ITIL Foundation Pre Reading Notes 2013 V A1.1

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com
ITIL Service Management

Foundation
Pre-course Reading
(ITIL is a Registered Trade Mark of AXELOS Limited)
Advance ITSM V A1.1 2013
ITIL Foundation Pre-reading
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How to make the most of this material prior to the course? ........................................ 4
Why ITIL ? ................................................................................................................. 4
What is ITIL ? ............................................................................................................ 4
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 5
The core publications ................................................................................................. 5
Service Management as a Practice ................................................................................ 6
What is Best Practice? ............................................................................................. 6
What is a Service? ...................................................................................................... 6
What is Service Management? .................................................................................. 6
What is a Function? ................................................................................................... 6
What are Roles? ......................................................................................................... 7
What are Processes? .................................................................................................. 7
Service Strategy ............................................................................................................. 8
Service Strategy processes......................................................................................... 9
Demand Management ........................................................................................... 9
Service Portfolio Management .............................................................................. 9
Financial Management .......................................................................................... 9
Business Relationship Management ...................................................................... 9
Strategy management for IT services .................................................................... 9
Service Design .............................................................................................................. 10
Service Design processes ......................................................................................... 10
Design Coordination ............................................................................................ 10
Service Catalogue Management .......................................................................... 10
Service Level Management .................................................................................. 10
Availability Management ..................................................................................... 10
IT Service Continuity Management ..................................................................... 11
Capacity Management ......................................................................................... 11
Information Security Management ..................................................................... 11
Supplier Management ......................................................................................... 11
Service Transition ......................................................................................................... 12
Service Transition processes .................................................................................... 12
Transition Planning and Support ......................................................................... 12
Change Management ........................................................................................... 12
Service Asset and Configuration Management ................................................... 13
Release and Deployment Management .............................................................. 13
Knowledge management ............................................................................................. 14
Service Operation ........................................................................................................ 15
Service Operation processes.................................................................................... 15
Incident Management.......................................................................................... 15
Problem Management ......................................................................................... 15
Event Management.............................................................................................. 16
Access Management ............................................................................................ 16
Request Fulfilment ............................................................................................... 16
Service Operation Functions .................................................................................... 17
Service Desk ......................................................................................................... 17
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Technical Management ....................................................................................... 17
IT Operations Management ................................................................................. 17
Applications Management ................................................................................... 17
Continual Service Improvement .................................................................................. 18
CSI processes ............................................................................................................ 18
The seven step improvement process ................................................................. 18
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How to make the most of this material prior to the course?

The ITIL Foundation course is very intensive. It is therefore essential that you fully prepare yourself before
attending.
It is suggested that to get as much out of the course as possible and to ensure success in the exam, you:
1.
2.
3.
Read the course pre-reading notes as laid out below a couple of times (Not in one attempt)
Make yourself aware of the terminology by reading the latest ITIL Glossary
During the course allocate an hour or two each evening for Homework
Why ITIL?
ITIL stands for the IT Infrastructure Library, and is owned and managed by the Cabinet Office.
ITIL is now operating as a worldwide de-facto FRAMEWORK for Service Management, and has been
implemented in numerous organisations, both large and small, across both the public and private sectors.
What is ITIL?
ITIL is not a methodology like PRINCE2. It is a framework of IT Service Management Best Practice, from which
you can choose which parts are relevant to your organisation and to what degree they should be
implemented.
Because ITIL is NOT a methodology, it is not prescriptive, so it is not auditable, hence the ISO/IEC 20000
standard for Service Management, which is both measurable and auditable.
Beware; some software tool vendors say that their software tools are ITIL compliant. There is no such thing
as ITIL compliant, the tools merely adhere to ITIL principles and support some of the ITIL processes.
(IT Infrastructure Library is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited)
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Introduction
The purpose of this introduction is to help you understand some of the background principles, methods and
systems used in ITIL prior to attending the ITIL Foundation course, and also understand why ITIL needed to
change.
Since its creation, ITIL has grown to become the most widely accepted approach to IT service management in
the world.
The earlier versions of ITIL were mainly focused on the processes required to deliver effective Service
Support and Service Delivery, and perhaps did not reflect the fast-changing nature and requirements of
modern organisations. It has therefore become the IT Service Management communitys responsibility to
ensure that the guidance keeps pace with a changing global business environment.
Service management requirements are inevitably shaped by the development of technology, revised business
models and increasing customer expectations. This latest version of ITIL has been created in response to
these developments.
The core publications

There are now five core publications describing the IT service management practices that make up ITIL. They
are the result of a two-year project to review and update the guidance.
Service
Strategy
Service
Design
Service
Transition
Service
Operation
Continual
Service
Improvement
A Service Lifecycle approach
The number of service management professionals around the world who have helped to develop the content
of these publications is impressive. Their experience and knowledge have contributed to the content to bring a
consistent set of high-quality guidance. This is supported by the ongoing development of a comprehensive
qualifications scheme, along with accredited training and consultancy.
Whether part of a global company, a government department or a small business, ITIL gives access to worldclass service management expertise. Essentially, it puts IT services where they belong at the heart of
successful business operations.
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Service Management as a Practice
The advent of ITIL V3 (2007) heralded a push into making Service Management a true profession, just like
law, dental and medical practices. This version was revised in 2011 and is now referred to only as ITIL.
What is Best Practice?

ITIL promotes Best Practice in IT Service Management. Best Practice being what most organisations would
find acceptable and affordable. There are lots of sources of Best Practice; in propriety companies; in
academia; in standards, and practiced by individuals.
What is a Service?
ITIL is based on a Service lifecycle. But what is a service? ITILs definition is:
Services are a means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve
without the ownership of specific costs and risks.
This means the provision, either internally or externally of IT infrastructure resources (Hardware, Software,
Documentation and People) and Capabilities (skills and knowledge) to support and maintain a discrete
business function or process
Example: An Email service. This may be a service in one organisation or just part of the underlying
infrastructure in another organisation.
Services are what you want them to bebut must deliver value to a customer, be measurable, respond to a
trigger, and are performance driven.
A Service typically comprises one or more IT Systems to support a business process.
A Service may also comprise many technical and non-technical components that fit together like a chain.
These components may be technical (hardware, software) and/or non-technical (people - IT and Business
users), documentation etc.
What is Service Management?

Service Management is a set of specialised organisational capabilities for providing value to customers in the
form of services
The capabilities take the form of functions and processes for managing services over a lifecycle, with
specialisations in strategy, design, transition, operation, and continual improvement. The capabilities
represent a service organisations capacity, competency, and confidence for action.
The act of transforming resources into valuable services is at the core of service management. Without these
capabilities, a service organisation is merely a bundle of resources that by itself has relatively low intrinsic
value for customers.
What is a Function?
Functions are units of organisations specialised to perform certain types of work and responsible for specific
outcomes, for example a Service Desk. They are self-contained with capabilities (people skills, knowledge and
experience) and resources (people, hardware, software and documentation) necessary for their performance
and outcomes.
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What are Roles?

Roles and the associated authority and responsibility to carry out the role are defined by both processes and
functions for a specific level of performance and outcome. Using the RACI model, we can define who is
Accountable, Responsible, who is Consulted and who is Informed at each stage or activity within a process.
The term Accountable means the one person who is more responsible than the others.
What are Processes?

Processes provide change and transformation towards a goal, and process definitions describe actions,
dependencies, and sequence.
Processes have specific results Result must be individually identifiable and countable.
They are measurable we are able to measure the process in a relevant manner.
Managers want to measure cost, quality and other variables
Practitioners are concerned with duration and productivity.
Processes also have customers every process delivers its primary results to an internal or external
customer/stakeholder, and it must meet their expectations.
They respond to specific events while a process may be ongoing or iterative, it should be traceable to a
specific trigger.
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Service Strategy
This part of the course focuses on guidance on how to design, develop, and implement service management
not only as an organizational capability but also as a strategic asset.
Guidance is provided on the principles underpinning the practice of service management that are useful for
developing service management policies, guidelines and processes across the ITIL Service Lifecycle.
Service Strategy guidance is useful in the context of Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and
Continual Service Improvement.
Topics covered in Service Strategy include:
Development of markets
Internal and external providers
Service assets
Service Catalogue
Implementation of strategy through the Service Lifecycle
Financial Management
Service Portfolio Management
Business Relationship Management
Demand Management
Organizational Development
Strategic Risks
Organizations should use the Service Strategy guidance to set objectives and expectations of performance
towards serving customers and market spaces, and to identify, select, and prioritize opportunities.
Creating a Service Strategy starts with asking ourselves:
What is our business?
Who is our customer?
What does the customer value?
Who depends on our services?
How do they use our services?
Why are they valuable to them?
Service Strategy is also about ensuring that organizations are in a position to handle the costs and risks
associated with their Service Portfolios, and are set up not just for operational effectiveness but also for
distinctive performance. Decisions made with respect to Service Strategy have far-reaching consequences
including those with delayed effect.
Information in the Service Strategy part of the course can provide the basis to guide a strategic review of an
organisations ITIL -based service management capabilities and to improve the alignment between those
capabilities and their business strategies.
Service Strategy should also encourage delegates to stop and think about why something is to be done before
thinking of how. Answers to the first type of questions are closer to the customers business.
Service Strategy also expands the scope of the ITIL framework beyond the traditional audience of IT Service
Management professionals.
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Service Strategy Processes

Demand Management
Ensuring that demand for services is managed and that we understand and meet customers demand for
services now and in the future. Demand Management is a critical aspect of service management. Poorly
managed demand is a source of risk for service providers because of uncertainty in demand.
Excess capacity generates cost without creating value that provides a basis for cost recovery as customers are
reluctant to pay for idle capacity unless it has value for them.
Service Portfolio Management

Ensures that we create a Service Portfolio and manage it. The service portfolio describes a providers services
in terms of business value.
A portfolio management approach helps managers prioritize investments and improve the allocation of
resources. The Service Portfolio represents all the resources presently engaged or being released in various
phases of the Service Lifecycle.
Financial Management
Financial Management data is very important to an organisation as many parts of the enterprise interact to
generate and consume IT financial information. These include operations and support units, project
management, application development, infrastructure, Change Management, business units, end users etc.
These entities aggregate, share and maintain the financial data they need.
Business Relationship Management

Business relationship management is a critical source of information about what customers need, why they
need it and how they will use it. This information is useful, not only for defining the position and plans, but also
for understanding the patterns of action that will ensure a successful strategy.
Business relationship management is the process that enables BRMs to provide links between the service
provider and customers at the strategic and tactical levels. The purpose of these links is to ensure that the
service provider understands the business requirements of the customer and is able to provide services that
meet these needs. The primary measure of whether this purpose is being achieved is the level of customer
satisfaction.
Strategy Management for IT services

Strategy management for IT services is the process of defining and maintaining an organizations perspective,
position, plans and patterns with regard to its services and the management of those services. The purpose of
a service strategy is to articulate how a service provider will enable an organization to achieve its business
outcomes; it establishes the criteria and mechanisms to decide which services will be best suited to meet the
business outcomes and the most effective and efficient way to manage these services. Strategy management
for IT services is the process that ensures that the strategy is defined, maintained and achieves its purpose.
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Service Design
This part of the course material focuses on guidance for the design and development of services and service
management processes. It covers design principles and methods for converting strategic objectives into
portfolios of services and service assets. The scope of Service Design is not limited to new services. It includes
the changes and improvements necessary to increase or maintain value to customers over the lifecycle of
services, the continuity of services, achievement of service levels, and conformance to standards and
regulations. It guides organizations on how to develop design capabilities for service management.
The five main areas of Service Design are:
Service solutions (New or changed services)

Service Management systems and tools, especially the Service Portfolio
Technology architectures
Processes
Measurement systems
Service Design Processes

The seven main processes involved in Service Design are:
Design Coordination
The purpose of the design coordination process is to ensure the goals and objectives of the service design
stage are met by providing and maintaining a single point of coordination and control for all activities and
processes within this stage of the service lifecycle.
Service Catalogue Management

This process provides a single source of consistent information on all of the agreed services and ensures that it
is widely available to those that are approved to access it.
Service Level Management

This process provides an interface to the business for all service related issues. It agrees service targets,
monitors, reports and reviews service levels to demonstrate targets have been met. It also provides feedback
on the cause of SLA failure and details of the actions taken to prevent recurrence.
It is also a dedicated communication channel for the Customer.
Availability Management
This process is about understanding and managing component availability and reliability to underpin the
organisations IT Service availability and reliability requirements. It ensures that services deliver the levels of
availability agreed. Ensuring new services are designed to deliver the availability levels agreed.
It also assists with the investigation and diagnosis of availability related incidents, assists with the design of
hardware and software. It also specifies monitoring requirements for availability of components, and specifies
the reliability, maintainability that internal need to supply and serviceability targets that 3rd party suppliers
need to be contracted to supply
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IT Service Continuity Management

This process provides support for the overall Business Continuity Management process by ensuring that the
required IT technical and service facilities (including computer systems, networks, applications, data
repositories, telecommunications, environment, technical support and Service Desk) can be resumed within
required, and agreed, business timescales.
It also analyses and manages risk to ensure that disaster situations are less likely to occur.
Capacity Management
The Capacity Management process is there to ensure that cost-justifiable IT capacity in all areas of IT always
exists and is matched to the current and future agreed needs of the business, in a timely manner. This
involves ensuring that there is adequate optimal capacity to meet current and future required levels of service.
IT advises how to match capacity and demand for capacity, understands current usage levels, sizing new
services and systems and forecasting future capacity requirements.
Information Security Management

The goal of the ISM process is to align IT security with business security and ensure that information security is
effectively managed in all service and Service Management activities. This also involves developing and
maintaining the Information Security Policy and communicating and publicising it to all, also ensuring that the
policy is enforced.
It also involves identifying and classifying assets and the level of control and protection that is required. It
assists with Business Impact Analysis and also assists with Security Risk Analysis and Risk Management. It also
designs and develops security controls and plans for the operational environment.
Supplier Management
The Supplier Management process is designed to manage suppliers and the services they supply, to provide
seamless quality of IT service to the business, ensuring value for money is obtained.
It also provides assistance in the development and review of SLAs, contracts, agreements or any other
documents for third-party suppliers. It ensures that value for money is obtained from all IT suppliers and their
contracts that all IT supplier processes are consistent and interface to all corporate supplier strategies,
processes and standard terms and conditions.
The process also covers maintaining and reviewing a Supplier and Contracts Database (SCD) Review and Risk
Analysis of all suppliers and contracts on a regular basis.
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Service Transition
This part of the course material focuses on guidance for the development and improvement of capabilities for
transitioning new and changed services into operations.
Guidance is provided on how the requirements of Service Strategy encoded in Service Design are effectively
realized in Service Operation while controlling the risks of failure and disruption.
This lifecycle stage combines practices in Release Management, Programme Management, and Risk
Management and places them in the practical context of service management. It provides guidance on
managing the complexity related to changes to services and service management processes, preventing
undesired consequences while allowing for innovation.
Guidance is also provided on transferring the control of services between customers and service providers.
Service Transition Processes

Transition Planning and Support
The purpose of the transition planning and support process is to provide overall planning for service transitions
and to coordinate the resources that they require. Effective transition planning and support can significantly
improve a service providers ability to handle high volumes of change and releases across its customer base.
An integrated approach to planning improves the alignment of the service transition plans with the customer,
supplier and business change project plans
Change Management
The purpose of the Change Management process is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are
used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes. All changes to service assets and configuration items are
recorded in the Configuration Management System. The process also ensures that overall business risk is
optimized.
The key goals of Change Management are to respond to the customers changing business requirements while
maximizing value and reducing incidents, disruption and re-work .It also responds to the business and IT
requests for change that will align the services with the business needs.
All changes to the Service Portfolio or service catalogue are implemented through Change Management and
the changes that are managed by the Service Transition lifecycle stage are defined and agreed.
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Service Asset and Configuration Management
Service Asset and Configuration Management provides a logical model of the IT infrastructure. The key
activities within the process are to identify, control, record, report, audit and verify service assets and
configuration items. This includes versions, baselines, constituent components, their attributes, and
relationships. The process also accounts for, manages and protects the integrity of service assets and
configuration items (and, where appropriate, those of its customers) through the service lifecycle, by ensuring
that only authorized components are used, and only authorized changes are made.
It also protects the integrity of service assets and configuration items, ensures the integrity of the assets and
configurations required to control the services and IT infrastructure by establishing and maintaining an
accurate and complete Configuration Management System (CMS).
No organization can be fully efficient or effective unless it manages its assets well, particularly those assets
that are vital to the running of the customers or organizations business. This process manages the service
assets in order to support the other Service Management processes.
Release and Deployment Management

The Release and Deployment Management process aims to build, test and deliver the capability to provide the
services specified by Service Design and that will accomplish the stakeholders requirements and deliver the
intended objectives.
The goal of Release and Deployment Management is to deploy releases into production and establish
effective use of the service in order to deliver value to the customer and be able to handover to service
operations.
The release and deployment manager is responsible for the planning, design, build, configuration and testing
of all software and hardware to create the release package for the delivery of, or changes to, the designated
service.
Service Validation and Testing

The underlying concept to which service validation and testing contributes is quality assurance establishing
that the service design and release will deliver a new or changed service or service offering that is fit for
purpose and fit for use. Testing is a vital area within service management and has often been the unseen
underlying cause of what was taken to be inefficient service management processes.
The service provider takes responsibility for delivering, operating and/or maintaining customer or service
assets at specified levels of warranty, under a service agreement. Service validation and testing can be applied
throughout the service lifecycle to quality assure any aspect of a service and the service providers capability,
resources and capacity to deliver a service and/or service release successfully. When validating and testing an
end-to-end service, the interfaces to suppliers, customers and partners are important. Service provider
interface definitions define the boundaries of the service to be tested, e.g. process interfaces and
organizational interfaces.
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Change Evaluation
The purpose of the change evaluation process is to provide a consistent and standardized means of
determining the performance of a service change in the context of likely impacts on business outcomes, and
on existing and proposed services and IT infrastructure. The actual performance of a change is assessed
against its predicted performance. Risks and issues related to the change are identified and managed.
The change evaluation process describes a formal evaluation that is suitable for use when significant changes
are being evaluated. Each organization must decide which changes should use this formal change evaluation,
and which can be evaluated as part of the change management process. This decision will normally be
documented in change models used to manage each type of change.
Knowledge Management
The ability to deliver a quality service or process rests to a significant extent on the ability of those involved to
respond to circumstances and that in turn rests heavily on their understanding of the situation, the options
and the consequences and benefits, i.e. their knowledge of the situation in which they are currently, or in
which they may find themselves. The purpose of the knowledge management process is to share perspectives,
ideas, experience and information; to ensure that these are available in the right place at the right time to
enable informed decisions; and to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge.
Knowledge management is a whole lifecycle-wide process in that it is relevant to all lifecycle stages and hence
is referenced throughout ITIL from the perspective of each publication. It is dealt with to some degree within
other ITIL publications, but this section sets out the basic concept, from a service transition focus.
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Service Operation
This part of the course material focuses on the practices in the management of service operations. It includes
guidance on achieving effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery and support of services so as to ensure value
for the customer and the service provider.
Strategic objectives are ultimately realized through service operations, therefore making it a critical capability.
Guidance is provided on ways to maintain stability in service operations, allowing for changes in design, scale,
scope and service levels.
You will be provided with detailed process guidelines, methods and tools for use in two major control
perspectives: reactive and proactive. Managers and practitioners are provided with knowledge allowing them
to make better decisions in areas such as managing the availability of services, controlling demand, optimizing
capacity utilization, scheduling of operations and fixing problems. Guidance is provided on supporting
operations through new models and architectures such as shared services, utility computing, web services and
mobile commerce.
Service Operation Processes

Incident Management
The process of restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible, whilst minimising the adverse impact
on business operations. In many organisations Incident Management is the role of the Service Desk, however
in a number of larger organisations you may find a dedicated Incident Management team, which manage the
higher priority incidents, or which handle escalations from the Service Desk.
Incident Management includes any event which disrupts, or which could disrupt, a service. This includes events
which are communicated directly by users, either through the Service Desk or through an interface from Event
Management to Incident Management tools. Incidents can also be reported and/or logged by technical staff
(if, for example, they notice something untoward with a hardware or network component they may report or
log an incident and refer it to the Service Desk). This does not mean, however, that all events are incidents.
Many classes of events are not related to disruptions at all, but are indicators of normal operation or are
simply informational.
Problem Management
Is the process which manages the overall lifecycle of problems. It identifies the underlying root cause of a
significant or a number of related incidents. It has both a reactive element and a proactive element. Its main
goal is to improve the stability of services and components through the restoration of services through
application of a change to fix the root cause of an incident, or though identifying workarounds which can be
applied to restore an acceptable level of service, or though the prevention of incidents in the first place.
Problem Management manage, and are the gatekeeper for the Known Error Database which is used by the
Service Desk.
Problem Management includes the activities required to diagnose the root cause of incidents and to
determine the resolution to those problems. It is also responsible for ensuring that the resolution is
implemented through the appropriate control procedures, especially Change Management and Release
Management. Problem Management will also maintain information about problems and the appropriate
workarounds and resolutions, so that the organization is able to reduce the number and impact of incidents
over time. In this respect, Problem Management has a strong interface with Knowledge Management, and
tools such as the Known Error Database will be used for both.
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Event Management
Event Management provides the ability to detect events, make sense of them and determine the appropriate
control action. Event Management is therefore the basis for Operational Monitoring and Control. In addition,
if these events are programmed to communicate operational information as well as warnings and exceptions,
they can be used as a basis for automating many routine Operations Management activities, for example
executing scripts on remote devices, or submitting jobs for processing, or even dynamically balancing the
demand for a service across multiple devices to enhance performance.
Event Management therefore provides the entry point for the execution of many Service Operation processes
and activities. In addition, it provides a way of comparing actual performance and behaviour against design
standards and SLAs. As such, Event Management also provides a basis for Service Assurance and Reporting and
Service Improvement. This is covered in detail in Continual Service Improvement.
Access Management
Access Management is the process of granting authorised users the right to use a service, while restricting
access to non-authorized users. It is based on being able accurately to identify authorised users and then
manage their ability to access services as required during different stages of their Human Resources (HR) or
contractual lifecycle. Access Management has also been called Identity or Rights Management in some
organizations.
Access Management provides the right for users to be able to use a service or group of services. It is therefore
the execution of policies and actions defined in Security and Availability Management.
Access Management is effectively the execution of both Availability and Information Security Management, in
that it enables the organization to manage the confidentiality, availability and integrity of the organizations
data and intellectual property.
Access Management ensures that users are given the right to use a service, but it does not ensure that this
access is available at all agreed times this is provided by Availability Management.
Access Management is a process that is executed by all Technical and Application Management functions and
is usually not a separate function. However, there is likely to be a single control point of coordination, usually
in IT Operations Management or on the Service Desk.
Access Management can be initiated by a Service Request through the Service Desk.
Request Fulfilment
Request Fulfilment is the process for dealing with Service Requests many of them actually smaller, lower-risk,
changes initially via the Service Desk, but using a separate process similar to that of Incident Management
but with separate Request Fulfilment records/tables where necessary linked to the Incident or Problem
Record(s) that initiated the need for the request. To be a Service Request, it is normal for some prerequisites
to be defined and met (e.g. needs to be proven, repeatable, preapproved, follow a defined procedure).
In order to resolve one or more incidents, problems or Known Errors, some form of change may be necessary.
Smaller, often standard, changes can be handled through a Request Fulfilment process, but larger, higher-risk
or infrequent changes must go through a formal Change Management process.
Each organisation should make a decision as to what forms of change are handled by the formal change
process and what should be handled by the separate Request Fulfilment process.
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Service Operation Functions

A function is a logical concept that refers to the people and automated measures that execute a defined
process, an activity or a combination of processes or activities. In larger organisations a function may be
broken up and performed by several departments, teams and groups, or it may be embodied within a single
organisational unit.
Service Desk
To act as the central (single or prime) point of contact between users and Service Management to handle
incidents and register requests for new / changed services. The primary aim of the Service Desk is to restore
the normal service to the users as quickly as possible. In this context restoration of service is meant in the
widest possible sense.
The Service Desk is the primary point of contact for users when there is a service disruption, for Service
Requests, or even for some categories of Request for Change. The Service Desk provides a point of
communication to the users and a point of coordination for several IT groups and processes
Technical Management
The Technical Management function provides detailed technical skills and resources needed to support the
ongoing operation of the IT Infrastructure and plays an important role in the design, testing, release and
improvement of IT services.
In small organisations, it is possible to manage this expertise in a single department, but larger organisations
are typically split into a number of technically specialised departments. In many organisations, the Technical
Management departments are also responsible for the daily operation of a subset of the IT Infrastructure.
Although they are part of a Technical Management department, staff who perform these activities are logically
part of the IT Operations Management function.
IT Operations Management
The Operations Management function is responsible for the daily operational activities needed to manage the
IT Infrastructure. In some organisations this is a single, centralised department, while in others some activities
and staff are centralised and some are provided by distributed or specialised departments. This is illustrated by
the overlapping from the Technical and Application Management functions. IT Operations Management has
two functions that are unique and which are generally formal organisational structures, being Operations
Control and Facilities Management
Applications Management
The Application Management function is responsible for managing applications throughout their lifecycle. It
supports and maintains operational applications and also plays an important role in the design, testing and
improvement of applications that form part of IT services. Application Management is usually divided into
departments based on the application portfolio of the organisation, thus allowing easier specialisation and
more focused support. In many organisations Application Management departments have staff that performs
daily operations for those applications. As with Technical Management, these staff logically form part of the IT
Operations Management function.
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Continual Service Improvement

This part of the course material focuses on providing instrumental guidance in creating and maintaining value
for customers through better design, introduction, and operation of services.
CSI combines principles, practices, and methods from quality management, Change Management and
capability improvement.
Organizations learn to realize incremental and large-scale improvements in service quality, operational
efficiency and business continuity. Guidance is provided for linking improvement efforts and outcomes with
service strategy, design, and transition. A closed-loop feedback system, based on the Deming; Plan, Do, Check,
Act (PDCA) model specified in the service Management standard ISO/IEC 20000, is established and capable of
receiving inputs for change from any planning perspective.
CSI Processes
The Seven Step Improvement Process
The seven step improvement process provides the basis for improvement to IT services and underlying
processes. It relies on measurement and reporting to identify current levels of service (Baseline) and gaps
between what is delivered and what was agreed to be delivered. Cost justifiable improvements will be
identified and implemented as a result.
The seven steps of the process are:
1. Identify the strategy for improvement
2. Define what you will measure
3. Gather the data - Who? How? When? Integrity of data?
4. Process the data - Frequency? Format? System? Accuracy?
5. Analyse the information and data - Relations? Trends? According to plan? Targets met? Corrective action?
Goals
6. Present and use the information - assessment summary, action plans, etc.
7. Implement improvement
When CSI is looking at improving processes in support of IT services, understanding the value of processes to a
business is critical. As well as measuring services and processes, component measurement is another
important area.
Page 18

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