ITIL or PRINCE2

[Oscar]

I have heard that ITIL can be applied in all organizations, big or small. Can anybody tell me how is ITIL different from Projects in Controlled Environment?

[pauline68]

Hi Oscar,

PRINCE2 and ITIL are both standardised management methodologies, formulated by the UK government and subsequently adopted by public and private sector organisations throughout the UK, Europe and increasingly in the USA, Asia, South Africa and the Middle East. Both methodologies are described in standard textbooks and are available as accredited courses, with examinations and certificates administered by the APMG.

PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) provides a generic project management framework based on best practices (or ‘Components’) devised by teams of professional and experienced project managers and subject to constant revision (there is currently a movement towards replacing the term ‘best practices’ with the less absolutist ‘good practice’, in order to recognise the importance and necessity of continual improvement.

On the other hand, IT Infrastructure Library (or ‘ITIL’) is an IT-specific service management framework and there are a variety of ITIL training courses available. The essential difference between project management and service management is that a project has by definition a temporary lifespan, while an important aspect of service management is maintaining and developing the services that are currently provided. An IT Service Manager may embark on a project within the context of the role, but a Project Manager will not provide operational maintenance in the long-term, unless the nature of the role is fundamentally altered.

Hope it helps your case.

Cheers,
Pauline...

[maximus]

Hi All,

Please understand they both can support each other.
Please read below how they support edach other.

PRINCE2 supporting ITIL--

From the moment the CAB provided the project mandate, the
project was run using PRINCE2™ methodology. PRINCE2 was
extremely valuable in ensuring success. It did this in many ways,
but of particular value were the following:
1. The PRINCE2 principle focusing on business justification
throughout.
2. PRINCE2’s management by stages to break it down into
manageable chunks.
3. The PRINCE2 emphasis on lessons learned from previous
efforts.
4. PRINCE2’s risk management provided a methodical and



ITIL supporting PRINCE2--


I found during the project that the relationship between PRINCE2
and ITIL was not all one-sided. Quite the reverse. For each occasion
where PRINCE2 supported the ITIL implementation, ITIL reciprocated.
In particular, ITIL helped the PRINCE2 implementation in the following:
1. During Starting Up a Project
2. Communication
3. Quality versus cost balancing
4. Plugging a potential PRINCE2 gap


Regards,
Maximus
consistent approach throughout.

[Diarmid]

Oscar,

while the by pauline68 and maximus do much to illustrate the distinction they are not the whole picture.

The first two differences between Prince and ITIL are:

1. (as pauline68 said) Prince is about managing projects and ITIL is about managing services.

2. Prince is generic (and thus potentially suitable for any project in any environment) while ITIL is focussed on IT services (although the general principles it expounds are potentially applicable in ongoing managment activities in other areas).

3. Most significantly, Prince is an applicable method, whereas ITIL is a set of guidance as to best or good practise; you can apply Prince to the management of a project, but you can only apply ITIL to the design of a management system, not to the conducting of it; there are no rules in ITIL and it cannot be implemented.

I'm not at all sure how ITIL can help in "the PRINCE2 implementation". Naturally it is beneficial to an IT service project for there to be knowledge of ITIL, but there is not much in ITIL that I can think of that helps in the design of the project management system itself. and, of course, it was not an "ITIL implementation" because there is no such thing.
_________________
"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718