The Service Owner Role in ITIL v3

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1 The Service Owner Role in ITIL v3 By Kai Holthaus, ITIL v3 Expert and Director for Third Sky, Inc. Everyone who has attended an ITIL v3 Foundation class has heard about the Service Owner role. However, the class only requires a student to know what the main accountabilities for a Service Owner are, for example representing the service to the organization. The class provides very little in the way of describing how a Service Owner helps define, design, transition, operate and improve a service. This white paper provides a closer look at the Service Owner role, beyond the main accountabilities described in the Foundation syllabus. It will look at some tasks in each of the life cycle stages for a Service Owner to do, and describe a generic service delivery model at a high level. Service Owner Overview The Service Owner role is introduced in the ITIL v3 books with the following responsibilities: To act as prime customer contact for all service-related enquiries and issues To ensure that the ongoing service delivery and support meet agreed customer requirements To identify opportunities for service improvements, discuss with the customer and raise the RFC for assessment if appropriate To liaise with the appropriate process owners throughout the Service Management lifecycle To solicit required data, statistics and reports for analysis and to facilitate effective service monitoring and performance To be accountable to the IT director or Service Management director for the delivery of the service Please note the stress on accountability as opposed to responsibility (think of the RACI model). In Foundation classes, I like to compare the Service Owner with a football coach, who tells the players how to play the game, but does not play himself. The Service Owner is accountable for the quality of the service, but doesn t (normally) deliver the service. As such, the Service Owner takes on a coordinating role more than an executing role, ensuring that the service meets customer requirements. And the Service Owner s accountability encompasses the end-to-end service, not just the pieces necessary for the service. The Service Owner, for example, is accountable for the availability of the entire Service, not just the availability of the network, or the server, or the storage. Page 1

2 Service Owner During Service Strategy The Service Strategy phase is all about business strategy. Who are my customers? What do they need? Why should they buy it from me? The ITIL Service Strategy book describes three processes, but also four activities, and it is those four activities that the Service Owner is really accountable for. The activities are: Define the market: The Service Owner seeks to understand which market the new or changed service will serve. Who are the customers in this market, and what do they seek to buy? What is the opportunity that the service provider organization will be able to serve? Develop the offerings: Once the market and the opportunity have been defined, the Service Owner should create an outcome-based definition of the new or changed services. The Service Strategy book describes such definitions in greater detail. Here is an example of a utility-based definition of a service: Mobile workspace services provide value to the customer when field staff securely access enterprise applications without being constrained by location or time. Similar statements can be created for warranty-based definitions. Develop strategic assets: Delivery of the service not only will require assets directly associated with the service (e.g. servers, network), but also other assets, such as service management tools and processes. These strategic assets will work together to enable the Service Owner to understand the service performance potential, as well as the need for capacity to serve customer demand at a certain price point. Furthermore, the assets will ensure that the service is delivered at the appropriate quality. Prepare for execution: Here, the business case for the new or changed service will be built. This allows the governance to prioritize (competing) investments for new or changed services based on business factors understood in the previous three activities. The Service Owner is also involved in the three processes described in the Service Strategy book: Service Portfolio Management: As the main representative of a service, the Service Owner will represent the service in this process, ensuring that the best business case will be presented to governance for approval and prioritization, as well as following up later on, to demonstrate that the assumptions in the business case have become a reality. Financial Management: The Service Owner needs to understand the financials of the service, such as the factors that contribute to the cost of the service, and the price for the service the market place can sustain. Other things to consider are: Return on Investment or Value on Investment, as well as potential profit margins. Demand Management: The Service Owner needs to work with the Demand Management Process Owner as well as the Business Relationship Manager to understand customer demand, and then work with the Capacity Management Process Owner to ensure sufficient capacity will be available to meet the demand. Page 2

3 Service Owner During Service Design The main output of the Service Design life cycle phase is the Service Design Package. It is the Service Owner s responsibility to ensure that the Service Design Package is created in such a way that will meet customer and IT service provider requirements. As such, the factors to be considered in the Service Design Package are: The five aspects of Service Design: The Service Owner will need to ensure: o That customer requirements are fully understood, documented and agreed to. o That service management systems and tools are in place that will meet the needs of the new or changed service. If such systems and tools are not in place, creation of these systems needs to be part of the transition plan. o That the technical design of the service will meet the documented and agreed to business requirements. o That all processes necessary for the delivery and operation of the new or changed service are in place. If such processes do not yet exist, design and implementation of the processes need to be part of the transition plan o That appropriate metrics and measurements are defined and will be reported on during transition and operation. Sourcing considerations: Typically, at least some parts of the service will involve products or services from a supplier. Appropriate processes and procedures need to be followed to evaluate such suppliers, and recommend the best supplier(s) as part of the Service Design Package. Different sourcing models, such as outsourcing or application service provisioning should also be considered and evaluated. Service Level Packages: The Service Owner should design Service Level Packages to meet the documented and agreed to business requirements. Often, a service will have more than one customer, with each customer having different requirements with regards to service levels. The different cost models for the different service levels need to also be understood and documented. Transition and Operation Plans: As part of Service Design, the plans to transition and operate the service need to be created. The activities during those life cycle phases also need to be included when calculating the cost of the new or changed service. The Service Owner needs to ensure that necessary training, including end user training as well as IT staff training to transition and operate the service, is part of these plans. Financial models: Having completed all the previous steps, the Service Owner will then create a financial model for the new service to be included in the Service Design Package, which will allow the governance to disposition and prioritize the new or changed service. The Service Owner will then represent the service to the governance, acting as an advocate for the service. Page 3

4 Service Owner During Service Transition The Service Transition phase serves as the bridge between design and operations of a service, and as such, the Service Owner s main accountability is to make the transition go as smoothly as possible. Typically, this will involve vendor negotiations as a first step. During the Service Design phase, vendors were evaluated, and governance at the end of the design phase approves the design package, which include vendor recommendations. The selected vendors will now enter into a contract with the service provider, and the Service Owner needs to ensure that this contract meets the business requirements. As a result of these negotiations, it may be necessary to adjust the transition plan, operations plan, parts of the service design, and maybe the financial model for the service. Should this adjustment be significant, the Service Owner will have to bring the adjusted package back to the governance for a new approval. Once the negotiations are complete, the execution of the transition plan can begin. The Service Owner is accountable for a smooth transition. Project Management skills will be very advantageous here. The Service Transition book describes other processes not directly related to transitioning a service into operation, and it is the Service Owner s responsibility to make sure these processes are being followed with regards to the service: Change Management: The Service Owner ensures that all changes that affect the service are following the appropriate change process. Service Asset and Configuration Management: The Service Owner is accountable for the accuracy and maintenance of the asset and configuration management information for the service is kept in the Configuration Management System. Knowledge Management: The Service Owner ensures that knowledge pertaining to the service is being shared through the appropriate channels. Service Owner During Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement Service Operation is the life cycle phase when customers experience the value of the service. It is the Service Owner s job to ensure that value is created by ensuring delivery of the service and maintenance of the environment that supports the service. This is also the life cycle phase that provides most input into the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) phase by measuring all aspects of the service. This includes measuring the service level achievements, as well as other operational measures that allow the Service Owner to address incidents before customers even feel the impact, e.g. a failover server goes down and can be replaced before the impact on the service is being felt by the customer. The measurements will be used to create regular service performance reports that can be published. If the reports indicate that the service is not performing according to service level targets, the Service Owner needs to work proactively on improvement proposals. Page 4

5 The reports and, if applicable, improvement proposals will be reviewed with customers during regular service reviews. While it is the Business Relationship Manager s accountability to coordinate such meetings, the Service Owner represents the service during those meetings. The main output of these meetings would be a Service Improvement Plan (SIP), with the Service Owner being accountable for the implementation. Please note that depending on the size and/or impact of the improvements, the SIP may have to follow the service life cycle for approval and implementation. A Generic Service Delivery Model If we put all these things together, we get a view of the service life cycle from a single service point of view: a phase-gate process containing all the activities necessary to define, design, transition, operate and improve a service: The graphic above just presents a high-level view of this process. Looking more closely at the separate life cycle stages, one could define process steps, along with an authority matrix, which would give a service owner a map to follow when taking ownership of a new or changed service. Summary Not a lot is said during an ITIL v3 Foundation class about the important role of the Service Owner. The Service Owner is central to design, delivery and improvement of IT services. The Service Owner is ITIL s version of a Product Manager as it exists in other industry verticals, taking accountability for the end-to- Page 5

6 end view of the service, from inception to sunset. Implementing this role well is critical to successful implementation of an IT service provider paradigm. About Third Sky Third Sky specializes in the assessment, planning, and adoption of ITIL / ITSM solutions that enable IT organizations to deliver higher levels of service while maintaining or reducing Total Cost of Operations (TCO). Third Sky provides a comprehensive set of IT Service Management solutions addressing people, process, and technology initiatives for medium to large enterprises. Third Sky provides a 2-day Service Owner training that expands on the contents of this white paper and provides Service Owners with a solid understanding about the Service Owner role as described by ITIL v3, as well as expanding on the generic Service Delivery Model. The training also provides Service Owners with ready-to-use templates for many of the tasks Service Owners are expected to perform. Page 6