The ITIL Core: a set of five publications containing
the best practice guidance applicable to all organizations
providing services
The ITIL Complementary Guidance: a auxiliary
set of publications (online or printed) detailing
the application of ITIL to specific industries,
organization and technology platform
The ITIL core consists of five lifecycle publications.
They are as follows:
1)ITIL Service Strategy - The phase of strategic
planning of service management capabilities, and the
alignment of service and business strategies.
2)ITIL Service Design The phase of designing and
developing appropriate IT services, including architecture,
processes, policy and documents. The design goal is
to meet the current and future business requirements.
3)ITIL Service Transition: The phase of realizing
the requirements from previous stages, and improving
the capabilities for the transition of new and modified
services to production.
4)ITIL Service Operation: The phase of achieving
effectiveness and efficiency in providing and supporting
services in order to ensure value for the customer and
the service provider.
5)ITIL Continual Service Improvement: The phase of
creating and maintaining the value for the customer
by design improvement, and service introduction and
operation.
Figure: THE ITIL Service Life Cycle
3. Service Strategy
Service strategy shows organizations how to transform service
management from an organizational capability into a strategic
asset, and to then think and act in a strategic manner.
Service strategy helps clarify the relationships between
various services, systems or processes and the business models,
strategies or objectives they support.
3.1 Purpose of Service Strategy
The purpose of the Service Strategy is to define the perspective,
position, plans and patterns that a service provider needs to
be able to execute to meet an organization's business outcomes
3.2 Objectives of service Strategy
1)Provide business stakeholder value
2)Differentiate the organization
3)Make solid cases for investment
4)Resolve conflicting demands for services
5)Improve service quality by strategic planning
3.3 Scope of service Strategy
1)Generic principles and processes of service management.
These generic principles are applied consistently to IT service
management
2)Intended for use by both internal and external service
providers, and includes guidance for organizations which are
required to offer IT services as a profitable business, as well
as those which are required to offer IT services to other business
units within the same organization - at no profit
3)Two aspects of strategy:
Defining a strategy whereby a service provider will
deliver services to meet a customer's business outcomes
Defining a strategy for how to manage those services
3.4 Value to business
1)Provides guidance on how to design, and put in place service
management as a strategic asset
2)Sets the principles for developing service management policies,
guidelines and processes across the service lifecycle.
3)Sets objectives and expectations of performance towards
serving customers and market spaces.
4)Identifies and prioritizes opportunities.
5)Ensures that organizations can manage the costs and risks
associated with their service portfolios.
6)Asks questions and plans a strategy for how to do something
before progressing
3.5 Basic concepts in Service
Strategy
1)Utility: also called 'fitness for purpose' involves the
ability of the service to remove constraints or increase the
performance of the customer.
2)Warranty: also called 'fitness for use' is the ability
of the service to operate reliably.
3)Assets, Resources and capabilities
a)Assets: Asset is any resource or capability
Customer asset: asset used by a customer to achieve
a business outcome
Service asset: asset used by a service provider to deliver
services to a customer
b)Resources are the direct inputs for the production of services.
Example: Money, IT Infrastructure, people, or anything else
that might help delivering an IT service.
c)Capabilities are the assets that represent the organization's
ability/ knowledge to do something to achieve value
Example: organization, processes, management, etc.
4)Service Portfolio: is the entire set of services under
management by a Service Provider. It consists of three major
parts: Service Pipeline, Service Catalog, and Retired Services.
5)Governance: Governance ensures that policies and strategy
are actually implemented, and that required processes are correctly
followed. Governance includes defining roles and responsibilities,
measuring and reporting, and taking actions to resolve any issues
identified.
6)Business case: is a structured and documented justification
for investment in something expected to deliver value in return.
Business Cases are used during Service Strategy to evaluate
the feasibility and desirability of creating and providing various
IT Services
7)Risk Management: is process of identification, assessing
and controlling risks through analyzing asset`s value, threats
and how vulnerable each asset is to those threats.
8)Service Provider: There are three types of service providers
they are :
Internal service provider: exists within an organization
and provides service solely for a unique business unit.
External service provider: operates outside the organization.
Shared service provider: exists within an organization,
but provides service for more than one business unit.
9)Supplier: Is a third party responsible for supplying the
goods or Services required to deliver IT Services.
10)Types of Services: according to the value for customers
services are classified into three types they are:
Core Services: required directly by customers to deliver
an intended outcome.
Enabling Services: needed to ensure core services can
be delivered successfully, not visible to customers
Enhancing Services: created to add features / values
to the customers, not essential.
11) Patterns of Business Activities: Influence the demand
patterns seen by the Service Providers.
3.6 Processes
3.6.1 Service Portfolio management:
A)Purpose of Service Portfolio Management
Purpose of is to make sure that the service provider
has got the perfect set of services so that it can balance
the investment in IT with the capacity to get the desired
business outcomes. It keeps a track of the investments in
services throughout their lifecycle
Service portfolio also makes sure that services are
defined clearly and linked to the achievement of business
outcomes, thus ensuring that all design, transition and
operation activities are in line with the value of services.
B)Objectives of Service Portfolio Management
To develop and maintain a Service Portfolio that provides
a complete picture of all services including their status.
To establish conditions and requirements for inclusion
of new services in the Service Portfolio.
To ensure a Service Catalogue is developed and managed
as part of the Portfolio.
Agree on the rules for transferring services to the
Service Catalogue as they move into transition and out of
the Catalogue and as they move into retirement.
To ensure that the Service Portfolio meets the functional
and performance requirements of its users and that its performance,
availability and security meet agreed requirements.
To ensure that management reports are produced in line
with agreed reporting requirements.
C)Scope of Service Portfolio Management
All services a service provider plans to deliver, those
currently delivered and those that have been withdrawn from
service
The primary concern of service portfolio management
is whether the service provider is able to generate
value from the services.
Service portfolio management will therefore track
investments in services and compare them to the desired
business outcomes
Service portfolio management evaluates the value of
services throughout their lifecycles, and must be able to
compare what newer services have offered over the retired
services they have replaced
D) Service Portfolio
A Service Portfolio is a complete list of services regardless
of where they are in their life cycle (i.e. planning, development,
production, retired). The Service Portfolio includes the service
pipeline, a service catalog, and a list of retired services.
1)Service pipeline includes services being created for a
given market space or customer.
2)Service catalog consists of services presently active in
the service operation phase, as well as those approved in the
pipeline. The service catalog provides a description of each
service, pricing and service level commitments, and terms and
conditions. The service catalog is an important tool in service
strategy because it is the virtual projection of your actual
and present capabilities. It also serves as a service-order
and demand-channeling mechanism, as well as a visualization
tool for SPM decisions. The service catalog provides a strong
link between SPM and service level management (SLM).
3)Retired services are services no longer offered.
