5 Signs You Might Need a Service Management Framework (SMF) Assessment White Paper Terry Daffin Visionary Integration Professionals (1)
To say running a large IT shop is challenging is an understatement. Many function as both a service provider in maintenance and operations as well as the development of new and changed services space. It can be overwhelming, so it s important that your processes are efficient and effective. You need to have the right balance of reactive and proactive work to succeed. Too reactive could cause you to miss opportunities to get ahead of the competition. Too proactive might waste time and money on products or services that may not pan out. Determining the right mix of the two requires you to understand the needs and demands, objectives and finances of your business. The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Management Framework (SMF) helps your organization achieve the right mix of Service Management domains processes and functions.. (2)
The five fields of Service Management (Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement) may be exactly what you need to achieve your business goals. If you have experienced any of the following situations, it may be time for an SMF assessment. 1. You react to the demands of a few stakeholders rather than considering what is best for the organization. We ve all been there: a stakeholder calls demanding a change. Instead of considering your business objectives, you jump straight in and immediately accommodate the request. Service Strategy prevents this impulse, guaranteeing the organization s resources and capabilities align to achieve business outcomes and investments match the organization s intended development. Service Strategy defines vision, placement, plans and structure that you need to execute to meet business objectives. Service Strategy ensures: Stakeholders decide the appropriate direction for the organization and reach a consensus on its goals Resources, capabilities, and investments are appropriately managed to achieve the strategy Stakeholders business priorities are clearly articulated to the service provider Quick and effective response to changes in business environment to gain or maintain competitive advantage Service provider is able to make informed decisions about how to respond to stakeholders 2. The cost to develop or change your IT systems is increasingly expensive. Corporations are facing newly increased IT costs due to business requirements. Service Design provides structure to meet these current and future requirements. This domain focuses on effectively developing and changing services so minimal improvement is required. Design should be driven by the functional requirement, service level agreements, business benefits and overall design constraints. Service Design ensures: (3)
Improved business productivity and profitability through the increased efficiency and effectiveness of IT processes Comprehensive measurement to enable better decision-making and continually improve services Reduced cost of ownership by implementing against the design Competitive advantage through exploitation and innovation of IT infrastructure as a whole Improved service quality, customer satisfaction and use perception IT services continue to align with changing business needs over time 3. You spend an increased amount of time and money correcting problems and disruptions to services shortly after deployment of system changes. It s frustrating to receive complaints of issues and glitches in a new system, moments after deployment. Service Transition helps get it right the first time by increasing organizational capabilities for introducing new and changed services into supported environments. This domain provides structure and support to transition from one state to another while controlling risk. Service Transition ensures: Control of unauthorized changes and service disruptions, ultimately reducing time and expense resolving change-related incidents Assets controlled by the organization are identified, regulated and properly cared for throughout their lifecycle Integrity of assets, configuration items, and configurations required to control the services by establishing and maintaining an accurate and complete configuration management system New or changed service delivers the value, outcomes required, and understanding of the risks through validation and testing processes (4)
4. When it comes to operations, you are reactive instead of proactive. There are so many decisions to make to help a business reach its goals. Service Operation is the ability to make decisions such as service availability, capacity use optimization, and operations schedules. Service Operation processes help control operational areas by balancing reactive versus proactive activities. For example, when capacity or availability thresholds are reached, proactive monitoring can provide advance notice of a needed increase. Knowing where capacity and availability levels are at a given moment can be critical when a particular service is in a change request. Service Operation ensures: Optimized handling of service outages and identification of their root causes Reduced duration and frequency of service outages Quick, effective access to standard services for staff to use to improve productivity and quality of services Increased efficiencies with automated operations and allowing human resources to do innovative work Other processes use operational results and data to improve services 5. You make changes to services without the understanding the goal. The first step of any change, planned or not, is to understand the steps needed to meet the goal. Continual Service Improvement (CSI) provides guidance to create and maintain value for customers through better strategy, design, transition, and operation of services. CSI identifies and implements improvements to IT services to better support business processes. Lack of understanding of how change relates to the business objective can lead to challenges, perceived poor service and, in some cases, actual poor service. CSI asks questions like, What is the vision? Where do we want to be? and How do we get there? These questions are necessary to understand the ultimate goals and long term vision, and to plan for a path forward, preparing the scope of the change. Continual Service Improvement ensures: Achievement of incremental and large-scale improvement in quality, efficiency and continuity The services portfolio is aligned to business needs Delivering IT services without sacrificing customer satisfaction at improved cost efficiency (5)
Applicable quality management methods support continual improvement activities Clearly defined process objectives and measurements that lead to actionable improvements Understanding what to measure and what the successful outcome should be Making the decision to adopt SMF may seem daunting, but it s a key proponent in moving business forward. The five SMF domains help enterprises save time and money by finding the right combination of reactive and proactive to make their businesses succeed. (6)