ITIL 4 Key Terms

Within the ITIL SVS Management Practices, 8 key terms are fundamental in understanding the practices, as well as how they relate with the service value chain activities.

The ITIL 4 Key Terms are:

Key Term	Definition	Management Practice
Availability	The ability of an IT service or other configuration item to perform its agreed function when required.	Availability management
IT asset	Any valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service.	IT asset management
Event	Any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other configuration item.	Monitoring and event management
Configuration item (CI)	Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service.	Service configuration management
Change	The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services.	Change control
Incident	An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service.	Incident management
Problem	A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents.	Problem management
Known error	A problem that has been analyzed but has not been resolved.	Problem management

Note that these key terms are not restricted to their own management practice of origin, but apply across multiple practices as a result of value streams and value chain activities. There are many other terms used in ITIL which we will come across in future articles.

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