Introductory Overview of ITIL v3
Note: the original pocket guide was distributed by my company and is copyrighted. I am paraphrasing and rewriting the data so as not to violate that copyright.
The guide provides a high level overview of the following topics:
- Service Strategy
- Service Design
- Service Transition
- Service Operation
- Continual Service Improvement
The main objective of service management is to ensure IT services are aligned properly to support business needs in an active fashion. Without ITIL, organizations may be blinded to or unaware of changes in their business model.
Definitions
A service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific risks and costs.
Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services.
Customer: someone who buys goods or services and defines the service level targets
User: a person that uses the service(s) the customer has bought from a service provider
Good Practices: permit an organization to adapt to changing environments and improve performance. They also allow for benchmarking to competitors or industry standards.
Utility: what the customer gets; implies fitness for purpose or "what it does"
Warranty: how something is delivered; implies fitness for use by the customer or "how it is done"
Service Owner: accountable for a specific service within an organization
Service Manager: manages the development, implementation, evaluation, and ongoing management of new and existing products and services
Service Provider: any organization that supplies services; three types exist
Supplier: a 3rd party responsible for providing goods or services
Contract: legal agreement between 2+ parties
Functions: a team or or group of people and the resources they use to carry out one or more processes or activities
Role: refers to a set of connected behaviors or actions that are performed by a person/team/group in a given context
Processes: define activities or actions
Process Owner: accountable for the quality of the process and manages it (process flows, data models, procedures, etc)
Process Manager: responsible for ensuring the process is being followed and that it meets the goal of the process
Process Control: planning and regulating a process so you perform it in an efficient manner, consistently and effectively
Benefits of ITIL implementation include increased user satisfaction with services, improved service availability, financial savings, and improved decision making. It consists of two parts: Core Guidance and supplementary guidance.
There are five main processes ITIL covers, which together make up the Service Lifecycle: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement.
Brief definitions
- Service Strategy- business requirements
- Service Design- functional requirements
- Service Transition- managing change
- Service Operation- day to day service management
- Continual Service Improvement- incremental improvement
Service Strategy
Provides guidance on how to design, develop and implement service management.
Provides direction for growth not only as an organizational capability, but as a strategic asset
Provides guidance on principles supporting the practice of service management that are useful for developing service management policies, guidelines, and processes across the ITIL Service Lifecycle
Service Strategy Processes: generation (define market, develop offering, etc); service portfolio management, demand management, financial management, and risk management.
There are 4 P's of strategy: perspective, position, plan, and pattern.
- Perspective- the vision or direction being taken
- Position- basis on which the SP will compete
- Plan- how things will get done
- Pattern- ways that things are done (repetitively)
Service Strategy Creation or Generation
Defining the market space to better develop service offerings.
Main processes here include- define the market, develop the offering(s), develop any strategic assets, and prepare to execute the strategy
Value Creation Through Services
Value is measured in terms of the customer's business outcomes
Value is also highly dependent on customer's perceptions
Service Assets
Service assets are the basis for value creation.
Resources and
capabilities are used to create value in the form of goods and services.
Resources and Capabilities
Create value in the form of goods and services
Resources- relatively easier to acquire compared to capabilities; include people, process, and technology)
Capabilities- cannot produce value without the right resources; consist of an organization's ability to use resources to produce value
Critical Success Factors
Those service assets required to successfully implement the strategic vision
Process Characteristics
4 characteristics of processes are: they are measurable, have specific results, they have customers, and they respond to specific events (i.e.- they have a triggering event).
RACI Model
A model for defining who is responsible and who is accountable for activities or processes.
- Responsible- makes sure it gets done
- Accountable- takes ownership for the end result and its quality
- Consulted- involved through input of their knowledge
- Informed- receives information about the process and its outputs
Potential problems with RACI model include: more than one person accountable for a process (no real accountability), delegation of responsibility without the needed authority to complete the task, focus on matching processes with departments, and conflicting agendas.
MoSCoW- Service Prioritization Tool
Used first in application development, this means Must-Should-Could-Won't. Detailed explanation of each:
- Must Have- without this core requirement, the service isn't useful
- Should Have- a core requirement which, if needed, can be delayed (implementation) until a later point
- Could Have- an option which can be included if time/budget permits
- Won't Have- something not needed now; may be included in the future
