ISO/IEC 20000

ISO/IEC 20000 is the first international standard for IT service management. It was developed in 2005, by ISO/IEC JTC1 SC7 and revised in 2011. It is based on and intended to supersede the earlier BS 15000 that was developed by BSI Group.

Formally: ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 ('part 1') includes "the design, transition, delivery and improvement of services that fulfill service requirements and provide value for both the customer and the service provider. This part of ISO/IEC 20000 requires an integrated process approach when the service provider plans, establishes, implements, operates, monitors, review, maintains and improves a service management system (SMS).". The 2011 version (ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011) comprises nine sections:

1. Scope
2. Normative references
3. Terms and definitions
4. Service management system general requirements
5. Design and transition of new or changed services
6. Service delivery processes
7. Relationship processes
8. Resolution processes
9. Control processes

ISO/IEC 20000-2:2012 provides guidance on the application of service management systems (SMS) based on the requirements in ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011.

ISO/IEC TR 20000-3:2009 provides guidance on scope definition, applicability and demonstration of conformance for service providers aiming to meet the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1, or for service providers who are planning service improvements and intending to use ISO/IEC 20000 as a business goal. It supplements the advice in ISO/IEC 20000-2, which provides generic guidelines for implementing an SMS in accordance with ISO/IEC 20000-1.

ISO/IEC TR 20000-4:2010 is intended to facilitate the development of a process assessment model according to ISO/IEC 15504 process assessment principles. ISO/IEC 15504-1 describes the concepts and terminology used for process assessment. ISO/IEC 15504-2 describes the requirements for the conduct of an assessment and a measurement scale for assessing process capability.

ISO/IEC TR 20000-5:2010 is an exemplar implementation plan providing guidance to service providers on how to implement a service management system to fulfil the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1 or for service providers who are planning service improvements and intending to use ISO/IEC 20000 as a business goal. It could also be useful for those advising service providers on how to best achieve the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1.

ISO/IEC 20000, like its BS 15000 predecessor, was originally developed to reflect best practice guidance contained within the 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. The differentiation between ISO/IEC 20000 and BS 15000 has been addressed by Jenny Dugmore.

The standard was first published in December 2005. In June 2011, the ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 was updated to ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011. In February 2012, ISO/IEC 20000-2:2005 was updated to ISO/IEC 20000-2:2012.