ITIL Foundations V4

Enabling customers to reach a desired outcome without having ownership of the whole process, its costs and risks.  e.g. a network management service.  Services are often made up of one or more products.   

1. A product is tangible, like the .exe file you install or the tech that responds to alerts  

 What the service does, its function as it pertains to the needs of the consumer.  If you USE it, it does what the consumer wants it to do.   E.G a cloud storage provider will provide the storage space, accessibility, security and scalability, that fits the function the consumer needs  

• The service is "Fit for Purpose" 

How the service performs, that it does what was stated it will do, will meet the agreed upon requirements.  E.G a cloud provider has SLAs on uptime, data integrity warranty, security assurance, backup warranty, etc.   

1. Warranties provide trust that the service will work as planned and the provider stands behind the product.  
2. The service is "Fit for Use"

Specifies what service they need and if what is offered meets their need.  E.G. a department head that pilots the software with a team and communicates with the service providers concerning how well the service meets their needs.  Has a clear understanding of what the biz need is and if the service meets that need  

The people that use the service on a regular basis, directly interact with it to complete a task.  Their feedback is important when looking at service improvements   

 A set of specific / unique capabilities the organization offers that provides value to customers in the form of a service.   E.G a Cell phone providers, ISP providers.  Service management is about the collaborative value creation between providers and consumers through a service relationship.   

1. The nature of value: a particular group of customers finds the service beneficial to them (a perceived benefit) 
2. The nature and scope of Stakeholders: how the final product should look and what it encompass 
3. How the service provides value: understanding what the customer perceives as valuable about the service  

  Thee person or team that approves the financial cost of the service.  May not use the service themselves.  E.G a PMO office that purchases software   

 An organization’s activities both direct and indirect should generate value for itself, its customers and stakeholders 

1. Focus on Value creation: mostly about creating value for the service consumers (that use the service regularly) , but also other stakeholders as well.  Can adapt it for different stake holder groups  
2. Identify the consumers of the service: need to know who is using the service and how they are using.  ID key stakeholders. 
3. Consumers perspective of value: need to understand value from the customers viewpoint, how and why a customer uses the service, the costs and risks associated with using service.   
4. Customer Experience (CX) / User Experience (UX): the customer’s experience with the service and the provider, all the interactions a customer would have with the organization and its products.  Some parts are measurable, like SLA or price some are subjective, like layout design.   
5. Understand what outcomes the customer wants to use the service for, how they use the service, how they perceive the service provider 

 When looking to replace outdated or ineffective services with new ones, don’t discard everything.  Carefully analyze what the current landscape is and what can be reused.  Use direct observation along with good data to quantify what is good (processes, services, products, etc) and what’s not. 

1. Goodhart’s Law – when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.  Basically people are good at adapting behavior to meet a metric, but in so doing, that can distort the outcome.  eg. Prioritizing service desk call times which leads to rushing and not fixing the issue.  The key is to measure metrics that correlate directly with the intended outcomes. 
2. How to ‘Start where you are’:  
3. Take an objective look at current state and focus on parts that bring value to customer /desired outcome.  Are the current elements ‘fit for purpose’ (utility) and ‘fit for use?’ (warranty) 
4. Leverage successful practices: what services or practices are providing value, how can they be replicated or expanded to achieve the desired state. The focus is on learning why the practice is successful, not just ramping it up a ton. 
5. Apply Risk Management principals: think about the risks embedded in the service and reduced / new risks with a new solution 
6. Sometimes fresh start is best, but rarely. 

Don't do it all at once, divide the project into smaller, more easy to handle segments.  Each iteration should be timely, provide a tangible result and lay the groundwork for future enhancements.  Keep a constant focus on value creation.  Keys to this guiding principal:  

1. Balance understanding with making progress: don’t get so lost in analysis you don’t make any changes, a broad view is important, but acting and moving forward is essential 
2. Continual feedback is key, make sure to incorporate feedback at all levels 
3. Each iteration should produce a minimum viable product (MVP) -- a basic, yet functional version of the product.   Don’t try to go so fast that you don’t have a functional product to work from. 
4. The main idea is to carefully plan out each module and it product and use feedback to refine the product and remove defects from moving down the value stream 

 Getting the stakeholders involved and collaborating in an open and fair way yields better results.  Genuine collaboration, not silos or hidden projects is essential.  The more informed people are about what is happening and why it is happening, the more involved they will be and contribute productively.  Not providing visibility and keeping a project hidden leads to speculation and a more negative reception.   

1. Need to engage with all relevant stakeholder groups (anyone with an interest in the outcomes and activities of the organization. Customers are primary stakeholders to collaborate with.  They are using the services to achieve business outcomes, you need to engage with them.  
2. e.g. supplier works with organization to find a solution to a common customer request or need.  
3. Stakeholders level of involvement varies as does their role during the process.  They may just approve a purchase order or be deeply involved in the details; you need to know their level of involvement an illicit the right kind of collaboration with them. 
4. Provide regular updates about the project, provide visibility on what is happening.  tailor your communications to the different types of stakeholders and focus on collaboration not 100% consensus.   

 There are so services that work in isolation, the quality of an organizations outputs is contingent on how well all of the parts work together in a cohesive manner.  To have a comprehensive approach, you need to see all the components and how they fit together.   

1. Realize that systems are complex and vary in their complexity.  What works in a simpler system may not work in a complex system where  
2. Set up timely and effective collaboration mechanisms between all stakeholders  
3. Look for patterns and persistent system needs to anticipate need and get a comprehensive perspective 

 You want to achieve the objectives with the fewest possible steps.  Remove any process or service that doesn’t add value.  Don’t try to anticipate every scenario or situation when designing a service, instead create general rules that can address exceptions more generally 

1. When evaluating a service, practice, process, the key question is to ask is if it aids in creating value. Break it into parts and ask if the parts drive value or not. 
2. Only add controls or metrics when they are necessary, don’t add just to add something.  Simplicity is better than sophistication and leverage quick wins, like removing an unnecessary step or metric that just wastes time 
3. Identify objectives that may conflict and find compromise, often in a complex system different parts won’t agree, identify those early and address them.   
4. Overall, the goal is to focus on what is creating value and why it is, simplify where you can.  

Optimization is refining something to its most effective and functional state.  

Optimization involves: 

1. Evaluate the current condition of what you want to optimize and areas for enhancements and improvement.   
2. Determine the desired future state you are trying to achieve, with an emphasis on simplification and creating value 
3. Ensure stakeholders are engaged  
4. Do iterative steps and get feed back.  Have clear metrics to determine progress. 
5. Continually assess and look for other areas of improvement 
6. Automation is leveraging technology to complete one or more steps accurately and consistently with little or now human input.  Best for simple and repetitive tasks.  
7. An example would be resource optimization where available resources are aligned with org needs, considering cost, scope and quality  

This pertains to the SVS as a whole and for each service that is provided, a way to look at the organization as a whole.  They are subject to outside forces, that are outside the organizations control.    

Focus on the organizational structure, its people, roles, systems of authority and communication.  Often complex and overlapping.  Need to clearly define the structure and how it aligns with overall strategy and objectives. 

1. Think about the customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, their competencies. Look at leadership styles.  Look at how different part of the organization interact.   
2. Each individual should see their role in value creation for the organization use that as what unites each business unit toward a common goal.   
3. Encompasses roles, responsibilities, organizational structure, culture and staffing competencies 
4. If looking at the whole SVS, the organization is the service provider 

 In the scope of a service, this involves the info that is produced, used and managed by the service and the technologies that facilitate and support the service.  For most businesses customers, information is the principal output.  An HR service, for example, manages and keeps secure all kinds of data on employees.   

1. Think about what type of info is the service handling 
2. Is there additional info and knowledge required to deliver and manage the service? 
3. What processes are in place / need to be put in place to manage, archive, secure, dispose of information produced 
4. How do the services / service components fit together?  What is the architecture of info as it flows from one service to another?   
5. Optimize factors like availability, reliability, accessibility, the relevance of what is being shared, can that be tweaked?  
6. Regulatory compliance: many services use data that has legal rules, like GDPR (general data protection regulation) and HIPAA 
7. When planning for a service, an improvement to a service, think about: 
8. Compatibility with existing architecture 
9. Regulatory and compliance  
10. Future viability 
11. Alignment with strategies and goals  
12. Skills and support – are new skills or support needed to use the service? 
13. Automation capabilities 
14. New risk / constraints or costs 
15. Other things to consider in this dimension is the culture and nature of the business. A sector that is regulated vs one that is not, or a company that is heavy into AI, while another is not.   

 The service the organization provides is dependent on services from other businesses; we can’t offer our product without outside services and vendors.   

1. Contractual and other forms of agreements between partner orgs, suppliers 
2. Relationships between orgs can be very complex to very simple.  Could be ordering supplies (printer paper),  to highly involved and working in a partnership to provide a service (manage printers for a company, they lease only) 
3. Factors in choosing suppliers and partners: 
4. Strategic focus – Org can focus on it’s core products and purchase services for secondary functions or want to control most in house 
5. Culture – past partnerships and agreements often have a strong impact on future contracts 
6. Resource scarcity: if the organization doesn’t have the resources it needs, can purchase them 
7. Cost concerns: weight the cost of internally managing all parts of the service or outsource it and what the vendor chanrges  

 A process is a structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective.  Processes take one or more inputs and creates the defined outputs.  Processes must be measurable   

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