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ITIL® and the Concept of Service
If you were to ask someone not aware of ITIL® or someone who is new to ITIL, “What is Service?” you may get answers like:
“A service does something I don’t want to do.”
“Service gets me something…like a waiter or a dry-cleaner.”
“An IT service is like the help desk.”
All of these are correct. The ITIL concept of service is simply stated in the box below and gives broad scope within the IT community. This definition is true for any organization that provides service to its customers.
Let’s look at how IT departments that have adopted ITIL define service and how different IT departments deliver service. While many organizations adopt ITIL, each organization has unique business requirements; consequently, each company defines the actual process steps differently. Each business has specific, identified processes which it performs. Most likely, it needs some particular tools in order to perform the service. In addition, there is often organizational knowledge needed in order to perform the service which the customer does not have. Within the ITIL framework, the same issues apply.
The importance is that ultimately the customer decides whether the service has sufficient value or whether the service needs to be refined or redefined. The service an IT organization provides can be simple or complex and is a result of a business’s desire to operate efficiently and effectively. Service quality is a measurement of how the service actually meets business requirements. So how does anyone determine the actual value of a service to the business? What makes “good” service? How do we deliver “service excellence”?
The ITIL framework separates the delivery of service into a series of inter-related phases, called the Service Lifecycle, shown in Figure 1.Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is a cycle of introducing, deploying, transferring, and decommissioning service. That is, new services are planned within the context of existing services being performed. Improvement of services also takes into account proprietary knowledge deeply embedded in organizations, which may be difficult to adopt, replicate or transfer even with the cooperation of the owners. For this reason, ITIL strives to work closely with business Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to uncover potentially unrecorded knowledge, which may exist only within the context of specific business needs. Commonly, the owners of proprietary knowledge expect to be rewarded for their long-term investment and may surrender this knowledge only under commercial terms through purchases and licensing agreements or within internal corporate recognition mechanisms (i.e., rewards, bonuses, or other recognition).
Initially, the customer or business comes up with an idea that they need something. Let’s say a business wants an automated process that will:
- allow sales order information entered from an input form to be sent to the factory to see if the item is in stock or if it needs to be manufactured,
- take the item being purchased from inventory,
- assign the value of the item to the shipping department, and
- instruct the shipping department where to physically deliver the item.
This is an example of a service within an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This service could be delivered within an advanced ERP system or via custom code developed using existing business software or forms. The idea and basic requirements are analyzed in the Service Strategy phase. Service Strategy identifies dependencies, business case, and expected Return on Investment (ROI); this phase also determines the priority for development and delivery. The Service Design phase is responsible for determining the most advantageous, cost effective and efficient way to deliver the service and develops the Service Design Package which identifies detailed requirements. Service Transition ensures that the process of delivering services is streamlined, effective, and efficient, and that costs or delays are minimized. Service Transition also establishes assurance of the expected and actual service deliverables and the integrated elements that each service needs in order to deliver and operate successfully. These elements can be applications, infrastructure, knowledge, documentation, facilities, finance, people, and/or processes. Successful Service Transition requires effective understanding and application of Change Management, quality assurance, risk management as well as effective project and program management. At every stage in the Service Transition process, the effectiveness of a service is compared to current requirements and in relation to other services in transition. Service Transition does not end when the new service goes live; it continues to work with Service Operations to deliver early life support.
As the size and complexity of a change increases, risk increases. Risk includes cost, conflict, unintended or unexpected results, and even organizational change of the business organization. Risks must be continually identified, and their impacts must be considered and mitigated wherever possible to head off prospective issues. The likelihood of success of a service is continually balanced against the consequences of failure and the cost of failure. The assessment and prediction of risk and performance is an integral part of the day to day operation of Service Transition. This means that the cost of failure can be financial or operational.
The Service Operation phase uses the new service to deliver value to the customer. Service Operation monitors performance. Over time, users notice insufficiencies or problems or identify new functions they would like to add to a service. Service Operation records alerts, incidents, problems, known errors, or service requests for changes. Based on problems, performance degradation, or service requests, a Request for Change (RFC) may be made. While RFCs may be made as a result of activities in any phase, Service Operation, by pointing out problems or changes in performance, often raises RFCs.
Today’s business is dynamic; organizations continually need to learn and adapt to both internal and external pressures to improve performance and manage trade-offs. Within ITIL, this phase is called Continual Service Improvement. Customers may seek advice from service providers to improve their performance or from external service providers. Do we use a custom web search engine, Google, or Bing? Does the IT department mandate specific external services or allow the customer to choose among options? This adds pressure on service providers to either validate external services or continually improve internal services to maintain a competitive advantage with respect to any allowed alternatives. Increased use of outsourcing exemplifies the exposure of the internal organization to competition.
It is important within any transition to benchmark improvements. Good benchmarks measure improvements from original metrics, compared with the changed process as well as against industry standards. These metrics are then evaluated to determine additional improvements and to close gaps in the service capabilities.
Sources of good practices include public frameworks, organizational standards, and the proprietary knowledge of organizations and individuals. Some public frameworks which are compatible with ITIL include Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), and Six Sigma. These are validated across a diverse set of environments and situations rather than the limited experience of any single organization. As an example, elements of the process improvement methodology of Six Sigma are very compatible with the determination of good processes within ITIL, as IT personnel collaborate with business SMEs to determine optimal process steps within the existing environment. Similarly, the objectives of COBIT provide a framework of strong control of IT actions, providing management directives and strategies to determine project priorities. The CMMI provides direction to improve cost effective processes through standardization, documentation and knowledge management. Some businesses have a history of effective use of Six Sigma, while others have attained an advanced level of CMMI certification. These businesses will use the complementary strengths in combination with ITIL to provide good service.
In summary, ITIL, along with its complementary processes, presents the IT department, and the business as a whole, a strong methodology for providing the business with the services that the business, not the IT department, has identified as crucial for business operation. In short, good service drives good business.
