science

IT service management

IT service management is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand IT service management rather than just read about it. In short: Information technology service management (ITSM) is the set of activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate, and control IT services offered to customers. Unlike more technology-oriented IT management approaches like network management and IT systems management, IT service management is characterized by a process approach toward management, focusing on customer needs and IT services for…

Key takeaways

IT service management belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect IT service management to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of IT service management from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Information technology service management (ITSM) is the set of activities performed by an organization to design, build, deliver, operate, and control IT services offered to customers. Unlike more technology-oriented IT management approaches like network management and IT systems management, IT service management is characterized by a process approach toward management, focusing on customer needs and IT services for customers rather than IT systems, and stressing continual improvement. The CIO WaterCooler's 2017 ITSM report states that business uses ITSM "mostly in support of customer experience (35%) and service quality (48%)."

Process Organizational ITSM process execution, especially for workflows, can benefit significantly from being supported with specialized software tools.

Service desk A service desk is a primary IT function within the discipline of IT service management (ITSM) as defined by ITIL. It is intended to provide a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to meet the communication needs of both users and IT staff, and to satisfy both customer and IT provider objectives. User refers to the actual user of the service, while customer refers to the entity that is paying for the service. ITSM tools are frequently applied to other aspects of business; this practice is often called enterprise service management (ESM). A key initiative in ITSM is the automation of routine tasks, enabling personnel to focus on higher-priority responsibilities; this is known as IT process automation. The ITIL approach considers the service desk to be the central point of contact between service providers and users/customers on a day-to-day basis. It is also a focal point for reporting incidents (disruptions or potential disruptions in service availability or quality) and for submitting service requests (routine requests for services). ITIL regards a call center or help desk as similar kinds of tech support which provide only a portion of what a service desk can offer. A service desk has a broader and user-centered approach which is designed to provide the user with an informed single point of contact for all IT activities. A service desk facilitates the integration of business processes into the service management infrastructure. In addition to actively monitoring and owning incidents and user questions, and providing the communications channel for other service management disciplines with the user community, a service desk also provides an interface for other activities such as customer change requests, third parties (e.g. maintenance contracts), and software licensing. Computer emergency response teams (CERT) are specifically dedicated to computer security incidents.

Frameworks

ITSM is similar to other IT and general management approaches, especially information security management and software engineering. Consequently, IT service management frameworks have been influenced by other standards and adopted concepts from them, e.g. CMMI, ISO 9000, or ISO/IEC 27000. Various frameworks for ITSM and overlapping disciplines include:

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with business needs and goals. TOGAF is a framework and methodology that aims to define business goals while aligning them with architecture objectives related to software development. Business Process Framework (eTOM) is a process framework for telecommunications service providers. COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) is an IT governance framework that specifies control objectives, metrics, and maturity models. Recent versions have aligned the naming of select control objectives to established ITSM process names. FitSM is a standard for lightweight service management. Its criteria includes auditable requirements, document templates, and other resources that are published under Creative Common licenses. Its basic process framework is in large parts aligned to that of ISO/IEC 20000. CMMI helps service providers establish, manage, and improve services to meet business goals. ASL's goal is the professional development of application management. This is achieved by offering a framework within which the processes of application management are brought in relation to each other. USM, the principle-based USM method provides a standardized management system for a service organization to manage its people, its processes, its technology, and its services, based on an explicit service management architecture.USM specifies the management system that supports the practice-based frameworks and standards and is adopted by the Dutch government for its management architecture. ISO/IEC 20000 is an international standard for managing and delivering IT services. Its process model bears many similarities to that of ITIL version 2, since BS 15000 (precursor of ISO/IEC 20000) and ITIL were mutually aligned with version 2 of ITIL. ISO/IEC 20000 defines minimum requirements for an effective "service management system" (SMS). Conformance of the SMS to ISO/IEC can be audited and organizations can achieve an ISO/IEC 20000 certification of their SMS for a defined scope. BiSL is a best practices framework for the Information Management domain. MOF (Microsoft Operations Framework) includes both a general framework of service management functions and guidance on managing services based on Microsoft technologies.

Professional organizations There are international, chapter-based professional associations, such as the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), and HDI. These organizations' main goal is to foster the exchange of experiences and ideas between ITSM users. To this end, national and local itSMF and HDI chapters (LIGs or local interest groups for itSMF) organize conferences and workshops. Some of them also contribute to the translation of ITSM framework documents into their respective languages or publish their own ITSM guides. There are several service management certifications that include, but are not limited to, ITILv4, TOGAF or COBIT.

See also Customer service Network and service management taxonomy ISO/IEC 33001 Information technology -- Process assessment -- Concepts and terminology (software development) Incident management § IT service management

References

External links

Media related to IT service management at Wikimedia Commons

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with IT service management

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what IT service management claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to IT service management before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about IT service management ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of IT service management

In research: IT service management appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses IT service management in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: IT service management is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Customer service, IT service management, Information technology management, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for IT service management outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study IT service management in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what IT service management means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain IT service management out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is IT service management in simple terms?

Why does IT service management matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study IT service management?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on IT service management.