ISO/IEC 20000 is the first worldwide standard specifically aimed at IT Service Management. It describes an integrated set of management processes for the effective delivery of services to the business and its customers.

ISO/IEC 20000 is aligned with and complementary to the process approach defined within ITIL from the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

ISO/IEC 20000 consists of two parts:

ISO/IEC 20000-1: is the formal Specification and defines the requirements for an organisation to deliver managed services of an acceptable quality for its customers. The scope includes:
    Requirements for a management system;
    Planning and implementing service management;
    Planning and implementing new or changed services;
    Service delivery process;
    Relationship processes;
    Resolution processes;
    Control processes; and
    Release processes.

ISO/IEC 20000-2: is the Code of Practice and describes the best practices for Service Management processes within the scope of ISO/IEC 20000-1. The code of Practice will be of particular use to organisations preparing to be audited against ISO/IEC 20000 or planning service improvements.

More detailed information on the standard can be found at the following locations (click to follow the link) :

The itSMF UK website
The itSMF International website
ISO/IEC 20000 and related publications
The BSI website