ITIL 4 Foundation

Appendix A: Examples of value streams

This section demonstrates how the service value chain can be applied to practical situations
and provides examples of value streams. These value streams show how activity might flow
through the value chain. These are not models to be copied, but simply examples to give an
understanding of how the value chain should be used.

The examples include some sample job roles. These are just roles that might exist in the
fictional organization being described and are not recommended roles for every organization.
To aid understanding, the first value stream is described in some detail; in subsequent
examples only a table has been provided.

A.1 A user needs an incident to be resolved

In this first example of a value stream, the WiFi in a warehouse is not working properly
because a wireless access point has failed. This has a significant impact on the business
because the forklift driver cannot receive instructions quickly enough, and as such there is a
risk that a business deadline will be missed. This may seem like a relatively straightforward
incident; however, it can’t be resolved by simply mechanically following the steps of a
predetermined incident management procedure.

First, someone must notice that there is an incident and know how to report it, and it must
be possible for that person to communicate the urgency of the situation accurately so that it
can be prioritized correctly. The person receiving the report must have both the authority to
escalate the incident and the procedures for doing so, and for monitoring the progress of the
incident. Resources must be in place to allow for a sufficiently rapid escalation; someone
must have the skills, knowledge, and tools required to investigate the incident; and there
have to be procedures in place that allow standard changes to be implemented without a
requirement to obtain additional approval. It must be possible for someone to access accurate
configuration information and to log the repair once it has been completed. It must also be
possible to log that a spare part has been consumed and to re-order it against future need. If
the repair is to be of any value, however, the warehouse needs to be told what has
happened, so that normal working can be resumed. It is also important to check how well the
incident was resolved, to see if there are any lessons to be learned.

Table A.1 summarizes the different actions and resources required to resolve this apparently
simple incident. The table shows how multiple practices support this work, with some
practices supporting multiple value chain activities at different times.

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Table A.1 Value streams for incident resolution

Value chain Practices Roles Activities

activity/SVS
component
Demand Warehouse It is discovered that there is no WiFi
manager, coverage in one area of the
forklift driver warehouse. This means that the
forklift driver needs to drive across the
warehouse to pick up their
instructions, causing delays and
risking missed business deadlines.
Engage Service desk, Warehouse The warehouse manager phones the
incident manager, service desk and describes the issue.
management service desk It is agreed that this is a Priority 2
agent incident, and the manager is notified
of the expected resolution time.
Information about this incident is
logged by the service desk agent.
Deliver and Service desk, Service desk The incident is rapidly escalated to
support incident agent, network the network support team.
management support
engineer
Deliver and Incident Network The network support engineer
support, management, support identifies that the wireless access
improve change control, engineer point has failed and replaces it with a
service spare from the store.
configuration
management, This is a standard change, so the
IT asset engineer needs no additional approval.
management, Information required to configure the
continual new access point is obtained from the
improvement CMS. IT asset information is updated
to show that this spare part has been
consumed.
The network engineer updates the
incident management system and
marks the case as resolved.
The network engineer thinks about
what happened and whether they
could have predicted this issue or
resolved it more quickly.
Engage Service desk, Service desk The service desk agent contacts the
incident agent, warehouse manager to check that
management warehouse everything is now working properly,
manager then closes the incident.
Value Warehouse WiFi coverage is restored and the
manager, forklift driver can now work efficiently.
forklift driver

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Engage, Service desk, Warehouse A brief satisfaction survey is emailed

improve incident manager, to the warehouse manager, which
management, service desk they complete and return. The scores
continual manager are used to identify trends, and the
improvement comments are passed to the service
desk manager for consideration.

A.2 An error in third-party software creates issues for a user

In this example a user discovers an issue when using an application. The vendor has a patch
available and this needs to be installed to rectify the situation. Note that this incident takes a
very different path through the service value chain, and is supported by a different balance of
practices than the previous incident.

Table A.2 Value streams for software issues

Value chain Practices Roles Activities

activity/SVS
component
Demand Admin An admin assistant in an office is
assistant unable to enter an appointment in
their calendar due to a bug in the
software they are using. The software
won’t allow a non-standard character
to be used in a room name.
Engage Service desk, Admin The admin assistant phones the
incident assistant, service desk and describes the issue.
management service desk It is agreed that this is a Priority 3
agent incident, and the admin assistant is
notified of the expected resolution
time.
Information about this incident is
logged by the service desk agent.
Deliver and Incident Service desk The service desk agent researches the
support management agent vendor website and discovers that this
particular issue is resolved in the latest
version of the client software.
Deliver and Incident Service desk The incident is escalated to second-
support management, agent, second- line support. Second-line support
supplier line support checks the vendor contract, and the
management release notes for the client software.
Deliver and Incident Second-line Second-line support contacts the user
support, management, support, and arranges for them to test the new
obtain/build, service request admin version of the client software to see if
engage management, assistant this resolves their issue. They then
deployment add this version to the service portal
management, so that the user can install it.
service validation
and testing

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Deliver and Incident Admin The user installs the new version of
support management, assistant, the software using the service portal,
service validation service desk and tests whether this resolves their
and testing, issue. The service desk ensures that
service request the user is satisfied with this solution.
management
Value Admin The software now works correctly and
assistant the user can add appointments to the
calendar using non-standard
characters in room names.
Engage, Service desk, Admin A brief satisfaction survey is emailed
improve incident assistant, to the admin assistant, which they
management, service desk complete and return. The scores are
continual manager used to identify trends, and the
improvement comments are passed to the service
desk manager for consideration.
Improve Continual Second-line Second-line support carries out more
improvement, support extensive testing of the new version of
service validation the client software before making it
and testing, available to all users via the service
service request portal. The upgrade to replace the
management, previous version is then deployed in a
release controlled way.
management,
deployment
management

A.3 Business requirement for a significant new IT service

In this example the internal IT department of a shoe manufacturer identifies a need for a new
IT service.

Table A.3 Value streams for creation of an IT service

Value chain Practices Roles Activities

activity/SVS
component
Demand Sales director, The sales director and managers identify
sales managers the need for a new website that allows
customers to design and order
personalized shoes.

Engage Relationship Sales director, The sales director and BRM discuss the
management business new website and agree to investigate
relationship the value, outcomes, costs, and risks of
manager (BRM) putting it in place to see if it is feasible.

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Plan Portfolio BRM, IT The creation of the new service is

management, strategy team, discussed, and the costs and risks of
architecture enterprise various approaches are identified. This
management architect, opportunity is prioritized above other
development work that is being done to decide if
manager the resources are available to carry it
out.

Plan Service financial Financial The potential costs and risks of various
management, analyst, IT approaches are discussed and input is
risk development provided to portfolio management.
management manager,
project
management
office

Engage Relationship Sales director, The sales director and BRM discuss
management BRM the expected value, outcomes, costs,
and risks for the new service and
agree that they want to continue.

Plan Portfolio BRM, IT The new service is added to the

management strategy team service portfolio and documented.

Plan, design and Portfolio Project The project manager and development
transition management, manager, manager start to plan the work needed
project development to create the new service. People are
management, manager assigned to do the necessary work.
service design

Engage Relationship Sales director, More detailed requirements for the

management, sales managers, utility and warranty of the first release
project business of the new IT service are established.
management, analysts,
business software
analysis development
team

Obtain/build Software Software The software development team build

development development a backlog, identify the minimum viable
and team product, and develop sufficient
management, functionality that the business can
project review and comment on it.
management,
service design

Obtain/build, Software Software The first iteration of the service is

design and development development reviewed and feedback offered. Based
transition, and team, BRM, on this, the product backlog is re-
improve management, sales director, prioritized.
project sales managers
management,
service design

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Obtain/build, Service level Software Detailed warranty requirements

design and management, development for the new service are negotiated
transition availability team, service and agreed. Requirements are
management, level manager, defined for monitoring, measuring
capacity and infrastructure and reporting, and supporting the
performance manager, BRM, service.
management, sales director
information security
management, service
continuity
management,
measurement and
reporting, incident
management

Obtain/build, Software development Software Training and documentation is

design and and management, development provided to enable support of the
transition service desk, incident team, service new service.
management desk manager

Obtain/build, Software development Software Further incremental releases of

design and and management, development the new service are created,
transition, project management, team, BRM, sales based on close collaboration
improve service design, director, sales between the software
organizational change managers development team and the users
management, of the service.
deployment
management, release
management

Value Project management, Project manager, The effectiveness of the new

relationship BRM, service service is evaluated to check how
management, service level manager, well it is working. This is
level management, sales director, compared with initial predictions.
measurement and sales managers
reporting It is agreed how ongoing value
will be measured and reported.

Engage, deliver Incident management, Service desk, Ongoing support is provided for
and support, problem management, software incidents and problems on the
improve continual development new service.
improvement team,
infrastructure
support team

Value, improve Relationship Service level Regular monthly meetings are

management, service manager, sales held to discuss service
level management director performance and identify
improvement opportunities.

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A.4 Regulatory change requires new software development

In this example a financial organization must get ready to meet new regulatory requirements.

Table A.4 Value streams for new software development

Value chain Practices Roles Activities

activity/SVS
component
Demand Legal director, A number of IT services need to be
compliance updated to meet new regulatory
manager requirements.

Engage Relationship Legal director, The new regulatory requirements are

management compliance discussed and it is agreed that a
manager, CIO project will be created to manage the
implementation.

Plan Portfolio CIO, IT strategy The costs and risks of various

management, team, project approaches are identified.
service manager, IT Timescales and resources for the
financial development work are agreed.
management, manager
risk
management

Plan, engage, Project Project manager, Planning of the work begins. People
design and management, IT development are assigned to do the work. A
transition service design, manager, communication plan is created and
business business analyst, all staff who need to be involved are
analysis product manager notified.

Obtain/build Software Software Each software team manages a

development development backlog and develops code for the
and teams areas assigned to them. Each team
management, also develops tests for inclusion in
service the automated CI/CD pipeline.
validation and
testing, service All code is automatically integrated
design and tested twice a day by the CI/CD
pipeline, ensuring that code written
by different teams works together.

Design and Project Project manager, Release and deployment plans are
transition, management, IT development discussed and agreed. The level of
engage service design, manager, testing needed and who will
service software authorize each deployment are
validation and development agreed before deployment begins.
testing teams,
compliance
manager

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Obtain/build, Service design, Software The deployment of new software is

design and organizational development triggered as soon as it is ready.
transition change teams Individual change requests are not
management, required for this, as the risk
deployment assessment has been carried out earlier
management, and the automation ensures that the
service code is deployed exactly as planned.
configuration
management Configuration data is used to drive the
deployment, so no separate activity is
needed to update this.

Value Project Project The updated service is evaluated to

management, manager, CIO, ensure that all regulatory requirements
relationship legal director, will be met.
management compliance
manager

Engage, design Project Project The new functionality is released by

and transition management, manager, setting a flag that enables new features
release software to be visible to users.
management, development
service desk, teams, product The service desk and other staff who
service manager, need to know that this is now enabled
catalogue service are notified.
management catalogue
manager The service catalogue is updated.

Value, improve Project Project The project is reviewed and closed.

management, manager, IT
service design, development Improvement opportunities are
relationship manager, CIO, identified and added to a continual
management, legal director, improvement register.
continual compliance
improvement manager

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