Last week I spoke at the San Diego itSMF USA Local Interest Group with my primary topic being ISO/IEC 20000, the internationally recognized standard for IT Service Management.  The San Diego meeting was very well attended and what struck me were the excellent turnout and additionally the number of local organizations who are in the process of obtaining the certification.

For those of you not familiar with ISO/IEC 20000 the standard describes an integrated set of management processes for the delivery of services to the business and customers and is made up of 2 documents;

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005

The formal specification and defines the requirements for an organization to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its customers. The scope groups processes together into logical sets of processes which must be demonstrated to achieve the standard.

ISO/IEC 20000-2:2005

This document is known as the "Code of Practice" describing "good practice" for Service Management processes within the scope of ISO/IEC 20000-1 and will assist organizations who are preparing to be audited against the standard.

Now 20000 differs from ITIL certifications and qualifications in that this is an organizational accreditation allowing you to advertise that your Service Management delivery meets this standard. The organization is audited on a regular basis.  I have seen service providers primarily comply with the scheme but the reality is that any IT organization delivering service could benefit from the standard.  Although 20000 may have its origins in ITIL, ITIL is not required to comply although in my opinion will accelerate your process.

According the itSMF UK SM 20000 scheme, as of August 2009, there are a total of 441 accredited organizations worldwide include 22 in the USA and when you visit the itSMF UK ISO/IEC 20000 website, details of each and every compliant organization is available including the scope of the certification (makes for a very interesting read). 

While researching the session I noted the global interest in ISO 20000, especially in the UK (53), Japan (72) and South Korea (41) but was surprised that there were only 50 accredited organizations in India.  That said the growth in the total number of certified organizations has almost doubled over the last year. I find this extremely interesting in that so many organizations see the value in accreditation of their Service Management implementation (more information).

Now for those of you who are unaware, I lead the itSMF International delegation to SC/7 WG25 who are developing the standard and we will be meeting in Lima, Peru in November and some upgrades to ISO 20000 are being worked on including:

Part 1: Redeveloped to align more closely with ITIL V3 - scheduled for 2011*

Part 2: Updated with Part 1 - scheduled for 2012*

Part 3: Guidance for scoping and applicability - scheduled for 2010*

Part 4: Process Reference Model - scheduled for 2010*

Part 5: Exemplar implementation plan for ISO/IEC 20000 - scheduled for 2010*

* All these dates are subject to the ISO approval process.

Today, 20000 is a pass or fail scenario. However, based on experience, the team developing the scheme has identified that organisations will be at a different level of maturity based on their Service Management maturity and the industry that they are involved in, which means the team is also deeply involved in development of ISO/IEC 15504 Part 8 Process Assessment Model for ISO/IEC 20000 which should provide a maturity level-like outcome.

If you are a member of the itSMF USA San Diego LIG you will have access to the slides - another good reason for joining the itSMF. 

By the way, a huge thank you to Colin Rudd FISM FBCD CITP who is part of the itSMF International Executive Board and one of the initial developers of 20000 who assisted me with the development of my San Diego LIG session.