ISO, IEC Publish New IT Service Management Standard

December 19, 2005

A new standard, ISO/IEC 20000, published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), will enable organizations to benchmark their ability to deliver managed services, measure service levels and assess performance.

ISO/IEC 20000:2005, issued in two parts under the general title Information technology - Service management, will enable service providers to enhance the quality of service delivered to their customers, both internal and external.

• Part 1: Specification provides requirements for IT service management and is relevant to those responsible for initiating, implementing or maintaining IT service management in their organization.
• Part 2: Code of practice represents an industry consensus on guidance to auditors and assistance to service providers planning service improvements or to be audited against ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005.

ISO/IEC 20000 integrates the process-based approach of ISO's management system standards – ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001:2004 – including the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycle and requirement for continual improvement.

Organizations can have their IT service management systems independently certified as conforming to the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000.

The new standard is based on the British Standard BS 15000 and is integrated into ISO and IEC collection of software and systems engineering standards.

Source: International Organization for Standardization (ISO).