Benefits..........................................................................................15
Possible Challenges.......................................................................15
Possible Key Performance Indicators............................................15
Financial Management For IT Services ....................................................................................16
Goal................................................................................................16
Definitions.....................................................................................16
Activities........................................................................................16
Benefits..........................................................................................16
Possible Challenges.......................................................................16
Possible Key Performance Indicators............................................16
Availability Management ..........................................................................................................17
Goal................................................................................................17
Definitions.....................................................................................17
Activities........................................................................................17
Benefits..........................................................................................17
Possible Challenges.......................................................................17
Possible Key Performance Indicators............................................18
Capacity Management ..............................................................................................................18
Goal................................................................................................18
Definitions.....................................................................................18
Activities........................................................................................18
Benefits..........................................................................................18
Possible Challenges.......................................................................19
Possible Key Performance Indicators............................................19
IT Service Continuity Management (ITSC)..............................................................................19
Goal................................................................................................19
Definitions.....................................................................................19
Activities........................................................................................19
Benefits..........................................................................................21
Possible Challenges.......................................................................21
Possible Key Performance Indicators............................................21
In the 1980s the quality of the IT services provided to the British Government was such that the
then CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, now Office of Government
Commerce, OGC) was instructed to develop an approach for efficient and cost effective use of
IT resources by ministries and other British public sector organisation. The aim was to develop
an approach independent from any supplier. This resulted in the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library – ITIL, which grew from a collection of best practices observed in the IT
service industry.
Every organisation aims to realize its vision, mission, objectives and policies, which means that
a set of appropriate activities has to be undertaken.
A group of activities form a process. If the process structure of an organisation is clearly
described, it will show:
• What has to be done
• What the expected result is
• How we measure if the processes deliver the expected results
• How the results of one process affect those of another process
ITIL offers a common framework for all the activities of the IT department. These activities are
divided into processes, which provide an effective framework to make the IT service
management more mature. Each of these processes covers one or more tasks of an IT
department, such as service development, infrastructure management, and supplying and
supporting the services. This process approach makes it possible to describe IT Service
Management best practices independently from the actual organization structure of the entity.
By using a process approach, ITIL primarily describes what must be included in IT Service
Management to provide IT services of the required quality.
ITIL defines the objectives and activities, and input and output of each of the processes found in
an IT organisation. ITIL does not give a specific description of how these activities should be
implemented, as this will be different in every organisation…. instead, it offers a framework for
planning the most common processes, roles and activities, indicating the links between them,
and what lines of communication are necessary.
The aim of ITIL is to provide a framework within which an organization can provide its IT
services in a consistent, reliable, cost effective and measurable manner, resulting in the
following benefits to the organisation as a whole:
• The provision of IT services becomes more customer focussed and agreements about
service quality improve the relationship;
• The services are described better, in customer language, and in more appropriate detail;
• The quality and cost of the services are managed better;
• Communication with the IT organisation is improved by agreeing on the points of contact;
•
…and to the IT organisation specifically:
• The IT organisation develops a clearer structure, becomes more efficient, and more
focussed on the corporate objectives;
• An effective process structure provides a framework for effective outsourcing if that
becomes an option;
• Supports the introduction of a quality management system;
• Provides a uniform frame of reference for internal communications and communication with
suppliers, and standardisation and identification of procedures.
The Components
There are five main ‘elements’ addressed by the ITIL books. Each of these elements interfaces
with the other four, and overlaps them to some extent. The five elements are:
In addition, there are two functions which underpin all of these processes, and which are
integral to all of them i.e.
• Service Desk (e.g. Help Desk)
• Security
The following pages will focus on the two areas of Service Support and Service Delivery, and
will summarise the associated activities, tasks and measures for these two core elements.
Service Support
Goal
• To provide a Single Point Of Contact (SPOC) for customers and end-users and an
operational SPOC for managing incidents to resolution
Definitions
Single Point of The Service Desk provides a vital day-to-day contact point between
Contact (SPOC) customers, users, It services and third-party support organisations.
Service Request Incidents logged by the Service Desk, which are a result of a request
for increased functionality for new services, not a failure in the IT
infrastructure.
Activities
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• Daily reviews of individual incident and problem status against service levels
• Weekly management reviews
• Monthly management reviews
• Proactive service reports
• Abandonment rate
• First contact resolution
Incident Management
Goal
To restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimise the adverse
impact on business operations or the user, and at a cost-effective price.
Definitions
Incident Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service, and which
causes, or may cause an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of that service.
Activities
Benefits
• Improved monitoring
• Improved management information on aspects of service quality
• Better staff utilisation, leading to greater efficiency
• Elimination of lost or incorrect Incidents and service requests
• More accurate CMDB (Configuration Management Database) information
• Improved User and Customer satisfaction
Possible Challenges
• User satisfaction
Problem Management
Goal
To minimise the adverse impacts of incidents and problems on the business that are
caused by errors in the IT infrastructure (Hardware, Software & Documentation) and to
prevent recurrence of incidents related to these errors. Problem Management seeks to
get to the root cause and initiate action to remove the error.
Definitions
Known error A condition identified by successful diagnosis of the root cause of a problem,
when it is confirmed which Configuration Item is at fault.
Workaround Method of avoiding an incident or problem, either from a temporary fix or from a
technique that means that the customer is not reliant on a particular aspect of a
service that is known to have a problem.
Activities
• Problem control
• Error control
• Proactive problem management
• Major problem review
Benefits
Possible Challenges
Change Management
Goal
To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt
handling of all changes to minimise the impact of change-related incidents and improve
day-to-day operations.
Definitions
Change An action that results in a new status for one or more IT infrastructure
Configuration Items.
Standard Change A change to the infrastructure that follows an established path and is
(Pre-approved) relatively common.
Forward Schedule Of A schedule that contains details of all changes approved and their
Changes (FSC) proposed implementation dates.
Projected Service A document containing details of changes to agreed SLAs and agreed
Availability (PSA) serviceability due to currently planned FSC.
Change Advisory A group of people who have decision authority for implementing
Board (CAB) significant changes.
CAB Emergency A subset of the full CAB to handle emergency change requests.
Committee (CABEC)
Management Board Endorses major changes before passing back to the CAB for
Activities
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• Repeatable process
% reduction in unauthorised changes
% business driven change requests implemented on time
• Protect service
% reduction in changes causing incidents
% reduction in changes impacting SLAs
Release Management
Goal
Definitions
Definitive Software A secure software compound where all authorised versions of software
Library (DSL) are kept.
Definitive Hardware An area set aside for the secure storage of hardware spares.
Store (DHS)
Delta Release Only the Configuration Items within the release unit that have changed
or are new since the last full or delta release.
Full Release All components of the release unit are built, tested, distributed and
implemented together.
Package Release Includes at least two releases. i.e. a delta and a full may be grouped
together.
Activities
• Release planning
• Designing, building and configuring a release
• Testing
• Release acceptance
• Rollout planning
• Communication, preparation and training
• Distribution and installation
Benefits
Possible Challenges
Configuration Management
Goal
To identify, record and report on all IT components that are under the control and scope
of Configuration Management.
Definitions
CMDB A database, which holds a record of all Configuration Items, associated with
IT infrastructure.
Attributes Details that uniquely identify Configuration Items such as location, version
number, and serial number.
Relationships A description of the interfaces that exist between Configuration Items in the
infrastructure.
Activities
• Planning
• Identification
• Control
• Status accounting
• Verification and audit
Benefits
Possible Challenges
Service Delivery
Goal
Definitions
Service Level A listing of clients’ service requirements that form the basis for SLAs.
Requirements (SLR)
Activities
• Establish function
• Implement process
• Manage ongoing process
• Conduct periodic reviews
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• Are underpinning contracts and OLAs in place and current for all SLAs?
• Are SLAs being monitored and are regular reports being produced?
• Are review meetings being held on time and correctly recorded?
• Is there documentary evidence that issues raised at reviews are being followed up
and resolved (e.g. via an SIP)?
• Are service breaches being followed up effectively?
• Are service level achievements improving?
• Are Customer perception statistics improving?
• Are IT costs decreasing for services with stable service level achievements?
Goal
Definitions
Variable Costs Costs, which vary with some factor such as usage/time.
Activities
• Budgeting
• IT Accounting
• Charging
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• How much they (customers) have spent on IT during the financial year?
• Whether the charges made match the predicted profile?
• How is the IT organisation investing any profits?
• Any variances…
What caused them?
What actions are being taken?
Availability Management
Goal
Definitions
Activities
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• Improvement in the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) and MTBSI (Mean Time
Between System Incidents)
• Reduction in the MTTR (Mean Time To Repair)
• Effective reviews, follow-up on SLA, OLA, UC breaches
• Increase in the reliability of services and components
• Percentage increase in availability
• Reduced cost of unavailability
Capacity Management
Goal
To ensure that all the current and future capacity and performance aspects of the
business requirements are provided cost effectively.
Definitions
Application sizing Calculates new software requirements and can determine new
hardware requirements for applications that are being developed.
Activities
• Demand Management
• Workload Management
• Modelling
• Application sizing
• Production of a capacity plan
• Performance Management
• Resource Management
• Iterative Activities – Monitoring, analysis, tuning
• Storage of data
Benefits
Possible Challenges
• Over expectation
• Vendor influence
• Lack of information
• The distributed environment
• No consideration given to monitoring levels
• Resource Forecasts
Timely resource requirement forecasts
Accurate forecasts of trends
• Technology
Breached SLAs because of old technology
Performance and throughput measures of all services
• Costs Effectiveness
Reduction in panic buying
Accurate forecasts of planned expenditures
Goal
To ensure that the required IT technical and services facilities can be recovered within
required and agreed timescales.
Definitions
IT Service Continuity Part of the overall BCM, for continuity of IT services only. ITSCM is
dependent upon information derived from the BCM.
Business Continuity Managing risks to ensure that at all times the business can continue
Management (BCM) to operate to, at least, a pre-determined minimum level.
Activities
• Stage 1: Initiation
Setting policy
Terms of reference and scope
Resource allocation
Define the project organisation and control structure
Agreeing on project and quality plans
• Stage 3: Implementation
Organisation/Implementation planning
Implement risk reduction measures
Implement stand by arrangements
Develop procedures
Initial testing
Benefits
Possible Challenges