ISO 20000 was published on December 15th 2005, in two parts: a specification and a code of practice. It was fast-tracked from the original BS15000 standard by a committee known as SC7. A conversion route from BS15000 has also been developed.

The emergence of ISO20000 is a significant development in the service management sphere. Not only does it offer the benefits of international standardization and benchmarking, but of formal certification.

The two parts of the standard are:

ISO/IEC 20000-1 ITSM Specification for Service Management.

This provides requirements for IT service management and is relevant to those responsible for initiating, implementing or maintaining IT service management in their organization. It is this part which organizations can have their IT service management systems independently certified against. See our ISO 20000 Certification Register

ISO/IEC 20000-2 ITSM Code of Practice for Service Management.

This gives guidance to internal auditors and assistance to service providers planning service improvements or preparing for audits against ISO/IEC 20000-1.

ISO 20000 is quickly emerging to be a central driver for ITSM, and is conceptually, the framework within which ITIL itself operates. See also SQMF