ITIL Definitions Flashcards
A list of minimum requirements that a service or service component must meet for it to be acceptable to key stakeholders
Acceptance criteria
An umbrella term for a collection of frameworks and techniques that together enable teams and individuals to work in a way that is typified by collaboration, prioritization, iterative and incremental delivery, and timeboxing. Some examples include Scrum, Lean, and Kanban
Agile
The practice of providing an understanding of all the different elements that make up an organization and how those elements relate to one another
Architecture management practice
A database or list of assets, capturing key attributes such as ownership and financial value
Asset register
The ability of an IT service or other configuration item to perform its agreed function when required
Availability
The practice of ensuring that services deliver agreed levels of availability to meet the needs of customers and users
Availability management practice
A report or metric that serves as a starting point against which progress or change can be assessed
Baseline
A way of working that have been proven to be successful by multiple organizations
Best practice
The use of very large volumes of structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources to gain new insights
Big data
The practice of analyzing a business or some element of a business, defining its needs and recommending solutions to address these needs and/or solve a business problem, and create value for stakeholders
Business analysis practice
A justification for expenditure of organizational resources, providing information about costs, benefits, options, risks and issues
Business case
A key activity in the service continuity management practice that identifies vital business functions and their dependencies
Business impact analysis (BIA)
A role responsible for maintaining good relationships with one or more customers
Business relationship manager (BRM)
An organization or business unit that handles large numbers of incoming and outgoing calls and other interactions
Call center
The ability of an organization, person, process, application, configuration item or IT service to carry out an activity
Capability
The practice of ensuring that services achieve agreed and expected performance, satisfying current and future demand in a cost-effective way
Capability and performance management practice
The activity of creating a plan that manages resources to meet demand for services
Capacity planning
The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services
Change
A person or group responsible for authorizing a change
Change authority
The practice of ensuring risks are properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing a change schedule in order to maximize the number of successful IT changes
Change control practice
A repeatable approach to the management of a particular type of change
Change model
A calendar that shows planned and historical changes
Change schedule
The activity that assigns a price for services
Charging
A device or solution that is used directly by a user
Client
The act of ensuring that a standard or set of guidelines is followed, or that proper, consistent accounting or other practices are being employed
Compliance
A security objective that ensures information is not made available or disclosed to unauthorized entities
Confidentiality
An arrangement of configuration items (CIs) or other resources that work together to deliver a product or service. Can also be used to describe the parameter settings for one or more CIs
Configuration
A database used to store configuration records throughout their lifecycle. Also maintains the relationships between configuration records
Configuration management database (CMDB)
A set of tools, data and information that is used to support service configuration management
Configuration management system (CMS)
A record containing the details of a configuration item (CI). Each of these records document the lifecycle of a single CI. These are stored in a configuration management database
Configuration record
The practice of aligning an organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of all elements involved in the effective management of products and services
Continual improvement practice
An integrated set of practices and tools used to merge developers’ code, build and test the resulting software, and package it so that it is ready for deployment
Continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD)
A means of managing a risk, ensuring that a business objective is achieved, or that a process is followed
Control
The amount of money spent on a specific activity or resource
Cost
A business unit or project to which costs are assigned
Cost center
A necessary condition for the achievement of intended results
Critical Success Factor (CSF)
A set of values that is shared by a group of people, including expectations about how people should behave, ideas, beliefs, and practices
Culture
A person who defines the requirements for a service and takes responsibility for the outcomes of service consumption
Customer
The sum of functional and emotional interactions with a service and service provider as perceived by a service consumer
Customer experience (CX)
A real-time graphical representation of data
Dashboard
The value chain activity that ensures services are delivered and supported according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’ expectations
Deliver and support
Input to the service value system based on opportunities and needs from internal and external stakeholders
Demand
The movement of any service component into any environment
Deployment
The practice of moving new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other service component to live environments
Deployment management practice
The value chain activity that ensures products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs, and time to market
Design and transition
A practical and human-centered approach used by product and service designers to solve complex problems, and find practical and creative solutions that meet the needs of an organization and its customers
Design thinking
An environment used to create or modify IT services or applications
Development environment
An organizational culture that aims to improve the flow of value to customers. It focuses on culture, automation, Lean, measurement, and sharing (CALMS)
DevOps
The evolution of traditional business models to meet the needs of highly empowered customers, with technology playing an enabling role
Digital transformation
A set of clearly defined plans related to how an organization will recover from a disaster as well as return to a pre-disaster condition considering the four domains of service management
Disaster recovery plans
Something that influences strategy, objectives or requirements
Driver
A measure of whether the objectives of a practice, service or activity have been achieved
Effectiveness
A measure of whether the right amount of resources have been used by a practice, service or activity
Efficiency
The value-chain activity that provides a good understanding of stakeholder needs, transparency, and continual engagement and good relationships with all stakeholders
Engage
A subset of the IT infrastructure that is used for a particular purpose. Can also mean the external conditions that influence or affect something
Environment
A flaw or vulnerability that may cause incidents
Error
Problem management activities used to manage known errors
Error control
The act of sharing awareness or transferring ownership of an issue or work item
Escalation
Any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other configuration item
Event
A customer who works for an organization other than the service provider
External customer
A loss of ability to operate to specification, or to deliver the required output or outcome
Failure
A technique whereby the outputs of one part of a system are used as inputs to the same part of the system
Feedback loop
The four perspectives that are critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services
Four dimensions of service management
The means by which an organization is directed and controlled
Governance
A unique name that is used to identify and grant system access rights to a user, person or role
Identity
The value chain activity that ensures continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management
Improve
An unplanned interruption to a service, or reduction in the quality of a service
Incident
The practice of minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible
Incident management
One of the four dimensions of service management. Includes the information and knowledge used to deliver services, and the information and technologies used to manage all aspects of the service value system
Information and technology
The practice of protecting an organization by understanding and managing risks to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information
Information security management practice
The policy that governs an organization’s approach to information security management
Information security policy
The practice of overseeing the infrastructure and platforms used by an organization. This enables the monitoring of technology solutions available, including solutions from third parties
Infrastructure and platform management practice
A security objective that ensures information is only modified by authorized personnel and activities
Integrity
A customer who works for the same organization as the service provider
Internal customer
The interconnection via the internet of devices that were not traditionally thought of as IT assets, but now include embedded computing capability and network connectivity
Internet of Things
Any valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service
IT asset
The practice of planning and managing the full lifecycle of all IT assets
IT asset management practice
All of the hardware, software, networks, and facilities that are required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, manage and support IT services
IT infrastructure
A service based on the use of information technology
IT service
Best practice guidance for IT service management
ITIL
Recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure
ITIL guiding principles
An operating model for service providers that covers all the key activities required to effectively manage products and services
ITIL service value chain
A method for visualizing work, identifying potential blockages and resource conflicts, and managing work in progress
Kanban
An important metric used to evaluate the success in meeting an objective
Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
The practice of maintaining and improving the effective, efficient and convenient use of information and knowledge across an organization
Knowledge management practice
A problem that has been analyzed but has not been resolved
Known error
An approach that focuses on improving workflows by maximizing value through the elimination of waste
Lean
The full set of stages, transitions and associated statuses in the life of a service, product, practice, or other entity
Lifecycle
A controlled environment used in the delivery of IT services to service consumers
Live environment
The ease with which a service or other entity can be repaired or modified
Maintainability
An incident with significant business impact, requiring an immediate coordinated resolution
Major incident
Interrelated or interacting elements that establish policy and objectives and enable the achievement of those objectives
Management system
A measure of the reliability, efficiency and effectiveness of an organization, practice, or process
Maturity
A metric of how frequently a service or other configuration item fails
Mean time between failures (MTBF)
A metric of how quickly a service is restored after a failure
Mean time to restore service (MTRS)
The practice of supporting good decision-making and continual improvement by decreasing levels of uncertainty
Measurement and reporting
A measurement or calculation that is monitored or reported for management and improvement
Metric
A short but complete description of the overall purpose and intentions of an organization. It states what is to be achieved, but not how this should be done
Mission statement
A representation of a system, practice, process, service, or other entity, that is used to understand and predict its behavior and relationships
Model
The activity of creating, maintaining and utilizing models
Modelling
Repeated observation of a system, practice, process, service, or other entity to detect events and to ensure that the current status is known
Monitoring
The practice of systematically observing services and service components, and recording and reporting selected changes of state identified as events
Monitoring and event management practice
A product with just enough features to satisfy early customers, and to provide feedback for future product development
Minimum viable product (MVP)
The value chain activity that ensures service components are available when and where they are needed, and that they meet agreed specifications
Obtain / Build
The routine running and management of an activity, product, service, or other configuration item
Operation
The hardware and software solutions that detect or cause changes in physical processes through direct monitoring and/or control of physical devices such as valves, pumps, etc
Operational technology
A person or a group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities and relationships to achieve its objectives
Organization
The practice of ensuring that changes in an organization are smoothly and successfully implemented and that lasting benefits are achieved by managing the human aspects of the changes
Organizational change management practice
The ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and adapt to unplanned external influence
Organizational resilience
The speed, effectiveness and efficiency with which an organization operates. Organizational velocity influences time to market, quality, safety, costs and risks
Organizational velocity
One of the four dimensions of service management. Ensures that the way an organization is structured and managed, as well as its roles, responsibilities and systems of authority and communication, are well-defined and support its overall strategy and operating model
Organizations and people
A result for a stakeholder enabled by one or more outputs
Outcome
A tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity
Output
The process of having external suppliers provide products and services that were previously provided internally
Outsourcing
One of the four dimensions of service management. 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
Partners and suppliers
A relationship between two organizations, which involves working closely together to achieve common goals and objectives
Partnership
A measure of what is achieved or delivered by a system, person, team, practice or service
Performance
A test implementation of a service with a limited scope in a live environment
Pilot
The value chain activity that ensures a shared understanding of the vision, current status, and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across an organization
Plan
Formally documented management expectations and intentions, used to direct decisions and activities
Policy
The practice of ensuring that an organization has the right mix of programs, projects, products and services to execute its strategy within its funding and resource constraints
Portfolio management practice
A review after the implementation of a change, to evaluate success and identify opportunities for improvement
Post implementation review (PIR)
A set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective
Practice
A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents
Problem
The practice of reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors
Problem management practice
A documented way to carry out an activity or a process
Procedure
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
Process
A configuration of an organization’s resources designed to offer value for a consumer
Product
A set of related projects and activities and an organization structure created to direct and oversee them
Programme
A temporary structure that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more outputs (or products) according to an agreed business case
Project
The practice of ensuring that all of an organization’s projects are successfully delivered
Project management practice
An improvement that is expected to provide a return on investment in a short period of time with relatively small cost and effort
Quick win
A document stating results achieved and providing evidence of activities performed
Record
The activity of returning a configuration item to normal operation after a failure
Recovery
The practice of establishing and nurturing links between an organization and its stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels
Relationship management practice
The point to which information used by an activity must be restored to enable the activity to operate on resumption
Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
The maximum acceptable period of time following a service disruption that can elapse before the lack of business functionality severely impacts the organization
Recovery Time Objective (RTO)
A version of a service or other configuration item, or a collection of configuration items, that is made available for use
Release
The practice of making new and changed services and features available for use
Release management practice
The ability of a product, service or other configuration item to perform its intended function for a specified period of time or number of cycles
Reliability
A view of the service catalogue, providing details on service requests for existing and new services available for the user
Request catalog
A description of a proposed change used to initiate change control
Request for Change (RFC)
The action of solving an incident or problem
Resolution
A person, or other entity, that is required for the execution of an activity or the achievement of an objective
Resource
The act of permanently withdrawing a product, service, or other configuration item, from use
Retire
A possible event that could cause harm or loss, or make it more difficult to achieve objectives. Can also be defined as uncertainty of outcome and can be used in the context of measuring the probability of positive outcomes as well as negative outcomes
Risk
An activity to identify, analyze and evaluate risks
Risk assessment
The practice of ensuring that an organization understands and effectively handles risks
Risk management practice
A means of enabling value co-creation, by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks
Service
A view of all the services provided by an organization. Includes interactions between the services, and service models that describe the structure and dynamics of each service
Service architecture
Structured information about all the services and service offerings of a service provider, relevant for a specific target audience
Service catalog
The practice of providing a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings, and ensuring that it is available to the relevant audience
Service catalog 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
Service configuration management practice
The practice of designing products and services that are fit for purpose, fit for use and that can be delivered by the organization and its ecosystem
Service design practice
The point of communication between the service provider and all of its users
Service desk
The practice of capturing demand for incident resolution and service requests
Service desk practice
The practice of supporting an organization’s strategies and plans for service management by ensuring the organization’s financial resources and investments are being used effectively
Service financial management practice
A set of measurable parameters defining expected or achieved service quality
Service level
A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both services required and the expected level of service
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
The practice of setting clear business-based targets for service performance, so that the delivery of a service can be properly assessed, monitored and managed against these targets
Service level management practice
A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form of services
Service management
A description of one or more services, designed to address the needs of a target consumer group. A service offering may include goods, access to resources, and service actions
Service offering
A role that is accountable for the delivery of a specific service
Service owner
A complete set of products and services that are managed throughout their lifecycle by an organization
Service portfolio
A role performed by an organization in a service relationship to provide services to consumers
Service provider
Activities performed by an organization to provide services. Includes management of resources configured to deliver the service, access to these resources for users, fulfillment of the agreed service actions, service performance management and continual improvement. It may also include the supply of goods
Service provision
A co-operation between a service provider and service consumer. Service relationships include service provision, service consumption and service relationship management
Service relationship
Joint activities performed by a service provider and a service consumer to ensure continual value co-creation based on agreed and available service offerings
Service relationship management
A request from a user, or a user’s authorized representative, that initiates a service action agreed as a normal part of service delivery
Service request
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
Service request management practice
The practice of ensuring that new or changed products and services meet defined requirements
Service validation and testing practice
A model representing how all the components and activities of an organization work together to facilitate value creation
Service value system
The practice of ensuring that applications meet stakeholder needs, in terms of functionality, reliability, maintainability, compliance and auditability
Software development and management practice
The activity of planning and obtaining resources from a particular source type, which could be internal or external, centralized or distributed and open or proprietary
Sourcing
A documented description of the properties of a product, service, or other configuration item
Specification
A person who authorizes budget for service consumption. Can also be used to describe an organization or individual that provides financial or other support for an initiative
Sponsor
A person or organization that has an interest or involvement in an organization, product, service, practice, or other entity
Stakeholder
A document established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides for common and repeated use, mandatory requirements, guidelines or characteristics for its subject
Standard
A low-risk, pre-authorized change that is well-understood and fully-documented and which can be implemented without needing additional authorization
Standard Change
A description of the specific states an entity can have at a given time
Status
The practice of formulating the goals of an organization and adopting the courses of action and allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals
Strategy management practice
A stakeholder responsible for providing services that are used by an organization
Supplier
The practice of ensuring that an organization’s suppliers and their performance are managed appropriately to support the provision of seamless, quality products and services
Supplier management practice
A team with the responsibility to maintain normal operations, address users’ requests and resolve incidents and problems related to specified products, services or other configuration items
Support team
A combination of interacting elements organized and maintained to achieve one or more stated purposes
System
A holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system’s constituent parts work, interrelate and interact over time, and within the context of other systems
Systems thinking
The total rework backlog accumulated by choosing workarounds instead of system solutions that would take longer
Technical debt
A controlled environment established to test products, services and other configuration items
Test environment
A stakeholder external to an organization
Third-party
A measure of the amount of work performed by a product, service, or other system over a given period of time
Throughput
A unit of work consisting of an exchange between two or more participants or systems
Transaction
A technique using realistic practical scenarios to define functional requirements and to design tests
Use case
A person who uses services
User
The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need
Utility
Functional requirements which have been defined by the customer and are unique to a specific product
Utility requirements
Confirmation that the system, product, service or other entity meets the agreed specification
Validation
The perceived benefits, usefulness and importance of something
Value
A series of steps an organization undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers
Value stream
One of the four dimensions of service management. Defines the activities, workflows, controls and procedures needed to achieve agreed objectives
Value streams and processes
A defined aspiration of what an organization would like to become in the future
Vision
Assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements
Warranty
Typically non-functional requirements captured as input from key stakeholders and other practices
Warranty requirements
A development approach that is linear and sequential with distinct objectives for each phase of development
Waterfall method
A detailed description to be followed in order to perform an activity
Work instruction
A solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet available. Some of these reduce the likelihood of incidents
Workaround
The practice of ensuring an organization has the right people with the appropriate skills and knowledge and in the correct roles to support its business objectives
Workforce and talent management practice
