Over the last couple of weeks I have been reviewing various parts of the Dutch translation of the ITIL V3 glossary. In doing so I noticed that the glossary contains separate definitions for a service, an IT service and a Business service. This brings up some questions, such as: "Why are they separate? How much do they differ? (How) do they interrelate?"...

Let's first take a look at the definitions. Those of you who are already familiar with this are advised to skip the next 3 paragraphs...

As the ITIL V3 glossary is alphabetically organized, the first definition you will encounter is the one for a Business Service: "An IT Service that directly supports a Business Process, as opposed to an Infrastructure Service which is used internally by the IT Service Provider and is not usually visible to the Business. The term Business Service is also used to mean a Service that is delivered to Business Customers by Business Units. For example delivery of financial services to Customers of a bank, or goods to the Customers of a retail store. Successful delivery of Business Services often depends on one or more IT Services."

And the next one is for an IT service: "A Service provided to one or more Customers by an IT Service Provider. An IT Service is based on the use of Information Technology and supports the Customer's Business Processes. An IT Service is made up from a combination of people, Processes and technology and should be defined in a Service Level Agreement."

And finally the definition of a Service: "A means of delivering value to Customers by facilitating Outcomes Customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific Costs and Risks."

If we look at these definitions from an age perspective then I should have started with the IT service definition as this is the oldest one around. This probably also explains why this definition does not contain any reference to the business service definition.

The business service definition on the other hand indicates that it is actually an IT service. Both a business service and an IT service "support the customer business process". If we look at this from a distance, one could argue: "why do we need different terms for the same topic?". Now the answer to this is pretty straight forward: "because a business service also has another meaning, namely a service from a business to its customers".

Now here's where the confusion starts, because what is now actually being meant when someone uses the term business service? Due to its ambiguous meaning you now always need to clarify the context in which the term business service is being used. And to make things even more confusing, sometimes also IT organizations and IT service providers are being referred to as an IT business....

So I wish the term business service had not been invented... however its there and being used. We just need to learn how to live with it...

Perhaps this situation is also why the definition of a service has been added to the ITIL glossary? Under the principle of "less is more" and looking at the definition I think it is safe to say that both an IT service and a business service are specific types of services. All three definitions can refer to the same thing or be completely different, depending on how they are being used.

I think this calls for a change request....do you agree?

Regards,
Jeroen Bronkhorst.