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- Management Reference Guide
- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Strategic Management
- Establishing Goals, Objectives, and Strategies
- Aligning IT Goals with Corporate Business Goals
- Utilizing Effective Planning Techniques
- Developing Worthwhile Mission Statements
- Developing Worthwhile Vision Statements
- Instituting Practical Corporate Values
- Budgeting Considerations in an IT Environment
- Introduction to Conducting an Effective SWOT Analysis
- IT Governance and Disaster Recovery, Part One
- IT Governance and Disaster Recovery, Part Two
- Customer Management
- Identifying Key External Customers
- Identifying Key Internal Customers
- Negotiating with Customers and Suppliers—Part 1: An Introduction
- Negotiating With Customers and Suppliers—Part 2: Reaching Agreement
- Negotiating and Managing Realistic Customer Expectations
- Service Management
- Identifying Key Services for Business Users
- Service-Level Agreements That Really Work
- How IT Evolved into a Service Organization
- FAQs About Systems Management (SM)
- FAQs About Availability (AV)
- FAQs About Performance and Tuning (PT)
- FAQs About Service Desk (SD)
- FAQs About Change Management (CM)
- FAQs About Configuration Management (CF)
- FAQs About Capacity Planning (CP)
- FAQs About Network Management
- FAQs About Storage Management (SM)
- FAQs About Production Acceptance (PA)
- FAQs About Release Management (RM)
- FAQs About Disaster Recovery (DR)
- FAQs About Business Continuity (BC)
- FAQs About Security (SE)
- FAQs About Service Level Management (SL)
- FAQs About Financial Management (FN)
- FAQs About Problem Management (PM)
- FAQs About Facilities Management (FM)
- Process Management
- Developing Robust Processes
- Establishing Mutually Beneficial Process Metrics
- Change Management—Part 1
- Change Management—Part 2
- Change Management—Part 3
- Audit Reconnaissance: Releasing Resources Through the IT Audit
- Problem Management
- Problem Management–Part 2: Process Design
- Problem Management–Part 3: Process Implementation
- Business Continuity Emergency Communications Plan
- Capacity Planning – Part One: Why It is Seldom Done Well
- Capacity Planning – Part Two: Developing a Capacity Planning Process
- Capacity Planning — Part Three: Benefits and Helpful Tips
- Capacity Planning – Part Four: Hidden Upgrade Costs and
- Improving Business Process Management, Part 1
- Improving Business Process Management, Part 2
- 20 Major Elements of Facilities Management
- Major Physical Exposures Common to a Data Center
- Evaluating the Physical Environment
- Nightmare Incidents with Disaster Recovery Plans
- Developing a Robust Configuration Management Process
- Developing a Robust Configuration Management Process – Part Two
- Automating a Robust Infrastructure Process
- Improving High Availability — Part One: Definitions and Terms
- Improving High Availability — Part Two: Definitions and Terms
- Improving High Availability — Part Three: The Seven R's of High Availability
- Improving High Availability — Part Four: Assessing an Availability Process
- Methods for Brainstorming and Prioritizing Requirements
- Introduction to Disk Storage Management — Part One
- Storage Management—Part Two: Performance
- Storage Management—Part Three: Reliability
- Storage Management—Part Four: Recoverability
- Twelve Traits of World-Class Infrastructures — Part One
- Twelve Traits of World-Class Infrastructures — Part Two
- Meeting Today's Cooling Challenges of Data Centers
- Strategic Security, Part One: Assessment
- Strategic Security, Part Two: Development
- Strategic Security, Part Three: Implementation
- Strategic Security, Part Four: ITIL Implications
- Production Acceptance Part One – Definition and Benefits
- Production Acceptance Part Two – Initial Steps
- Production Acceptance Part Three – Middle Steps
- Production Acceptance Part Four – Ongoing Steps
- Case Study: Planning a Service Desk Part One – Objectives
- Case Study: Planning a Service Desk Part Two – SWOT
- Case Study: Implementing an ITIL Service Desk – Part One
- Case Study: Implementing a Service Desk Part Two – Tool Selection
- Ethics, Scandals and Legislation
- Outsourcing in Response to Legislation
- Supplier Management
- Identifying Key External Suppliers
- Identifying Key Internal Suppliers
- Integrating the Four Key Elements of Good Customer Service
- Enhancing the Customer/Supplier Matrix
- Voice Over IP, Part One — What VoIP Is, and Is Not
- Voice Over IP, Part Two — Benefits, Cost Savings and Features of VoIP
- Application Management
- Production Acceptance
- Distinguishing New Applications from New Versions of Existing Applications
- Assessing a Production Acceptance Process
- Effective Use of a Software Development Life Cycle
- The Role of Project Management in SDLC— Part 2
- Communication in Project Management – Part One: Barriers to Effective Communication
- Communication in Project Management – Part Two: Examples of Effective Communication
- Safeguarding Personal Information in the Workplace: A Case Study
- Combating the Year-end Budget Blitz—Part 1: Building a Manageable Schedule
- Combating the Year-end Budget Blitz—Part 2: Tracking and Reporting Availability
- References
- Developing an ITIL Feasibility Analysis
- Organization and Personnel Management
- Optimizing IT Organizational Structures
- Factors That Influence Restructuring Decisions
- Alternative Locations for the Help Desk
- Alternative Locations for Database Administration
- Alternative Locations for Network Operations
- Alternative Locations for Web Design
- Alternative Locations for Risk Management
- Alternative Locations for Systems Management
- Practical Tips To Retaining Key Personnel
- Benefits and Drawbacks of Using IT Consultants and Contractors
- Deciding Between the Use of Contractors versus Consultants
- Managing Employee Skill Sets and Skill Levels
- Assessing Skill Levels of Current Onboard Staff
- Recruiting Infrastructure Staff from the Outside
- Selecting the Most Qualified Candidate
- 7 Tips for Managing the Use of Mobile Devices
- Useful Websites for IT Managers
- References
- Automating Robust Processes
- Evaluating Process Documentation — Part One: Quality and Value
- Evaluating Process Documentation — Part Two: Benefits and Use of a Quality-Value Matrix
- When Should You Integrate or Segregate Service Desks?
- Five Instructive Ideas for Interviewing
- Eight Surefire Tips to Use When Being Interviewed
- 12 Helpful Hints To Make Meetings More Productive
- Eight Uncommon Tips To Improve Your Writing
- Ten Helpful Tips To Improve Fire Drills
- Sorting Out Today’s Various Training Options
- Business Ethics and Corporate Scandals – Part 1
- Business Ethics and Corporate Scandals – Part 2
- 12 Tips for More Effective Emails
- Management Communication: Back to the Basics, Part One
- Management Communication: Back to the Basics, Part Two
- Management Communication: Back to the Basics, Part Three
- Asset Management
- Managing Hardware Inventories
- Introduction to Hardware Inventories
- Processes To Manage Hardware Inventories
- Use of a Hardware Inventory Database
- References
- Managing Software Inventories
- Business Continuity Management
- Ten Lessons Learned from Real-Life Disasters
- Ten Lessons Learned From Real-Life Disasters, Part 2
- Differences Between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity , Part 1
- Differences Between Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity , Part 2
- 15 Common Terms and Definitions of Business Continuity
- The Federal Government’s Role in Disaster Recovery
- The 12 Common Mistakes That Cause BIAs To Fail—Part 1
- The 12 Common Mistakes That Cause BIAs To Fail—Part 2
- The 12 Common Mistakes That Cause BIAs To Fail—Part 3
- The 12 Common Mistakes That Cause BIAs To Fail—Part 4
- Conducting an Effective Table Top Exercise (TTE) — Part 1
- Conducting an Effective Table Top Exercise (TTE) — Part 2
- Conducting an Effective Table Top Exercise (TTE) — Part 3
- Conducting an Effective Table Top Exercise (TTE) — Part 4
- The 13 Cardinal Steps for Implementing a Business Continuity Program — Part One
- The 13 Cardinal Steps for Implementing a Business Continuity Program — Part Two
- The 13 Cardinal Steps for Implementing a Business Continuity Program — Part Three
- The 13 Cardinal Steps for Implementing a Business Continuity Program — Part Four
- The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)
- The Origins of ITIL
- The Foundation of ITIL: Service Management
- Five Reasons for Revising ITIL
- The Relationship of Service Delivery and Service Support to All of ITIL
- Ten Common Myths About Implementing ITIL, Part One
- Ten Common Myths About Implementing ITIL, Part Two
- Characteristics of ITIL Version 3
- Ten Benefits of itSMF and its IIL Pocket Guide
- Translating the Goals of the ITIL Service Delivery Processes
- Translating the Goals of the ITIL Service Support Processes
- Elements of ITIL Least Understood, Part One: Service Delivery Processes
- Case Study: Recovery Reactions to a Renegade Rodent
- Elements of ITIL Least Understood, Part Two: Service Support
- Case Studies
- Case Study — Preparing for Hurricane Charley
- Case Study — The Linux Decision
- Case Study — Production Acceptance at an Aerospace Firm
- Case Study — Production Acceptance at a Defense Contractor
- Case Study — Evaluating Mainframe Processes
- Case Study — Evaluating Recovery Sites, Part One: Quantitative Comparisons/Natural Disasters
- Case Study — Evaluating Recovery Sites, Part Two: Quantitative Comparisons/Man-made Disasters
- Case Study — Evaluating Recovery Sites, Part Three: Qualitative Comparisons
- Case Study — Evaluating Recovery Sites, Part Four: Take-Aways
- Disaster Recovery Test Case Study Part One: Planning
- Disaster Recovery Test Case Study Part Two: Planning and Walk-Through
- Disaster Recovery Test Case Study Part Three: Execution
- Disaster Recovery Test Case Study Part Four: Follow-Up
- Assessing the Robustness of a Vendor’s Data Center, Part One: Qualitative Measures
- Assessing the Robustness of a Vendor’s Data Center, Part Two: Quantitative Measures
- Case Study: Lessons Learned from a World-Wide Disaster Recovery Exercise, Part One: What Did the Team Do Well
- (d) Case Study: Lessons Learned from a World-Wide Disaster Recovery Exercise, Part Two
This is the second of a two-part series on elements of the ITIL framework that are commonly misunderstood. In part one I discussed nine common misunderstandings associated with the six infrastructure processes of Service Delivery. In this final segment I discuss some of the areas of confusion involving the Service Desk function and Service Support processes of ITIL. Figure 1 lists these five processes along with the Service Desk function. As previously mentioned, I base these suggestions on feedback I have received from over 300 students whom I have certified in the Fundamentals of Service Management and the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).
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Figure 1 Service Delivery Processes
Ten Aspects of ITIL Service Support Often Misunderstood
Figure 2 below lists ten aspects of Service Delivery that are often misunderstood by those initiating a study of the ITIL framework. In the next section I present more detail about each of these.
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Figure 2 Misunderstood Elements of ITIL Service Delivery
- Distinguishing a Function from a Process – A function is an organizational entity that requires staffing, training, supervision, performance reviews and other personnel-oriented activities. A process is a repeatable sequence of steps intended to accomplish a specific objective. In the ITIL framework, the Service Desk is a function and the other entities such as Incident and Problem Management are processes.
- Distinguishing an Incident from a Problem – In ITIL parlance, an incident is any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which may cause an interruption to or the degradation of the quality of that service. Many incidents can be resolved by personnel on the Service Desk handling the incident. Those incidents that cannot are designated as a Problem and dispatched to an internal or external support group for resolution.
- Distinguishing an Incident from a Service Request – Many incidents reflect a failure of some type with the infrastructure, an application or a database. But other incidents may involve only a single user and do not involve any type of infrastructure failure. These incidents are classified as service requests. Resetting passwords for users who forgotten theirs is an example of a service request.
- Distinguishing a Problem from a Known Error – Support groups who are assigned an incident to resolve are attempting to accomplish three things. First and foremost is to identify the root cause of the problem. Second and optionally is to provide a workaround for the problem. Third is to request a change to permanently fix the problem. A problem for which the root cause is known, and for which a possible workaround is available, is called a Known Error. The difference between the two is that for a Problem the root cause is unknown, and for a Known Error the root cause is known.
- Distinguishing the Responsibilities Between the Configuration Management Manager and the Change Management Manager – Among other responsibilities the Change Management Manager is responsible for authorizing the Configuration Management Manager to physically update the record of a configuration item in the configuration management database (CMDB) that is due to be changed via an authorized change request. The Configuration Management Manager is responsible for actually making the update in the CMDB.
- Understanding the Definition of a Configuration Item – A configuration item (CI) is any entity that you want controlled and managed by the Configuration Management process. A descriptive record of the CI is kept in the CMDB. A CI entry in the CMDB can only be updated by the Configuration Management Manager with authorization from the Change Management Manager. CIs may represent logical or physical entities such as servers, applications, org charts ordocumentation.
- Key Aspects of a Configuration Item – A configuration item (CI) has two primary aspects: attributes and relationships. The attributes describe the CI itself such as model or release number. The relationships describe how the CI may interact with others. For example, a server CI and an application CI may be related by showing which applications run on a particular server, or which servers host a particular application.
- Purpose of the Definitive Software Library (DSL) – Many students of ITIL Fundamentals come into class believing the purpose of the Definitive Software Library (DSL) is store master copies of home-grown software. While that is one of its purposes, the DSL also serves as a protected repository of all production software, including master copies of desktop software and third party applications and products. The intent is to have one centralized, secured location for this critical software.
- Purpose of the Definitive Hardware Store (DHS) – Students usually do not immediately comprehend the purpose of the Definitive Hardware Store (DHS). The purpose of the DHS is to serve as a centralized location of appropriate replacements hardware devices. This devices include desktop computers, laptops, PDAs and in some cases blade servers.
- Distinguishing the Responsibilities Between Change Management and Release Management – Change Management is responsible for various aspects of managing a change to the production environment. The aspects include the review, approval, scheduling, overseeing and coordinating the numerous activities associated with implementing a change. This includes ensuring an approved change is thoroughly tested by Release Management, that a backout plan for the change is provided, and that the backout is executed should the implemented change fail and need to be removed.
In the ITIL model, the activities of Release Management are overseen by Change Management but the actual implementation of the change is performed by Release Management. This point is sometimes misunderstood by students because Change Management is responsible for all aspects of a change, except for the physical implementation of it which is done by Release Management.
One other element of Release Management sometimes overlooked is that in the ITIL framework Release Management is also responsible for all hardware changes, including installations, removals and upgrades. Students often associate Release Management only with software changes when in fact hardware implementations are also part of it responsibility.
Summary
This concludes the two-part series on some of the most common misunderstandings about elements of ITIL. Part One discussed those areas of confusion associated with the processes of Service Delivery while Part Two presented misunderstandings coming from the study of Service Support. Those of you are considering investigating the use of the ITIL framework, or planning to apply for certification in the Fundamentals of ITIL, should be aware of these common mis-conceptions about this library of best procatices fro managing infrastructure processes.