The Four Dimensions

Question 1

What do the four dimensions represent?

Answer 1

A perspective, used for a holistic approach to service management. Requires all four dimensions to be addressed and dimensions may overlap.

Question 2

What are the four dimensions?

Answer 2

1. Organizations and people.
2. Technology and information.
3. Partners and suppliers.
4. Value streams and processes.

Question 3

What does the organizations and people dimension cover?

Answer 3

Roles and responsibilities, organizational structures, culture, skills and competencies of staff.

Question 4

What perspectives does culture cover?

Answer 4

Shared values and attitudes, leaders who champion and advocate these values, communication between stakeholders, trust and transparency.

Question 5

What are aspects to be covered in the organizations and people dimension?

Answer 5

Management and leadership styles, skills and competencies, communication and collaboration, T-shaped individuals (broad knowledge + deep specialization), common objectives and goals, collaboration with other teams.

Question 6

How does the organizations and people dimension relate to the SVS?

Answer 6

Roles and responsibilities, formal organizational structure, organizational culture, required staffing and competencies.

Question 7

Which two types does information and technology applied by service providers cover?

Answer 7

Technology elements in the service, used by the consumer (applications, networks, databases, cloud computing).
Internal technological infrastructure required to manage those products (workflow management tooling, communication systems, knowledge bases, configuration management database aka CMDB, inventory systems, cloud solutions, etc.)

Question 8

What is CMDB?

Answer 8

Configuration management database.

Question 9

What is cloud computing?

Answer 9

Model for enabling network access to shared pool of computing resources that can be rapidly provided with minimal management effort or provider interaction.

Question 10

What specifies how the technology should be selected and designed?

Answer 10

Architecture.

Question 11

Where should the skills required to manage the technology be available?

Answer 11

From within the service provider’s staff.

Question 12

How should the information about the technology used in providing the services support the applied technology?

Answer 12

Availability, reliability, accessibility, timeliness, accuracy and relevance. Often comprehend security or compliance goals.

Question 13

How does the information and technology dimension relate to the SVS?

Answer 13

Information and knowledge, technologies required, relationships between different components of the SVS.

Question 14

What is service integration and management for?

Answer 14

Integrating suppliers and partners to create service for the customer.

Question 15

How can integrated services be managed?

Answer 15

Using the role of service integrator to ensure that service relationships are coordinated. May be kept within the organization but can be delegated.

Question 16

Which considerations can an organization apply to its sourcing strategy?

Answer 16

Strategic focus (not outsourcing strategic resources), corporate culture (how working with external parties is perceived and how the external parties can be part of the company culture), resource scarcity (sourcing resolves shortages of internal resources), cost concerns (external resource smay be more cost-effective), subject matter expertise, external constraints (policies may prohibit outsourcing of for example security tasks), demand patterns (seasonal fluctuations or similar).

Question 17

How is partners and suppliers dimension related to the SVS?

Answer 17

Relationships with other organizations, contracts and agreements, service integration and management.

Question 18

What does the value streams and processes dimension define?

Answer 18

Activities, workflows, controls and procedures needed to achieve agreed objectives. HOW parts of the organization work to create value.

Question 19

What is a value stream?

Answer 19

A series of steps an organizatoin undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers.

Question 20

What should value streams aim at?

Answer 20

Maximizing value-adding activities and minimizing waste (non-value adding activities).

Question 21

Which questions should be answered for each service and product?

Answer 21

• How does the service work, what is its generic delivery?
• Which value streams are involved?
• Who, or what, performs the required service actions?

Question 22

How can value streams be improved?

Answer 22

By well-defined processes, which facilitate productivity.

Question 23

What is a process?

Answer 23

A set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs.

Question 24

How does the streams and processes dimension relate to the SVS?

Answer 24

Define activities and workflows, determine service integration and management, enable value creation.