The ISO/IEC 20000 Service Management standard, which was published on 15^th December, will replace the edition of the BS 15000 standard. The issuing of the International standard obviously impacts upon existing certifications and qualified individuals.

This Clarification Statement expands upon the Transition Statement issued on December 5^th and explains this impact and the transition arrangements for Certifications and Qualifications in more detail. There are 2 key elements addressed within this document:

the arrangements that will apply to certification bodies and their clients in order to ensure a smooth and consistent transfer of certification within this area. It applies to all existing and future certifications within this area of Service Management
the impact upon existing Accredited Course Providers (ACPs) and qualified auditors and consultants.

2 ISO/IEC 20000

In the UK, the standard will be published as BS ISO/IEC 20000, which will include specific UK-focused Foreword and references to ITIL, BSI and itSMF publications, and the various qualification schemes. Other national standards bodies are likely to follow a similar path. In all cases, the core ISO/IEC 20000 document will be the same.

There are a number of differences between BS 15000 and ISO/IEC 20000. However, the majority of them are relatively trivial, being either formatting changes to aid readability and cross-referencing or rewording changes that do not affect the intent of the original statement. Of the 16 actual changes to requirements, 7 of them occur in a single clause, and none of them could be considered as radical changes from a purely Service Management perspective. They are much more audit focused and mainly provide greater clarity, rather than representing completely new or changed requirements. Therefore, it is considered that transition from BS 15000 to ISO/IEC 20000 will be a relatively simple and painless process for organisations that have already achieved certification, that there will be little extra effort imposed on organisations working towards that goal and that the impact upon ACPs and qualified people will be minimal.

3 Transition Statement

3.1 Issue of ISO/IEC20000 certificates

RCBs wishing to issue certificates against the ISO/IEC 20000 standard must first notify itSMF of their intention to issue such certifications and provide a declaration that all their accredited auditors have familiarised themselves with the changes from BS 15000. The changes are not considered to be of sufficient magnitude to require formal training and re-certification of auditors.

While no specific date is being set for the first issuing of certificates against ISO/IEC 20000, it is unlikely that organisations and RCBs will need at least 1 month to assure themselves that they understand the implications of the requirements- changes and have addressed these.

3.2 Issue of certificates against BS 15000

New certificates can continue to be issued against the edition of the BS15000 standard for a six month period of time from the official Publication Date of ISO/IEC 20000.

This means 15^th June is the latest date on which such a certificate can be issued.

This will allow organisations that are already going through the process of achieving certification against the edition of BS 15000 to complete the process. A defined period of six months has been deemed sufficient to fulfil this purpose after which time organisations will be expected to make the necessary arrangements or changes to fulfil the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000.

Certification bodies are encouraged to inform current and future applicants to BS 15000 of the impending publication of ISO/IEC20000 at the earliest opportunity.

3.3 Transfer of existing certificates

All certificates issued to the BS 15000 standard should be transferred to ISO/IEC 20000 within 18 months from the Publication Date. This means that after 15^th June, BS 15000 certificates will cease having validity.

Organisations certified to the edition of the BS 15000 standard are encouraged to make the transition to ISO/IEC 20000 as soon as possible, but may retain their current certification until that 18 month period has elapsed.

As the changes are not considered to be significant enough to warrant a full recertification audit, certificated organisations may arrange for the upgrading of their certification to ISO/IEC 20000 to happen in conjunction with a BS 15000 surveillance audit.

Such an audit shall investigate conformance to all new or changed requirements and the RCB shall notify the itSMF that they have upgraded the certificate.

4 Qualifications

Individuals

All existing auditor and consultant qualifications will remain valid.

New certificates will not be issued.

It will be valid for individuals to describe their qualifications as covering ISO/IEC 20000. A statement to this effect will be posted on the bs15000certification and itsmf web sites, and any successors thereto, and enquirers questioning the validity of a qualification should be referred to these sites.

Accredited Course Providers

All Course Provider accreditations will remain valid on provision of a declaration from the ACP that their material has been updated to include the changes and that their accredited tutors are familiar with them.

As was stated at the time of release and purchase, itSMF does not intend to update the course material that it developed and has licensed. Accordingly, ACPs will need to make the necessary amendments to their course material. As this is likely to fall well below the 10% change margin which triggers an automatic review, ACPs will not need to have their material re-accredited at this time.