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Discovering the Processes of ITIL® Service Transition
ITIL® Service Transition is one of the disciplines that is covered by ITIL V3. With the help of its processes, the IT services of your company are built, deployed, and managed. In the following sections, you will find out how each of these processes function.
Service Transition Planning and Support
In the Service Transition Planning and Support process, new or modified services are transformed into production in an orderly fashion. If you received your ITIL Training prior to the release of ITIL V3, you may find some concepts familiar as they had been covered in ITIL V2.
The best way to explain how this process works is by highlighting its sub-processes. Those sub-processes are:
- Project Initiation – Stakeholders, responsibilities, and resources of the project are defined. Other aspects such as risks, constraints, and assumptions are also identified.
- Initial Project Planning – The initial project plan is made. This plan is to include descriptions of the following:
- Work Environment for Transition
- Milestones and Delivery Dates
- Tasks and Activities to be Performed
- Resource Requirements
- Issues and Risks
- Emergency Plans
- Project Controlling – The progress of the project as well as resource consumption are monitored so that corrective action can be taken if required.
- Project Reporting and Communication – A summary of the planned or ongoing Service Transition projects is given to customers and other Service Management processes.
Change Management
Before explaining what Change Management does, you need to know what is meant by a Change. A Change is a modification, addition, or removal of anything which may have an effect on IT services, such as an alteration in a process or an addition of a Configuration Item. Although a Problem can be one of the causes of a Change, many Changes can come when business benefits like reduced costs or improved services are sought after.
ITIL V3 Change Management was developed to make sure that any Change that takes place is handled efficiently and promptly. Therefore, you can be sure that Incidents, disturbances, and modifications can easily be reduced or even eliminated from your daily operation. With these absent, the quality of your organization’s day-to-day operations will improve.
Within the Change Management process are the following sub-processes:
- Change Management Support – Templates for the authorization of Changes are developed, and details of planned and ongoing Changes are circulated.
- RFC Logging and Pre-Evaluation – Impractical or vague Requests for Change (RFC) will be filtered out.
- RFC Classification – The priority of the Change requested is verified before determining the level of authority to approve or reject the RFC.
- Assessment of Urgent RFC by the ECAB – In case of an urgent RFC, an Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) is assembled to authorize, modify, or reject the RFC quickly.
- Change Assessment by the Change Manager – Changes will be authorized or rejected plus the initial scheduling of the Change Schedule will be prepared.
- Change Scheduling – The initial plan will be agreed upon and responsibility for deploying Changes will be handed over to Project Management and Release Management.
- Change Evaluation – The implementation of the Change and its results are assessed.
Evaluation Management
To understand Evaluation Management, the definition of the term ‘evaluation’ should be explained. Evaluation is the determination of the significance of something using criteria that are matched against some specified standards. In ITIL V3, evaluation assesses both intentional and unintentional effects of a Change. These effects help in determining whether some Changes should be adopted or not. If evaluation is used effectively, the quality of the services will be much better in the future.
Release and Deployment Management
In the Release and Deployment Management process, you will plan, schedule, and control the movement of Releases to a test environment. After passing multiple tests, the Releases are moved to the client’s working environment. With the Release and Deployment Management process, you can maintain the integrity of the live environment as well as make sure that the correct components are released to the public. Through this process, you will be able to effectively use the service and deliver value to your customers.
In this process, the following sub-processes take place:
- Release Management Support – Guidelines and support for the deployment of Releases are provided.
- Minor Release Deployment – Low-risk Releases are deployed in the end user’s environment.
- Release Build – Work Orders and Purchase Requests are issued so that components are either bought from external vendors or developed in-house.
- Release Deployment – Release components are deployed into the working environment. This is done in order to train end users.
- Early Life Support – Deployment errors and operational issues are resolved.
- Release Closure – A Release is closed after verifying that its activity logs are up-to-date.
Validation and Testing Management
During the generation of a service and following the deployment of a Release, Validation and Testing Management makes sure that Deployed Releases meet the clientele’s expectations. In addition, IT operations are verified for their ability to support the new service. This ensures the quality of the end product and definitely adds to its value.
The following sub-processes will define Validation and Testing Management in a better way:
- Test Model Definition – The type of test and the test cases used are defined, thus specifying how the Release will be tested and checked for quality.
- Service Design Validation – The functionality and quality of the IT service are validated.
- Release Component Acquisition – Components which meet quality criteria are acquired and tested rigorously.
- Release Test – All Release Components and tools used for deployment are tested so that only the best components are deployed at the client’s working environment.
- Service Acceptance Testing – After the Release has been deployed, the customer is asked to verify that all his/her conditions are met.
Service Asset and Configuration Management
During the Service Asset and Configuration Management process, information about Configuration Items (CIs) is maintained. The reason for this is that these items and their relationships are the main requirements for delivering an IT service.
To understand Service Asset and Configuration Management more clearly, take a look at the two sub-processes within it:
- Configuration Management Support – The Configuration Management System (a logical data model which contains many Configuration Management Databases) is defined and updated to hold the information of the Configuration Items and their relationships.
- Configuration Verification and Audit – Regular checks are performed on the Configuration Management System to validate the information contained in it.
Knowledge Management
With the components released, the final stage is Knowledge Management. During this process, information is gathered, analyzed, and shared within your organization. This will help increase efficiency for future, similar projects. This process also validates all the information that was used during Service Management is stored in the Service Knowledge Management System.
