Lesson 2 Service Management and Stakeholders PDF

Lesson 2 Study Guide
The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

www.itiltrainingzone.com
Service Management and Stakeholders
Welcome to the second chapter of your Study Guide. This document is

supplementary to the information available to you online, and should be used in
conjunction with the videos, quizzes and exercises.
After your subscription to the course has finished online, you will still have the Study Guide to
help you prepare for your exam - if youve not taken the exam by the time your subscription
expires.
Youll download a Study Guide at the end of most Lessons as you progress through the course.
This Chapter contains the Study Guide information for Lesson 2 Service Management and
Stakeholders.
Use this Study Guide in conjunction with your own notes that you make as you progress
through the course. You may prefer to print the Study Guides out, or use them on-screen.
After each Lesson, you can consolidate what you have learnt whilst watching the videos and
taking the quizzes by reading through the chapter of the Study Guide.
If you progress on to the formal exam, your Study Guide will provide you with vital revision
information.
Remember, your Study Guide is yours to keep, even after your subscription to the course has
finished.
Page 1 of 13
2011 IT Training Zone LTD
www.ITILTrainingZone.com
ITIL is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries

Table of Contents
Study Guide Icons
Lesson Contents
Service Management
IT Service Management
Stakeholder
Exercise Stakeholders
10
Customers
11
Page 2 of 13

Study Guide Icons
Watch out for these icons as you use your Study Guide. Each icon highlights an important
piece of information.
Tip this will remind you of something you need to take note of, or give
you some exam guidance.
Definition key concept or term that you need to understand and

remember.
Role a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.
Exercise Solution suggested solution to one of the exercises you will

complete throughout the course.
Goal or Objective for a particular process or core volume.
Page 3 of 13

Lesson Contents
This Lesson looked at some ITIL key concepts.

We studied:
Service management
Stakeholders
Text in "italics and quotation marks" is drawn from the ITIL core volumes
Quoted ITIL text is from Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation
and Continual Service Improvement
Crown copyright 2011 Reproduced under license from OGC.
Page 4 of 13

Service Management
ITIL is described as best practice for the management of IT services. It doesnt

matter what job you have in IT, you are part of the overall service that is being
offered to the customer.
Most modern organizations rely on IT to be effective. They expect IT to be available, responsive
and communicate with them regularly.
Technology alone does not deliver a good service. Technology needs to be managed in order to
meet the customers needs.
A set of specialized organizational capabilities for

Service
Management providing value to customers in the form of services.
Remember: Services deliver value to customers, and Service Management provides a way to
make sure that value is delivered.
Service Management Challenges

Organizations develop service management capabilities and skills so they can respond to
challenges.
There are 4 specific challenges that shape an organizations service management capabilities,
and we studied them in detail. They are:
The intangible nature of the output of a service process

Demand for services is tightly coupled to the customers assets
The high level of contact between the service provider and the customer or service
consumer
The perishable nature of service output and capacity
Page 5 of 13

Professional Practice Elements of Service Management

Service Management is defined as a professional practice supported by an extensive body of
knowledge, experience and skills that have built up as the IT industry matured and developed a
service focus.
There is a global community of professionals that support service management, including
organizations like the IT Service Management Forum.
You can read more about the itSMF at www.itsmfi.org - including finding out about your
national chapter.
Service Management is also supported by a scheme that provides quality assured education,
training and certification.
There is a wealth of service management information available including academic research
and formal standards such as ISO/IEC20000.
Whatever area of service management you work in, a quick web search will reveal supporting
material that will be useful to you as you develop processes and procedures.
Service Management is seen as having developed in the traditional service industries - such as
airlines, banks and hotels.
IT focus has moved from a technology-centric approach to an end-to-end service approach that
focuses on the customer and the quality of service they receive.
IT is increasingly seen as a vital business enabler, and IT plans must be aligned to overall
business models, strategies and plans.
Another factor that has contributed to the advancement and development of service
management is the increasing complexity of service delivery. More and more organizations use
shared services or outsourced service providers, leading to a requirement for ever more
sophisticated service management.
The more complex the supply chain for service delivery, the better the service management
processes need to be. This increased complexity has strengthened and improved service
management, as well as imposing greater challenges on it.
Page 6 of 13

IT Service Management
Information Technology or IT means different things to different people. It can

refer to staff, or technology, or a department.
Different interpretations of IT include:
IT is a collection of technology which makes up a larger product

IT is an organization with skills and resources
IT is a type of service used by the business
IT is a type of business asset that can make money for the
business
IT organizations need to work hard to understand what their customer needs from them. They
are a service provider to their customer, using service management to deliver the necessary
outcome.
IT service management needs to be efficient and effective, delivering high quality IT services.
IT service providers usually have to balance 3 areas:
What the customer wants

How the service performs
How much the customer is willing to pay
If IT cant deliver what the customer wants at the right price, they need to communicate this as
soon as possible. Documents like Service Level Agreements can be used to help manage
expectations.
Page 7 of 13

Recap
An IT Service Provider provides IT services to internal or external customers.
IT Service Management is used to implement and manage the quality of IT services that meet
the needs of the business. IT Service Management is performed by IT service providers through
a mix of people, process and information technology.
Page 8 of 13

Stakeholder
Stakeholder
Stakeholders are defined as any person who has an

interest in an organization, project, IT service or other
area.
Stakeholders may be interested in activities, targets,
resources or deliverables.
IT needs to understand who its stakeholders are. They will include staff within IT who need to
talk to each other for the service to be delivered.
Other stakeholders are external to IT. These include customers, users and suppliers.
Remember
Its important to understand the difference between customers, users
and suppliers.
Customers buy goods or services. They will usually be

involved in defining what they want the service to do, but
might not use it regularly
Users use the service on a day-to-day basis
Suppliers are third parties who supply good or services that
make up all or part of an IT service
Page 9 of 13

Exercise Stakeholders
This Lesson included an Exercise to look at your stakeholders. If you didnt have time to
complete the exercise during the Lesson, why not attempt it now?
Exercise
Think about your current role, or your previous role in IT. Make some notes and answer these
questions:
Who were your customers?

Who were the users?
Were there any suppliers who formed part of the service delivery?
Exercise Solution
Here are some suggestions remember your answer will depend on the type of
organization you worked in.
Customers could include:
Internal department heads, budget holders, team leaders, board members
External shareholders, other companies, individuals
Users could include:
Staff who worked for your company or people who were paying for your
services. For example, people who use internet banking, broadband, an online
ticket service or a mobile phone are all users of services.
Suppliers:
You might have used third parties to provide elements of service delivery such
as data centre management, cloud services, hosting, or support.
Remember, if you found this exercise challenging or have any questions, you can
email a tutor at tutor@itiltrainingzone.com.
Page 10 of 13

Customers
ITs most important stakeholders are usually the customers who decide what
services are needed. These fall into 2 broad groups:
Internal customers who are part of the same organization as the service provider
External customers who are not part of the same organization
Whether customers are internal or external, they still expect to get the level of service they
need. Service providers must understand their customers expectations and work hard to meet
them.
Remember
Being customer focused doesnt mean that the customer gets
everything they want.
Sometimes the customer will ask for things that are unrealistic so the
service provider needs to work with them to deliver an appropriate
service for an appropriate cost.
We studied the main differences between internal and external customers.
Funding
Internal customers are part of the same organization as the IT service provider. IT is often set
up as a cost centre, with budget allocated to it to deliver services.
Its still important for IT to understand the cost of services, so that improvements can be made.
External customers pay for services directly. This allows IT to generate income and profit.
More customers can mean services are improved, as more money is available for investment.
Page 11 of 13

Business Strategy and Objectives

Internal customers share objectives with the IT service provider - as they are part of the same
organization. Business outcomes can be used to help IT set priorities.
External customers may have different objectives to their IT service provider. IT will have to
work hard to understand its customers objectives.
If IT doesnt help the customer meet their objectives, the external customer can simply buy a
service from someone else.
Accounting
Accounting is different for internal and external customers. The price of the service may be
more important to an external customer, who can shop around with different providers.
Internal IT service providers dont usually try to make a profit from the services they provide.
Involvement with Service Design, Transition, Operation and

Improvement
Internal customers may also be more involved with the design of services. External customers
will provide requirements and expect the service to be designed to meet their needs.
Feedback is then used to improve the service in future for example, a new release of a
software application will contain improvements.
Internal customers are also likely to be more involved in Service Transition and Service
Operation. As part of the same organization, they will have more involvement in areas like
deployment schedules.
External customers will have less involvement with the Service Transition and Service Operation
processes, although they will still need to understand if any changes are happening.
Finally, internal and external customers will have different levels of involvement with
improvement. Internal customers will support IT as they develop improvement plans.
External customers will provide feedback, but have less involvement in what the service
provider does to act on their feedback.
Page 12 of 13

Remember
Customers will be driven by their own objectives.
Some customers will use IT services to maximize profit and customer
retention.
Other customers for example in charities or government
organizations will use services to deliver value and wont be as
concerned with profit.
Page 13 of 13

Lesson 2 Service Management and Stakeholders PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 Service Management and Stakeholders PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Lesson 2 Study Guide

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Service Management and Stakeholders

Welcome to the second chapter of your Study Guide. This document is

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Study Guide Icons

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Study Guide Icons

Definition key concept or term that you need to understand and

Role a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.

Exercise Solution suggested solution to one of the exercises you will

Goal or Objective for a particular process or core volume.

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

This Lesson looked at some ITIL key concepts.

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

ITIL is described as best practice for the management of IT services. It doesnt

A set of specialized organizational capabilities for

Service Management Challenges

The intangible nature of the output of a service process

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Professional Practice Elements of Service Management

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Information Technology or IT means different things to different people. It can

Different interpretations of IT include:

IT is a collection of technology which makes up a larger product

What the customer wants

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Stakeholders are defined as any person who has an

Customers buy goods or services. They will usually be

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Who were your customers?

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

We studied the main differences between internal and external customers.

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Business Strategy and Objectives

Involvement with Service Design, Transition, Operation and

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

You might also like