What is IT Service Management?

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a discipline involving a broad spectrum of different standards, practices, and processes, the relationships between them, and how they interact. Organizations use ITSM to help organize and coordinate the activities, technologies, and information needed to provide IT capabilities to users in a consistent, reliable, and efficient fashion. ITSM includes the entire iceberg – both the hidden components beneath the surface as well as those above in the tip exposed to users. 

It’s hard to imagine accomplishing any significant task that doesn’t depend upon the direct use of information technology (IT). Even routine or mundane chores often involve a myriad of different systems, databases, devices, apps, networks, and clouds, all of which may communicate and interact with one others.  

As users, we only glimpse the tip of the iceberg in the form of the IT Services and Service Offerings made available to us. If we could look beneath the surface, we’d discover a wide range of activities and technological infrastructure that must be planned, created, organized, choreographed, deployed, improved, supported, and secured before we can click Submit to somehow bring it all together to help us achieve our objectives.