Service Operation Quick Start—An Overview of ITIL

An Overview of ITIL, Service Operation2

ITIL® is a registered trademark of Axelos Limited. All rights reserved.

First things first, what is ITIL?

The only thing standing between you and learning all about the ITIL (AKA IT Infrastructure Library) is learning to speak the language. The phraseology. The fuzzwords. Let’s start with a basic definition and then break it down into five stages. That’s right, five stages you can count on one hand, so you’ll implement ITIL in no time.

Warning: This will increase your brain activity

Learning ITIL® is not easy. First, there’s confusion. “What the blank is ITIL?” Then comes denial. “Why, ITIL, why?” Next acceptance…and the “I can’t stay awake past one page” phase where your brain shuts off and you fall into an ITIL-induced coma. This shouldn’t happen.

Sure, ITIL can be a bit dry. But this eBook will help you through it. We’ll even throw in a few puns and corny jokes to make sure you’re awake.

So grab a water bottle. Stay hydrated. And turn your brain on to learn ITIL.

How does ITIL work? Five Stages at a Glance

Service StrategyDefine needs, assets,and strategy

Service DesignDesign services and thesupporting elements

Service TransitionDevelop services, the supportingelements, and the methods ofimplementation

Service OperationDeploy said services. Includes maintenance, error resolution,and making sure the end-useris happy

Continual ServiceImprovementCollect data on performanceCompare to strategy standardsChange for improvement

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You are here.

Great job. You’re more than halfway finished. You can see that ITIL isn’t all that bad, right? And just think, only two stages left to review.

Let’s look at the ITIL lifecycle stage: Service Operation. This is when you use ITIL to deliver services to your customers. You’ll manage incidents, requests, and operations, and work to get to the root cause of incidents before they become widespread.

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Houston we have lift off… (The crowd cheers!)

Stage 4: Service Operation

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Translation:

In the Service Operation stage, value is delivered to the end user (finally). In other words, you provide the services agreed upon at the level agreed upon (all that availability, capacity, and continuity stuff from the Service Design Stage), preventing any interruptions or reductions in quality, and also restoring services if any interruptions or reductions occur.

ITIL 2011 Glossary Definitions

Service Operation: Includes a number of processes and functions and is the title of one of the Core ITIL publications.

Operation: Day-to-day management of an IT Service, System, or other Configuration Item.

Service Operation Processes At this point if you haven’t implemented ITIL—if you skipped the strategy, design, and transition stage—you could get buried alive with customer service issues. Service Desk, also known as customer service, is a very important part of the service operation stage. This is where the primary point of contact takes requests from end users and either handles them or initiates the proper processes (incident, problem, or service request management) to resolve the situation.

Hopefully you did your homework (read our last three eBooks) and won’t get sidetracked with too many customer service issues. On the next few pages are the processes you should know to make Service Operation a success, i.e., make your end users happy.

Detects events within the IT infrastructure and the selection of appropriate response

• Is mostly an automated process

– Such as monitoring alerts regarding software and tools

• Early detection of events helps reduce the number of incidents and improves performance

• Know Types: Informational (no action), Warning (could cause incident), Exception (intervention required)

Focuses on the rapid restoration of services after an incident has occurred, while minimizing the impact on the business

• Incident: An unplanned disruption or failure of a service to perform

• Incidents are often owned by the Service Desk

• Know steps: Detect, Log, Classify, Prioritize, Investigate and Diagnose, Escalate, Resolve, Close

Event Management

Incident Management

A TERM TO LEARN

A TERM TO LEARN

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An Overview of ITIL, Service Operation7

Identifies and corrects the flaws or errors in the environment that cause incidents

• Problem: The unknown cause of an incident

• Can have either a reactive or proactive approach

• Minimize the impact of and prevent incidents from happening, as well as creating a workaround or temporary solution

Responds to small, common situations or requests from the end user that don’t actually cause an interruption in the service

• Can reduce the work load of Incident Management and Change Management by taking care of the minor, non-incident requests

• Example: Request for the installation of software on a unit

Problem Management

Service Request Fulfillment

A TERM TO LEARN

A TERM TO LEARN

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Provides authorized parties with appropriate access to a service or information

• Helps protect confidentiality, integrity and availability

• Executes information security policy (which is set by IT Security Management)

Manages the day-to-day maintenance of IT infrastructure and facilities

• Divided into Operations Controls (regular maintenance cycles) and Facilities Management

Access Management

IT Operations Management

A TERM TO LEARN

A TERM TO LEARN

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Okay, done.

One final eBook left to read. In the last eBook, you’ll learn about Continual Service Improvement. Because now that you’re delivering great service to your customers, it’s just the beginning. One of the main ideas of ITIL is to keep making them better.

Service Strategy

Service Design

Service Transition

Service Operation

Continual Service Improvement

Service Strategy

Strategy Generation

Service Portfolio Mgt.

Risk Mgt.

Demand Mgt.

Financial Mgt.

Service DesignService Catalogue Mgt.Service Level Mgt.Supplier Mgt.Availability Mgt.Capacity Mgt.Information Security Mgt.IT Service Content Mgt.

Service Transition

Release andDeployment Mgt.

Change Mgt.

Transition Planningand Support

Service Knowledge Mgt.

Evaluation Mgt.

Service Asset andConfiguration Mgt.

Service Validationand Testing Mgt.

Service Operation

Request fulfillment

Incident Mgt.

Access Mgt.

Problem Mgt.

Event Mgt.

Continual ServiceImprovement

ServiceMeasurement

Service Reporting

You are here.

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The 50,000 ft. view of ITIL.

ITIL at a Glance—A Quick ReviewFor those of you who are short on time, here you'll find all of the concepts covered in this eBook series (as well as some additional ITIL facts) in a simple chart. Use this cheat sheet for reviewing the main concepts.

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