Service Operation

Question 1

What exactly is service operation?

Answer 1

Service operation is the coordination and carrying out of activities that are required to deliver and manage services at their agreed levels.

Question 2

What are the key processes of service operation?

Answer 2

The key principles of service operations are:

• Event Management
• Incident Management
• Request Fulfillment
• Problem Management
• Access Management

Question 3

What are the functions of service operation?

Answer 3

The functions of service management are:

• Service Desk
• Technical Management
• IT Operations Management
• Application Management

Question 4

What is the role of communications in service operation?

Answer 4

In service operation, communications is a way of ensuring that all teams and departments are able to execute the standard activities involved in delivering services and managing the infrastructure. Basically, keep the lines open so everyone knows what’s going on.

Question 5

What is event management?

Answer 5

Event management is the process of managing events throughout their lifecycle. Events in this case are things that happen, triggers, if you will. Not like carnivals and bring-your-daughter-to-work-days.

Question 6

What is an event?

Answer 6

An event is a change of state that has significance for the management of an IT service or a configuration item.

Question 7

What is an alert?

Answer 7

An alert is a notification that a threshold has been reached, something has changed, or a failure has occurred.

Question 8

What is incident management?

Answer 8

Incident management is what it sounds, management of incidents through their entire lifecycles. The point of incident management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible, and to reduce impact on business operations.

Question 9

What is an incident?

Answer 9

An incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT service, or a reduction in the quality of an IT service. Also, failures of a configuration item that hasn’t yet affected service is an incident.

Question 10

What is a workaround?

Answer 10

A workaround is a way of reducing or eliminating the impact of an incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet available.

Question 11

Define priority.

Answer 11

Priority is a category used to identify the relative importance of an incident. It’s generally based on the urgency of the incident, and the level of impact it is causing.

Question 12

What are major incidents?

Answer 12

Major incidents are… well, up for interpretation, although it can be assumed they have significant priority. Generally, major incidents require a different process for handling compared to the rest, usually involving their own team being formed to focus specifically on the incident.

Question 13

What is an incident model?

Answer 13

An incident model is a way of predefining the steps taken to handle a process for dealing with a particular type of incident in an agreed way.

Question 14

What is incident identification?

Answer 14

Incident identification is the actual detection of the incident, be it by calls to the service desk, self-help interfaces, monitoring systems, what-have you.

Question 15

What is request fulfillment?

Answer 15

Request fulfillment is the process of managing service requests across their full lifecycle. It is part of the service operation phase.

Question 16

What is a service request?

Answer 16

A service request is a formal request from a user for something to be provided, be it a service, information, what have you. Service requests may be linked to requests fr change as a part of fulfilling the request.

Question 17

What is problem management?

Answer 17

Problem management is the process of managing the lifecycle of the underlying causes of one or more incidents. It is part of the service operation phase.

Question 18

What’s the difference between an incident and a problem?

Answer 18

An incident is something that impacts a service, basically. A problem is a cause of one or more incidents.

Question 19

What is a known error?

Answer 19

A known error is a problem that has a documented root cause and a workaround. They are also documented and managed by problem management.

Question 20

What is a resolution?

Answer 20

A resolution is an action taken to repair the root cause of an incident or problem, or to implement a workaround.

Question 21

What is a known error database?

Answer 21

A known error database is a datastore in which information on previous incidents and problems’ diagnosis and resolution is stored. This is generally used during the incident & problem diagnosis phase to speed up resolution. It’s a part of the service knowledge management system.

Question 22

What is the difference between reactive and proactive problem management?

Answer 22

Reactive problem management reacts; it solves problems in response to incidents. Proactive problem management attempts to identify and solve problems and known errors before related incidents can occur.

Question 23

What is access management?

Answer 23

Access management is the process of allowing users to make use of IT services, data, or other assets. It helps retain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of assets, This works for internal and external customers.

Question 24

Define access.

Answer 24

Access refers to the level and extent of a service’s functionality or data that a user is entitled to use.

Question 25

Define rights.

Answer 25

Rights, also called privileges, are the entitlements or permissions granted to a user or role.

Question 26

What is a service desk?

Answer 26

A service desk is a functional unit made up of a dedicated number of staff, who are responsible for dealing with a variety of service activities. It is meant to be a single point of contact between the services and the users.

Question 27

What is technical management?

Answer 27

Technical management is a group, department, or team that provides technical expertise and management of the IT infrastructure; these act as the custodians of technical knowledge related to infrastructure management, and provides the resources to support the service lifecycle.

Question 28

What is IT operations management?

Answer 28

IT operations management is the performance of the day-to-day activities required to manage and maintain the IT infrastructure, and deliver the agreed level of IT services.

Question 29

What is application management?

Answer 29

Application management is the management of applications throughout their lifecycle. This covers everything from initial requirements gathering and design to deployment and operation.