The release of IT4IT Version 3.0 is more than just an update. It is a turning point in how organizations think about managing IT in today’s digital-first world.We are moving away from the old, project-based ways of delivering IT and stepping into a modern, product-centric model. One that’s built for agility, automation, and delivering digital value from start to finish.
At the core of this update is a powerful truth is IT is no longer just a support function. It has become a driver of innovation, customer experience, and business growth. To stay relevant, IT itself needs to be managed like a portfolio of digital products and not just a collection of tasks, tickets, or services.
So, what’s new in Version 3? Let’s dive into the updates that matter most.
The Digital Product
One of the most important shifts in IT4IT Version 3.0 is the introduction of a formal definition of the Digital Product.
For years, many organizations casually referred to apps, cloud platforms, or APIs as “products.” But now, the IT4IT Standard gives this concept a central, structured role in the model.
So, what exactly is a Digital Product?
It is anything IT delivers that creates value, for example a web application, a mobile app, an API, or even a chatbot. Unlike the traditional idea of a “service,” a Digital Product is broader. It’s something that is planned, built, delivered, maintained, and eventually retired. Most importantly, it has a clear lifecycle and delivers measurable business value.
This is not just a change in language, it reflects the reality of how modern IT organizations operate. With Agile and DevOps driving the way forward, teams are already working around products rather than projects. They are focusing on customer outcomes, continuous delivery, and long-term ownership.
By formally defining the Digital Product, IT4IT v3.0 helps organizations design the structures, tools, and practices to support this product-centric way of working. It’s a step toward aligning IT with business value in a more tangible, sustainable way.
A Backbone Built for the Future
Earlier versions of IT4IT introduced the idea of a “service backbone” a data-driven spine connecting the major IT processes and capabilities. It was useful at the time, but as IT delivery has evolved, the term no longer captured the full picture.
With Version 3, this concept has been reimagined as the Digital Product Backbone. The design has been simplified, and each stage of the product lifecycle is now tied to a single, well-defined data object. The result? A model that’s cleaner, easier to understand, and more aligned with how IT actually operates today.
But the change goes beyond simplification. The new backbone reflects the diversity of modern digital products. It’s not just about traditional software or IT services anymore. It extends to:
- Physical technology like smartphones or IoT devices
- Automation tools such as RPA bots
- “As-a-Service” models across infrastructure, platforms, and applications
This evolution delivers both clarity and flexibility. Whether you are managing a mobile app release, rolling out a new device, or orchestrating an automated process, the Digital Product Backbone ensures everything can be represented in a single, consistent way.
This is not just a structural update , it’s the foundation for managing IT in a product-driven, digital-first world.
From Value Chain to Value Network
In earlier versions of the IT4IT Standard, IT delivery was described as a value chain a straight line of activities that turned inputs into outputs. That made sense for traditional IT, where work often flowed step by step.
But the digital world doesn’t operate in straight lines anymore.
With Version 3, IT4IT introduces the idea of a Digital Value Network. Instead of a rigid sequence, value is now seen as something collaborative, multi-directional, and interconnected a web of contributions that all feed into the digital experience.
And it is not just IT teams building and running software. Today, marketing, legal, procurement, HR, finance, and even external partners are part of the ecosystem that shapes how digital products are created, delivered, and improved.
Although the Value Network isn’t yet part of the formal IT4IT architecture, it is an important conceptual shift. It gives us a more realistic way to describe how value is created in digital businesses today not in silos, not in a straight line, but in a network of people, processes, and technology working together.
Reimagining the Value Streams
One of the biggest changes in IT4IT Version 3 is the complete redesign of the value streams.
In earlier versions, there were four:
- Strategy to Portfolio
- Requirement to Deploy
- Request to Fulfill
- Detect to Correct
While useful, these streams often mirrored old IT departmental boundaries and unintentionally reinforced silos.
Version 3 breaks down those silos with seven new value streams, each reflecting the real-world journey of a digital product from idea to operation:
- Evaluate – Make strategic decisions about which products should exist and how they are performing.
- Explore – Shape product ideas, plan features, and start design work.
- Integrate – Develop and test the product.
- Release – Package, approve, and prepare the product for launch.
- Deploy – Move products into production environments.
- Fulfill – Deliver entitlements and access to customers.
- Operate – Monitor, maintain, and continuously optimize in real time.
Image Source – The Open Group
This new structure is much closer to how modern IT teams actually work whether that’s Agile squads, DevOps pipelines, or platform engineering groups. Each value stream is clearly defined, interconnected, and designed to support end-to-end traceability, continuous delivery, and collaboration.
In short, the value streams now mirror the digital product lifecycle itself making IT4IT a more practical and future-ready guide.
