The two primary methods used to influence or manage demand:

• Physical/Technical constraints e.g. restrict number of connections, users, running times
• Financial chargeback e.g. using expensive charging for services near full capacity or over capacity quotas.

Question 1

Which ITIL®® process is responsible for developing a charging system?

a)     Availability Management

b)     Capacity Management

c)     Financial Management for IT Services

d)     Service Level Management

Question 2

What is the RACI model used for?

a)     Documenting the roles and relationships of stakeholders in a process or activity

b)     Defining requirements for a new service or process

c)     Analyzing the business impact of an incident

d)     Creating a balanced scorecard showing the overall status of Service Management

Question 3

Which of the following identifies two Service Portfolio components within the Service Lifecycle?

a)     Catalog Service Knowledge Management System and Requirements Portfolio

b)     Service Catalog and Service Pipeline

c)     Service Knowledge Management System and Service Catalog

d)     Service Pipeline and Configuration Management System

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT one of the ITIL®® core publications?

a)     Service Operation

b)     Service Transition

c)     Service Derivation

d)     Service Strategy

Question 5

A Service Level Package is best described as?

a)     A description of customer requirements used to negotiate a Service Level Agreement

b)     A defined level of utility and warranty associated with a core service package

c)     A description of the value that the customer wants and for which they are willing to pay

d)     A document showing the Service Levels achieved during an agreed reporting period

Question 6

Setting policies and objectives is the primary concern of which of the following elements of the Service Lifecycle?

a)     Service Strategy

b)     Service Strategy and Continual Service Improvement

c)     Service Strategy, Service Transition and Service Operation

d)     Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement

Question 7

A service owner is responsible for which of the following?

a)     Designing and documenting a Service

b)     Carrying out the Service Operations activities needed to support a Service

c)     Producing a balanced scorecard showing the overall status of all Services

d)     Recommending improvements

Question 8

The utility of a service is best described as:

a)     Fit for design

b)     Fit for purpose

c)     Fit for function

d)     Fit for use

Question 9

The 4 P’s of ITSM are people, partners, processes and …?:

a)     Purpose

b)     Products

c)     Perspectives

d)     Practice

Question 10

The contents of a service package includes:

a)     Base Service Package, Supporting Service Package, Service Level Package

b)     Core Service Package, Supporting Process Package, Service Level Package

c)     Core Service Package, Base Service Package, Service Support Package

d)     Core Service Package, Supporting Services Package, Service Level Package

To assist with your learning and understanding of how the phases and processes work together, the following scenario will be used throughout this book.

This simplistic overview of a service gives examples of how the processes are utilized to create the service.

The business has requested that they would like to be able to use the internet for instant messaging with international offices.  They are also interested in VOIP and video conferencing.  We shall call this new service HYPE. This scenario will continue throughout the rest of the book.

Overall Service Strategy

• It is important here to truly understand exactly what the business needs are, as well as their expectations for this service
• Value must be defined (remember that utility + warranty = value):
  • Utility considers the features of HYPE – what type of support will the business require, what features will the business want/need i.e. is it fit for purpose?
  • Warranty considers the levels of service guarantee ( e.g. continuity, availability, security, capacity) that the business requires to be clarified – this is set out in service level packages
• Service Level Packages:
  • Core service package – instant messaging
  • Supporting service package – added VOIP and/or Video conferencing, ability to attach files
  • Service Level packages – video quality, security of transmissions, access times, service support, user access.

Service Portfolio Considerations

• You have already been trialing X brand instant messenger service among the IT staff, so  an entry has been added to the Service Pipeline
• Are there redundant services to retire?

Financial Management Considerations

• Cost to purchase/build service
• Cost of hardware (web cams, PC upgrades if necessary)
• Cost of increased internet access/bandwidth
• Charging for service?
• Budget?

Demand Management Considerations

• When would business most need service? (Mornings and afternoons, as they are most likely to interact with international counterparts – time zones, times of year?)
• What measures can we take to manage demand?
• Limit VOIP/video to certain groups/users
• Charge business for use
• Dedicated bandwidth across whole of service.

By determining the above before you start to design the service, you are in a better position to ensure that HYPE will meet the customer needs (closed loop system). Remember, this is where value is agreed, and Service Operation is where value of HYPE is seen.  As we all know, the level of value will more than likely be in direct correlation to the dollars the business is prepared to pay, and this is why it is important to clarify this now, before we start designing.

The Service Strategy phase enables the organization to ensure that the organizational objectives for IT are defined and that Services and Service Portfolios are maximized for value. Other benefits delivered include:

• Enhanced ability to predict the resources required to fund IT
• Clearer visibility of the costs for providing IT Services
• Quality information to support investment decisions in IT
• Understanding of the use and demand for IT Services, with the ability to influence positive and cost-effective use of IT.

As the focal point for strategy, policy and guidelines that direct the efforts and practices of the IT organization, Service Strategy has many important interfaces with the rest of the Service Lifecycle. Some of these include:

• Interfaces with the Service Design phase:
  • Service Archetypes and Models, which describe how service assets interact with customer assets. These are important high-level inputs that guide the design of services
  • Definition of business outcomes to be supported by services
  • Understanding of varying priority in required service attributes
  • Relative design constraints for the service (e.g. budget, contractual terms and conditions, copyrights, utility, warranty, resources, standards and regulations etc.)
  • Definition of the cost models associated with providing services.

• Interfaces with the Service Transition phase:
  • Service Transition provides evaluations of the costs and risks involved with introducing and modifying services. It also provides assistance in determining the relative options or paths for changing strategic positions or entering market spaces
  • Request for Changes may be utilized to affect changes to strategic positions
  • Planning of the required resources and evaluation whether the change can be implemented fast enough to support the strategy
  • Control and recording of service assets is maintained by Service Asset and Configuration Management.

• Interfaces with the Service Operation phase:
  • Service Operation will deploy service assets in patterns that most effectively deliver the required utility and warranty in each segment across the Service Catalog.
  • Deployment of shared assets that provide multiple levels of redundancy, support a defined level of warranty and build economies of scale.
  • Service Strategy must clearly define the warranty factors that must be supported by Service Operation, with attributes of reliability, maintainability, redundancy and overall experience of availability.

• Interfaces with the Continual Service Improvement phase:
  • Continual Service Improvement (CSI) will provide the coordination and analysis of the quality, performance and customer satisfaction of the IT organization, including the processes utilized and services provided.
  • Integration with CSI will also provide the identification of potential improvement actions that can be made to elements of Service Strategy.

Demand Management needs to work closely with the other ITSM processes (Financial Management and Service Level Management) in ensuring the appropriate development of Services that suit identified patterns and types of demand. This may be as simple as Gold, Silver and Bronze offerings to influence the adoption and use of IT services. To clarify how Demand Management works with other ITSM processes, the following is a summary of the various actions performed:

Service Portfolio Management responsibilities – to assess, manage and prioritize investments into IT, identifying underserved, well-served and over-served demand. Manage Service Portfolio, including the definition of services in terms of business value.

Demand Management responsibilities – identify, develop and analyze PBA and user profiles. Build capabilities for predicting seasonal variations and specific events in terms of the associated demand generated. Strategically package services to reduce excess capacity needs while still meeting business requirements. Design and apply techniques where necessary to influence demand.

Financial Management responsibilities – to work with Demand Management to determine value of services (and understand the effect on value by varying levels of capacity and performance), and to develop appropriate chargeback models to be used in influencing demand.

Service Level Management responsibilities – to maintain regular communication with customers and business units, identify any potential issues, promote service catalog, negotiate and agree relevant SLAs (including the charging mechanisms used to influence demand), ensure correct alignment of Service Packages and Service Level Packages.  Generally measure the success of IT and quality of service delivered from the customer perspective, providing feedback to the other processes on issues and potential improvements.