The ISO 20000 Series of Certification for IT Service is a collection of multiple standards that includes a certification standard, vocabulary, and guidance standards.

ISO 20000 provides a solid foundation for implementation and successful ISO 20000-1 IT Service Management Certification.

The ISO 20000 Standard consists of two main parts. First, ISO 20000-1 (Part 1) provides the organization requirements of an IT Service Management (ITSM) system, then ISO 20000-2 (Part 2) gives guidance on best practices for application of an IT Service Management System (ITSM) System based on the previous requirements.

ISO 20000-1 IT Service Management is based on the same structure as ISO 9001 but ISO 20000-1 unlike ISO 9001, does not allow exclusion of any of the requirements. The organization must show control of those processes if performed by others or potentially could be performed.