ITIL v5 Abbreviations
Common acronyms and short forms
This reference covers abbreviations used throughout the ITIL v5 Foundation book and across IT service management practice.
A-D
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Context |
|---|---|---|
| ADKAR | Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement | Change management model (Prosci) |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence | Technology; 6C Model in ITIL v5 |
| AIOps | AI for IT Operations | Monitoring, event management |
| APM | Application Performance Management | Monitoring tools |
| BCP | Business Continuity Plan | Service continuity management |
| BIA | Business Impact Analysis | Risk and continuity planning |
| BRM | Business Relationship Manager | Relationship management role |
| CAB | Change Advisory Board | Change enablement governance |
| CI | Configuration Item | Service configuration management |
| CI/CD | Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery | DevOps engineering practices |
| CIO | Chief Information Officer | IT executive leadership |
| CIR | Continual Improvement Register | Improvement tracking |
| CMDB | Configuration Management Database | Configuration management tool |
| CMMI | Capability Maturity Model Integration | Maturity assessment framework |
| CMS | Configuration Management System | Configuration management |
| COBIT | Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies | IT governance framework |
| CSAT | Customer Satisfaction | Experience measurement |
| CSF | Critical Success Factor | Performance management |
| CTO | Chief Technology Officer | IT executive leadership |
| CUE | Carbon Usage Effectiveness | Sustainability metric |
| CX | Customer Experience | Experience management |
| DAST | Dynamic Application Security Testing | Security testing |
| DORA | DevOps Research and Assessment | Performance metrics (4 key metrics) |
| DPSM | Digital Product and Service Management | ITIL v5 core concept |
| DR | Disaster Recovery | Service continuity management |
E-K
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Context |
|---|---|---|
| ECAB | Emergency Change Advisory Board | Emergency change governance |
| ESG | Environmental, Social, and Governance | Sustainability reporting |
| EX | Employee Experience | Experience management |
| FCR | First Contact Resolution | Service desk metric |
| FinOps | Financial Operations (for Cloud) | Cloud cost management |
| IaC | Infrastructure as Code | DevOps, platform engineering |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization | Compliance standards |
| ITSM | IT Service Management | IT operations |
| ITIL VS | ITIL Value System | ITIL v5 (replaces SVS) |
| KEDB | Known Error Database | Problem management |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator | Performance measurement |
| KRI | Key Risk Indicator | Risk management |
L-P
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Context |
|---|---|---|
| LMS | Learning Management System | Workforce and talent management |
| MTBF | Mean Time Between Failures | Availability metric |
| MTBSI | Mean Time Between Service Incidents | Availability metric |
| MTTD | Mean Time to Detect | Monitoring metric |
| MTTR | Mean Time to Repair / Resolve | Incident management metric |
| MTPD | Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption | Continuity planning |
| MVP | Minimum Viable Product | Product development |
| NPS | Net Promoter Score | Customer satisfaction metric |
| OKR | Objectives and Key Results | Goal setting and measurement |
| OLA | Operational Level Agreement | Internal service agreement |
| PCI DSS | Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard | Financial compliance |
| PESTLE | Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental | Strategic analysis framework (ITIL v5) |
| PIR | Post-Implementation Review | Change management |
| PM | Practice Manager | ITIL v5 designation |
| PUE | Power Usage Effectiveness | Data centre sustainability metric |
R-S
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Context |
|---|---|---|
| RACI | Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed | Role assignment matrix |
| RCA | Root Cause Analysis | Problem management |
| RFC | Request for Change | Change enablement |
| RFI | Request for Information | Procurement |
| RFP | Request for Proposal | Procurement |
| ROI | Return on Investment | Financial management |
| RPO | Recovery Point Objective | Continuity metric (data loss tolerance) |
| RTO | Recovery Time Objective | Continuity metric (time to recover) |
| RUM | Real User Monitoring | Monitoring practice |
| SaaS | Software as a Service | Cloud service model |
| SAFe | Scaled Agile Framework | Agile at scale |
| SAM | Software Asset Management | IT asset management |
| SAST | Static Application Security Testing | Security testing |
| SL | Strategic Leader | ITIL v5 designation |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement | Service level management |
| SLI | Service Level Indicator | SRE monitoring metric |
| SLM | Service Level Management | Service level practice |
| SLO | Service Level Objective | SRE reliability target |
| SRE | Site Reliability Engineering | Engineering discipline |
| SVS | Service Value System | ITIL 4 term (now ITIL Value System) |
| SWOT | Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats | Strategic analysis tool |
T-Z
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Context |
|---|---|---|
| TCO | Total Cost of Ownership | Financial management |
| TPI | Throughput per Interval | Change management metric |
| UAT | User Acceptance Testing | Service validation and testing |
| UC | Underpinning Contract | Supplier management |
| USAT | User Satisfaction | Experience measurement |
| UX | User Experience | Experience management |
| VUCA | Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity | Strategic context |
| WCAG | Web Content Accessibility Guidelines | Digital accessibility standard |
| XLA | Experience Level Agreement | Experience management |
ITIL v5 specific abbreviations
💡
These abbreviations are new or have changed meaning in ITIL v5:
| Abbreviation | Full Form | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 6C | Creation, Curation, Clarification, Cognition, Communication, Coordination | AI Capability Model (new in v5) |
| DPSM | Digital Product and Service Management | Replaces ITSM as the broader term |
| ITIL VS | ITIL Value System | Renamed from SVS |
| MP | Managing Professional | ITIL v5 designation |
| PM | Practice Manager | ITIL v5 designation |
| SL | Strategic Leader | ITIL v5 designation |
Related pages
- Glossary (full definitions, not just abbreviations)
- Practice Cards (34 practice quick reference)
- ITIL Roles (role definitions)