The International standard for IT Service Management, ISO/IEC 20000, was published on 15th December, and has now replaced BS 15000.

This document explains the operation of the itSMF ISO/IEC 20000 qualification scheme. It describes the roles, responsibilities and relationships of the various bodies that are involved.

It is intended to serve three purposes:

• To inform examination candidates how ISO/IEC 20000 qualifications can be obtained, and the processes involved.
• To put in the public domain the rules governing the professional bodies who are involved in training or examining candidates in ISO/IEC 20000 qualifications.
• To inform organisations who wish to become involved in examinations or training of how they might join the official scheme.

Accreditation

Organisations wishing to participate in the official qualification scheme must be accredited as must the trainers that they use for delivering the training.

Application for Accreditation is in two stages:

• Stage 1 involves the scrutiny of all aspects of the proposed training and will encompass aspects of the organisation, and the individual trainers.
• Stage 2 involves the scrutiny of the proposed training materials. However, prospective applicants planning to use previously accredited material under license will not need to undergo this second stage.

Accredited training material can be licensed from itSMF.

Those Training Organisations wishing to consider making an application for Accreditation will need to do so in accordance with the document,

The current accreditation fees for services in the scheme are detailed in the document