Name:

Student Number:
Course Name: Service Design Management
Course code: IRM4811
Assignment One
Due Date: 25 March 2020
Unique No: 690102

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Table of contents
Questions Page number

Question 1 4-5
Question 2 6-7
Question 3 8-10
Bibliography 11

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Question 1

Write an appraisal of ITSM and designing an organisation’s IT as services. Include the

following aspects: Reasons, business needs and IT services, senior business executives’
perspectives of IT, risks of not designing IT as services and problems with silos.
It is important for business to get integrated solutions, which the business will consume as services.
This eliminates the issue of IT working in silo’s which leads to solutions that are difficult to manage
and integrate. IT should be viewed as a valued business partner when business executives derive
required benefits, which leads to revenue generation for the business. This will change the
perception management has about IT.

According to Kari Nelson on cherwell.com, ITSM is a process-oriented approach to IT management

that seeks to align the service delivery activities of the IT organization with the needs of the
business.

ITSM adoption helps organizations and IT teams with a structured approach in managing their IT
services.

There is a rapid change in technology. When decisions to implement new tools and install new
services are made, existing infrastructure can be upgraded or existing problems can be repaired. A
guiding blueprint or plan on how everything is integrated or comes together needs to be formulated.

According to Steinberg RA(2014) An IT Service management architecture is the organizing logic for
pulling all the service management processes and IT infrastructure together. This will lead to
standardized and integrated business requirements for the organization’s-operating model. The
business will then have integrated solutions which can be cost effective. IT Service Management
processes, technology solutions and service assets must be integrated and be in line with the service
required for the organization grow. There must be a clear understanding of the tools, data,
processes and roles beforehand so that each service asset has a home when the solution is brought
to the environment. This will ensure that there is a decision framework that is being followed for IT
infrastructure support for the business and IT strategies.

ITSM Architecture is thus necessary for IT to clearly articulate and understand its services to reduce
the risk of unnecessary costs, reactive solutions that do not enable delivery on its mandate. This will
give an understanding and appreciation of the task that will be undertaken which will make
architecture the point of reference or guide when designing ITSM. Teams will work in a better
coordinated approach when deciding on solutions and technologies that will be used and there will
be no duplication of functionality, roles and tools. This will result in costs reduction as there will be
no redundant solutions.

If the ITSM architecture is not followed, IT teams end up doing what is convenient and not
necessarily finding the best-integrated solution to enable and add value to the entire organization.
This leads to silos and systems that cannot be integrated and an increase in business costs, which
would prove the executives right about IT being costly. According to Steinberg RA, managing in silos
is not wrong but has become an outdated practice because of the technological advancement and
dynamic business environment. The increase in the number of technologies and platforms due to
services needed by business requires technologies to work together for business enablement. These
include cloud computing, virtualization, mobile devices, new software technologies and using
technology silo approach prevents IT from having meaningful discussions at an executive level to

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show value. If the silo mindset does not change this might lead to service disruptions, increased
labour, and service costs. This make internal alignment imperative.

Often organisations procure IT solutions from different service providers and the integration of these
services leads to a shift from the traditional engineer and build focus approach. This enables
organisations to utilize different platforms and technologies like mobile devices, new software
delivery technologies, virtulisation, and cloud computing, for the organization to see value in the
services rendered by IT, IT needs to organize and operate their services seamlessly.

Business executives are usually not IT savvy and do not always understand IT operations and services
offered from using different technologies thus they see IT as costly overhead as opposed to seeing
the value in the service that is rendered by IT.

When following the service management approach, IT ensures that its service offering is visible to
all involved while benefiting the organization. This leads to new and effective ways of operating. The
quality of the service improves whilst the costs are optimised. Visible results and benefits positively
impact the perception of IT within the organization as a valued partner, as it will give the
organization the competitive advantage. This understanding is important so that Senior
Management see the need for the IT investment and will refrain from wanting to redirect the
funding to other areas of the business that are seen as more value adding.

It can be concluded that properly designing ITSM leads to better integrated solutions for the
business to leverage services from different service providers in an integrated approach, which
reduces duplication of services and costs and ensure effective IT operations that benefit the business
due to improved services. IT starts being seen as a valued business partner as it enables the
organization to look at competitive opportunities and helps build appropriate strategies to tackle
these.

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Question 2

Write an analysis of the process building blocks that make up the high-level process
architecture or process view of the ITSM architecture, the main features of an IT service and
buyers in contrast to customers, to illustrate their characteristics and importance.

Categorizing IT Services is highly recommended which will lead to the development small set of
service lines. According to Randy A. Steinberg (2013) A service line is merely grouping of related
services. The result will be structured services. The organization’s business strategy, culture and
operating style can determine which service lines apply to it. Service lines can be grouped
according to the IT business facing services and IT support services. According to Randy A.
Steinberg (2013) The business facing services are ones that customers and users directly interact
with. The IT support services are more in the background and seen mostly by IT operations,
support and development units. These are standard across most IT organisations irrespective of
the industry. These services are not processes.

Technical management services implements, operates and maintains the types of physical IT
service assets that support IT and business services. For example, Server Management,
Database Management, Application management and Network management are some of the
few recommended set of services. IT Technicians/Engineers and support staff are more familiar
with these services.

Operational management support services manages and maintains the IT operational workflows
that are transversal IT service assets in the physical infrastructure. For example, Service Desk,
Service Monitoring, Incident Response and Problem Control are some of the few recommended
set of services. The service can be grouped by operational workflows that are necessary. IT
operators and operational support staff are more familiar with these services.

Service Transition Support Services provides support for transitioning new or changed service
solutions to production. This happens when a service solution deployed from a development
state to an operational state. For example, Release planning and packaging, service deployment
and decommission and site preparation and Support are some of the few recommended set of
services. IT developers and operational support staff are more familiar with these services. Once
the service is in production it is handed over to the service owner.

Solution design and build services this is where the planning, building and construction of new
services or changes to existing services happens. They translate the requirements into new
service solution or service changes. For example, operational planning and consulting, solution
planning and development, development support operations and availability management are
some of the few recommended set of services. IT developers and technical support staff are
more familiar with these services.

Strategy and control services governs and manages the service delivery quality. It is the
custodian of the guidelines that dictate how the service will be delivered. It also ensure that
governance and compliance is followed according to the industry and government regulations.
For example, IT service strategy, architecture management and research, IT financial
management and IT project management are some of the few recommended set of services. IT
developers and operational support staff are more familiar with these services.

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Hosting and cloud support services are the bundles of IT support services that host IT functions.
Internal or external cloud-based delivery infrastructures are normally used to deliver this type of
service. For example, basic support service, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a
service(PaaS) are some of the few services that are included. IT developers and operational
support staff are more familiar with these services.

IT business support services directly support the company business functions, business partners
and customers. They are the services that the customers interact directly with. The business
facing services differs from company to company and from industry to industry. The business
can use shared IT capabilities for some services. For example, desktop support, data
warehousing and business intelligence and service introduction are some of the services that
can be shared irrespective of industry. The services can differ from company to company.

It can be concluded that the grouping of the service lines eliminates having an unnecessary long
list of services that are cumbersome to go through. There is also a clear differentiation between
IT business facing and IT support facing services, the roles in each of the services.

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Question 3

As the CIO of a medium-sized to large business of your choice, write an essay where you apply
ITSM service targets and the related issues to consider when communicating these to the
business and what customers usually want from IT services in contrast to what they usually
get.

There is often a confusion between operational targets and service targets by IT. The aim of the
essay is to try to unpack what customers expect from IT and how service targets can be
communicated to the business by IT.

More often than not customers care about few and basic service targets. They do not care about
reports that show server uptime, line utilizations, and network traffic or transaction counts.
They don’t add value to business from their perspective. Those types of reports are more
relevant and important to people managing the IT environment.

Below is a list of what customers generally expect from IT:

According to Steinberg RA(2013) Customers prefer to get their own work done without
stumbling over technology issues. IT people communicate with customers using technical terms
and issues as it is easier for them because they manage the complex infrastructure. Customers
have little or no interest in understanding IT issues.

According to Steinberg RA(2013) When things will fail, they expect quick recovery. IT
Technologies are not always available 100% of the time and customers understand that
however, they still expect a quick recovery and restore when things do fail.

They often want to be on the driving seat and often IT has to say no to some of their requests
which they don’t like to hearing. IT needs to assume the role of being an advisor and partner so
that they avoid being seen as hindering their aspirations. Their business case might be tangible
but delivering that request might be a challenge. This might be because of the costs that might
be involved in delivering that service/ request or technological limitations. It is important to
assume the role of the advisor and inform them of what needs to be done for them to realise
their proposed idea. This gives them the power to decide whether their idea is viable or not. A
database can be created where all these ideas are captured, reviewed and approved.

According to Steinberg RA (2013) They dictate the service requirements, not IT

IT needs to pay attention to this golden rule. IT needs to deliver on service requirements that
are seen to add value to the business by the business. This will ensure trust between IT and the
business as IT will be seen as a valued business partner. This also mean that IT is operating
within the business targets as the they would bought into the idea before the solution is
delivered. IT organizations should avoid setting targets based on what they think is relevant but
rather focus on what the customer needs or requires. Targets can be set in line with the
business needs. These will come directly from the customer as opposed to guessing what the
needs are. When there is a possibility of not meeting the business needs, a negotiation needs to
take place where consensus or common ground can be reached.

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Below are some of the targets that can be communicated to the business when it comes to IT
Services:

Availability Service Targets

The business executives, users and customers get frustrated when they see service availability
targets that are 99.8%; they interpret it as IT not being on the businesses side. They might ask
why it is not 99.9%?

Service target can be written or communicated in a manner that makes it easier to understand.
The service will be available during business hours from Monday to Friday except for public
holidays. In the event that there are four or more service disruptions lasting for more than 20
minutes in the same month and investigation or root cause will be initiated to isolate and fix the
issue. When customers feel that IT is on their side, they are more understanding and this puts
their minds at ease that IT will deal with the issues in a speedy and efficient manner.

Service Penalties

It is not advisable to put them in a service agreement unless the customer insists on the them.
Most of the times when there is lack of trust or faith in IT, the customer will insist on service
penalties. Customers want a service and not money from the penalties. There are exceptions
where the client might prejudiced financially because of a disruption. IT should deal with the
issues like a business insurer would.

Recovery Times

This is ideal for customers that cannot sustain services after a certain time periods. Services
needs to usable when after they have been restored. This would include how quickly a service is
restored after an incident. Major business disruptions need to catered for as part of the
eventuality that might occur. Targets need to be set for recovery events that will bring back the
service. Dispatching a technician and saying it will take them 30 minutes to be onsite is a
meaningless target because even after reaching the site the systems will still be down.

Delivery Times

This the delivery of reports, equipment, parts or other goods within specific time period. There
needs to be an agreed and verified criterion of the delivery times.

Response Times

This is the time that it will take to respond to a service request. A criteria and response time will
need to be agreed upon based on the needs of the customer. The agreed response time will
need to checked and validated based on service targets.

Accuracy

The customer needs to define what is deemed as accurate information or data. This can also
cater for the number of inaccurate items, which can be tolerated.

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It can be concluded that service target reports need to be tailored to suit the relevant audience
which they are being communicated to. There needs to be clear separation between operational
and service targets.

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Bibliography

Steinberg, (R.A).(2014) Architecting ITSM: A Reference of Configuration Items and Building

Blocks for a Comprehensive IT Service Management Infrastructure. 1 st edn. USA: Trafford
Publishing

Steinberg, (R.A).(2013) Servicing ITSM: A Handbook of Service Descriptions for IT Service

Managers and a Means for Building Them. 1st edn. USA: Trafford Publishing

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