ITIT2

In general the IHIP criteria describes the basic characteristics of a service:

Intangibility
 Indicators:
 Difficult to evaluate the result upfront
 Purchasing process takes more time …

judging of performance.We can even using a benchmarking program to test the performance of the computer.  For a service, however, things are not so straightforward

heterogeneity
 Indicators:
 Low level of standardization
 Difficult to compare

maybe: the service is provided differently by different people and even by the same person differently on different days

Interactivity
 Indicators:
 Direct customer contact throughout the whole process
 Customer is part of the service delivery process
 Perishability (non-storable)
 Indicators:
 Cannot be produced in advance
 Variations of volume cannot be buffered

They cannot be stored.  This means that at times of high demand the level of provision of the service must also be high.   not possible to take advantage of slack periods to produce a buffer of the units of service, e.g. lecturing

The service quality is determined by two factors.

Technical quality(What) - Is the outcome of the service process

Functional quality(How) - Are following attributes of the Process: Attitudes: Behaviors, Accessibility, Punctuality, Trustworthiness, Capability to handle failures and mistakes

the qualit is then influenced by the image -> as a result there is a customer perceived quality

Model used to help define roles and responsibilities (Service Design, Continual Service improvement)

• Responsible

– the person or people responsible for correct function

– Several people may be responsible for executing parts of the activity!

• Accountable

– the person who has ownership of quality and the end result

– Only one person can be accountable for each task!

• Consulted

– the people who are consulted and whose opinions are sought ( someone who has information or capabilities necessary to complete work)

• Informed 

– the people who are kept up to date on progress.

Service owner

– accountable for the delivery of a specific IT service

• Process owner

– accountable for ensuring that a process is fit for purpose

• Process manager

– responsible for the operational management of a process

provider that provides IT services to  internal or external customers

internal: a provider embedded within a business unit  and provides services to it

shared:  shared IT services to more than one business unit

external: provider provides IT services to external customers

Service Owner: accountable for the delivery of a specific IT service
Process Owner: accountable for ensuring that a process is fit for purpose
Process Manager: responsible for the operational management of a process

·                     Accountable: Ownership of a process, and/or activity. The person who is held accountable and ensures that the goals and objectives of a process are being followed.

·                     Responsible: Performer of a task. The person responsible for getting the task/activity done. This person gets the work done and does not necessarily have the authority to ensure that others are getting their tasks completed.

Accountable roles oversee or "own" the process or task; responsible roles execute or perform one or more aspects of the process or task.

For example: A CIO is accountable for the quality of all IT services, including the results produced by the IT staff and suppliers.  However, the CIO  does not personally manage or perform all of the tasks required to deliver those services.  He or she delegates that responsibility to others in the IT or supplier organization. 

è "accountability for results" and "responsibility for doing the work".

Utility: fitness for purpose (what the customer receives) ;

Warranty: fitness for use (how it is delivered) 

-          Core of the service concept

-          From customer’s perspective value consists two core components:

Utility: Fitness for purpose, which is utility (what the customer receives) -> functionality offered by a service to meet a particular need -> increase performance average of an organization

Warranty: Fitness for use, which is warranty (how it is delivered)-> a promise or guarantee that a service will meet its agreed requirements

-          Availability, capacity, continuity and information security that are necessary to meet customers’ requirements -> reduces the performance variation of an organisation

->  Customers cannot benefit from something that is fit for purpose but not  fit for use, and vice versa!

Service Catalogue is actually a part of the Service Portfolio. Service Portfolio contains all active, retired and pipelined services. Service catalogue only contains the active ones. 

SWOT Analysis: Method to develop strategic objectives (service strategy) or  reviews and analyses the internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization and the external opportunities and threats (Contiual Service Improvement).

Internal: Strength, Weaknesses;

External: Opportunities, Threats;  

are outside influences confronting the company in the market

External influenced by PESTLE: Political, Enviromental, Social, Technological, Legal, Economical influencing factors on strategy

Application:

- inform later steps in planning to achieve the objective

- Defining actions in response to SWOT

Contracts define the value exchange of different parties involved. OLAs are made between the IT organization and an internal supplier, UCs describe the delivery from an external provider. SLA describe the service quality, availability and penalties between the IT organization and the costumer.

• The purpose of SD is to design IT services according to the provider’s strategy.
• the stage where services are designed and planned for introduction into the service delivery environment
• The objective is to design IT services so effectively that minimal improvement during their lifecycle will be required.
• design services with the business objectives in mind

To provide and maintain a source of information on all services.-> To provide and maintain a 

Therefore: 

• Development and maintenance of service  and service package descriptions appropriate for the service catalogue 
• Interfaces, dependencies and consisteny between the service catalogue and the overall service portfolio
• Production and maintenance of an accurate service catalogue 

per Service: one SLA per service for all customers of that service  -> difficulites if one  customer vary for the same service

per Customer: one SLA per customer for all services-> an agreement with a customer containing all services they use -> all requirements capturen in a single document

multi level : a combination for example having this structure:

corporate level --> covering all generic SLM matters

customer level --> all SLM issues which are relevant to a specific  group of customers or business units

service level-> covering all subjects that are realevant to a specific service relating to a specific customer

=> mutli level SLA keeps the SLA to a managable size and reduces the need for frequent updates

Service Level Management is an process within the Service Design stage. Its main task is to ensure the provision of the agreed quality for all existing services on the base of a Service Level Agreement between the customer and the service provider.

• to ensure that an agreed level of IT services is provided
• Defining, documenting, agreeing, monitoring, measuring, reporting  of the service level

• Respond to the customer's changing business requirements while maximizing value and reducing incident, disruption and re-work 
• Respond to the business and IT requests for change
• Ensure that changes are recorded and evaluated

Economic use of resources involved in the change 

In effective change management, all changes should be identified and planned for prior to implementation. Back-out procedures should be established in case changes create problems. Then, after changes are applied, they are thoroughly tested and evaluated. This article describes the process steps for change management and factors critical to its success

    A request for change is a formal proposal for a change to be made, whereas a change record is a logical record that contains details of a specific change.

Change The addition, modification or removal of anything that could have  an effect on IT services.

Standard change is a pre-authorized change that is low risk, relatively common and follows a procedure or work instruction. An Emergency change is a change that must be implemented as soon as possible, for example to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch. The third category is named normal change and is used for all other changes.

An incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction on the quality of an IT service. Failure of a CI that has not yet impacted an IT service is also an incident. A problem is the underlying cause of one or more incidents. (e.g. failure of one disc)

Informational events:

• Event that does not require any action and does not present an exception 
• typically stored in the system or service log files 
• used to check on the status of service or device or to confirm the successful completion
• e.g. „A user has logged into an application“
   

Warning:

• event generated when a service has reached a treshold  that indicates a situation must be checked for preventing an exception
• e.g. „A user has logged into an application with an incorrect password“

Exception events

• service is currently operating abnormally (as defined by the organization) 
• typically SLA and OLA have been breached (verletzt) and the business is impacted.
• total failure, degraded performance
• e.g. „The completion time of a transaction is 10% longer than normal“

• ensure that service releases are deployed successfully into supported environments
• Service transition is to ensure that new, modified or retired services meet the expectations of the business as documented in the service strategy and service design stage of the lifecycle.
• Plan and manage service changes efficiently and effectively 
• Main objective: Manage risks relating to new, changed or retired services 

• restore normal  service operations as quickly as possible, with the least adverse(benachteiligt) possible impact on either the business or the user  ( at a cost-effective price)
• normal: an operational state where services and CIs are performing within their agreed service and operational levels

Incidents never turn into problems.

A problem is an underlying cause, which can evoke one or more incidents.

What is the main goal of the 7-step improvement process? Give a short summary of each step?

Puts a structure in place to enable continual assessment of the current situation against business needs and looks for opportunities to improve service provision, thus enabling overall business to be successful. Step 1:  Identify the strategy for improvement, Step 2: Define what you will measure?, Step 3: Gather the data, Step 4: Process, Step 5: Analyze the information and the data, Step 6: Present and use the information, Step 7: Implement Improvement

1. What is the vision? Formulate a vision, mission, goals and objectives together with the business (Business vision, mission, goals and objectives)
2. – Where are we now? (Baseline assessments) Recurd the current situtation and set the baseline
3. Where do we want to be? (Determine Measurable targets)
4.  How do we get there? (Draw ip a detailed service improvment plan (SIP)Service & process improvement)
5. Did we get there? (Measurements & metrics) Measure whether objectives have been achieved , and check if processes are complied with.
6. How do we keep the momentum going? (Übernehmen und maintain) (Slide 14)