Two sides of the same coin: ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5)

Adam Griffith - ITIL Architect, PeopleCert

Silos have been a long-standing enemy of best practice frameworks. Regardless of the rationale for them, the result is always the same.

Silos limit collaboration and constrain workflows, usually because of poor or absent handoffs. They often create miscommunication, rework, losses of efficiency and effectiveness. With every iteration, ITIL has worked to reduce or eliminate this approach.

Following ITIL v3, many organizations unfortunately created administrative units around the lifecycle stages and processes with fixed teams named “Incident Management”, “Problem Management”, “Change Management”; others were structured within departments labeled “Service Transition”, “Service Operation”, etc. Organizations then tried to define their boundaries and delineations, which caused more harm than help to the flows.

ITIL 4 took a more modular and flexible approach to discourage this behavior by focusing more on holistic considerations and systemic thinking. Value streams, constructed from four-dimensional management practices designed for a shared outcome, replaced disconnected processes with awkward handovers. The emphasis on integration continues into ITIL (Version 5) today.

The persistence of silos

More recently, old silos have given way to new ones: primarily the separation between product management and service management.

This is especially challenging because each has developed into a distinct discipline, with different methods, approaches and significant knowledge missing from the other.

But in speaking with dedicated and passionate practitioners from each domain, we quickly surfaced common ground: product management and service management are mutually aligned in their pursuit of a shared goal – facilitating valuable outcomes for their customers. Essentially, different sides of the same coin.

As digital products become continuously-evolving services, it is increasingly difficult - and counterproductive - to maintain boundaries between product development, operations and service management.

Two Tenets and an 8-Activity Lifecycle Model

So, the work that led to ITIL (Version 5) started with two fundamental tenets:

1. While practitioners valued the flexibility of the ITIL 4 service value chain, they also wanted clearer guidance for translating that flexibility into practical, end-to-end workflows. Therefore, how could we further encourage holistic workflows in a more structured and logical way (inspired by ITIL v3) while also adaptable, non-linear, and more realistic (inspired by ITIL 4)?

2. Organizations could maximize achieved value through improved interfaces between product management and service management. Recognizing the importance of each discipline, how could we encourage this improvement?

Consequently, early drafts of what became the ITIL Product and Service Lifecycle Model were based on feedback from our community of practitioners, trainers, and consultants who were struggling to represent workflows, value streams, and operating models using the ITIL 4 Service Value Chain.

This resulted in eight activities to include in the final model: Discover, Design, Acquire, Build, Transition, Operate, Deliver, and Support. The model defined a shared vocabulary for professionals working across both domains with optimal success achieved through end-to-end product management and service management synergies.

And this is already having an impact by helping organizations:

- Avoid siloed thinking

- Develop strong collaborations between the disciplines

- Achieve comprehensive understanding of how value flows across digital operating environments

- Accelerate time-to-market

- Eliminate redundant effort

- Optimize resource allocation

- Deliver seamless customer journeys

- Maximize holistic value

- Spark cross-functional innovation

- Boost employee morale and retention

But, as further development of ITIL (Version 5) progressed, it became clear that having a shared model did not mean that one book, course and certification would suffice for both product and service management professionals.

The path to creating ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5)

Using simultaneous product and service authoring teams - alongside experimentation and beta testing - to help us decide whether to create a combined or separate guidance and certification, the insights told us:

1. Combining ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5) would create a book that was far too large and impractical as a professional reference and difficult to navigate during an open book examination.

2. Covering both courses in a single beta training event required five full classroom days – neither appealing nor viable for many organizations.

3. In early beta testing, switching between the product and service contexts often confused their similarities and their differences and impeded understanding.

4. Beta candidates described preparing for a single exam covering both ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5) as extremely challenging.

5. Assessing a candidate’s ability to understand and apply the full breadth of content with a single exam needed either a test duration that was difficult to implement, or an easier exam that would devalue the certification.

Therefore, we concluded that candidates would experience maximum benefits if this material was separated across two distinct and well-aligned books, training courses, and examinations.

Domain themes and practical application

The themes that emerged in each body of work highlight the differences and synergies between the modules today - and why a professional would benefit from training and certifying in each.

ITIL Product (Version 5)

- market and demand analysis

- roadmap and backlog prioritization

- solution design and feature engineering

- user experience design

- product-centric delivery models

- continual product evolution

- agility

- integration of development and operations

ITIL Service (Version 5)

- operational health, reliability, and resilience

- live deployment vs daily operational stability

- service restoration and support excellence

- customer and user experience, sentiment, and satisfaction

- capacity and performance tuning

- risk assessment and management

- service optimization

- partner and supplier interactions

Role alignment and the T-shaped professional

ITIL Product (Version 5) speaks directly to product owners, product managers, digital strategists, and solution architects - professionals focused on market alignment, backlog prioritization, user experience design, and feature delivery. Meanwhile, ITIL Service (Version 5) is tailored for service delivery managers, IT operations leads, site reliability engineers (SREs), support directors, and ITSM consultants - those tasked with keeping live environments resilient, optimizing operational performance, managing supplier ecosystems, and maintaining customer trust.

In today's interconnected digital landscape, the most effective leaders operate as 'T-shaped' professionals. For example, product managers who understand live service resilience will design more stable, scalable offerings, while service leads who grasp product lifecycle dynamics can enable rapid feature deployment without becoming operational bottlenecks.

Studying both ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5) bridges the traditional gap between development and operations, equipping professionals with the end-to-end perspective needed to drive true enterprise agility.

Anchoring the ITIL (Version 5) advanced scheme

Ultimately, ITIL Product (Version 5) and ITIL Service (Version 5) do not exist in isolation: they serve as the foundational engines for the entire advanced ITIL (Version 5) qualification scheme.

While strategic and leadership modules focus on organizational governance, digital strategy, and large-scale operating model transformation, Product and Service supply the concrete, cross-functional capabilities required to execute that strategy.

Mastering both modules ensures that as professionals progress toward advanced designations - such as Managing Professional or Strategic Leader - their strategic vision remains grounded in real-world product delivery and operational resilience.