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ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 Transition Guidance for Clients

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 Transition Guidance for Clients

Transition Guidance Plan

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 "Information Technology Service Management Part 1: Service Management Requirements" was released on September 15, 2018 and is set to replace ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011. All organizations that wish to remain certified to ISO 20000-1 will need to transition to the 2018 revision of the standard within the set transition period.  

It is NQA’s goal to maintain a straightforward transition approach that is easy for all of our clients to apply, along with the guidance and tools to make the transition from ISO 20000-1:2011 to ISO 20000-1:2018 as smooth as possible. 

The overall allowable transition period is three years, from September 2018 through September 2021. During that period both versions of the ISO 20000-1 standard remain valid, but plans should be made for an organization’s transition to fully occur within that timeframe.

Detailed Transition Period

  • September 15, 2018 – ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 3rd edition - Released

  • September 30, 2018 – Transition period begins.

  • All current existing certificates to ISO 20000-1:2011 will expire three years after release and publication of ISO 20000-1:2018.

  • April 11, 2020 – IAF extends transition periods for six months due to Coronavirus pandemic.

  • September 30, 2020 – All initial and recertification audits must be conducted against the 2018 revision after this date.

  • NQA will therefore continue to accept applications for certification and allow re-certifications based on the 2011 standard until this deadline.

  • July 2021 – Last transition audits conducted (allowing suitable time for corrective actions and certification issuance).

  • March 31, 2022 – Extended Transition period ends.

  • Certificates for ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 will no longer be valid.

ISO 20000-1:2018 Change Analysis

NQA considers ISO 20000-1:2018 to be a fairly significant development with respect to changes in structure (i.e. Annex SL alignment), and some additional concepts and themes associated with that high level structure. 

However, the material Service Management aspects of the standard have relatively minor modifications. As a result, organizations with existing Annex SL implementations (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 27001, etc.) may find the transition relatively simple, whereas organizations with no existing Annex SL implementation may find the transition a bit more of a challenge.

NQA has developed the ISO 20000-1:2018 Transition Checklist in order to provide more detailed interpretation and guidance on the changes within the standard. We encourage organizations to use this checklist as a tool to facilitate and record the changes within their management system and to retain this document for review at their transition audit.

In order to ensure that clients are successful with their transition NQA advises the following steps:

Preparing for transition

  • Organizations must transition their management system in accordance with the requirements to ISO 20000-1:2018 before their Transition Audit is conducted. This should include any documentation changes, along with evidence of any new or changed process requirements.

  • Of note, organizations must conduct an internal audit and management review of the new/changed requirements prior to the Transition Audit being conducted.

  • Organizations may have a Transition Gap Assessment conducted by NQA prior to their official Transition Audit. This could be conducted in conjunction with an earlier ISO 20000-1:2011 surveillance, or at any other stand-alone time prior to their Transition Audit.

Transition Audits

  • All organizations must have a Transition Audit to confirm the implementation of the revised standard. The Transition Audit may be conducted in conjunction with an existing audit, or may be a stand-alone audit.

  • If the Transition Audit is conducted in conjunction with an existing surveillance (i.e. Transition Surveillance) or recertification audit (i.e. Transition Re-Assessment), additional time will be added to the audit duration in order to cover the new requirements/concepts introduced by ISO 20000-1:2018. 

  • If a stand-alone audit is carried out for the Transition Audit, the duration be a minimum of one day.

Note: Specific audit durations for transition will depend on the actual situation of the organization including the organization’s size and the complexity of the ITSMS. Your NQA CSR will advise you of your specific Transition Audit duration.

Revised ISO 20000-1:2018 Certificates

  • As with any audit, non-conformances identified during a Transition Audit will require a corrective action to be submitted and approved. An updated ISO 20000-1:2018 certification will be issued following corrective action approval.

  • Updated ISO 20000-1:2018 certificate issuance and validity will be as follows:

    • Transition Surveillance – The organization’s existing Valid Until Date will be maintained.

    • Transition Re-Assessment – A new Valid Until Date will be issued for the re-newed 3 year period.

    • Stand-Alone Transition – The organization’s existing Valid Until Date will be maintained.

NQA ISO 20000-1:2018 Transition Checklist

The NQA ISO 20000-1:2018 Transition Checklist provides a simple framework for evaluating your management system against the requirements of ISO 20000-1:2018. The checklist can be obtained here.

The checklist is broken out into two tabs for the following purpose:

  • Part 1:  Identifies any new requirements to ISO 20000-1 as a result of the Annex SL adoption.  Many of these requirements will be familiar to organizations that have ISO 9001 and/or ISO 27001 systems in place, however application of these requirements to the ITSMS must be considered and may differ from any existing means to address the requirements under other management systems.

  • Part 2:  Identifies any new or changed IT Service Management process requirements (i.e. deltas from ISO 20000-1:2011).

As previously noted, NQA encourage organizations to use this checklist as a tool to facilitate and record the changes within their management system and to retain this document for review at their transition audit.

Additional support

We are here to support you throughout the transition process. If you have any questions or need any help we can support you with:

  • Technical Advice. Please call us with any questions you have.

  • Pre-Assessment / Gap Analysis. Please contact your CSR to schedule a Pre-Assessment/Gap Analysis of your revised ITSMS to determine the level of conformance to the requirements of ISO 20000-1:2018 prior to your Transition Audit.

If you have any questions or just want to speak to someone regarding your transition please contact us.