Summary

Good design requires that the service level requirements are thoroughly understood, and any gap between these requirements and what is possible using current resources and capabilities needs to be identified. The cost of closing this gap must be understood, and staff members in all the IT functions should be made aware of the planned service so that they can prepare to support it. Those involved in transition should plan how this should be done well in advance.

In this chapter, we covered where service design fits in the lifecycle, as well as its purpose, objectives, and scope. We considered the value good service design brings to the business and looked at the key output from this lifecycle stage, the service design package. We also covered the four key elements of successful design—having the right processes, having the required number of suitably skilled people, using the best products, and having appropriate agreements with suppliers. Finally, we considered the five aspects of the service design stage, not just the solution itself, but the processes and management information systems to support it, the architecture to host it, and the metrics to measure it.

In the following chapter, we will cover some of the service design processes in more detail, but it is important to remember these other aspects of the service design stage.