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Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (
COBIT®)
Projects in Controlled Environments (PRINCE2®)
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)
Management of Risk (M_o_R®)
eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP™)
Telecom Operations Map (eTOM®)
Six Sigma™.
Organizations find the need to integrate guidance from multiple frameworks and standards. Expectations on the effectiveness of such integration efforts should be reasonably set as suggested by the following expert on standards:
‘Frameworks like standards invariably form part of larger complex businesssystems and as such relating them to each other rigorously requires a systems discipline. Without this you are left with a few cross-references, some guidance notes, and a lot of “tacit knowledge” gluing them together.’
Paul McNeillis, head of professional services at the British Standards Institution4
1.2.3 ITIL and good practice in service management
The context of this publication is the ITIL framework as a source of good practice in service management. ITIL is used by organizations worldwide to establish and improve capabilities in service management. ISO/IEC 20000 provides a formal and universal standard for organizations seeking to have their service management capabilities audited and certified. While ISO/IEC 20000 is a standard to be achieved and maintained, ITIL offers a body of knowledge useful for achieving the standard.
The ITIL Library has the following components:
The ITIL Core: best practice guidance applicable to all types of organizations who provide services to a business.
The ITIL Complementary Guidance: a complementary set of publications with guidance specific to industry sectors, organization types, operating models, and technology architectures.
The ITIL Core consists of five publications (Figure 1.2). Each provides the guidance necessary for an integrated approach as required by the ISO/IEC 20000 standard specification:
Service Strategy
Service Design
Service Transition
Service Operation
Continual Service Improvement.
Figure 1.2 The ITIL Core
Each publication addresses capabilities having direct impact on a service provider’s performance. The structure of the core is in the form of a lifecycle. It is iterative and multidimensional. It ensures that organizations are set up to leverage capabilities in one area for learning and improvements in others. The core is expected to provide structure, stability and strength to service management capabilities with durable principles, methods and tools. This serves to protect investments and provide the necessary basis for measurement, learning and improvement.
The guidance in ITIL can be adapted for use in various business environments and organizational strategies. The Complementary Guidance provides flexibility to implement the Core in a diverse range of environments. Practitioners can select Complementary Guidance as needed to provide traction for the Core in a given business context, much like tyres are selected based on the type of automobile, purpose, and road conditions. This is to increase the durability and portability of knowledge assets and to protect investments in service management capabilities.
1.2.3.1 Service Strategy
The Service strategy volume provides guidance on how to design, develop, and implement service management not only as an organizational capability but also as a strategic asset. Guidance is provided on the principles underpinning the practice of service management that are useful for developing service management policies, guidelines and processes across the ITIL Service Lifecycle. Service Strategy guidance is useful in the context of Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. Topics covered in Service Strategy include the development of markets, internal and external, service assets, Service Catalogue, and implementation of strategy through the Service Lifecycle. Financial Management, Service portfolio management, Organizational Development, and StrategicRisks are among other major topics.
Organizations use the guidance to set objectives and expectations of performance towards serving customers and market spaces, and to identify, select, and prioritize opportunities. Service Strategy is about ensuring that organizations are in a position to handle the costs and risks associated with their Service Portfolios, and are set up not just for operationaleffectiveness but also for distinctive performance. Decisions made with respect to Service Strategy have far-reaching consequences including those with delayed effect.
Organizations already practising ITIL may use this publication to guide a strategic review of their ITIL-based service management capabilities and to improve the alignment between those capabilities and their business strategies. This volume of ITIL encourages readers to stop and think about why something is to be done before thinking of how. Answers to the first type of questions are closer to the customer’s business. Service Strategy expands the scope of the ITIL framework beyond the traditional audience of IT service management professionals.
1.2.3.2 Service Design
The Service Design volume provides guidance for the design and development of services and service management processes. It covers design principles and methods for converting strategic objectives into portfolios of services and service assets. The scope of Service Design is not limited to new services. It includes the changes and improvements necessary to increase or maintain value to customers over the lifecycle of services, the continuity of services, achievement of service levels, and conformance to standards and regulations. It guides organizations on how to develop design capabilities for service management.
1.2.3.3 Service Transition
The Service Transition volume provides guidance for the development and improvement of capabilities for transitioning new and changed services into operations. This publication provides guidance on how the requirements of Service strategy encoded in Service design are effectively realized in Service operation while controlling the risks of failure and disruption. The publication combines practices in Release Management, Programme Management, and Risk Management and places them in the practical context of service management. It provides guidance on managing the complexity related to changes to services and service management processes, preventing undesired consequences while allowing for innovation. Guidance is provided on transferring the control of services between customers and service providers.
1.2.3.4 Service Operation
This volume embodies practices in the management of service operations. It includes guidance on achieving effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery and support of services so as to ensure value for the customer and the service provider. Strategicobjectives are ultimately realized through service operations, therefore making it a critical capability. Guidance is provided on ways to maintain stability in service operations, allowing for changes in design, scale, scope and service levels. Organizations are provided with detailed processguidelines, methods and tools for use in two major control perspectives: reactive and proactive. Managers and practitioners are provided with knowledge allowing them to make better decisions in areas such as managing the availability of services, controlling demand, optimizing capacity utilization, scheduling of operations and fixing problems. Guidance is provided on supporting operations through new models and architectures such as shared services, utility computing, web services and mobile commerce.
1.2.3.5 Continual Service Improvement
This volume provides instrumental guidance in creating and maintaining value for customers through better design, introduction, and operation of services. It combines principles, practices, and methods from quality management, Change Management and capability improvement. Organizations learn to realize incremental and large-scale improvements in service quality, operationalefficiency and business continuity. Guidance is provided for linking improvement efforts and outcomes with service strategy, design, and transition. A closed-loop feedback system, based on the Plan–Do–Check–Act (PDCA) model specified in ISO/IEC 20000, is established and capable of receiving inputs for change from any planning perspective.
1.3 Purpose
To operate and grow successfully in the long-term, service providers must have the ability to think and act in a strategic manner. The purpose of this publication is to help organizations develop such abilities. The achievement of strategic goals or objectives requires the use of strategic assets. The guidance shows how to transform service management into a strategic asset. Readers benefit from seeing the relationships between various services, systems or processes they manage and the business models, strategies or objectives they support. The guidance answers questions of the following kind:
What services should we offer and to whom?
How do we differentiate ourselves from competing alternatives?
How do we truly create value for our customers?
How do we capture value for our stakeholders?
How can we make a case for strategic investments?
How can Financial Management provide visibility and control over value creation?
How should we define service quality?
How do we choose between different paths for improving service quality?
How do we efficiently allocate resources across a portfolio of services?
How do we resolve conflicting demands for shared resources?
A multi-disciplinary approach is required to answer such questions. Technical knowledge of IT is necessary but not sufficient. The guidance is pollinated with knowledge from the disciplines such as operations management, marketing, finance, information systems, organizational development, systems dynamics, and industrial engineering. The result is a body of knowledge robust enough to be effective across a wide range of business environments. Some organizations are putting in place the foundational elements of service management. Others are further up the adoption curve, ready to tackle challenges and opportunities with higher levels of complexity and uncertainty.
1.4 Expected use
The Service Strategy volume is expected to be useful for IT organizations in developing capabilities in service management that set up and maintain a strategic advantage in their goals of being valuable service providers. Service Strategy covers several aspects of service management. It provides guidance useful in defining strategicobjectives, providing direction for growth, prioritizing investments, and defining outcomes against which the effectiveness of service management may be measured. It is useful for influencing organizational attitudes and culture towards the creation of value for customers through services. The publication identifies objectives for effective communication, coordination, and control among various parts of a service organization having contact with customers, partners and suppliers. The knowledge in this publication is useful in determining and controlling the consequences of pursuing a particular service strategy with a given set of capabilities and resources. IT organizations are able to innovate and operate under constraints such as contractual commitments, service level requirements, and government regulations. Contracts include both formal legally binding agreements as well as informal internal agreements between parts of an organization. Strategic decisions and policies are made clear enough to every agent in the organization with a role in delivering service. High-level perspectives and positions defining service strategy are broken down into plans and actions assigned to specific roles and responsibilities in service management.
It is common practice to develop capabilities and resources that achieve strategic objectives. It is also true that strategic options considered are often constrained by capabilities at hand. Improvements and innovations can extend the range of capabilities and resources, allowing organizations to pursue new or modified objectives, in turn placing new demands on capabilities and resources. These are the dynamics of business, and service management plays an active role. Service management creates viable options for strategy and helps exercise those options through a portfolio of services. It is therefore important to understand the dependencies between strategy and service management processes.
1.4.1 Some warnings
Many problems and situations in IT resist improvement and lack predictability. At times a solution is conceived and deployed, only to present as many unintended consequences as intended ones. The long-term performance of a service or process may be frustratingly different from its short-term performance. Obvious solutions fail or worsen the situation (Figure 1.3).
Figure 1.3 The Golden Pony (inspired by Nelson P. Repenning, MIT Sloan School of Management)
Organizations find it difficult to maintain the benefits from initially successful process improvement programmes. Worse, despite the demonstrated benefits, many process improvement programmes end in failure.5 In some puzzling instances, successful programmes worsen business performance and decrease morale. This is phenomenon is referred to as the ‘Improvement Paradox’.6
The phrase ‘People, Process, and Technology’ is a useful teaching tool. A closer examination, however, reveals complexities such as time delays, dependencies, constraints and compensating feedback effects. The following are observations in the real world: