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Lesson 4 Study Guide d^>
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Welcome to the fourth chapter of your Study Guide. This document is supplementary to the information available to you online, and should be used in conjunction with the videos, quizzes and exercises.
After your subscription to the course has finished online, you will still have the Study Guide to help you prepare for your exam - if youve not taken the exam by the time your subscription expires.
Youll download a Study Guide at the end of most Lessons as you progress through the course.
This Chapter contains the Study Guide information for Lesson 4 The Service Lifecycle.
Use this Study Guide in conjunction with your own notes that you make as you progress through the course. You may prefer to print the Study Guides out, or use them on-screen.
After each Lesson, you can consolidate what you have learnt whilst watching the videos and taking the quizzes by reading through the chapter of the Study Guide.
If you progress on to the formal exam, your Study Guide will provide you with vital revision information.
Remember, your Study Guide is yours to keep, even after your subscription to the course has finished.
The Service Lifecycle
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Study Guide Icons 3
Lesson Contents 4
The Service Lifecycle 5
Service Strategy 7
Service Design 10
Service Transition 11
Service Operation 13
Continual Service Improvement 14
Exercise Value across the lifecycle 15
Table of Contents
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Watch out for these icons as you use your Study Guide. Each icon highlights an important piece of information.
Tip this will remind you of something you need to take note of, or give you some exam guidance.
Definition key concept or term that you need to understand and remember.
Role a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.
Exercise Solution suggested solution to one of the exercises you will complete throughout the course.
Goal or Objective for a particular process or core volume.
Study Guide Icons
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This Lesson provided an overview of the service lifecycle, including purpose and objectives. There was also an exercise to look at the value of each lifecycle phase.
We studied:
Service Strategy Service Design Service Transition Service Operation Continual Service Improvement
Text in "italics and quotation marks" is drawn from the ITIL core volumes Quoted ITIL text is from Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement Crown copyright 2011 Reproduced under license from OGC.
Lesson Contents
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ITIL is based around a service lifecycle. The lifecycle has been documented as five core volumes. These cover a services life from start to finish, including ongoing improvement.
These five volumes are referred to as the core of ITIL, and they provide high level guidance across the complete service lifecycle.
The core is also supplemented by another series of books known as complementary guidance.
These complementary publications provide further guidance that is more specific to industry sectors, organization types, operating models, and technology architectures. As ITIL becomes even more widely adopted and matures further - the amount of complementary guidance available will increase.
Remember
Understanding the service lifecycle is critical to your understanding of ITIL and may well form part of your Foundation exam.
When you take the sample exams included within this course, youll see that many of the questions are testing that you understand what happens where across the different stages of the service lifecycle.
By understanding the various components of the lifecycle, and how they fit together, you can dramatically increase your chances of success in your final exam.
The Service Lifecycle
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This diagram below shows the Service Lifecycle. It is a visual representation of how the five core volumes fit together, and is circular because it represents a lifecycle.
Service Strategy fig. 1.1 the Service Lifecycle Crown copyright 2011. Reproduced under license from OGC
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Service Strategy is the centre of the lifecycle and the axis that all the other phases revolve around.
The purpose of Service Strategy is to define what a service provider needs to do to support its customer. The Service Strategy adopted must support the organizations overall business outcomes.
As part of its purpose, Service Strategy will define plans, patterns, a position and perspective for how the service provider will behave.
Service Strategy Objectives
Service Strategy has a number of core objectives. These objectives will help to define how the rest of the service lifecycle works.
Although many of us will not actually get involved in making such strategic decisions, they will affect us. If these decisions are wrong - or not thought through correctly they can have a big negative effect on all areas of the organization.
The Service Strategy objectives include:
Understanding what strategy is Understanding what services are, and who customers are Understanding how value is created and delivered Creating a service provision model to show how services will be delivered and funded Understanding if the organization is capable of delivering the strategy Identifying opportunities to offer services and being able to act on them Understanding what service assets make up services and managing them appropriately Putting processes in place to make sure the strategy is delivered
Service Strategy
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Service Assets
A service asset is any resource or capability of a service provider. Services are made up of service assets. They could be people, hardware, software or anything that is involved in service delivery. Its important that service providers manage their assets and get the best out of them.
The diagram below shows some examples of capabilities and resources.
Service Strategy fig. 2.4 Examples of capabilities and resources Crown copyright 2011. Reproduced under license from OGC
Resources can be physically accounted for and bought when needed. Capabilities are more intangible they are the knowledge, processes and skills that we use to organize our resources. Capabilities cannot produce value on their own.
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Service Strategy Scope
The scope of Service Strategy includes defining principles and processes for service management which then apply to the rest of the service lifecycle.
Internal and external IT service providers need a coherent strategy to make sure their services deliver value.
The scope of Service Strategy can be broken down into 2 areas:
Defining a strategy for how the service provider will deliver services that meet customer needs
Defining a strategy for ongoing management of services
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Once a strategy has been defined and communicated, services can be designed to meet the strategic objectives.
The purpose of the Service Design lifecycle phase is to design services that underpin the strategy.
IT processes, practices and policies also need to be designed to make sure that services are high quality, cost effective, and meet customer needs.
Service Design Objectives
The main objective of Service Design is to deliver a service which works. This means it wont need lots of improvement when it is live, reducing the cost of delivering the service.
All Service Design activities must have continual improvement embedded in them - so that solutions and designs are always getting better.
Service Design Scope
The scope of Service Design includes the design of appropriate and innovative services that meet business needs - now and in the future.
There are a number of Service Design processes and concepts that support this. Service Design will be influenced by requirements, business benefits and constraints.
Service Design
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Once a service has been designed, it will be transitioned into the live environment.
Transitions need to be carefully planned and managed, as they have the potential to negatively affect live services.
Service Transition Purpose
The purpose of Service Transition is to make sure that new, modified or retired services meet the business expectations documented during Service Strategy and Service Design.
Remember: retiring a service is a transition, as well as releasing a new service or making a change to an existing one. A service retirement needs to be communicated and managed just like a new service going live.
Service Transition Objectives
To fulfill its role, Service Transition has a number of objectives:
Service Transition needs to manage service changes efficiently and effectively It needs to manage any risks related to changes to services It needs to deploy releases successfully, It needs to set expectations about how services will perform and be used It will ensure that service changes create the expected business value It will provide knowledge and information about services and services assets
To meet its objectives, Service Transition needs to put a framework in place to manage service changes. Capacity and resources need to be managed, and risk needs to be understood and evaluated.
Service assets need to be protected, and repeatable processes must be used for activities like testing.
Service Transition
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Service Transition Scope
Service Transition should lead to an organization developing and improving its capabilities for getting new and changed services into the live environment.
Processes need to be in place for release build, test and deployment to make sure that changes do what they are supposed to do - and dont create any unnecessary problems.
The scope of Service Transition also includes the retirement of services and movement of services between providers for example during an outsourcing exercise.
Requirements are mapped in Service Strategy and designed in Service Design. Service Transition then needs to transfer them and make sure they are delivered in Service Operation.
Service Transition needs to be aware that:
Services and processes are complex and changes are becoming more complex too New services and innovation need to be allowed, but without negative effects Services will change and evolve, and be discontinued which all needs to be managed
Any change to a service can initiate transition activity. Changes to the service provider capabilities for example moving to a new supplier can also initiate transition processes and planning.
Service Transition Processes
Service Transition uses 7 processes to help it manage changes to services. Some of them are only active in Service Transition, and others support all stages of the lifecycle.
Change Management, Service Asset and Configuration Management and Knowledge Management are the Service Transition processes that are involved in the whole service lifecycle.
Transition Planning and Support, Release and Deployment Management, Service Validation and Testing and Change Evaluation are the processes that only operate within Service Transition.
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Service Operation deals with the management of live services including all business as usual activities required to keep services stable on a day-to-day basis.
The purpose of Service Operation is to undertake activities and processes to manage and deliver services at the levels agreed with Business Users and Customers.
Service Operation manages the technology used to deliver services and collects information on performance and defined service metrics.
Service Operation is vital for effective Service Management. Services can be well designed and transitioned smoothly, but they still need to be managed in the live environment to ensure they keep working well.
Service Operation staff need processes and tools to support them. Its important to focus on services, not just single bits of technology. Any external suppliers involved in service delivery also need to be part of the Service Operation view.
Tools may be used to share information between organizations involved in service delivery.
Service Operation Objectives
The objectives of Service Operation include:
Maintaining business confidence and satisfaction by delivering services effectively and efficiently
Minimizing the effect of any service downtime for the business Ensuring that only authorized users have access to services
Service Operation Scope
Service Operation covers all areas of service delivery, including:
Services Service management processes Technology People
Service Operation
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CSI interacts with all the other phases in the lifecycle.
The purpose of CSI is to identify improvements to allow IT services to stay aligned with changing business needs.
Organizations should try to embed a culture of improvement in everything they do.
CSI Objectives
The objectives of CSI include:
Reviewing, analyzing and prioritizing improvements across the whole service lifecycle Reviewing if services meet their agreed targets Identifying and implementing activities to improve service quality Improving cost effectiveness without affecting service performance Using quality management to support improvement Making sure processes have clearly defined objectives and measures Understanding what to measure, and why
CSI Scope
The scope of CSI covers 4 main areas:
The health of IT service management overall Alignment of services with business needs now and in the future Maturity and capability of the organization, management, processes and people Continual improvement of all IT services and service assets
Continual Service Improvement
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Exercise Value across the lifecycle
This Lesson included an Exercise to look at the value delivered by each lifecycle phase. If you didnt have time to complete the exercise during the Lesson, why not attempt it now?
Exercise
All of the 5 lifecycle phases must add value to the organization as a whole. Make some notes to answer these questions:
What value do you think each lifecycle phase adds to an organization? What is the impact if an organization has poor capabilities in the different stages?
Exercise Solution
Service Strategy value will include:
Support the ability to link activities performed by the service provider to outcomes that are critical to internal or external customers. As a result, the service provider will be seen to be contributing to the value (and not just the costs) of the organization
Enable the service provider to have a clear understanding of what types and levels of service will make its customers successful and then organize itself optimally to deliver and support those services. The service provider will achieve this through a process of defining strategies and services, ensuring a consistent, repeatable approach to defining how value will be built and delivered that is accessible to all stakeholders
Enable the service provider to respond quickly and effectively to changes in the business environment, ensuring increased competitive advantage over time
Support the creation and maintenance of a portfolio of quantified services that will enable the business to achieve positive return on its investment in services
Facilitate functional and transparent communication between the customer and the service provider, so that both have a consistent understanding of what is required and how it will be delivered
Provide the means for the service provider to organize itself so that it can provide services in an efficient and effective manner
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Service Design Value will include:
Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) Cost of ownership can only be minimized if all aspects of services, processes and technology are designed properly and implemented against the design
Improve quality of service Both service and operational quality will be enhanced through services that are better designed to meet the required outcomes of the customer
Improve consistency of service This will be achieved by designing services within the corporate strategy, architectures and constraints
Ease the implementation of new or changed services Integrated and full service designs and the production of comprehensive service design packages will support effective and efficient transitions
Improve service alignment Involvement of service design from the conception of the service will ensure that new or changed services match business needs, with services designed to meet service level requirements
Improve service performance Performance will be enhanced if services are designed to meet specific performance criteria and if capacity, availability, IT service continuity and financial plans are recognized and incorporated
Improve IT governance By building controls into designs, service design can contribute towards the effective governance of IT
Improve effectiveness of service management and IT processes Processes will be designed with optimal quality and cost effectiveness
Improve information and decision-making Comprehensive and effective measurements and metrics will enable better decision-making and continual improvement of services and service management practices throughout the service lifecycle
Improve alignment with customer values and strategies For organizations with commitments to concepts such as green IT or that establish strategies such as the use of cloud technologies, service design will ensure that all areas of services and service management are aligned with these values and strategies
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Service Transition value will include:
Enable projects to estimate the cost, timing, resource requirement and risks associated with the service transition stage more accurately
Result in higher volumes of successful change Be easier for people to adopt and follow Enable service transition assets to be shared and re-used across projects
and services Reduce delays from unexpected clashes and dependencies for example,
if multiple projects need to use the same test environment at the same time
Reduce the effort spent on managing the service transition test and pilot environments
Improve expectation setting for all stakeholders involved in service transition including customers, users, suppliers, partners and projects
Increase confidence that the new or changed service can be delivered to specification without unexpectedly affecting other services or stakeholders
Ensure that new or changed services will be maintainable and cost-effective
Improve control of service assets and configurations
Service Operation value will include:
Reduce unplanned labour and costs for both the business and IT through optimized handling of service outages and identification of their root causes.
Reduce the duration and frequency of service outages which will allow the business to take full advantage of the value created by the services they are receiving.
Provide operational results and data that can be used by other ITIL processes to improve services continually and provide justification for investing in ongoing service improvement activities and supporting technologies.
Meet the goals and objectives of the organizations security policy by ensuring that IT services will be accessed only by those authorized to use them.
Provide quick and effective access to standard services which business staff can use to improve their productivity or the quality of business
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services and products. Provide a basis for automated operations, thus increasing efficiencies and
allowing expensive human resources to be used for more innovative work, such as designing new or improved functionality or defining new ways in which the business can exploit technology for increased competitive advantage
CSI value will include:
Lead to a gradual and continual improvement in service quality, where justified
Ensure that IT services remain continuously aligned to business requirements
Result in gradual improvements in cost effectiveness through a reduction in costs and/or the capability to handle more work at the same cost
Use monitoring and reporting to identify opportunities for improvement in all lifecycle stages and in all processes
Identify opportunities for improvements in organizational structures, resourcing capabilities, partners, technology, staff skills and training, and communications
Remember, if you found this exercise challenging or have any questions, you can email a tutor at [email protected].