With the transition from ITIL Version 2.0 to 3.0 and the increasing exposure of Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) the terminology and organization of the terminology used in the industry is changing and evolving.  But am I confusing my customers when I use the old ITIL terms or am I confusing them worse using the new terms they have less experience with? I need a way to figure out what is still the same and what is different in ITIL version 2 and version 3.

So I looked out to the web to see if anyone had done a direct comparison of the terms and books of ITIL v2 and v3.  I found where someone had done a pretty nice write up and several other sources plagiarized the work; but, it was still all written comparisons and I wanted more of a diagram, a drawing, something with arrows!  I never found what I was looking for so between episodes of NCIS last night I resolved my problem.

So without delay here is the Elsinore Technologies ITIL v2 vs. v3 comparison diagram.  If you note any mistakes on my part please let me know and I will correct my oversight immediately.  Regarding the diagram ITIL v2 books are broken out on the left and v3 on the right, the type of arrow doesn’t matter I used a few different styles for aesthetics only, also I added the service desk and variations thereof to the Service Operations book of ITIL v3.

A higher resolution version can be downloaded from our Oversight website at:

ITILv2-vs-v3-Diagram