Differences between ITIL v2 and ITIL v3

Basically the key difference is on how the core disciplines are structured. In v2, the core disciplines were focused on:

• Service Support
• Service Delivery

In v3, the core disciplines are divided into:

• Service Strategy
• Service Design
• Service Transition
• Service Operation
• Continual Service Improvement

It looks like the new version sort of adds a tail and an end to ITIL. If in v2, it’s all about supporting and delivering, what we can see in v3 is starting of with a service, designing the service to support the strategy, transitioning the service, operating it and eventually having continual service improvements.
The v2 processes were operational while the new processes focuses on continual service improvement through a well thought off strategy.
Although it looks as if there were major changes made to ITIL v2, it is only true from the bigger picture’s perspective. The key processes such as Availability Management, Capacity Management, Service Continuity Management and some others have no changes to it.
So the point of this post is to let you know that:

• If your organization does not have any IT processes in place, you can start to look at adopting ITIL v3.
• If your organization is already implementing ITIL v2, don’t worry, you need not reimplement the whole thing all over again. As the ITIL manager, you just need to be aware of what’s new and how you can go about adding the new disciplines. For all you know, you may already have a strategy all along but it just wasn’t highlighted in v2.

There you go, the key differences between ITIL v2 and ITIL v3.

from: http://www.wareprise.com/2009/03/25/differences-between-itil-v2-and-itil-v3/