The 2011 Edition of the ITIL Library

It was recently announced that the 2011 Edition of the ITIL Core Library will publish on July 29, 2011. Notice that I did not refer to the new release with a new version number - and with good reason. All future revisions to the ITIL publications will be referenced by the year that it was published. ITIL will finally just be ITIL.

If you regard the 2011 ITIL update as the equivalent to the revision of a college textbook, you'll understand why this is not a big deal. Academic textbooks are revised on a regular schedule without much fanfare or impact on prior or future students. Past attendees do not retake their final exams or replace their textbook. Just a normal course of continual improvement. Do you base your decision on whether to take a college course on the edition of the textbook being used? Not really. What's important is the relevancy of the topic.

The 2011 ITIL Edition was approached in much the same way - improve the inconsistencies, formalize a few processes that were referenced in the 2007 edition but did not follow the same format and flow, clarify some concepts based on reader feedback. No major new revelations. Just a normal course of continual improvement that should be introduced without much fanfare and will have no impact on prior students. Past, present and future attendees will essentially share the same knowledge.
Please do not believe anyone that advises you to retake your exam, replace your textbook, change your tool, revise your implementation strategy or base your education plan on which edition of the books are being used.

There are no plans to "bridge" anyone or anything with this release. A change log will be made available that compares the two editions. Webinars, articles and opinions on the revisions will abound. In fact, the first set of FAQs is now available at:

http://www.best-management-practice.com/gempdf/ITIL_UPdate_FAQs_Summer_2011_June11.pdf

ITIL is just ITIL.