Where does ITIL fit? It's alternatives & certifications

Organizational policies, practices and procedures tells us how should we do it in our organization. Applied Framework tells us how should we do it in a particular context, like in IT. Best practices tells how should we do it. Standards tells us that what should be done.
HP ITSM and Microsoft Operating Framework(MOF) and Cobit are the examples of applied framework. ITIL is an example of best practices.

Models are like tools: not the goal, just the means to achieve the goals(goals of IT towards business). If you needed to implement IT control, CobiT is the answer; if you were working on operational IT processes/services, ITIL is the answer. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. With Cobit 4 and ITIL 3, n number of things are overlapping. ITIL going in the arena of Cobit and vice versa.

ITIL Alternative:
COBIT is perceived as an audit framework but the supporting body of knowledge (such as COBIT's books Control Practices, IT Assurance Guide, IT Governance Implementation Guide, and User's Guide for Service Managers) has grown to offer a credible alternative to ITIL.
Organizations that need to understand how ITIL processes link to a broader range of IT processes or need task level detail to guide their service management implementation can use the IBM Tivoli Unified Process (ITUP). Like MOF, ITUP is aligned with ITIL, but is presented as a complete, integrated process model.

ITIL Certification:
ITIL v2 offers 3 certification levels: Foundation, Practitioner and Manager. These should be progressively discontinued in favor of the new ITIL v3 scheme.
ITIL v3 certification levels are: Foundation, Intermediate, Expert and Master.

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastructure_Library
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=30&entryid=2249

ITIL Version 2 & Version 3

IT Services to Business and ITIL:

Objective of IT is to support and deliver business focussed IT services.

ITIL Obj:
Reduce cost, Improve availability, Tune capacity, Increase throughput, Optimize resource utlization and Improve scalability.

ITIL version 2 and ITIL version 3 overview:

ITIL was developed by Office of Govt Commerence(OGC), an Office of UK Treasury.
ITIL version 2 has 8 books.

The eight ITIL version 2 books and their disciplines are:

The IT Service Management sets

1. Service Delivery
2. Service Support

Other operational guidance

3. ICT Infrastructure Management
4. Security Management
5. The Business Perspective
6. Application Management
7. Software Asset Management

To assist with the implementation of ITIL practices a further book was published providing guidance on implementation (mainly of Service Management):

8. Planning to Implement Service Management

And this has more recently been supplemented with guidelines for smaller IT units, not included in the original eight publications:

9. ITIL Small-Scale Implementation

IT Service management consisted of 10 processes and 1 function(service desk)
The far more widely used, circulated, and understood of ITIL v2 publications is IT Service Management.

In May 2007, this organization issued the version 3 of ITIL (also known as the ITIL Refresh Project) consisting of 26 processes and functions, now grouped under only 5 volumes, arranged around the concept of Service lifecycle structure.

1. Service Strategy
2. Service Design
3. Service Transition
4. Service Operation
5. Continual Service Improvement

For more detailed information, please visit-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastructure_Library

ITIL version 2 and version 3 difference:
For more detailed information on the difference, please visit
http://wiki.en.it-processmaps.com/index.php/Comparison_between_ITIL_V3_and_ITIL_V2_-_The_Main_Changes