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Figure 2.6 Relationships defined by the dynamics of ownership, control and utilizationCustomers specialize in business management to achieve one set of outcomes using a set of resources (Pool A). Similarly, service providers specialize in service management with another set (Pool B). Service management coordinates the dependencies between the two sides through assurances and utilization. Customers are content with utilization of certain resources (Pool B) unless ownership is a prerequisite for strategic advantage.
Specialization is a necessary condition for developing organizational capabilities. Management potential accumulates from specialized knowledge and experience with a set of resources.11 Specialization drives the grouping of capabilities and resources under the same span of control to achieve focus, expertise, and excellence. Coordination of capabilities and resources is easier when they are under the same span of control because of accountability, authority and managerial attention. Capabilities and resources with high degree of dependency and interaction are grouped together to reduce the need for coordination.11 Where coordination is easy through well-defined interfaces, protocols and agreements, they are placed under the control of the group most capable of managing them.11 The strength of specialized capabilities on one side relative to the other creates the difference in potential, which justifies the transfer of resources from Pool A to Pool B and makes the case for a new or changed service.
It is important to note in this context that scale and scope of the customer and service provider organizations vary, from large enterprises to small businesses, autonomous business units and sub-divisions to small internal groups and teams who provide services. The principles remain the same. What may change are the values of variables such as the transaction costs, strategic industry factors, economies of scale and regulatory environments.
Transaction costs, the nature of resources to manage, the feasibility of encapsulating them into services, and confidence in service management drive decisions on specialization and coordination. While outsourcing is a noticeable trend, there are many instances of customers deciding to retain certain capabilities in-house or even bring them back in.
2.4.2 The agency principle
Principals employ or hire agents to act on their behalf towards some specific objectives. Agents may be employees, consultants, advisors or service providers. Agents act on behalf of principals who provide objectives, resources (or funds), and constraints for agents to act on. They provide adequate sponsorship and support for agents to succeed on their behalf. Agents act in the interest of their principals, for which they receive compensation and reward, and in their own self-interest (Figure 2.7). Written or implied contracts record this agreement between principals and agents. Employment contracts, service agreements and performance incentive plans are examples.
Figure 2.7 The agency model in service management
Within the context of service management, customers are principals who have two types of agents working for them – service providers contracted to provide services, and users of those services employed by the customer. Users need not be on the payroll of the customer. Service agents act as intermediary agents who facilitate the exchange between service providers and customers in conjunction with users. Service agents are typically the employees of the service provider but they can also be systems and processes that users interact with in self-service situations. Value for customers is created and delivered through these interlocking relationships between principals and agents. The agency model is also applied in client/server models widely used in software design and enterprise architecture. Software agents interact with users on behalf of back-end functions, processes, and systems to which they provide access.
2.4.3 Encapsulation
Customers care about affordable and reliable access to the utility of assets. They are not concerned with structural complexity, technical details, or low-level operations. They prefer simple and secure interfaces to complex configurations of resources such as applications, data, facilities, and infrastructure. Encapsulation hides what is not the customer’s concern and exposes as a service what is useful and usable to them. Customers are concerned only with utilization.
Encapsulation follows three separate but closely related principles: separation of concerns, modularity, and loose coupling.
2.4.3.1 Separation of concerns
Complex issues or problems can be resolved or separated into distinct parts or concerns. Specialized capabilities and resources address each concern leading to better outcomes overall. This improves focus and allows optimization of systems and processes at a manageable scale and scope. Challenges and opportunities are suited with appropriate knowledge, skills, and experience.
It is necessary to identify persistent and recurring patterns, to separate fixed elements from those that vary, and to distinguish what from how (Figure 2.1). These separations are important for a service-oriented approach to IT management or simply service orientation. For example, it is useful to identify and consolidate demand with common characteristics but different sources and serve it with shared services.
2.4.3.2 Modularity
Modularity is a structural principle used to manage complexity in a system.12 Functionally similar items are grouped together to form modules that are self-contained and viable. The functionality is available to other systems or modules through interfaces. Modularity contributes to efficiency and economy by reducing duplication, complexity, administrative overheads, and the cost of changes. It has a similar impact through the reuse of modules.
Encapsulation is possible at several levels of granularity, from software and hardware components to business processes and organizational design. Figure 2.8 illustrates the role of service management in encapsulating business processes and IT applications into business services and IT services.
Figure 2.8 Encapsulation based on separation of concerns and modularity
2.4.3.3 Loose coupling
Separation of concerns and modularity facilitate loose coupling between resources and their users. With loose coupling, it is easier to make changes internal to the resource without adversely affecting utilization. It also avoids forcing changes on the customer’s side, which can add unexpected costs to the customer. Loose coupling also allows the same set of resources to be dynamically assigned to different uses. This has several advantages, including shared services, Demand Management, redundancy, and investment protection for the customer and the service provider from reduced lock-in. Loose coupling requires good design, particularly of service interfaces, without which there will be more problems than benefits.
2.4.4 Principles of systems
System
A system is a group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent components that form a unified whole, operating together for a common purpose.
2.4.4.1 Open-loop and closed-loop control processes
There are two types of control processes: open-loop and closed-loop. Control processes in which the value of the outcome has no influence on the process input are open-loop. Control processes in which the value of the outcome has influence (with or without some delay) on the process input in such a manner as to maintain the desired value are closed-loop. Open-loop systems take controlling action based simply on inputs. Changes in inputs result in changes in action. Effectiveness of open-loop systems depends excessively on foresight in design of all possible conditions associated with outcomes. When there are exceptions, open-loop systems are unable to cope. Control action in closed loop systems is goal driven and sensitive to disturbances or deviations.
Open-loop solutions attempt to solve the problem by good design, to make sure it does not occur in the first place. Once a design is implemented, mid-course corrections are not made. Closed-loop solutions, however, are based on compensating feedback. A well-designed household air-conditioner or furnace leaves the home too cool or too warm – unless regulated by the feedback of a thermostat. It is an outcome-based mindset.
Conventional brakes in automobiles apply stopping action or friction against the rotating wheels as long as the brake pedal is pressed down by the driver. Serious accidents happen when the brakes lock and cause the vehicle to lose control. To avoid this undesired situation drivers are taught not to slam the brakes, rather apply them in pumping action while constantly monitoring the braking outcome. This open-loop design expects too much of the driver’s braking skills and composure by ignoring the possibility of conditioned reflexes, not taking into account the human limits of information processing, and other complicating factors such as road condition, weather, and vehicle load. Anti-lock brakes (ABS) use electronic sensors to detect the locking of brakes and loss of traction under the wheels and immediately adjust the input, cutting off and applying the braking action in rapid succession until the optimal pressure is applied on the wheels. They can override the driver’s input by taking into account other factors that the driver may not be able to quickly apply. In that sense, the outcome is maintained even in the presence of rogue input.
2.4.4.2 Feedback and learning
Learning and growth are essential aspects of the way successful organizations function. Learning occurs from the presence of feedback as an input to a process in one cycle based on performance or outcome in the previous cycle. The feedback can be positive or self-reinforcing, leading to exponential growth or decline (Figure 2.9). It can be negative or self-correcting leading to balance or equilibrium. Goal-seeking behaviour is a widely observed pattern of control possible because of self-correcting feedback.
Figure 2.9 Types of feedback
Functions, processes, and organizations can have more than one feedback loop of each type. The interaction of the feedback loops drives the behaviour of the process as it functions as a dynamic system. It is possible to visualize IT organizations as dynamic systems with functions and processes, with specialization and coordination, providing each other feedback towards the goal of meeting customerobjectives. Interaction can be between processes, lifecycle phases, and functions. It is important to note that delays in negative feedback lead to oscillations or swings in the system due to intervening corrections. Improved measurement and reporting can reduce this destabilizing effect. The changes in output are not always linear or proportional to changes in input. This means that non-linearity is a widely observed characteristic of real-world systems such as service organizations. Understanding these principles helps managers correctly identify the nature of challenges and opportunities by observing patterns in performances and outcomes of functions and processes
2.5 The Service Lifecycle
Case example 1: Telecommunication Services
Some time during the 1990s, a large internet service provider switched its internet service offerings from variable pricing to all-you-can-use fixed pricing. The strategic intent was to differentiate from competitor services through superior pricing plans. The service strategy worked exceedingly well – customers flocked to sign up. The outcomes, however, included large numbers of customers facing congestion or the inability to log on.
Why was there such a disconnection between the strategy and operations?
(Answer at the end of the chapter)
The Lifecycle
The architecture of the ITIL Core is based on a Service Lifecycle. Each volume of the core is represented in the Service Lifecycle (Figure 2.10). Service Design, Service Transition and Service Operation are progressive phases of the Lifecycle that represent change and transformation. Service Strategy represents policies and objectives. Continual Service Improvement represents learning and improvement.
Figure 2.10 The Service Lifecycle
Service Strategy (SS) is the axis around which the lifecycle rotates. Service Design (SD), Service Transition (ST), and Service operation (SO) implement strategy. Continual Service Improvement (CSI) helps place and prioritize improvement programmes and projects based on strategic objectives.
2.5.1 Lifecycle and systems thinking
While feedback samples output to influence future action, structure is essential for organizing unrelated information. Without structure, our service management knowledge is merely a collection of observations, practices and conflicting goals. The structure of the Service Lifecycle is an organizing framework. Processes describe how things change, whereas structure describes how they are connected. Structure determines behaviour. Altering the structure of service management can be more effective than simply controlling discrete events (Figure 2.11). Without structure, it is difficult to learn from experience. It is difficult to use the past to educate for the future. We believe we can learn from experience but we never directly confront many of the most important consequences of our actions.
Figure 2.11 Great leverage for sustainable change lies in structure
The Service Lifecycle is a comprehensive approach to service management: seeking to understand its structure, the interconnections between all its components, and how changes in any area will affect the whole system and its constituent parts over time (Figure 2.12). It is an organizing framework designed for sustainable performance.
Figure 2.12 Today’s problem is often created by yesterday’s solution13
A systems approach to service management ensures learning and improvement through a big-picture view of services and service management. It extends the management horizon and provides a sustainable long-term approach (Figure 2.13).
Figure 2.13 Performance over time for differing service management structures
2.6 Functions and processes across the Lifecycle
2.6.1 Functions
Functions are units of organizations specialized to perform certain types of work and be responsible for specific outcomes. They are self-contained with capabilities and resources necessary for their performance and outcomes. Capabilities include work methods internal to the functions. Functions have their own body of knowledge, which accumulates from experience. They provide structure and stability to organizations.
Functions are a way of structuring organizations to implement the specialization principle. Functions typically define roles and the associated authority and responsibility for a specific performance and outcomes. Coordination between functions through shared processes is a common pattern in organizationdesign. Functions tend to optimize their work methods locally to focus on assigned outcomes. Poor coordination between functions combined with an inward focus lead to functional silos that hinder alignment and feedback critical to the success of the organization as a whole. Processmodels help avoid this problem with functional hierarchies by improving cross-functional coordination and control. Well-defined processes can improve productivity within and across functions.
2.6.2 Processes
Processes that provide transformation towards a goal, and utilize feedback for self-reinforcing and self-corrective action, function as closed-loop systems (Figure 2.14). It is important to consider the entire process or how one process fits into another.
Figure 2.14 A basic process
Process definitions describe actions, dependencies and sequence. Processes have the following characteristics: