Books on (IT) service management

A card set containing 52 worst practices in IT Attitude, behavior and Culture. Used as an awareness and assessment instrument together with the book the ABC of ICT - An Introduction and exercise book

In recent years, IT Service Management has developed into a field in its own right. Organizations are now so dependent on the automation of large parts of their business processes that the quality of IT services and the synchronization of these services with the needs of the organization are now essential to their survival. This Introduction to IT Service Management, published by itSMF-I, is based on the latest edition of the ITIL books Version 3 and is intended to serve as: A thorough and convenient introduction to the field of IT Service Management and a selection of the V3 core books in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). A guide to the specific processes relating to ITIL V3 and Service Management practices in general. A guide to all the major frameworks found within this specific industry.
All ITSM Library titles have an "easability" about them; that makes for informative reading.
The ITSM - an introduction based on ISO 20000 and ITIL v3 is another classic title that needs to be part of the professional library.

Recognizing and addressing the Attitude, Behavior and Culture issues that cause many ITSM initiatives to fail. This book was referenced in Planning to Implement IT Service Management

This book is essential reading for all decision makers (IT-literate or not) who are presented with an ITIL® proposal or who are asked to oversee an ITIL project, or who find something called “ITIL” or “Service Management” in their budget. It tells you what the ITIL industry won’t.

For everyone else involved in ITIL projects, this book is just as essential to help you through the ITIL minefield.

Every IT department in the world is at least pondering ITIL. As the ITIL projects proliferate, this book is for the executives who must fund them or manage them, and for those who ask those executives for money.

The book explains, in lay-manager’s terms, what ITIL is.
It reveals what ITIL is good for, what it is bad at, what to expect from it.
It describes how to ensure an ITIL project succeeds, what to look for in the business case, and how to measure the results.

It does these things in business terms, written by an independent and critical observer.

Read the book to get an understanding of ITIL and a context for the recommendations. Or just read the recommendations which have been picked out for your convenience. The busiest managers can use the checklists at the back as ITIL survival tools.

A tongue-in-cheek look at Worst practices in IT. This book prompted the serious book the ABC of ICT and the related card set

Presented as a body of knowledge, the Guide to the USMBOK provides a comprehensive blueprint and vital reference to help the service management professional in successfully achieving this responsibility

This humorous book is for those who work in Information Technology (IT) and for those who have IT done to them. Service Management is all the rage in IT at the moment, hence "ITSM". The leading description of ITSM is ITIL(r). This book is not about ITIL. Really.

The Introduction to Real ITSM is not all lampooning the status quo in IT. It also promotes a number of alternate ideas to stimulate discussion.
This book is a useful new tool for introducing, teaching, workshopping or discussing ITSM in general or ITIL in particular.

It also makes a great gift to an ITSM geek (there are not many things where you can say that of them).

And it is readable by anyone who deals with IT: i.e. it is not just for those who do IT but also those who have IT done to them.

Foundations of IT Service Management based on ITIL has become the industry classic guide on the topic of ITIL. Over the years this authoritative itSMF guide has earned its place on the bookshelves and in the briefcases of industry experts as they implement best practices within their organizations.
The new ITIL V3 approach covering the ITIL Lifecycle is fully covered. In addition those who are familiar with the Version 2 process approach will be delighted to discover that this new edition of Foundations of IT Service Management based on ITIL V3 has split out all the processes and describes them in detail. This means that it is easy for all readers to access and grasp the process concepts that are so pivotal to many service management day-to-day operations.

A management guide covering the ITIL Service Transition book in a comprehensive but handy format.

A management guide covering the ITIL Service Design book in a comprehensive but handy format.

A management guide covering the ITIL Service Operation book in a comprehensive but handy format.

This book provides a measurement framework which is based on a continuous improvement lifecycle. The measurement framework is aligned with the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) set of best practices. The framework is compatible with the Control Objectives for IT (CobiT) framework and supports ISO/IEC 20000 standards for IT Service Management.
Included with this book is a CD with a copy of the itSMF KPI Scorecard metrics templates,which is pre-populated with over 300 key performance metrics and scorecards for ITSM, and it helps to quickly enter and report metrics, scorecards and dashboards, demonstrating many of the principles described in this book.

(in Russian)
A set of short lifestories explaining core ITSM concepts with simple everyday life pictures.

A management guide covering the ITIL Service Strategy book in a comprehensive but handy format.

This really popular pocket guide is a quick, portable reference tool designed for managers, to give an overall picture of the ITIL V3 upgrade.
Covering not only the ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle approach, to provide even greater value, this handy new guide also describes the ITIL V3 functions and processes in a separate section as well.

Practitioner Release and Control for IT Service Management, based on ITIL - A Practitioner Guide aims at helping the reader to prepare for using Best Practices in his or her role in the area of Change Management, Release Management and Configuration Management. The guidance provided in this book is based on ITIL, the Best Practice Library in IT Service Management. The chapters are structured round the main competency areas of the practitioner requirements: Manage, Organize, Optimize, so the reader can relate reading material and tasks easily.

This outstanding title covers the main financial concepts that managers need to be familiar with in order for IT to take its proper senior place as a contributor to the business. It assumes a basic level of financial understanding and builds on the techniques required almost daily; therefore it is overwhelmingly practical and based on real world scenarios. Not only are the techniques fully described but issues such as roles, implementation, daily management and even tooling are detailed.

Building on the success of the first edition, this new edition is aligned with the latest, vital ITIL version 3 content. At the core of this volume is the fundamental principle that the IT Service Catalog has transformed from its role as being one output in the Service Level Management process to becoming the cornerstone deliverable items of a successful IT Service Management organization.

The IT Skeptic Looks at CMDB by Rob England - Two Hills Ltd: The IT Skeptic is probably best known for strident criticism of the concept of CMDB as described in ITIL, and of ITIL3’s extensions of the concept to CMS and SKMS.

Making the case against the concept of CMDB as defined by ITIL, this book proposes better spending the money elsewhere and doing the job with "wetware": people.

This book is a collection of content from the IT Skeptic blog http://www.itskeptic.org (and elsewhere) on the topic of CMDB - collated, edited, improved and clarified, along with some original material.

Other books by the IT Skeptic - ship them together!

A practical guide that shows you the operational metrics to use and how these can be calculated into Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Success factors (CSFs) that resonate with Senior Management.

This book considers the design and implementation of metrics in service organisations using industry standard frameworks.

This book provides guidance and instructions for implementing the service level management process and the service manager function.

'Designing and Transforming IT Organizations' is the introduction book to a series of (initially) six books that will provide background considerations, theory, instructions, and practical guidance for setting up organization structures in the context of improvement projects.