WHITE PAPER IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT IT SERVICE DESIGN 101

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1 WHITE PAPER IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT IT SERVICE DESIGN 101 Prepared by: Phillip Bailey, Service Management Consultant Steve Ingall, Head of Service Management Consultancy 60 Lombard Street London EC3V 9EA T: +44 (0) E:

2 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IT Service Design is a relatively new discipline that asks some fundamental questions about any new or changed IT services, such as what service levels are required? ; what will the support model look like? ; what is the service governance? ; how do we on board the service into the existing service portfolio? In addition the Service Design should also look at what must the user experience be like? ; what should the support experience be like? ; how do we manage this as a core business assets? Design is a highly pragmatic discipline. That is why it is of such interest to both the project teams, transition teams and operations teams. At its heart lies the idea of experience and knowledge and this paper provides guidance drawn from icore s experience managing Service Design stages for several global organisations, including the methods and ideas behind Service Design and how these can be equally applied to the private and the public sector. We reveal how Service Design methods can help projects and operations to become more efficient and more effective. 2. BACKGROUND Service Design is that part of the IT Service Lifecycle concerned with the gathering of functional and non-functional service needs, mapping them to the business and service requirements for integrated services, and creating the design specifications for the service assets needed to provide the services. The main aim of Service Design is to design all aspects of the required IT services, covering the application and infrastructure together with the ITIL IT Services Service Orientated Architecture Service Transition Project Lifecycle Best Practice Service Management icore SLA Service Design Operations governing IT practices, processes and policies, to realise the need and to facilitate the introduction of these services into production ensuring quality service delivery, customer satisfaction and cost-effective service provision. Service Design must also design the IT services effectively so that they do not need significant remediation work during their lifecycle. User Experience Too often new services or solutions are designed addressing only a technical requirement or in isolation, dependencies and interactions with other services are not considered. Service Design seeks to address that issue, by ensuring that all staff involved in the introduction of new services are aware of and consider the service ramifications of design issues. It is important to have the end user experience in mind when undertaking Service Design and to consider the service in the context of the wider IT picture. icore 2014 P a g e 1

3 3. SERVICE DESIGN PRINCIPLES A Service Design must be produced for each new service, major change to or the removal of an existing service. Ensuring that the Service Design details all the relevant information during the initial phase of a project prevents costly changes and rework later during the project lifecycle. The Service Design will detail all aspects of a service and its requirements through all of the subsequent stages of its lifecycle, it will detail all the information required on the design of the service including the required implementation and subsequent operational support. It is important to understand and plan who is doing what within the Service Design. Many professionals are involved in the introduction of new services such as project managers, solution architects and subject matter experts on both processes and technology. In order for Service Design to be successful each one must have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities. Many of the issues in design come from areas where ownership is unclear. The Service Transition Team must be kept fully informed of what is required for and ultimately in the Service Design Package and be involved in the transition planning stage of Service Design, in order to ensure a smooth handover to the Service Transition stage. This handover should be a major stage gate for the overall project lifecycle for the new or changed service and the stage gate should not be completed until this confirmation has been received. Service Transition will build, test and deploy the new or changed service and upon completion of these transition activities, control will be passed to Service Operations (following a period of Early Life Support / Warranty). The Service Design Package is referenced through the life of the service and must be maintained through change control when any improvements or amendments to the service need to be reflected in the Service Design Package. It is also recommended that the Service Design documentation is audited to ensure that services in operation continue to match it. Service Design documents have been written in many different ways historically in organisations. Although the fundamental content of what should be included in Service Design is clearly stated within the ITIL Service Management Best Practice Guidelines, there is no defined structure of what the document should look like. The Service Design Package will interface with other documents, such as the Enterprise Strategy and Architecture or the Technical Design documentation for the project. The Technical Design and Service Design documentation will form part of icore 2014 P a g e 2

4 the overall project delivery, as it will detail the means in which the project will be delivered. This paper aims to propose a structure of what should be included in a Service Design Document and how the document should be presented. 4. OVERALL SERVICE DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS Any new or changed service should never be designed and developed in isolation. The service should be designed using a holistic approach that takes into account the overall service, the management and support systems, the technology, the service management processes and the measures and metrics. This approach will guarantee that the new service will be aligned with the current business as usual activities and that the support and operational requirements for the service are addressed from the outset. There are four aspects of Service Design that need to be taken into account when changing or developing a new service: 1. Technology Standards, Architectures and Management Systems To ensure that all the technology architectures and management systems are consistent with the new or changed service and have the capability to operate and maintain the new service. If not, then either the architectures or management systems will need to be amended or the design of the new service will need to be revised. 2. Service Management Systems and Tools To ensure that this new or changed service is consistent with all other services, and that all other services that interface, support or depend on the new or changed services are consistent with the new service. If not, either the design of the new service or the other existing services will need to be adapted. Also the Service Management systems and tools should be reviewed to ensure they are capable of supporting the new or changed service. 3. Processes for Supporting Day-to-Day Operations To ensure that the processes, roles, responsibilities and skills are available to operate, support and maintain the new or changed service. If not, the design of the new service will need to be revised or the existing process capabilities and/or roles will need to be enhanced. This includes all IT and Service Management processes and roles, not just the key Service Design processes. 4. Measurement Methods and Metrics To ensure that existing measurement methods will provide the required metrics for the new or changed service. If not, then the measurement methods will need to be enhanced or the service metrics will need to be revised. icore 2014 P a g e 3

5 Throughout the design phase, there is a need to show consistent value to the business. This is shown by the alignment of IT Services supporting the desired business outcomes. To enable the business to see this value the above four aspects of Service Design are embedded into key service management processes. As mentioned previously, the key processes to consider here are not just those associated with Service Design but also those associated with Service Operations and how these will be managed within Operations. The ideal Service Design Package will be set out in such a way as to be as service specific as possible; the scope of the document should be clearly defined in the introduction and should also have very robust document management controls. A single document may not be sufficient to cover everything needed, therefore additional materials will need to be referenced and controlled as part of a package of documents. 5. SERVICE DESIGN PACKAGE There are some key fundamental areas that need to be covered by any Service Design Package. A list of these is covered below: 1. Business and Service Requirements of the new / changed service Business and Service requirements to allow management of the new or changed service and its components, including all supporting services and agreements, control, operation, monitoring, measuring and reporting. This will include the service functional requirements and service level requirements (including availability, the criticality and impact of the service, service hours, the business/service volumes, groups of users and how they will use the service, reporting, service reviews etc.). Also, the operational management requirements, (including the operating and support model, supporting processes and procedures, supporting agreements, measures and metrics, stakeholder engagement etc.). 2. Organisation Readiness This contains the business and the IT service organisation, and includes undertaking functional analysis, activity analysis, Process Gap Analysis, defining roles and responsibilities and the resources needed to fulfil these roles. A good secondary source of reference for IT organisation review and definition is the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). This stage should also make reference to any sourcing model that is being used for the build and operational services, e.g. application support will be icore 2014 P a g e 4

6 provided by the software vendor, and the software vendor will be vendor managed by the in house Vendor Management team. 3. Service Program An overall programme or plan covering the lifecycle of the service, including the timescales and phasing, for the transition, operations and subsequent improvement of the new service. This will include the management of co-ordination and integration, management of risks and issues, scope, objectives and components of service, skills, competencies, roles and responsibilities, supplier and contract management, communication and training plans, timescales, deliverables, targets for each stage and quality criteria for each stage. This should also include the documentation of Capacity requirements, sizing, growth assumptions and draft plan, and also Service Continuity requirements, assumptions and draft plan. 4. Service Transition Plan This contains the Build and Testing Strategy; Knowledge, Skill and Competence Transfer and Development; Sourcing, Supplier and Contract Transition; and Transition Policies together with a Release Strategy for the new or changed service. Testing should define the level of testing that will be required at all points of the project lifecycle from investment appraisal through development testing, user testing and service integration testing. 5. Service Operational Acceptance Plan This includes the overall operational strategy; objectives, policy, risk assessment and plans; interface and dependency planning; reported Service Issues; Open Defects; Change Schedules; Release Plan; Resolved Incidents, Problems and Known Errors; Non-conformances; Warranty Periods and Exit criteria; Pilot criteria; and final Service Acceptance criteria. 6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS To conclude this discussion paper, the best approach to take when creating a Service Design Package will be to have a holistic end-to-end perspective of what is to be designed and developed. Be sure to go back to the needs stated in the Service Portfolio and ensure the design is aligned to this, that it meets the business needs and objectives, and conforms to corporate and IT policies. icore 2014 P a g e 5

7 Attention has to be given to the level of detail to ensure that enough information for the transition and the on-going support of the service is provided. A well-defined and thought out Service Design Package will bring a host of benefits, including assisting those involved in understanding what must be implemented into a service and if there are any questions, it is a key source of answers, reducing ambiguity on what is required e.g. by design teams and transition teams. It becomes the reference manual for Service Operation once the service is up and running. Therefore the approach to its construction and its completeness should not be underestimated. If you would like further details on Service Design or if you require further details on any of our consultancy services, please contact us: For more information info@icore-ltd.com or telephone: +44 (0) icore 2014 P a g e 6