Understanding the Purpose, Objectives, and Scope of Service Operation

The output from service strategy, design, and transition becomes visible in service operation. It is in the operational stage that the service, which was originally considered in strategy, put together in design, and rolled out in transition, actually delivers the benefit that the business requires. It is also a much longer stage of the lifecycle than the first three stages; the service should continue to meet the business requirement for months or even years.

The majority of IT staff is involved (to a greater or lesser extent) in the service operation stage. They may contribute to other lifecycle stages; their main focus is the delivery of the operational services. In this chapter, we examine the four functions involved in the service lifecycle.

The Purpose of Service Operation

The purpose of the service operation stage of the service lifecycle is to deliver the service at the level that was agreed through the service level management process. This includes all the activities required to deliver the service as well as managing the technology used to deliver the service (such as applying updates, backing up data, and so on).

Service operation must deliver the service effectively but also has to ensure that the cost of that delivery is within the operational costs that formed part of the original business case. Should a service be operated at a higher cost than was originally envisaged, the benefits that were planned, such as cost savings, may never be realized.

Many of the processes that we have discussed when examining the other lifecycle stages take place during the service operation stage. Service level management, for example, is a process that is undertaken as part of service design; once operational, however, the monitoring and reporting of the service performance takes place during the operation phase. The same is true of capacity and availability management; ongoing monitoring and adjustments of these aspects take place during service operation. It is essential, therefore, that all of the processes that are operated during the operation phase work effectively and efficiently. Continual service improvement (CSI) also depends on service operation producing the required information to allow improvement opportunities to be identified, baselines to be taken, and the success of any improvements measured.

Service operation staff members must view the service as a whole and be given the tools they need to evaluate whether the delivery meets the standard required. It is a common error to have staff members concentrate on individual aspects of a service or to ignore those parts of the service provided by third parties, losing sight of the end-to-end service as it appears to the customer. Technology can be used to spot deviations from expected service or response levels very quickly, allowing remedial action to be put in place immediately.

The Objectives of Service Operation

It is the job of the service operation phase to deliver the service as agreed on in the SLA; this ensures that the business receives the level of service it expects. Some service outages are inevitable; service operation will work to reduce both the number and impact of outages. The service operation process of problem management aims to reduce repeat incidents that disrupt business activities, while incident management aims to resolve those incidents that do occur as quickly as possible.

Service operation is also responsible for controlling access to IT services. The access management process ensures that only authorized users can have access to the services provided.

The Scope of Service Operation

The scope of service operation described in the ITIL framework includes the “processes, functions, organization, and tools” that are used to deliver and support the agreed services. This lifecycle stage is responsible for performing the critical day-to-day activities and processes that ensure the service meets the business requirement and enables the business to achieve its objectives. It also collects the performance data that will be required by continual service improvement to identify and track improvement opportunities. The ITIL Service Operation publication provides guidance on the successful management of the following:

FIGURE 10.1 Service operation involvement in other lifecycle processes

Based on Cabinet Office ITIL® material. Reproduced under license from the Cabinet Office.

The Value Service Operation Delivers to the Business

The ITIL framework offers guidance on the best practices that can be used in the various lifecycle stages, and following this advice can deliver real benefits. In the area of service operation, the benefits to be achieved from following best practices include the following:

• Financial savings from reduced downtime as a result of the implementation of the service operation processes of problem and incident management. Problem management will reduce the frequency of failures so that less time (and therefore money) is wasted by the business not being able to work. It will ensure that skilled IT staff members concentrate their efforts on identifying and removing the root cause of the incident, thus preventing recurrence. Meanwhile, efficient incident management ensures that the service is restored as soon as possible, often by service desk staff members using defined workarounds. This both speeds up the service restoration and reduces costs, because the more expensive IT staff members are not called on to resolve simple incidents.
• Service operation includes the production of management information regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of the service delivery. This is used by other processes to target, justify, and implement continual service improvement initiatives.
• By carrying out the access management activities, service operation ensures that services are protected from unauthorized access, in accordance with the organization’s security policy.
• The request management process enables the business to obtain standard services quickly and with minimum bureaucracy.
• By using technology to automate routine tasks, based on the information provided by the event management process, service operation reduces the number of staff members required to operate the service. This means as the number of users grows and the complexity of the services increases, the number of people needed to support the users remains broadly the same. This reduces costs and frees up technical staff members to concentrate on identifying improvements and new opportunities. Automation also delivers a more reliable and consistent service.