Neko

C846 - Business of IT: Applications (ITILv4)

This class was a drag, you may learn quite a bit, but if you are anything like me, it will be boring. Don't let that stop you though, the course instructor, Tony Robinson, was very helpful and pointed me in the direction of the CyberVista practice exams which aligned almost perfectly with the exam.


Last updated: May 4th, 2023

Exam Content

Key Concepts=5, Guiding Principles=6, Four Dimensions=2, SVS=1, SVC=2, 15 practices=7 and 7 Main Practices=17

Key Concepts

  • Value
    • The perceived benefit of a product or service
  • Output
    • The result of an activity
  • Outcome
    • The result for a stakeholder enabled by an output
  • Stakeholders
    • Organization
      • An entity with its own functions and objectives
    • Service Consumers
      • Customers
        • Takes responsibility for the outcome of the service
      • Users
        • Uses the service
      • Sponsors
        • Provides funding for the service
  • Service Relationships
    • Service Provision
      • Activities performed by the service provider to deliver the service
    • Service Consumption
      • Activities performed by the service consumer to use the service

Guiding Principles

  • Focus on Value
    • Everything should be focused on delivering value to the stakeholder
    • Includes the experience of the stakeholder
  • Start Where You Are
    • Start with what you have
    • Don't try to reinvent the wheel
  • Progress Iteratively with Feedback
    • Break down the process into small steps
    • Use feedback to improve the process
  • Collaborate and Promote Visibility
    • Work with others to deliver value
    • Share information to improve the process
    • Avoid hidden agendas
  • Think and Work Holistically
    • Think about the whole process
    • Don't focus on individual parts
  • Keep it Simple and Practical
    • If a process fails to deliver value, it should be changed or removed
    • Use outcome based thinking
  • Optimize and Automate
    • Eliminate waste
    • Use technology to automate processes
    • Human intervention should only happen when it contributes to value

Four Dimensions of Service Management

  • Organizations and People
    • Deals with the structure, management, culture, and people of the organization
  • Information and Technology
    • Deals with the flow of information necessary to deliver services
    • Includes the relationships between different components of the SVS
    • Includes the use of technology to deliver services
  • Partners and Suppliers
    • Third parties and relationships with them as it pertains to the SVS
  • Value Streams and Processes
    • Activities, workflows, controls, and procedures that deliver value to the stakeholder

Service Value System

The ITIL Service Value System (SVS) outlines how an organization's components and activities work together to create value. The SVS interfaces with other organizations to form an ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders. The inputs to the SVS are opportunity and demand, which leads to the creation of value, represented by the perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of a product or service. The ITIL SVS can create value for a wide range of stakeholders.

The SVS includes the following components:

  • Guiding Principles
    • Recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure
  • Governance
    • The means by which an organization is directed and controlled
  • Service Value Chain
    • The service value chain is a process to create value using ITIL practices and resources.
    • It includes 6 activities: plan, improve, engage, design, obtain/build, deliver/support.
      • Service value streams are combinations of activities for specific scenarios, like app dev, subject to improvement.
    • More Below
  • Practices
    • Sets of organizational resources designed to achieve a specific objective
  • Continual Improvement
    • Activities that improve the performance of the SVS

Service Value Chain

  • Plan
  • Improve
  • Engage
    • Provide a good understanding of the stakeholder's needs, third parties
  • Design and Transition
    • Ensure products and services meet the needs of the stakeholder
  • Obtain and Build
    • Ensure the availability of the resources needed to deliver the service
  • Deliver and Support
    • Deliver services and ensure they meet the expectations of the stakeholder

Practices

15 Common Practices

  • General Management
    • Information Security Management
      • CIA Triad
    • Relationship Management
      • The practice of establishing and nurturing links between an organization and its stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels.
    • Supplier Management
      • The practice of establishing and nurturing links between an organization and its suppliers at strategic and tactical levels.
  • Service Management
    • IT Asset Management
      • The practice of managing the lifecycle of IT assets
    • Monitoring and Event Management
      • The practice of systematically observing services and service components, and recording and reporting selected changes of state identified as events.
    • Release Management
      • The practice of making new and changed services and features available for use.
    • Service Configuration Management
      • The practice of ensuring that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the configuration items that support them, is available when and where needed.
  • Technical Management
    • Deployment Management
      • The practice of moving new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other service component to live environments.

7 Main Practices

  • Continual Improvement
    • The purpose of continual improvement is to align an organization's practices and services with changing business needs through ongoing improvement of products, services, and practices.
    • It includes the development of improvement-related methods and techniques and propagation of a continual improvement culture across the organization.
    • Key activities include encouraging improvement, securing time and budget, identifying and prioritizing improvement opportunities, making business cases, planning and implementing improvements, measuring results, and coordinating activities.
    • Different improvement methods may be used, such as Lean, Agile, DevOps, etc.
    • The responsibility for continual improvement lies with everyone in the organization and should be embedded in every employee's job description and objectives.
    • The highest levels of the organization should lead the effort and provide training to staff members and third-party suppliers should also be part of the improvement effort.
    • A continual improvement register (CIR) is used to track and manage improvement ideas from identification to final action and provides visibility of the status of the improvement process.
  • Change Enablement
    • The change enablement practice is designed to increase the success rate of product and service changes by managing the change process
    • Involves assessing risks, authorizing changes, and managing the change schedule
    • Covers all IT infrastructure, applications, documentation, processes, supplier relationships, and anything else that might impact a product or service
    • Distinguished from organizational change management which focuses on people aspects of changes
    • Balances the need to improve products and services with the need to protect customers and users from adverse effects of changes
    • There are three types of changes: standard, normal, and emergency
    • Each type is managed differently (standard changes being low-risk and pre-authorized, normal changes requiring scheduling, assessment, and authorization, emergency changes being expedited)
    • The change schedule is used to plan, communicate, avoid conflicts, and assign resources
    • Involved in all service value chain activities including planning, improvement, engagement, design and transition, obtaining/building, and delivery and support
  • Incident Management
    • Incident Management is a critical practice for IT service management that helps to minimize the impact of incidents on customers and users
    • Involves a process for logging and managing incidents, prioritizing incidents based on their impact, and allocating resources to resolve incidents as quickly as possible
    • Effective incident management requires collaboration between teams and interaction with suppliers, as well as the use of modern IT service management tools
    • The outcome of incident management should be to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible, while ensuring customer and user satisfaction
    • The practice of incident management contributes to different value chain activities, such as engaging with users, delivering and supporting services, and improving overall service quality
  • Problem Management
    • Problem management is a practice in ITIL that aims to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents
    • Involves resolving causes of incidents (problems) through investigation and analysis to identify causes and develop workarounds
    • Three phases in problem management: problem identification, problem control, and error control
    • Problem identification activities include trend analysis of incident records, detection of recurring issues, and analysis of information received from internal and external sources
    • Problem control activities include problem analysis and documenting workarounds and known errors, prioritized based on risk
    • Error control activities manage known errors and assess the status of unresolved known errors
    • Related to incident management, risk management, change enablement, knowledge management, and continual improvement
    • Problem management can lead to improvement opportunities and initiate resolution via change enablement, but implementing changes is outside the scope of problem management
  • Service Request Management
    • Service Request Management practice is an important part of service delivery in an organization
    • Its purpose is to handle user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner, to support the agreed quality of the service
    • Service requests can be a request for a service delivery action, information, access to a resource, or feedback
    • Fulfilment of service requests should be standardized and automated to the greatest degree possible, with policies and workflows established to ensure clear communication and expectations
    • Service request management contributes to the service value chain activities such as improvement, engagement, design and transition, obtaining/building, and delivering and supporting
    • The practice is dependent on well-designed processes, procedures, and tracking and automation tools
  • Service Level Management
    • Service level management aims to set clear business-based targets for service levels and monitor and manage the delivery of services against these targets.
    • This involves collection, analysis, storage, and reporting of relevant metrics, and performing service reviews to ensure that current services meet the needs of the organization and customers.
    • Service level management requires a focus on the entire service and requires relationship management, business analysis, and commercial/supplier management skills and competencies.
    • Service level agreements (SLAs) are documented agreements between a service provider and a customer that identify the required services and expected level of service.
    • For SLAs to be successful, they must be related to a defined service, relate to defined outcomes, be agreed upon through engagement, and be simply written and easy to understand.
    • Service level management also involves engaging with customers and gathering information from various sources, including customer engagement, incident management, and performance management.
  • Service Desk
    • Problem management is a practice in ITIL that aims to reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents
    • Involves resolving causes of incidents (problems) through investigation and analysis to identify causes and develop workarounds
    • Three phases in problem management: problem identification, problem control, and error control
    • Problem identification activities include trend analysis of incident records, detection of recurring issues, and analysis of information received from internal and external sources
    • Problem control activities include problem analysis and documenting workarounds and known errors, prioritized based on risk
    • Error control activities manage known errors and assess the status of unresolved known errors
    • Related to incident management, risk management, change enablement, knowledge management, and continual improvement
    • Problem management can lead to improvement opportunities and initiate resolution via change enablement, but implementing changes is outside the scope of problem management

Resources