Ace the ITIL 4 Foundation Exam 2026 – Level Up Your IT Skills with Confidence!

An event in ITIL is defined as any change of state that has significance for service management. This definition encompasses a wide array of occurrences, including system alerts, changes in system performance, and updates in status that could impact service delivery or the overall operational environment. By viewing events through this lens, ITIL highlights their importance in the proactive monitoring and management of services.

Events play a crucial role in providing insights into the performance and reliability of services. They can trigger specific responses — such as incident management processes — depending on their significance. Understanding that virtually any noteworthy alteration in the operational state of services can be classified as an event enables organizations to cultivate a robust, proactive IT service management culture.

While the other options mention relevant concepts in IT service management, they do not adequately capture the comprehensive definition of an event. Standard operating procedures (such as those described in the first choice) are structured guidelines for routine activities but don't encompass the broader idea of state changes. Scheduled maintenance tasks (mentioned in the third choice) are specific operational actions but not representative of all events. Alerts (from the last choice) are indeed types of events, but they represent a narrower aspect of the event concept overall.