Chapter 3: The Four Dimensions of Service Management

Factors that may influence an organization's strategy when using suppliers include:

1) Strategic focus-Some organizations may prefer to focus on their core competency and to outsource non-core supporting functions to third parties; others may prefer to stay as self-sufficient as possible, retaining full control over all important functions. 2) Corporate culture-Some organizations have a historical preference for one approach over another. Longstanding cultural bias is difficult to change without compelling reasons. 3)Resource scarcity-If a required resource or skillset is in short supply, it may be difficult for the service provider to acquire what is needed without engaging a supplier. 4)Cost concerns -A decision may be influenced by whether the service provider believes that it is more economical to source a particular requirement from a supplier. 5)Subject matter expertise-The service provider may believe that it is less risky to use a supplier that already has expertise in a required area, rather than trying to develop and maintain the subject matter expertise in house. 6)External constraints- Government regulation or policy, industry codes of conduct, and social, political or legal constraints may impact an organization's supplier strategy. 7)Demand patterns- Customer activity or demand for services may be seasonal or demonstrate high degrees of variability. These patterns may impact the extent to which organizations use external service providers to cope with variable demand.

To support a holistic approach to service management, ITIL defines four dimensions that collectively are critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. These are:

1. organizations and people 2. information and technology 3.partners and suppliers 4.value streams and processes. It is important to note that the four dimensions of service management apply to all services being managed, as well as to the SVS in general. It is therefore essential that these perspectives should be considered for every service, and that each one should be addressed when managing and improving the SVS at all levels.

CAB

A change advisory board (CAB) is a board made up of representatives from important areas within an organization like IT, finance, and facilities, including technical staff and key decision makers. These members advise the Change Manager on the assessment, prioritization, and scheduling of changes within the IT environment.

Value stream

A series of steps an organization undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers.

Process

A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs. A process takes one or more defined inputs and turns them into defined outputs. Processes define the sequence of actions and their dependencies.

CSF

Critical success factors-A necessary precondition for the achievement of intended results.

Most services nowadays are based on IT, and are heavily dependent on it. When considering a technology for use in the planning, design, transition, or operation of a product or service, questions an organization may ask include:

Is this technology compatible with the current architecture of the organization and its customers? Do the different technology products used by the organization and its stakeholders work together? How are emerging technologies (such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things) likely to disrupt the service or the organization? Does this technology raise any regulatory or other compliance issues with the organization's policies and information security controls, or those of its customers? Is this a technology that will continue to be viable in the foreseeable future? Is the organization willing to accept the risk of using aging technology, or of embracing emerging or unproven technology? Does this technology align with the strategy of the service provider, or its service consumers? Does the organization have the right skills across its staff and suppliers to support and maintain the technology? Does this technology have sufficient automation capabilities to ensure it can be efficiently developed, deployed, and operated? Does this technology offer additional capabilities that might be leveraged for other products or services? Does this technology introduce new risks or constraints to the organization (for example, locking it into a specific vendor)?

MTBF

Mean Time Between Failures-A metric of how frequently a service or other configuration item fails.

MTRS

Mean Time to Restore Service-A metric of how quickly a service is restored after a failure.

value streams and processes

One of the four dimensions of service management. It defines the activities, workflows, controls, and procedures needed to achieve the agreed objectives.

partners and suppliers

One of the four dimensions of service management. It encompasses the relationships an organization has with other organizations that are involved in the design, development, deployment, delivery, support, and/or continual improvement of services.

Organizations and people

One of the four dimensions of service management. It ensures that the way an organization is structured and managed, as well as its roles, responsibilities, and systems of authority and communication, is well defined and supports its overall strategy and operating model. As an example, it is useful to promote a culture of trust and transparency in an organization that encourages its members to raise and escalate issues and facilitates corrective actions before any issues have an impact on customers. Adopting the ITIL guiding principles can be a good starting point for establishing a healthy organizational culture. Every person in the organization should have a clear understanding of their contribution towards creating value for the organization, its customers, and other stakeholders. Promoting a focus on value creation is an effective method of breaking down organizational silos. The organizations and people dimension of a service covers roles and responsibilities, formal organizational structures, culture, and required staffing and competencies, all of which are related to the creation, delivery, and improvement of a service.

information and technology

One of the four dimensions of service management. It includes the information and knowledge used to deliver services, and the information and technologies used to manage all aspects of the service value system. When applied to the SVS, the information and technology dimension includes the information and knowledge necessary for the management of services, as well as the technologies required. It also incorporates the relationships between different components of the SVS, such as the inputs and outputs of activities and practices. The technologies that support service management include, but are not limited to, workflow management systems, knowledge bases, inventory systems, communication systems, and analytical tools. Service management increasingly benefits from developments in technology. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other cognitive computing solutions are used at all levels, from strategic planning and portfolio optimization to system monitoring and user support. The use of mobile platforms, cloud solutions, remote collaboration tools, automated testing, and deployment solutions has become common practice among service providers.

The four dimensions

Represents a holistic approach to service management, and organizations should ensure that there is a balance of focus between each dimension. The impact of external factors on the four dimensions should also be considered. All four dimensions and the external factors that affect them should be addressed as they evolve, considering emerging trends and opportunities. It is essential that an organization's SVS is considered from all four dimensions, as the failure to adequately address or account for one dimension, or an external factor, can lead to sub-optimal products and services.

A method an organization may use to address the partners and suppliers dimension

Service integration and management. This involves the use of a specially established integrator to ensure that service relationships are properly coordinated. Service integration and management may be kept within the organization, but can also be delegated to a trusted partner.

External factors

Service providers do not operate in isolation. They are affected by many external factors, and work in dynamic and complex environments that can exhibit high degrees of volatility and uncertainty and impose constraints on how the service provider can work. To analyze these external factors, frameworks such as the PESTLE (or PESTEL) model are used. PESTLE is an acronym for the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors that constrain or influence how a service provider operates.

In relation to the information component of this dimension, organizations should consider the following questions:

What information is managed by the services? What supporting information and knowledge are needed to deliver and manage the services? How will the information and knowledge assets be protected, managed, archived, and disposed of?

When applied to products and services, this dimension helps to answer the following questions, critical to service design, delivery, and improvement:

What is the generic delivery model for the service, and how does the service work? What are the value streams involved in delivering the agreed outputs of the service? Who, or what, performs the required service actions?

BIA

business impact analysis- A key activity in the practice of service continuity management that identifies vital business functions and their dependencies.

BRM

business relationship manager- A role responsible for maintaining good relationships with one or more customers.

CI

configuration item- Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service.

CMDB

configuration management database- A database used to store configuration records throughout their lifecycle. The CMDB also maintains the relationships between configuration records.

CMS

configuration management system- A set of tools, data, and information that is used to support service configuration management.

CX

customer experience-The sum of functional and emotional interactions with a service and service provider as perceived by a service customer.

KPI

key performance indicator- An important metric used to evaluate the success in meeting an objective.

MVP

minimum viable product- A product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development.

PIR

post-implementation review- A review after the implementation of a change, to evaluate success and identify opportunities for improvement.

RPO

recovery point objective- The point to which information used by an activity must be restored to enable the activity to operate on resumption

RTO

recovery time objective-The maximum acceptable period of time following a service disruption that can elapse before the lack of business functionality severely impacts the organization.

RFC

request for change-A description of a proposed change used to initiate change enablement.

SCM

service configuration management practice- The practice of ensuring that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the configuration items that support them, is available when and where needed.

SLA

service level agreement- A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both services required and the expected level of service.

SRM

service request management practice-The practice of supporting the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.

SVS

service value system- A model representing how all the components and activities of an organization work together to facilitate value creation. The two key inputs to the ITIL service value system (SVS) are opportunity and demand. Improving the organization or adding value for stakeholders represent SVS opportunities. Whereas demand refers to the consumer's need for the products or services. The consumer may be internal to the service provider or external.

UX

user experience-The sum of the functional and emotional interactions with a service and service provider as perceived by a user.