Service Operation - An Introduction
An Introduction to the Service Operation Book.
Service Operation is aimed at IT Managers, IT Consultants, Service Practitioners, Outsourcers and IT Service Vendors.
What is Service Operation?
Service Operation is at the very heart of day-to-day, business as usual, Service Delivery.
Think of it as a "factory of IT Service Delivery" underpinned by Infrastructure and Application Delivery.
Service Operation focusses on the precise execution and delivery of all processes and services to delivery business value for customers and users in a consistent, reliable and repeatable manner.
An often overlooked benefit of Service Operation is that it also provides Operational Validation of the Service being delivered.
Service Operation is subject to Continual Service Improvement and ultimately the delivery of service excellence.
The goal of Service Excellence can also be supported by the attainment of the world's first global standard for IT Service Management, ISO/IEC 20000
The primary goals of Service Operation are to: -
• Enable responsive, stable and repeatable IT Service Delivery
• Provide robust end-to-end working practices
• Deliver improved Processes such as Incident and Problem Management
• Deliver new Processes such as: Event Management and Service Request Fulfilment
• Promote more adaptive, responsive and agile Service Operation functions
• Help shape and define Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition and Continual
Service Improvement (the core of the new ITIL V3 Service Lifecycle Model)
Service Operation purpose
In summary, the purpose is: -
• To coordinate and deliver key activities and processes required to provide and manage
services at agreed levels to the business, users and customers
• To manage the technology and toolsets that are used to deliver and support services
• To manage, measure, control and feedback improvements in the day to day operations
• To monitor performance, assess metrics and gather data to input into the Continual Service Improvement Process Area
What is the value of Service Operation to a business?
The required value of what any given service should provide to the business is actually modelled in Service Strategy and that model manifests itself in a more structured way within Service Design.
The structure and cost of the Service is then designed and validated in Service Design and Service Transition. The actual measures for required levels of optimization are identified in Continual Service Improvement.
A critical point that is covered within the book is: -
"The only value that matters is that perceived by the customer. Service Operations is where the value is delivered and judged."
What are the principles of Service Operation?
The first principle of Service Operation is concerned with finding the right balance between : -
- the Internal IT view versus the external business view
- Ongoing stability versus responsiveness
- Quality Improvements versus Cost to deliver the Service
- Reactive working versus proactive working
The themes of 'Reactivity', 'proactivity' and 'control' are all important.
What is the Scope of Service Operation?
Service Operation scope: -
- Processes and working practices
- The physical organisation of Service Operation
- Execution of all ongoing activities required to deliver and support service
- Service Management processes
- Technology and supporting toolsets
- Management of the infrastructure used to deliver services
- The people who manage the technology, processes and services
