EXIN BiSL Foundation cheat sheet

Business information management (BiSL framework)

• BiSL (Business Information Services Library) is a public-domain reference framework for business information management, owned/maintained in the Netherlands; it describes what the demand side (the business) does with IT, not how IT supplies it.

• BiSL covers three process clusters: (1) Business data management / operational (use management, information provision), (2) Information management (steering and policy), (3) Functional management (specifying and maintaining information provision).

• The framework is layered: governing/steering level (information policy, strategy, planning and control), managing level (information management, functional management, supplier management), and operational/execution level (use management, change management, service delivery).

• Key distinction: BiSL addresses the demand organization; ITIL/ASL address the supply organization. ASL (Application Services Library) covers application management; BiSL covers business information management. They are complementary, not competing.

• Core BiSL process clusters (English naming varies): Strategy/policy level - information strategy, information policy, planning and control, and (in later versions) supplier management and information coordination.

• Execution-level clusters include use management (supporting users, incident handling from the business side), change management (business-side changes to information provision), and service delivery/operational management.

• Functional management processes include specification of information provision, testing, and maintenance of the functional design; they translate business needs into functional requirements for the supplier.

• BiSL is process-oriented and product-oriented: each process produces defined products (e.g., information policy plan, information provision plan, functional design) with described relationships between processes.

• BiSL Foundation candidates must know the framework's purpose (professionalizing the demand side), its relationship to ITIL and ASL, and the process clusters and their responsibilities, rather than detailed ITIL-style process flows.