This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Service Management Defined
IT is responsible for providing the technology resources required to support the objectives of the organization it serves. These comprise applications, file and print resources, communication and collaboration resources, networks, servers, desktops, and mobile devices. To those paying for and using these capabilities, these are far more significant than raw hardware and software components. IT consumers require that these resources be matched to organizational demands, predictable and available, stable and secure, reliable and cost effective; and they need someone to call for help when needed.
Delivering these capabilities in a stable, secure, predictable, and affordable manner requires much more than providing hardware and software. Those technology components are wrapped in planning, design, operating, and support practices that enable them to deliver exactly what consumers expect, and at a reasonable cost. Organizing IT as services is intended to optimize the value of IT—by providing an ongoing means of matching technology capability to functional, performance, and financial requirements.
IT service management is the concept of organizing and presenting information technology capabilities to business customers and users as a set of services. Think of it as a wrapper for the raw technology components, providing the ways and means to deliver technology as services. IT service management centers on the customer’s perspective of IT’s contribution to the business, an approach distinctly different from technology-centered approaches to IT management.
In practice, IT service management is implemented as a series of specialized processes that work together to deliver and support IT services. These processes are technology-agnostic and share strategies and objectives with other process improvement disciplines such as Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). IT service management processes aim to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of fundamental IT work, and emphasize alignment of that work with business needs for functionality, performance, and cost.
The Importance of Service Management to IT
Service management has not always been a key discipline for IT. IT has historically focused on designing and delivering optimal technical solutions that did not necessarily align optimally with business needs. This context was narrow and inward looking. As IT became a more vital contributor to business results, there was greater emphasis on organizing it in ways that closely matched its solutions to business requirements. This broadened the context, as IT looked outward to position its capability within relevant business requirements.
This broad, business-oriented context is one of the chief reasons IT service management is important. Service management positions IT in a business context, featuring mechanisms to match what IT does to what the business demands, both at the time of design and on an ongoing basis. These mechanisms exist within various IT service management processes.
Key Concepts in IT Service Management
To obtain a good grasp of IT service management fundamentals, you should understand several key IT service management concepts:
- IT service management focuses on managing IT as a set of business-facing IT services. This packages IT capability into services that ideally are easy for users to understand and consume, with straightforward measures of quality and cost.
- The IT organization is positioned as the service provider, responsible for delivering IT services in accordance with agreed standards for quality and cost.
- The business is the consumer, responsible for articulating requirements and funding IT services. It contains two constituents: customers who pay for the IT services, and users who utilize them in their work.