SS

Sharon Taylor

Chief Architect, ITIL Service Management Practices

Preface

A publication is given life by its readers. In other words, a publication is completed by its readers. This is certainly true for this publication on service management. What follows is a collection of principles, practices, and methods supporting a strategic approach to service management. The guidance is written primarily for senior managers who provide leadership and direction to organizations in the form of objectives, decisions, plan s, policies, and strategies. Managers at other levels may benefit as well by understanding the underlying logic of senior management decisions. The guidance is given from the perspective of organizations in the public and private sectors tasked with providing information technology-related business services. Customers benefit from incorporating the guidance into due diligence for sourcing decisions and strategies.

This publication is the core of the ITIL framework. The creation of this version of ITIL refreshes the body of knowledge, so it continues to aid organizations seeking to develop and improve their service management capabilities. A frequently asked question is, ‘Why change something that is not broken?’ and a related question is, ‘Does that mean what we have been following so far is wrong?’ The answer to both is no. Challenges and opportunities faced by organizations change over time, requiring them to continually learn and adapt. Successful innovations gradually become best practices. Best practices quickly become good practices, which become commodities, generally accepted principles, received wisdom, or regulatory requirements. What were once distinctive characteristics of an organization become ordinary traits taken for granted by customers. This compels organizations to seek new ways to improve, and to differentiate themselves from alternatives through innovative services, operating models, systems, and processes.

ITIL is part of a large and growing body of knowledge on which service management depends. The library strengthens and extends the body of knowledge to cover new challenges and opportunities confronting the leadership of organizations. This publication is not about business strategy in general. It describes how strategic thinking is applied to service management and how service management itself is a strategic asset of an IT organization.

This publication has been reviewed by a wide group of CIOs, CTOs, senior managers, practitioners, and consultants who have applied the criteria of usefulness and relevance to the practice of service management in various organizational contexts and business environments. The findings of the OGC Public Consultation for the ITIL Refresh Project have been applied as quality criteria. This publication provides the context and basis for investing in tools and technologies allowing service management to support unprecedented levels of efficiency, scale, complexity, and uncertainty.

Contact information

Full details of the range of material published under the ITIL banner can be found at www.best-management-practice.com/itil

If you would like to inform us of any changes that may be required to this publication please log them at www.best-management-practice.com/changelog

For further information on qualifications and training accreditation, please visit www.itil-officialsite.com. Alternatively, please contact:

APMG Service Desk Sword House Totteridge Road High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP13 6DG

Tel: +44 (0) 1494 452450

Email: servicedesk@apmgroup.co.uk

Acknowledgements

Chief Architect and authors

Sharon Taylor (Aspect Group Inc)

Chief Architect

Majid Iqbal (Carnegie Mellon University)

Author

Michael Nieves (Accenture)

Author

ITIL authoring team

The ITIL authoring team contributed to this guide through commenting on content and alignment across the set. So thanks are also due to the other ITIL authors, specifically Jeroen Bronkhorst (HP), David Cannon (HP), Gary Case (Pink Elephant), Ashley Hanna (HP), Shirley Lacy (ConnectSphere), Vernon Lloyd (Fox IT), Ivor Macfarlane (Guillemot Rock), Stuart Rance (HP), Colin Rudd (ITEMS), George Spalding (Pink Elephant) and David Wheeldon (HP).

Mentors

Phil Montanaro and Bill Powell.

Further contributions

A number of people generously contributed their time and expertise to this Service Strategy publication. Jim Clinch, as OGC Project Manager, is grateful to the support provided by Accenture to the authoring team on the development of this publication, particularly the contribution of Jack Bischof; and to the support of Ralph Russo (Merrill Lynch), Jenny Dugmore, Convenor of Working Group ISO/IEC 20000, Janine Eves, Carol Hulm, Aidan Lawes and Michiel van der Voort.

The authors would also like to thank D. Neil Gissler, Ran S. Mangat, Damian Harris, William McVicker, Cheryl Deitcher, William Farler, Maria Veyon, Ryan J. Thomas and Suzon Crowell of Accenture.

In order to develop ITIL Service Management Practices to reflect current best practice and produce publications of lasting value, OGC consulted widely with different stakeholders throughout the world at every stage in the process. OGC would also like to thank the following individuals and their organizations for their contributions to refreshing the ITIL guidance:

The ITIL Advisory Group

Pippa Bass, OGC; Tony Betts, Independent; Alison Cartlidge, Xansa; Diane Colbeck, DIYmonde Solutions Inc; Ivor Evans, DIYmonde Solutions Inc; Karen Ferris, ProActive; Malcolm Fry, FRY-Consultants; John Gibert, Independent; Colin Hamilton, RENARD Consulting Ltd; Lex Hendriks, EXIN; Signe-Marie Hernes Bjerke, Det Norske Veritas; Carol Hulm, British Computer Society-ISEB; Tony Jenkins, DOMAINetc; Phil Montanaro, EDS; Alan Nance, ITPreneurs; Christian Nissen, Itilligence; Don Page, Marval Group; Bill Powell, IBM; Sergio Rubinato Filho, CA; James Siminoski, SOScorp; Robert E. Stroud, CA; Jan van Bon, Inform-IT; Ken Wendle, HP; Paul Wilkinson, Getronics PinkRoccade; Takashi Yagi, Hitachi.

Reviewers

John Adam, HP; Allan Aitchison, KPMG; Nathan Akers, Active Consulting; Oscar Almadin, IBM; Iyas Al-Sarabi, Y-consult; Uade Alukpe; Jens Jakob Andersen, Post Danmark A/S; Steve Ashing, Independent; Hartwig Bazzanella; Charles Betz, EDS; Thomas Betz, EDS; Emma Bevan, Afiniti; Michael Billimoria, ITS; Marcus Binet, Redworld; Janaki Chakravarthy, Infosys Technologies Limited; Constantinos Christofi, EMC/Accenture; Jorgen Clausen, Danfoss A/S; Luiz Antonio Comar; Jorge Luis Cordenonsi, IBM; Petrovic Dalibor, Deloitte & Touche, LLP; Graham Donoghue, Ngrid; David Favelle, Lucid IT; Maamar Ferkoun, IBM; Stephen Fritts, CTG Inc; Franco Gaggia, EDS; Mark Gillett, Alvarez and Marsal (Europe) Ltd; Leanne Gregory, IBM Australia Ltd; Geert Hahn, EDS Business Solutions GmbH; Sandra Hendriks, News Ltd; David Hinley, Gnet; Eu Jin Ho, UBS; Caspar Honee, Unisys; Young Hong, Samsung SDS; Chris Hunter, Network Rail Ltd; Peter Isbell; Rene Jacob, HP; Sharma Jitendra, Satyam; David Johnton, DAJex Ltd; Bill Ye Jun, HP; Jeyaganesh Kannan, IBM; Dwight Kayto, Sasktel; Magda Kilby, Richemont; Eddie Kilkelly, ILX Group; Andreas Knaus, Santix AG; Michael Koerfer; Michael Kresse, Serview; Aron Kumar, Accenture; Soren Laursen, Novo Nordisk A/S; Simon Learoyd, iCore Ltd; Laura Lee, Pink Elephant; Ragnar Loken, RLBR; David Lynch, GCHQ; Jan Mandrup, IBM; Edward Mangiaratti, Court Square Data Group; Jak Marion, Stavtech; Gaetan Mauguin, Bearing Point; Manoj Kumar Mauni, Maersk Global Services Centres; Patrick Mcguire; Daniel McLean, US Cellular Corporation; Chris Molloy, IBM; Michael Muenzinger, EDS; Jason Mugridge, BT; Hamid Nouri, Nouri Associates; Michael Orr, IBM; Joel Pereira, iCore Ltd; Robin Piepjohn, Icisinst; Daniel Rolles, Lend Lease; Oscar Rozalen Gaitan, Comunycarse Network Consultants; Michael Rueggeberg, EDS; Marianna Ruocco, Pink Elephant; Monalisa Sarkar, TCS; Frances Scarff, OGC; Rainer Schmidt, HTV Aalen; Karsten Smet, Microsoft; Martin Steffens, EDS Australia; Harald Steier, Ewico; Thorsten Steiling, Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH; Mark Ross Sutherland, G2G3; Anil Tamirisa, Accenture; Roy Taylor, Northampton ac; Tikoo Vijay, Satyam; Lief Wadhvana, Canada Ontario Government; Jason Week, Microsoft; Mark Whelan, Servo Computer Services; John Windebank, Sun Microsystems Ltd; Frederieke Winkler Prins, Service Management Partners; Zachariah Wyckoff, Microsoft; John Seah Yam-Sung, Everest Innovation Pte Ltd; Rob Young, Fox IT; Steffi Zoeller, EDS.