Vocab + Concepts Flashcards
ITIL
A comprehensive, consistent, coherent set of best practices for IT Services Management Process
Acronym = Information Technology Infrastructure Library
Four Dimensions Model
Holistic approach to service management, by outlining four dimensions of service management, from which each component of the SVS should be considered
4 dimensions:
- Organization & People
- Information & Technology
- Partners & Suppliers
- Value Stream & Processes
Continual Improvement
Aligning the organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of services, service components, practices or any element involved in the efficient and effective management of products and services.
Information Security Management
To protect the information needed by the organization to conduct its business.
Includes understanding and managing risks to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information, as well as other aspects of information security such as authentication and non-repudiation
Relationship Management
Establish and nurture the links between the organization and its stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels.
It includes the identification, analysis, monitoring and continual improvement of relationships with and between stakeholders.
Supplier Management
To ensure that the organization’s suppliers and their performances are managed appropriately to support the seamless provision of quality products and services.
This includes creating closer, more collaborative relationships with key suppliers to uncover and realize new value and reduce the risk of failure.
Availability Management
To ensure that services deliver agreed levels of availability to meet the needs of customers and users.
Capacity and Performance Management
to ensure that services achieve agreed and expected performance, satisfying current and future demand in a cost-effective way
Change Enablement Management
Maximize the number of successful IT changes by ensuring that risks have been properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing the change schedule.
Incident Management
Minimize the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible.
IT Asset Management
The purpose is to plan and manage the full lifecycle of all IT assets, to help the organization:
- maximize value
- control costs
- manage risks
- support decision-making about purchase, re-use, and retirement of assets
- -meet regulatory and contractual requirements
Monitoring and Event Management
The purpose is to systematically observe services and service components, and record and report selected changes of state identified as events.
This practice identifies and prioritizes infrastructure, services, business processes, and information security events; it also establishes the appropriate response to those events, and conditions that indicate potential faults or incidents.
Problem Management
Purpose is to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors.
Release Management
The purpose is to make new and changed services and features available to use.
Service Configuration Management
The purpose is to ensure that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the CIs that support them, is available when and where it is needed.
This includes information on how CIs are configured and the relationships between them.
Service Continuity Management
The purpose of this practice is to ensure that the availability and performance of a service is maintained at a sufficient level in the event of a disaster.
The practice provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability of producing an effective response that safeguards the interests of key stakeholders and the organization’s reputation, brand, and value-creating activities.
Service Desk Management
The purpose is to capture demand for incident resolution and service requests. It should also be the entry point and single point of contact for the service provider with all of its users.
Service Level Management
The purpose is to set 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 Request Management
The purpose is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user friendly manner
Deployment Management
The purpose of the deployment management practice is to move new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other component to live environments. It may also be involved in deploying components to other environments for testing or staging.
Availability
The ability of an IT service or other Configuration Item to perform its agreed function when required.
Configuration Item (CI)
Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service
Event
Any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other Configuration Item (CI). Events are typically recognized through notifications created by an IT service, CI, or monitoring tool.
Release
A version of a service or other Configuration Item, or a collection of Configuration Items, that is made available for use
IT Asset
Any valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service.
Change
The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services.
There are three types of changes (SNE):
- Standard changes are pre-authorized and low risk
- Normal Changes are triggered by a change request submitted to the appropriate Change Authority where after they are approved they are added to the Change Calendar
- Emergency Changes are expedited and may well need to be approved by a special Change Authority.
Incident
An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service
Problem
A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents
Known Error
A problem that has been analyzed but has not been resolved
Service Request
A request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part of service delivery
Service
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
Customer
A role that defines the requirements for a service and takes responsibility for the outcomes of service consumption
User
A role that uses services
Service Management
A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form if services
Sponsor
A role that authorizes budget for service consumption
Cost
The amount of money spent on a specific activity or resource. Costs can be removed or imposed
Value
The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of something
***Everything the organization does, should link back, directly or indirectly, to value itself, its customers and other stakeholders
Organization
A person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities, and relationships to achieve its objectives
Outcome
A result for a stakeholder enabled by one or more outputs
Output
A tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity. Outputs contribute to the achievement of outcomes
Risk
A possible event that could cause harm or loss or make it more difficult to achieve objectives.
Risk 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.
Risks can be removed or imposed (RI)
Utility
“Fit for purpose” - What does the product or service do?
The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need
Warranty
“Fit for use” - How well does the product or service do what it does?
Assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements
What is the product or service’s availability, capacity, security levels, continuity or other measure of successful delivery?
Service Offering
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 Relationship Management
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 Provision
Activities performed by an organization to provide services
Service Consumption
Activities performed by an organization to consume services
Services Consumers
a generic term for the three types of consumers; Customer, User and Sponsor
Product
A configuration of an organization’s resources designed to offer value for a customer
Practice
A set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective
Value Stream
A series of steps an organization undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers
Process
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
Service Value System (SVS)
The Service Value System ensures that the organization continually co-creates value with all stakeholders through the use and management of products and services.
- Opportunity/demand
- Guiding principle
- Governance
- Practices
- Continual Improvement
- Service Value Chain
- Value
MTBF
Mean Time Between Failures
MTRS
Mean Time to Restore Services
VBF
Vital Business Function
Service Request
A request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part of service delivery
Value Chain Activity - 6 Activities
- Plan
- Improve
- Engage
- Design and transition
- Obtain/build
- Deliver and support
Value Chain Activity Purposes - Plan
The purpose of the plan value chain activity is to ensure a shared understanding of the vision, current status and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across the organization
Value Chain Activity Purposes - Improve
The purpose of the improve value chain activity is to ensure continual improvement of products, services and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management
Value Chain Activity Purposes - Engage
The purpose of the engage value chain activity is to provide a good understanding of stakeholder needs, continual engagement with all stakeholders, transparency and good relationships with all stakeholders
Value Chain Activity Purposes - Design and transition
The purpose of the design and transition value chain activity is to ensure that products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs and time to market
Value Chain Activity Purposes - obtain/build
The purpose of the obtain/build value chain activity is to ensure that service components are available when and where they are needed, and meet agreed specifications
Value Chain Activity Purposes - deliver and support
The purpose of the deliver and support value chain activity is to ensure that services are delivered and supported according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’ expectations
Service Value Chain (SVC) (6)
Operating model which outlines the key activities required to respond to demand and facilitate value creation through the creation and management of products and services.
- Plan
- Improve
- Engage
- Design and transition
- Obtain/build
- Deliver and support
Continual Service Improvement Approach (6)
- What is the Vision? – Business Vision, Mission, Goals & Objectives
- Where are we now? – Baseline Assessments
- Where do we want to be? – Measurable Targets
- How do we get there? – Service & Process Improvements
- Did we get there? – Measurements & Metrics
- How do we keep the momentum going?
3 Types of Change
- Standard
- Normal
- Emergency
*SNE
Role
Set of responsibilities, activities, and authorizations granted to a person or team in a specific context
Service Value Chain
Provides an operating model for the creation, delivery and continual improvement of services. It is a flexible model that defines six key activities that can be combined in many ways, forming multiple value streams.
6 Key activities:
- Plan
- Improve
- Engage
- Design and transition
- Obtain/build
- Deliver and support
Guiding Principles
can be used to guide an organization’s decisions and actions and ensure a shared understanding and common approach to service management across the organization.
Product
A configuration of an organization’s resources designed to offer value for a consumer
Removed Cost
This may include costs of staff, technology and other resources, which the consumer does not need to provide
Imposed Cost
The total cost of consuming a service includes the price charged by the service provider (if applicable), plus other costs such as staff training, costs of network utilization, procurement, etc.
Some consumers describe this as what they have to ‘invest’ to consume the service.
Removed Risk
Risks removed from a consumer by the service (part of the value proposition)
– These may include failure of the consumer’s server hardware or lack of staff availability. In some cases, a service may only reduce a consumer’s risks, but the consumer may determine that this reduction is sufficient to support the value proposition.
Imposed Risk
Risks imposed on a consumer by the service (risks of service consumption)
– An example of this would be a service provider ceasing trading, or experiencing a security breach.
6 Criteria to consider with Information and Technology dimension (Four Dimensions of Service Management)
Availability, Reliability, Accessibility, Timeliness, Accuracy, and Relevance
7 factors that may influence an organization’s strategy when using suppliers
- Strategic focus: some organizations may prefer to focus on their core competence and to outsource non-core supporting functions to third parties; others may prefer to stay as self- sufficient as possible, retaining full control over all important functions.
- Corporate culture: Some organizations have a historical preference for one approach over another. Long-standing cultural bias is difficult to change without compelling reasons.
- Resource scarcity: If a required resource or skillset is in short supply, it may be difficult for the service provider to acquire what is needed without engaging a supplier.
- Cost concerns: A decision may be influenced by whether the service provider believes that it is more economical to source a particular requirement from a supplier.
- Subject matter expertise: The service provider may believe that it is less risky to use a supplier that already has expertise in a required area, rather than trying to develop and maintain the subject matter expertise in house.
- External constraints: Government regulation or policy, industry codes-of-conduct and social, political or legal constraints might impact an organization’s supplier strategy.
- Demand patterns: Customer activity or demand for services might be seasonal or demonstrate high degrees of variability. These patterns may impact the extent to which organizations use external service providers to cope with variable demand.
PESTLE Model
Part of Value Steams and Processes (#4 in Four Dimensions of Service Management)
Political - ex: new tax regulations or political unrest
Economical - ex: exchange rates between countries
Social - ex: Preference to reduce screen time
Technological - ex: automation or invention of a new technology
Legal - ex: changes in tax legislation
Environmental - ex: eco-friendly packaging
Governance
Means by which an organization is directed and controlled
Continual Improvement
Recurring organizational activity performed at all levels to ensure that organization’s performance continually meets stakeholders’ expectations
*“at all levels” key phrase
Organizational agility
The ability of an organization to move and adapt quickly, flexibly, and decisively to support internal changes
- Might include changes to the scope of the organization, mergers and acquisitions, changing organizational practices or technologies requiring different skills or organizational structure and changes to relationships with partners and suppliers
Organizational resilience
The ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond to and adapt to both incremental changes and sudden disruptions from an external perspective
Opportunity/Demand
Opportunity and demand trigger activities within the SVS, and these activities lead to the creation of value
- Opportunity represents options or possibilities to add value for stakeholders or otherwise improve the organization
- Demand represents the need or desire for products and services from internal and external customers
Service Value Streams
Specific combinations of activities and practices, and each one is designed for a particular scenario. Once designed, value streams should be subject to continual improvement
A value stream might, for example, be created for a situation where a user of a service needs an incident to be resolved. The value stream will be designed specifically to be used in this scenario, and will provide a complete guide of the activities, practices and roles involved in resolving the issue.
Service Value Chain - Plan
Purpose of the plan value chain activity is to ensure a shared understanding of the vision, current status, and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across the organization.
Service Value Chain - Improve
The purpose of this value chain activity is to ensure continual improvement of products, services and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management
Service Value Chain - Engage
The purpose of this value chain activity is to provide a good understanding of stakeholder needs, transparency, and continual engagement and good relationships with all stakeholders.
Service Value Chain - design and transition
The purpose of this value chain activity is to ensure that products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs and time-to-market
Service Value Chain - obtain/build
The purpose of the obtain/build value chain activity is to ensure that service components are available when and where they are needed and meet agreed specifications.
Service Value Chain - deliver and support
The purpose of this value chain activity is to ensure that services are delivered and supported according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’ expectations.
7 Guiding Principles
Part of SVS (Service Value System) - recommendations that can guide and organization in all circumstances regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure
- Focus on Value
- Start where you are
- Progress iteratively with feedback
- Collaborate and promote visibility
- Think and work holistically
- Keep it simple and practical
- Optimize and automate
CX
Customer Experience
The entirety of the interactions a customer has with an organization and its products. This experience can determine how the customer feels about the organization and its products and services.
SVS
Service Value System
Purpose is to ensure that the organization continually co-creates value with all stakeholders through the use and management of products and services
**If see term “all circumstances”, probably related to SVS Guiding Principles
Management practice
a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective
CIR
Continual Improvement Register - means of tracking Continual Improvement Initiatives from start to finish
Non-repudiation
ensuring that someone can’t deny that they took and action
*part of Information Security Management
Authentication
Ensuring someone is who they claim to be
*part of Information Security Management
Insourcing
The products or services are developed and/or delivered internally by the organization.
Outsourcing
The process of having external suppliers provide products and services that were previously provided internally. Outsourcing involves substitution, i.e. the replacement of internal capability by that of the supplier.
Single source or partnership
Procurement of a product or service from one supplier. This can either be a single supplier who supplies all services directly or an external service integrator who manages the relationships with all suppliers and integrates their services on behalf of the organization. These close relationships (and the mutual interdependence they create) foster high quality, reliability, short lead times, and cooperative action
Multi-sourcing
Procurement of a product or service from more than one independent supplier. These products and services can be combined to form new services which the organization can provide to internal and external customers. As organizations place more focus on increased specialization and compartmentalization of capabilities to increase agility, multi-sourcing is increasingly a preferred option. Traditionally organizations have managed these suppliers separately across different parts of the organization, but there is a move towards developing an internal service integration capability or selecting an external service integrator
Performance
A measure of what is achieved by a system, person, team, practice, or service
Change authority
The person or group who authorizes a change
Major Incidents
Usually require separate procedures Similarly with Information Security Incidents
Incident Records
Where information about the Incident is stored (inside a suitable tool)
Workaround
A solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet available
Some workarounds reduce the likelihood of incidents
- should be recorded in the Problem Record and reviewed on a regular basis, especially after the Problem Analysis is complete
Recovery time objective (RTO)
The maximum acceptable period of time following a service disruption that can elapse before the lack of business functionality severely impacts the organization. The maximum agreed time within which a product or activity must be resumed, or resources must be recovered
Recovery point objective (RPO)
The point to which information used by an activity must be restored to enable the activity to operate on resumption
Disaster recovery plans
A set of clearly defined plans related to how long an organization will recover from a disaster as well as return to a pre-disaster condition, considering the four dimensions of service management
ie: in even of flood, fire, attack, etc
Business impact analysis (BIA)
A key activity in the practice of service continuity management that identifies vital business functions (VBFs) and their dependencies
Service Level Agreement
A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies both service required and the expected level of service
*must be simply written and easy to understand for all parties
Service Request
A request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that initiates a service action which as been agreed as a normal part of service delivery
Ie: request for info
feedback, compliments, complaints
