholder links | Medium |
| Risk Management | Identify, assess, and manage risks | High |
| Service Financial Management | Manage budgets, accounting, and charging | Low |
| Strategy Management | Formulate the organisation's strategic direction | Low |
| Supplier Management | Manage vendors to deliver value | Medium |
| Workforce & Talent Management | Ensure the org has the right skills | Medium |
Service Management Practices (17)
| Practice | Purpose | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Availability Management | Ensure services meet agreed availability | Medium |
| Business Analysis | Analyse the business and its needs | Low |
| Capacity & Performance Mgmt | Ensure services meet performance targets | Medium |
| Change Enablement | Maximise successful IT changes | Critical |
| Incident Management | Minimise impact of unplanned disruptions | Critical |
| IT Asset Management | Plan and manage full lifecycle of IT assets | Medium |
| Monitoring & Event Mgmt | Detect and record significant state changes | High |
| Problem Management | Reduce likelihood and impact of incidents | Critical |
| Release Management | Make new and changed services available | High |
| Service Catalogue Management | Provide a single source of service information | High |
| Service Configuration Mgmt | Maintain accurate CI information (CMDB) | Critical |
| Service Continuity Management | Ensure services can be recovered (BCP/DR) | High |
| Service Design | Design products and services to meet requirements | Medium |
| Service Desk | Capture demand and the first point of contact | Critical |
| Service Level Management | Set clear targets and ensure they are met | High |
| Service Request Management | Handle service requests efficiently | Critical |
| Service Validation & Testing | Ensure services meet defined requirements | Medium |
Technical Management Practices (3)
| Practice | Purpose | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Management | Move new/changed components to live environments | High |
| Infrastructure & Platform Mgmt | Oversee infrastructure and platforms | Medium |
| Software Development & Mgmt | Develop and manage software components | Low |
Recommended Implementation Order
For a greenfield ITSM implementation, start with these practices in order:
Sprint 1 (Weeks 1–4):
✓ Service Desk
✓ Incident Management
✓ Service Request Management
Sprint 2 (Weeks 5–8):
✓ Change Enablement
✓ Service Level Management
✓ Service Catalogue Management
Sprint 3 (Weeks 9–12):
✓ Problem Management
✓ Service Configuration Management (CMDB Phase 1)
✓ Knowledge Management
Sprint 4 (Weeks 13–16):
✓ Monitoring & Event Management
✓ Release Management
✓ Continual ImprovementITIL 5 — Capability Domain Mapping
ITIL 5 evolves practices into capability domains — broader groupings that encompass AI augmentation, sustainability, and organisational resilience. The table below maps the critical ITIL 4 practices to their ITIL 5 equivalents.
| ITIL 4 Practice | ITIL 5 Capability Domain | Key Evolution |
|---|---|---|
| Incident Management | Service Restoration | AI triage, auto-resolution, resilience KPIs |
| Problem Management | Root Cause & Learning | ML-based proactive analysis, org. learning loop |
| Change Enablement | Change & Release Intelligence | Predictive risk scoring, autonomous low-risk deployment |
| Service Desk | Intelligent Service Interaction | AI deflection, omnichannel, sentiment analysis |
| Service Level Management | Value & Outcome Agreements | Outcome-based SLAs, sustainability KPIs |
| Continual Improvement | Organisational Learning | Embedded across all domains |
| IT Asset Management | Asset & Lifecycle Intelligence | Carbon accounting, cloud asset management |
| Supplier Management | Ecosystem Orchestration | Third-party risk, API-economy governance |
| Monitoring & Event Mgmt | AIOps & Observability | Autonomous event correlation and remediation |
ITIL 5 — New Dimensions
ITIL 5 adds a fifth dimension to the existing four:
| Dimension | ITIL 4 | ITIL 5 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Organisations & People | Organisations, People & Culture |
| 2 | Information & Technology | Information, Technology & AI |
| 3 | Partners & Suppliers | Partners, Suppliers & Ecosystem |
| 4 | Value Streams & Processes | Value Streams, Processes & Automation |
| 5 | — | Ecosystem & Sustainability (new) |
Service Dependency Map — ITIL Practices in Context
The map below shows how ITIL practices relate across service layers. Click any node to see its dependencies.
ITIL Practice Dependency Map
Click a node to highlight its dependencies
Users & Personas
Business Services
Technical Services
Applications
Infrastructure / CMDB
Incident Management Workflow
ITIL Incident Management Process
Click any step to expand · 6 steps
1
📥Detection & Logging
2
🏷️Classification & Prioritisation
3
⚠️Major Incident?DECISION
4
🔬Investigation & Diagnosis
5
✅Resolution & Recovery
6
📝Closure & Review
Change Enablement Workflow
ITIL Change Enablement Process
Click any step to expand · 6 steps
1
📝Change Request Submission
2
⚡Change Type AssessmentDECISION
3
🔍Impact & Risk Analysis
4
👥CAB Review & Authorisation
5
🚀Implementation
6
✅Post-Implementation Review
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