About ten years ago, the term ITIL made a lot of people look very angry. Most sysadmins I knew saw it as an invader in there holy territory and refused to work by it's rigid rules, that seemed out of place at the time. 10 Years later, things look completely different.



Most of the sysadmins today work mostly by ITIL's rules, and it is not perceived as hostile any longer, as we all understand that ITIL is here for us. How so ? Back in the days, when something needed changed or corrected, the possible impact of a change in a production environment was determined by the sysadmin, and then simply executed, putting the customer's production systems at risk. Some went ok, others went terribly wrong. ITIL forces you to think about impact and embeds the process into the organization. Often, someone else is more able to determine possible risk than the executing sysadmin. But today, things are even different.



A serious sysadmin has proper ITIL knowledge, and is therefore more capable of doing risk analysis himself. That allows an organization do work without a suit looking over the sysadmin's shoulder. ITIL has always been underestimated. But it is here to stay.



A good read about ITIL is the Real World ITIL blog.
Wikipedia has a comprehensive page on ITIL.