ITIL 2011 Notes

ContentsAn Introductory Overview of ITIL 2011....................................................................3

Service Lifecycle: concept and overview.................................................................3

I. Service strategy................................................................................................6

The 4 P's of ITIL Service Strategy.........................................................................6

Key processes and activities................................................................................7

II. Service Design..................................................................................................8

Five aspects of Service Design.............................................................................8

The four Ps of service design...............................................................................8

Design processes.................................................................................................8

An Introductory Overview of ITIL 2011

ITIL provides a framework of best-practice guidance for IT service management. ITIL offers a systematicapproach to the delivery of quality of IT services.

All organizations that use IT depend on IT to be successful. If IT processes and IT services areimplemented, managed and supported in the appropriate way, the business will be more successful, sufferless disruption and loss of productive hours, reduce costs, increase revenue, improve public relations andachieve its business objectives.

Service Lifecycle: concept and overviewGood practice (literally: correct method) is an approach or method that has proven itself in practice.Service is a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achievewithout the ownership of specific costs and risks. In other words, when we do something for another partythat gives them something they want or value, we're providing a service.

From the customer’s perspective value consists of two core components: utility and warranty. Utilityis what the customer receives, and warranty is how it is provided. A service value is defined by fit topurpose (utility) and fit to use (warranty). Fit to purpose, or utility, means that service needs to fulfillcustomer needs. Fit for use, or warranty, means that service is available when a user needs it.

Service warranty for a service provides the customer a level of reassurance and guarantee to meetagreed requirements.

Service utility defines the functionality of an IT service from the customer’s perspective (i.e. what theservice does).Value creation is a combination of the effects of utility and warranty. Both are necessary for the creationof value for the customer:

Utility - fitness for purpose. Functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particularneed. Utility is often summarized as “what it does”.

Warranty - fitness for use. A promise or guarantee that a product or service will meet its agreedrequirements. The availability, capacity, continuity and information security necessary to meet thecustomers’ requirements.

The ITIL v3 definition of quality is "the ability of a product, service, or process to provide the intendedvalue."A system is a group of interacting, interrelating, or interdependent components that form a unified whole,operating together for a common purpose.

A function is a team or group of people and the tools they use to carry out one or more Processes orActivities. For example the Service Desk.A procedure is a specific way to carry out an activity or a part of a process.Processes possess the following characteristics:• They are measurable - because they are performance-oriented.• They have specific results.• They provide results to customers or stakeholders.• They respond to a specific event - a process is indeed continual and iterative, but is always originatingfrom a certain event.It can be difficult to determine whether something is a function or a process. According to ITIL, whetherit is a function or process depends completely on the organizational design. A good example of a functionis a service desk, a good example of a process is change management.

The ITIL v3 definition of quality is "the ability of a product, service, or process to provide theintended value."

Service management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value tocustomers in the form of services.

A system is a group of interacting, interrelating, or interdependent components that form a unifiedwhole, operating together for a common purpose.

ITIL approaches service management from the lifecycle aspect of a service. The Service Lifecycle isthe overall framework used to identify, define, manage, and retire IT services.

The Service Lifecycle consists of five phases. Each volume of the new ITIL books describes one ofthese phases:

1. Service Strategy - the phase of designing, developing and implementing service management as astrategic resource

2. Service Design - the design phase of developing appropriate IT services, including architecture,processes, policy and documents; the design goal is to meet the current and future businessrequirements

3. Service Transition - the phase of developing and improving capabilities for the transition of newand modified services to production

4. Service Operation - the phase of achieving effectiveness and efficiency in providing andsupporting services in order to ensure value for the customer and the service provider

5. Continual Service Improvement - the phase of creating and maintaining the value for the customerby design improvement, and service introduction and operation

Figure 1. The Service Lifecycle.

Figure 2 illustrates how the service lifecycle is initiated from a change in requirements in the business.These requirements are identified and agreed within the service strategy stage within a change proposaland service charter. This passes to the service design stage, where a service solution is produced togetherwith a service design package (SDP) containing everything necessary to take this service through theremaining stages of the lifecycle. The SDP passes to the service transition stage, where the service isevaluated, tested and validated, the service knowledge management system (SKMS) is updated, and theservice is transitioned into the live environment, where it enters the service operation stage. Whereverpossible, continual service improvement identifies opportunities for the improvement of weaknesses orfailures anywhere within any of the lifecycle stages, across all processes.

Figure 2. Integration across the service lifecycle.

To undertake the processes and activities involved in each lifecycle stage, ITIL recognizes that anorganization needs to clearly define the roles and responsibilities required. These roles are assigned toindividuals within an organization structure of teams, groups or functions.

- Process owner; the process owner is responsible for the process results. Here are a fewresponsibilities of the role: ensuring that the process is performed in accordance with the agreedand documented process, documenting and publicizing the process, defining and reviewing themeasurement of the process using metrics such as key performance indicators (KPIs), etc.

- Process manager; a process owner is accountable for the process, but may not get involved in theday-to-day management of the process. This is a separate role often allocated to a different person:the process manager. The process manager is responsible for the realization and structure of theprocess, and reports to the process owner. A process manager is responsible for operationalmanagement of a process. The process manager’s responsibilities include planning andcoordination of all activities required to carry out, monitor and report on the process. There may

be several process managers for one process and the process manager role is often assigned to thesame person carrying out the process owner role.

- Process practitioner is responsible for carrying out one or more process activities. The processpractitioner role may be combined with the process manager role, if appropriate. The processpractitioners are responsible for defined activities, and these activities are reported to the processmanager.

- Service owner is responsible to the customer for the initiation, transition, and ongoingmaintenance and support of a particular service; and accountable to the IT director or servicemanagement director for the delivery of a specific IT service. Service ownership is critical toservice management and a single person may fulfil the service owner role for more than oneservice.

When setting up a service or a process, it is imperative that all roles are clearly defined and that it isclear who does what. For this purpose, a responsibility model like RACI can be used. RACI provides an‘authority matrix’ to define the roles and responsibilities in relation to processes and activities. RACI is anacronym for the four main roles:

- Responsible – The person or people responsible for correct execution – for getting the jobdone.

- Accountable – The person who has ownership of quality and the end result. Only one personcan be accountable for each task.

- Consulted – The people who are consulted and whose opinions are sought. They haveinvolvement through input of knowledge and information.

- Informed – The people who are kept up to date on progress. They receive information aboutprocess execution and quality.

I. Service strategyThe objective of service strategy is to offer better services than the competition. Service Strategydetermines which types of services should be offered to which customers or markets. Strategic thinkingaims to define a plan that, using a clear set of principles, will provide a solution to a business problem in aparticular situation. It is focused on the value to the customer and identifies strategic assets that will beused for competitive advantage.

Service Strategy sets out guidance to all IT service providers and their customers, to help them operatewith a precise understanding of:

- What services should be offered- To whom the services should be offered- How the internal and external marketplaces for their services should be developed- The existing and potential competition in these marketplaces, and the objectives that will

differentiate the value of what the service provider does or how it is provided- How the customer(s) and stakeholders will perceive and measure value, and how this value

will be created- How service sourcing decisions can be made with respect to use of different types of service

providers- How visibility and control over value creation will be achieved through financial management- How robust business cases will be created to secure strategic investment in service assets and

service management capabilities- How the allocation of available resources will be tuned to optimal effect across the portfolio of

services- How service performance will be measured.

The 4 P's of ITIL Service StrategyService Strategy defines the following to meet business outcomes:- Perspective: Having a vision of what the company wants to deliver, and is attained through

conversations with your stakeholders.- Position: is how you will differentiate from your competitors; that is, what is your unique value

proposition? As sound position guides you in both what to do and what not to do based on yourability to differentiate yourself from the competition.

- Plans: creating a detailed plan on how you're going to make it all happen. It focuses on financialbudgets, your portfolio of services, new service development, investments in service assets andimprovement plans.

- Patterns: knowing which patterns and actions are good for the company.The 4 Ps in Action. A well-known computer company’s perspective is building to customer

specifications quickly and inexpensively. Its position is variety-based, initially delivering only laptops anddesktops, with a wide variety of potential configurations. Key to the company’s plan (initially) is to takeorders only via the Web and phone. And the pattern is a high level of customer service and competitivepricing.

Key processes and activitiesAs per ITIL 2011, the following main processes are part of the ITIL stage Service Strategy:

1. Strategy Management for IT Services

Process Objective: To assess the service provider's offerings, capabilities, competitors as well as currentand potential market spaces in order to develop a strategy to serve customers. Once the strategy has beendefined, Strategy Management for IT Services is also responsible for ensuring the implementation of thestrategy.

Activities:- Perform strategic assessment- Generate strategy- Execute strategy- Measure and evaluate

2. Service Portfolio ManagementProcess Objective: To manage the service portfolio. Service Portfolio Management ensures that the

service provider has the right mix of services to meet required business outcomes at an appropriate levelof investment.

Service portfolio: The complete set of services that is managed by a service provider. The serviceportfolio is used to manage the entire lifecycle of all services, and includes three categories: servicepipeline (proposed or in development), service catalogue (live or available for deployment), and retiredservices.

Service portfolio management involves proactive management of the investment across the servicelifecycle. It is an ongoing process, which includes the following steps:

- Define: Make an inventory of services, ensure business cases exist, and validate portfolio data- Analyze: Maximize portfolio value, align and prioritize, and balance supply and demand- Approve: Finalize proposed portfolio, and authorize services and resources- Charter: Communicate decisions, allocate resources and charter services.

3. Financial Management for IT ServicesProcess Objective: To manage the service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.4. Demand Management

Process Objective: To understand, anticipate and influence customer demand for services. DemandManagement works with Capacity Management to ensure that the service provider has sufficient capacityto meet the required demand.

5. Business Relationship ManagementProcess Objective: To maintain a positive relationship with customers. Business Relationship

Management identifies the needs of existing and potential customers and ensures that appropriate servicesare developed to meet those needs.

Activities:- Handle requests- Handle complaints- Identify opportunities- Manage business relationships throughout the service lifecycle

II. Service DesignThe Design Stage takes a set of new or changed business requirements and develops a solution to meetthem. The developed solution is passed to Service Transition to be built, tested and deployed into the liveenvironment.

Key activities within this stage of the lifecycle include the planning and coordination of designactivities, ensuring consistent designs of services, service management information systems,architectures, technology, processes, information and metrics, production of service design packages(SDPs), management of interfaces, and improvement of service design activities and processes.

Service design starts with a set of business requirements, and ends with the development of a servicesolution designed to meet documented business requirements and outcomes, and its SDP for handoverinto service transition.

Five aspects of Service DesignITIL formally recognizes five separate aspects that describe the Service Design Process (five main

"things" to be designed in the Service Design phase - STAMP):- Service Solutions- Service management systems and Tools, especially the service portfolio, including the service

catalogue- Technology Architecture and management systems- Measurement methods and metrics- The Processes required

The four Ps of service designDuring service design, the 4 Ps need to be considered:Service Design must have in mind the effective and efficient use of the four Ps:

- People – human resources involved (people that work in the IT services, customers, andusers).

- Processes – what and how (processes, roles and activities involved in the provision of ITservices).

- Products – services, technology and tools. The technology and management systems used inthe delivery of IT services.

- Partners – vendors, manufacturers and suppliers used to assist and support IT serviceprovision.

Service Design Package (SDP) - Document(s) defining all aspects of an IT Service and theirRequirements through each stage of its Lifecycle. A Service Design Package is produced for each new ITService, major Change or IT Service Retirement.

Design processesDesign Coordination - acts as the central point of communication and control for all processes in the

Design stage. It is in charge of all design activities, and it ensures consistent design of services alignedwith Strategy and their proper preparation for Transition.

Service Catalogue Management – aims to ensure that a Service Catalogue is produced andmaintained. It is a management of information about all live services.

Service Level Management (SLM) – this is a key Design process. It ensures that all services aredelivered according to agreement with the business. It is aligned with other processes emerged from theService Delivery group, especially Availability and Capacity. The main mission of SLM is to improvecommunication and understanding of Service Provider and Business.

- Service Level Requirements (SLR) – Detailed recording of the customers’ needs. It is anorigin of the SLA content.

- Service Level Agreement (SLA) - An SLA is best described as a collection of promises. Anagreement between an IT service provider and a customer.

- Operational Level Agreement (OLA) - an agreement between an IT service provider andanother part of the same organization, governing the delivery of a infrastructure service.

Availability Management – one of the oldest ITIL service delivery processes. Ensures that theavailability of delivered services is in alignment with the agreed levels, in a cost-effective, timely manner.

- Business Impact Analysis (BIA) - is the activity in Business Continuity Management thatidentifies Vital Business Functions and their dependencies. BIA defines the recoveryrequirements for IT Services.

Capacity Management – ensures that IT infrastructure and services meet the agreed requirements in acost-effective and timely manner. Capacity management spans through all ITIL lifecycles.

IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM) – aims to manage risks that could seriously impact ITservices. ITSCM ensures that the IT service provider can always provide minimum agreed ServiceLevels, by reducing the risk from disaster events to an acceptable level and planning for the recovery ofIT services.

Information Security Management (ISM) – ensures that information security policy is aligned withbusiness security. ISM maintains and enforces the security policy.

Supplier Management – ensures the fulfilment of contractual duties by the suppliers based uponcontracts supporting the business requirements of the IT Service Consumers. Activities included are:negotiation, agreements, supplier performance management, seamless integration of underpinningcontracts and delivered services.

Figure 3. Expanded Incident Lifecycle.

Figure 4. Lifecycle of IT Service Continuity Management.

Service TransitionService Transition Goals:

Assure proposed changes in the Service Design package are realized. Plan for and Implement the Deployment of Releases for New or Changed Services. Test Releases so as to minimize the possibility of undesirable impact to the Production

environment. Retire or Archive Services.

KEY ROLE: To move Services from Design to Operations, without impacting the ongoing ServicesConfiguration Items (CIs) typically include IT Services, hardware, software, buildings, people, andformal documentation such as Process documentation and SLAs.Configuration Management System (CMS):

Information about all Configuration Items: CI may be entire service, or any component Stored in1 or more databases (CMDBs)

CMS stores attributes: Any information about the CI that might be needed CMS stores relationships: Between CIs With incident, problem, change records, etc. CMS has multiple layers: Data sources and tools, information integration, knowledge processing

(scorecards, dashboards etc.), presentation

Transition ProcessesTransition planning and supportThe purpose of transition planning and support is to provide overall planning for service transitions and tocoordinate the resources they require.The purpose of the Transition, Planning and Support activities are:

Planning appropriate capacity and resources Provide support for the Service Transition teams and people Integrity of changes with all other Service Transition processes Coordination of activities across projects, suppliers and service teams

Change managementThe purpose of the change management process is to control the lifecycle of all changes, enablingbeneficial changes to be made with minimum disruption to IT services. Change management ensures thatchanges are recorded and evaluated, and that authorized changes are prioritized, planned, tested,implemented, documented and reviewed in a controlled manner.

Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management is a process inside the service transition stage of the service lifecycle, with itspurpose being to:

share information, ideas and experience make knowledge of the organization available to those who need it, when they need it, in order to

support decision making eliminate the need to rediscover the knowledge

The main benefit is that, as time elapses, the organization grows from a knowledge point of view. Toprevent knowledge from getting lost, as well as being able to manage services throughout the wholelifecycle, the Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS) is used. SKMS is a set of tools anddatabases used to manage (i.e. collect, store, update, analyze, present and archive) organizations’ data,information and knowledge.

D-I-K-W ModelThe Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom structure:Knowledge management is typically displayed within the Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom(DIKW) structure. Meaning, ITIL uses a simple, yet logical structure to present Knowledge Management:Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom (DIKW).

Data is a set of discrete facts. Most organizations capture significant amounts of data in highlystructured databases such as service management and service asset and configurationmanagement tools/systems and databases. An example of data is the incident log entry with dateand time, or an example of data is the time and date when an incident occurred.

Information comes from providing context to data. Information is typically stored in semi-structured content such as documents, email and multimedia. An example of information is theaverage time to close priority 1 incidents.

Knowledge is composed of the tacit experiences, ideas, insights, values and judgments ofindividuals. An example of knowledge is the average time to close priority 1 incidents hasdecreased since ITSM tool implementation.

Wisdom makes use of knowledge to create value through correct and well-informed decisions.Wisdom takes into consideration data, information and knowledge; e.g. customer satisfaction roseby 10% due to the ITSM tool implementation, back-office personnel training, self-service portaland new service introduced.

Continual Service ImprovementA combination of one main process and two approaches.

Seven-Step Improvement Process:- Deming Cycle (for slow, steady improvement)

- Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Model

Deming ModelMgmt. philosophy for establishing quality, productivity, and competitive position:1. Plan – formulate goal/theory; define how to measure success and plan.2. Do – execute plan.3. Check – monitor outcomes vs. expected results and look for lessons learned.4. Act – integrate lessons learned, adjust theory/method, and determine what morewe must learn.

CSI ApproachEmbrace vision by understanding business objective.1. Baseline assessments. Assess current situation (as is); baseline analysis ofcurrent position. Measurable targets.2. Service & Improvement targets. Understand/agree on priorities based on vision.Detail CSI plan by implementing ITSM processes3. Measurement & Metrics ‐ Verify metrics are in place to see if milestonesreached/processes compliant. Ensure momentum is created to ensure it keeps ontrucking.