ITIL Compliance Checklist

ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a set of best practices for IT service management that aims to align IT services with the needs and goals of the business. ITIL covers various aspects of IT service delivery, such as service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement (1).  

ITIL compliance is the process of ensuring that IT services, processes, and systems follow the standards and guidelines established by ITIL, as well as the enterprise policies and legal requirements that apply to the organization. ITIL compliance is not an official process in ITIL, but it is an important topic that is addressed in several ITIL processes, such as design coordination, financial management, and information security management (2). 

To achieve ITIL compliance, the organization needs to follow a systematic approach that involves four main steps: 

• Identify and document the compliance requirements
• Assess and monitor the compliance status 
• Report and address any compliance issues or deviations 
• Provide guidance and support to other ITIL processes 

To help the organization perform these steps effectively and efficiently, it is useful to have a checklist of the recommended documents and records that are needed for each ITIL process and function. A checklist can help the organization to: 

• Ensure that all the necessary information is captured and documented 
• Verify that the information is accurate and up to date 
• Monitor and measure the performance and compliance of each ITIL process and function 
• Identify and resolve any gaps or inconsistencies in the information 
• Communicate and share the information with relevant stakeholders 

ITIL Compliance Checklist 

The following table provides an overview of the recommended documents and records for each ITIL process and function, based on the ITIL framework and best practices. The table is not exhaustive, and the organization may need to adapt or modify it according to its specific needs and context. 

ITIL Process/Function | Recommended Documents/Records Service Strategy | – Service Portfolio: A document that describes the services offered by the organization, their value proposition, and their alignment with the business strategy. 

• Financial Analysis: A document that analyzes the costs, benefits, and risks of the services, and provides a business case for their investment. 
• Business Case: A document that justifies the need, feasibility, and expected outcomes of a service or a change. 
• Service Strategy Plan: A document that defines the vision, mission, goals, objectives, and policies of the service strategy. Service Design | – Service Level Agreement (SLA): A document that defines the level of service expected by the customer and agreed by the service provider. 
• Operational Level Agreement (OLA): A document that defines the level of service expected by the internal service providers and agreed by the service owner. 
• Service Design Package (SDP): A document that contains all the information needed to design, build, test, and deploy a new or changed service. 
• Capacity Plan: A document that forecasts the future demand and supply of IT resources and ensures that they are adequate and optimized. 
• Availability Plan: A document that defines the availability requirements and targets for IT services and ensures that they are met and improved. 
• Continuity Plan: A document that defines the continuity requirements and targets for IT services and ensures that they are met and recovered in case of a disaster. 
• Security Plan: A document that defines the security requirements and controls for IT services and ensures that they are implemented and maintained. 
• Underpinning Contract (UC): A document that defines the level of service expected by the external service providers and agreed by the service owner. Service Transition | – Request for Change (RFC): A document that records the details of a proposed change to an IT service or system. 
• Change Record: A document that records the details of an approved change to an IT service or system. 
• Release Policy: A document that defines the principles, objectives, roles, and responsibilities of release management.
• Release Plan: A document that defines the schedule, scope, resources, risks, and dependencies of a release. 
• Release Record: A document that records the details of a release of one or more IT services or systems. 
• Configuration Management System/Database (CMS/CMDB): A system or database that stores and manages information about configuration items (CIs) and their relationships. 
• Configuration Item (CI) Record: A record that contains information about a specific CI, such as its attributes, status, history, and relationships. 
• Configuration Baseline: A snapshot of the configuration of one or more CIs at a point in time. 
• Configuration Audit Report: A report that verifies the accuracy and completeness of the CMS/CMDB against the actual configuration of CIs. Service Operation | – Incident Record: A record that contains information about an incident, such as its description, impact, urgency, priority, status, history, resolution, and closure. 
• Incident Prioritization Guideline: A guideline that helps to assign a priority to an incident based on its impact and urgency. 
• Problem Record: A record that contains information about a problem, such as its description, root cause, impact, status, history, resolution, and closure. 
• Known Error Record: A record that contains information about a known error, such as its description, root cause, impact, workaround, status, history, resolution, and closure. 
• Known Error Database (KEDB): A database that stores and manages information about known errors and their workarounds. 
• Workaround Record: A record that contains information about a workaround, such as its description. 

This checklist can serve as a useful tool for ITIL compliance management, as it can help the organization to identify and document the compliance requirements, assess and monitor the compliance status, report and address any compliance issues or deviations, and provide guidance and support to other ITIL processes.  

By using this checklist, the organization can improve the quality and reliability of its IT services, processes, and systems, reduce the risks and costs associated with non-compliance, enhance the customer satisfaction and trust, and increase the business value and competitive advantage. 

Contact Cyber Defense Advisors today to learn more about ITIL compliance management.

References: 1: IT Infrastructure Library | IBM 2: What is ITIL Compliance? – Definition from Techopedia 3: Checklist of Recommended ITIL Documents for Processes and Functions | Advisera