Troy's Blog

ITIL Implementation Roadmap – (Service Level Management) Part 5

So you have decided to implement Service Management!

If we agree that the processes of Service Management only exist for the purpose of supporting and delivering IT services, then it also makes logical sense to understand what those services are. For this reason many companies will tackle the Service Catalog element of SLM at an early stage of their ITIL journey.

Of course the first step of this activity is to have a clear definition of what services the IT organization provides, the components and resources (OLAs, and UCs) which make up the service and what the associated costs for these services are.

Wait a minute where did the cost element come from?

Consider the logical outcome of describing to your business customer the new Service Catalog offerings you are publishing. What do you think the very next question will be out of their mouths?

That’s right: How much does it cost?

They day you start down the road of defining and publishing services you began an inevitable march towards Service Based Costing.

The truth of the matter is that the services you define in your catalog are the same ones you model in your CMDB and have to be the basis of how you cost and budget for IT Planning. The relationship between Service Level Management, Configuration Management and IT Costing is a critical integration to understand and design for.

However, this is a post about Service Level Management so let’s get back to that topic:

Contrary to popular belief and practice, the creation of SLAs is not the first step in the implementation of SLM. In fact there are two progressive levels for SLM implementation:

• Stage A: Service Catalog design and implementation of the processes and roles which support it
• Stage B: The establishment of SLAs and Service delivery meetings

Deliverables for Stage A:

1. The definition and publishing of technical and professional services capabilities provided to the business.
2. The definition of internal Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) and the alignment of external provider underpinning contracts (UCs)
3. The ability to monitor the IT organization’s capability to meet internal IT targets for service delivery.

Once IT Services have been defined and catalogued and the IT organization has developed the capability to consistently deliver and monitor services, agreements can be developed and signed off with the customer.  (This may be up to a year after the first stage)

Deliverables for Stage B:

1. The development of consumption-based SLAs with individual customers or Lines of Business.
2. The establishment of regular customer meetings, service reports and continuous improvement programs.

For many organizations Stage B may not happen for up to a year or more after the initial definition of services and the creation of what is often referred to as Service Target reports. These reports may or may not even be shared with the business customer.

Consider this like a dry run if you wish

The key message of this approach is that is necessary to understand what and how services can be delivered before you approach a customer with the discussion about signing up for an agreement.

• What is not defined cannot be controlled!
• What is not controlled cannot be measured!
• What is not measured cannot be improved!

Troy’s thoughts what are yours?

 

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