In the past few years, IT progression has had a noteworthy impact on business processes. The introduction of the PC, LAN, client/server technology, and internet, has facilitated organizations to bring their products and services to markets speedily. These developments have escorted the transition from the industrial, to the information age, where everything has become more vibrant. A need for competent and cost-effective use of IT resources, which was had no supplier, resulted in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which has grown from the best practices observed in the IT service industry.

ITIL offers a widespread framework for all the activities of the IT department, as part of the provision of services, based on the IT infrastructure. These activities are divided into processes, which when used jointly supply an effective framework to make IT Service Management more mature. Each of these processes covers more than one task of the IT department, such as service development, infrastructure management and supplying and supporting the services. This approach makes it possible to describe the IT Service best practices independently from the structure of the organization.

ITIL was developed on the fact that organizations are increasingly reliant on IT, to accomplish their business objectives. This increasing dependence resulted in a need for IT services of excellence, matching the objectives of the business, and which meet the requisites and expectations of the client.

The Dutch foundation 'Exameninstituut voor Informatica' (EXIN), and the UK 'Information Systems Examination Board' (ISEB), in cooperation developed a professional certification system for IT Service Management (ITSM). This was done in cooperation with the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) and ITSME, EXIN and ISEB to offer a full range of ITSM qualifications at three levels which are collectively called as ITIL Version 2 (v2):

• Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

• Practitioner Certificate in IT Service Management

• Manager Certificate in IT Service Management

However in 2007 the APM Group initiated a new certification scheme based on ITIL Version 3 (v3). ITIL v3 certification levels are:

• Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

• Intermediate Certificate (Lifecycle Stream & Capability Stream)

• ITIL Diploma

• Advanced Service Management Professional Diploma

The ITIL v3 certification scheme presents a modular method. Each qualification is allocated a credit value; so on successful conclusion of the module, the contender is rewarded with a certification and a number of credits.