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 ITIL Service Support
The Service Support
discipline is focused on the User of
technology services and is primarily concerned with ensuring that they
have access to the appropriate services to support the business
functions. The discipline
consists of the following:
Service Desk Function
Incident Management
Problem
Management
Configuration Management
Change
Management
Release
Management
 Service
Desk
The service desk is the single contact point for the
customers to record their problems or requests for service changes. It
will try to resolve it, if there is a direct solution or will create an
incident. Incidents initiate a chain of processes: Incident Management,
Problem Management, Change Management, Release Management and
Configuration Management (see following sections for details). This
chain of processes is tracked using the Configuration Management
Database (CMDB), which records each process, and creates output
documents for traceability (Quality Management).
Service Desk
This function is the single point of contact between users and IT
Service Management.
The primary functions of the Service Desk are:
Incident Control: life cycle management of all Service Requests
Communication: keeping the customer informed of progress and advising
on workarounds
Note:
Service Desk is a function and not a process; as there is no
manipulation of input for output.
Incident
Management
The goal of Incident Management is to restore normal service operation
as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business
operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels of service
quality and availability are maintained. 'Normal service operation' is
defined here as service operation within Service Level Agreement (SLA)
limits.
Problem
Management
The goal of 'Problem Management' is to resolve the root cause of
incidents and thus to minimize the adverse impact of incidents and
problems on business that are caused by errors within the IT
infrastructure, and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to these
errors. A `problem' is an unknown underlying cause of one or more
incidents, and a `known error' is a problem that is successfully
diagnosed and for which either a work-around or a permanent resolution
has been identified.
The problem management process is intended to reduce the number and
severity of incidents and problems on the business, and report it in
documentation to be available for the first-line and second line of the
help desk. The proactive process identifies and resolves problems
before incidents occur.
Configuration
Management
Configuration Management is a process that tracks all of the individual
Configuration Items (CI) in a system
Change
Management
The goal of Change Management is to ensure that standardized methods
and procedures are used for efficient handling of all changes, in order
to minimize the impact of change-related incidents and to improve
day-to-day operations.
Release
Management
Release Management is used for platform-independent and automated
distribution of software and hardware, including license controls
across the entire IT infrastructure. Proper software and hardware
control ensures the availability of licensed, tested, and
version-certified software and hardware, which will function as
intended when introduced into the existing infrastructure. Quality
control during the development and implementation of new hardware and
software is also the responsibility of Release Management. This
guarantees that all software meets the demands of the business
processes.
The focus of release management is the protection of the live
environment and its services through the use of formal procedures and
checks.
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ITIL Service Delivery
The Service Delivery discipline is
primarily concerned with the proactive and forward-looking services
that the business requires of its IT services provider in order to
deliver adequate support to business users. The discipline consists of
the following processes:
Service Level Management
Capacity Management
IT Service Continuity
Management
Availability Management
Security Management
Service Level Management
Service Level Management provides for continual identification,
monitoring and review of the levels of IT services specified in the
Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Service Level Management is the primary interface with the customer (as
opposed to the user, who is serviced by the Service Desk). Service
Level Management is responsible for;
1) Ensuring that the agreed IT services
are delivered when and where they are supposed to be
2) Liaising with Availability Management, Capacity Management, Incident
Management and Problem Management to ensure that the required levels
and quality of service are achieved within the resources agreed with
Financial Management
3) Producing and maintaining a Service Catalog (a list of standard IT
service options and agreements made available to customers)
4) Ensuring that appropriate IT Service Continuity plans have been made
to support the business and its continuity requirements.
Capacity Management
Capacity Management supports the optimum and cost effective provision
of IT services by helping organizations match their IT resources to the
business demands. The high-level activities are Application Sizing,
Workload Management, Demand Management, Modeling, Capacity Planning,
Resource Management, and Performance Management.
IT Service Continuity
Management
IT Service Continuity Management helps to ensure the availability and
rapid restoration of IT services in the event of a disaster. The high
level activities are Risk Analysis, Contingency Plan Management,
Contingency Plan Testing, and Risk Management.
Availability Management
Availability Management allows organizations to sustain the IT service
availability in order to support the business at a justifiable cost.
The high-level activities are Realize Availability Requirements,
Compile Availability Plan, Monitor Availability, and Monitor
Maintenance Obligations.
Security Management
The ITIL-process Security Management describes the structured
fitting of information security in the management organization. ITIL
Security Management is based on the code of practice for information
security management also known as ISO/IEC 17799.
The current move towards ISO/IEC 27001 may require some revision to the
ITIL Security Management best practices which are often claimed to be
rich in content for physical security but weak in areas such as
software/application security and logical security in the ICT
infrastructure.
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