Homework Study Guide

Syllabus for Exam

Review for Module 1 Key Concepts of Service Management
Service A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating
outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the
customer having to manage specific costs and risks
Value The perceived benefits, usefulness, and importance of
something.
Value is created when a service has more positive than
negative outcomes.
Service A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling
Management value for customers in the form of services.

Organizati A person or a group of people that has its own functions

on with responsibilities, authorities, and relationships to
achieve its objectives.
Service When provisioning services, an organization takes on the
Provider role of the service provider. The provider can be external
to the consumer’s organization, or they can both be part
of the same organization.
Stakeholder Beyond the consumer and provider roles, there are usually
many other stakeholders that are important to value
creation. Examples include individual employees of the
provider organization, partners and suppliers, investors
and shareholders, government organizations such as
regulators, and social groups.
Service When receiving services, an organization takes on the role
Consumer of the service consumer.

Customer The role that defines the requirements for a service and
takes responsibility for the outcomes of service
consumption.
User The role that uses services.

Sponsor The role that authorizes budget for service consumption.

Products A configuration of an organization’s resources designed to

offer value for a consumer.

Outputs A tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity

Outcomes A result for a stakeholder enabled by one or more outputs

Cost the amount of money spent on a specific activity or

resource
Consider costs removed and costs imposed
Risk A possible event that could cause harm or loss or make it
difficult to achieve objectives. Risk can also be defined as
 uncertainty of outcome and can be used in the context of
measuring the probability of positive outcomes as well as
negative outcomes
Consider risks removed and risks imposed
Utility The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a
particular need.
Utility can be summarized as ‘what the service does’ and
can be used to determine whether a service is ‘fit for
purpose’.
To have utility, a service must either support the
performance of the consumer or remove constraints from
the consumer. Many services do both.
Warranty Warranty Assurance that a product or service will meet
agreed requirements. Warranty can be summarized as
‘how the service performs’ and can be used to determine
whether a service is ‘fit for use’.
Warranty often relates to service levels aligned with the
needs of service consumers. This may be based on a
formal agreement, or it may be a marketing message or
brand image.
Warranty typically addresses such areas as the availability
of the service, its capacity, levels of security and
continuity.
A service may be said to provide acceptable assurance, or
‘warranty’, if all defined and agreed conditions are met.
Service A formal description of one or more services, designed to
Offerings address the needs of a target consumer group.
A service offering may include goods, access to resources,
and service actions.
Service Service relationships are established between two or more
Relationship organizations to co-create value. In a service relationship,
organizations will take on the roles of service providers or
service consumers.
The two roles are not mutually exclusive, and
organizations typically both provide and consume a
number of services at any given time.
Service Service provision Activities performed by an organization
Provision to provide services. Service provision includes:
● management of the provider’s resources, configured
to deliver the service
● ensuring access to these resources for users
● fulfilment of the agreed service actions
● service level management and continual
improvement.
Service provision may also include the supplying of goods.
Service Service consumption Activities performed by an
Consumption organization to consume services. Service consumption
includes:
● management of the consumer’s resources needed
to use the service
● service actions performed by users, including
utilizing the provider’s resources, and requesting
 service actions to be fulfilled.
Service consumption may also include the receiving
(acquiring) of goods.
Co Creation of value is co-created through an active collaboration
Value between providers
and consumers, as well as other organizations that are part
of the relevant service relationships. Providers should no
longer attempt to work in isolation to define what will be of
value to their customers and users, but actively seek to
establish mutually beneficial, interactive relationships with
their consumers, empowering them to be creative
collaborators in the service value chain.
Service Joint activities performed by a service provider and
relationship a service consumer to ensure continual value co-
management creation based on agreed and available service
offerings
Review for Module 2 The Four Dimensions of Service Management

To support a holistic approach to service management, ITIL defines four

dimensions that collectively are critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of
value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services.
These are:

● organizations and people

● information and technology
● partners and suppliers
● value streams and processes.

These four dimensions represent perspectives which are relevant to the whole
SVS, including the entirety of the service value chain and all ITIL practices. The
four dimensions are constrained or influenced by several external factors that are
often beyond the control of the SVS.

Organizations and The complexity of organizations is growing, and it is

People important to ensure that the way an organization is
structured and managed, as well as its roles,
responsibilities, and systems of authority and
communication, is well defined and supports its overall
strategy and operating model.
Information and When applied to the SVS, the information and
Technology technology dimension includes the information and
knowledge necessary for the management of services,
as well as the technologies required. It also
incorporates the relationships between different
components of the SVS, such as the inputs and outputs
of activities and practices.
Partners and The partners and suppliers dimension encompasses an
Suppliers organization’s relationships with other organizations
that are involved in the design, development,
deployment, delivery, support, and/or continual
improvement of services. It also incorporates contracts
and other agreements between the
organization and its partners or suppliers.
Value Streams and Applied to the organization and its SVS, the value
Processes streams and processes dimension is concerned with
how the various parts of the organization work in an
integrated and coordinated way to enable value
creation through products and services. The dimension
focuses on what activities the organization
undertakes and how they are organized, as well as how
the organization ensures that it is enabling value
creation for all stakeholders efficiently and effectively.
Value Stream A series of steps an organization undertakes to create
and deliver products and services to consumers.
Process and A process is a set of activities that transform inputs to
Procedures outputs. Processes describe what is done to accomplish
an objective, and well-defined processes can improve
productivity within and across organizations. They are
usually detailed in procedures, which outline who is
involved in the process, and
work instructions, which explain how they are carried
out.
Review for Module 3 The Service Value System

The ITIL SVS describes how all the components and activities of the organization
work together as a system to enable value creation. Each organization’s SVS has
interfaces with other organizations, forming an ecosystem that can in turn
facilitate value for those organizations, their customers, and other stakeholders.

Guiding principles Recommendations that can guide an organization in all

circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals,
strategies, type of work, or management structure.
Governance The means by which an organization is directed and
controlled.
Service value A set of interconnected activities that an organization
chain performs to deliver a valuable product or service to its
consumers and to facilitate value realization.
Practices Sets of organizational resources designed for performing
work or accomplishing an objective.
Continual A recurring organizational activity performed at all levels
improvement to ensure that an organization’s performance continually
meets stakeholders’ expectations. ITIL 4 supports
continual improvement with the ITIL continual
improvement model.

The purpose of the SVS is to ensure that the organization continually co-creates
value with all stakeholders through the use and management of products and
services. The structure of the SVS is shown in

The left side of the figure shows opportunity and demand feeding into the SVS
from both internal and external sources. The right side shows value created for
the organization, its customers, and other stakeholders.
Module 4 The ITIL Guiding Principles

Focus on value Everything that the organization does needs to map,

directly or indirectly, to value for the stakeholders.

The focus on value principle encompasses many

perspectives, including the experience of customers
and users.
Start where you are Do not start from scratch and build something new
without considering what is already available to be
leveraged. There is likely to be a great deal in the
current services, processes,
programmes, projects, and people that can be used
to create the desired outcome.

The current state should be investigated and

observed directly to make sure it is fully understood.
Progress iteratively with Do not attempt to do everything at once. Even huge
feedback initiatives must be accomplished iteratively.

By organizing work into smaller, manageable

sections that can be executed and completed in a
timely manner, it is easier to maintain a sharper
focus on each effort.

Using feedback before, throughout, and after each

iteration will ensure that actions are focused and
appropriate, even if circumstances change.
Collaborate and promote Working together across boundaries produces results
visibility that have greater buy-in, more relevance to
objectives, and increased likelihood of long-term
success.

Achieving objectives requires information,

understanding, and trust. Work and consequences
should be made visible, hidden agendas avoided, and
information shared to the greatest
degree possible.
Think and work No service, or element used to provide a service,
holistically stands alone. The outcomes achieved by the service
provider and service consumer will suffer unless the
organization works on the service as a whole, not just
on its parts.

Results are delivered to internal and external

customers through the effective and efficient
management and dynamic integration of information,
technology, organization, people,
practices, partners, and agreements, which should all
be coordinated to provide a defined value.
Keep it simple and If a process, service, action or metric fails to provide
practical value or produce a useful outcome, eliminate it. In a
process or procedure, use the minimum number of
steps necessary to accomplish the objective(s).
Always use outcome-based thinking to produce
practical solutions that deliver results.
Optimize and automate Resources of all types, particularly HR, should be
used to their best effect. Eliminate anything that is
truly wasteful and use technology to achieve
whatever it is capable of. Human
intervention should only happen where it really
contributes value.
Module 5 The ITIL Service Value Chain

Plan The purpose of the plan value chain activity is to ensure a

shared understanding of the vision, current status, and
improvement direction for all four dimensions and all
products and services across the organization.
Improve The purpose of the improve value chain activity is to
ensure continual improvement of products, services, and
practices across all value chain activities and the four
dimensions of service management.
Engage The purpose of the engage value chain activity is to
provide a good understanding of stakeholder needs,
transparency, and continual engagement and good
relationships with all stakeholders.
Design and The purpose of the design and transition value chain
Transition activity is to ensure that products and services continually
meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs, and time
to market.
Obtain/Build The purpose of the obtain/build value chain activity is to
ensure that service components are available when and
where they are needed and meet agreed specifications.
Deliver and The purpose of the deliver and support value chain activity
Support is to ensure that services are delivered and supported
according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’
expectations.

These activities represent the steps an organization takes in the creation of value.
Each activity transforms inputs into outputs. These inputs can be demand from
outside the value chain or outputs of other activities. All the activities are
interconnected, with each activity receiving and providing triggers for further
action.
Module 6 The ITIL Management Practices
In ITIL, a management practice is a set of organizational resources designed for
performing work or accomplishing an objective. The origins of the practices are as
follows:

● General management practices have been adopted and adapted for

service management from general business management domains.
● Service management practices have been developed in service
management and ITSM industries.
● Technical management practices have been adapted from technology
management domains for service

Continual The purpose of the continual improvement practice is to

Improvement align the organization’s practices and services with
changing business needs through the ongoing
improvement of products, services, and practices, or any
element involved in the management of products and
services.
The Continual What is the Vision? Business vision goals and
Improvement Model objectives
Where are we now? Perform baseline
assessments
Where do we want to be? Define measurable targets
How do we get there? Define the improvement
plan
Take action Execute the improvement
actions
Did we get there? Evaluate metrics and KPI’s
How do keep the Market successes,
momentum going document lessons and
reinforce new ways of
working
Change Enablement The purpose of the change enablement practice is to
maximise the number of successful service and
product changes by ensuring that risks have been
properly assessed, authorising changes to proceed, and
managing the change schedule.
Change The addition, modification, or removal of anything that
could have a direct or indirect effect on services
Service Desk The purpose of the service desk practice is to capture
demand for incident resolution and service requests
Service Request The purpose of the service request management practice
Management is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling
all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an
effective and user-friendly manner
Service Request A request from a user or a user’s authorised
representative that initiates a service action which has
been agreed as a normal part of service delivery.
Incident The purpose of the incident management practice is to
Management minimise the negative impact of incidents by restoring
normal service operation as quickly as possible
Incident An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the
quality of a service
Swarming Many different stakeholders working together initially,
until it becomes clear which of them is best placed to
continue
Problem The purpose of the problem management practice is to
Management reduce the likelihood and impact of incidents by
identifying actual and potential causes of incidents,
and managing workarounds and known errors
Problem A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents
Phases of Problem Problem Identification, Problem Control and Error Control
Management
Known Error A problem that has been analysed but has not been
resolved
Workaround A solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an
incident or problem for which a full resolution is not yet
available. Some workarounds reduce the likelihood of
incidents.
Service Level The purpose of the service level management practice is
Management to set clear business-based targets for service
levels, and to ensure that delivery of services is properly
assessed, monitored, and managed against these targets
Service Level A documented agreement between a service provider and
Agreement a customer that identifies both services required and the
expected level of service
Information Security The purpose of the information security management
Management practice is to protect the information needed by the
organisation to conduct its business

This includes understanding and managing risks to the

confidentiality, integrity, and availability of
information, as well as other aspects of information
security such as authentication (ensuring someone is
who they claim to be) and non-repudiation (ensuring
that someone can’t deny that they took an action)
Relationship The purpose of the relationship management practice is
Management to establish and nurture the links between the
organisation and its stakeholders at strategic and
tactical levels
Supplier The purpose of the supplier management practice is to
Management ensure that the organisation’s suppliers and their
performances are managed appropriately to support the
seamless provision of quality products and services

This includes creating closer, more collaborative

relationships with
key suppliers to uncover and realise
new value and reduce the risk of failure
IT Asset The purpose of the IT asset management practice is to
Management plan and manage the full lifecycle of all IT assets, to
help the organisation:
– maximise value
– control costs
– manage risks
– support decision-making about purchase, re-
use, retirement, and disposal of assets
– meet regulatory and contractual requirements
IT Asset Any financially valuable component that can contribute
to the delivery of an IT product or service
Monitoring and The purpose of the monitoring and event management
Event Management practice is to systematically observe services and
service components, and record and report selected
 changes of state identified as events

This practice identifies and prioritises infrastructure,

services, business processes, and information
security events; it also establishes the appropriate
response to those events, and conditions that indicate
potential faults or incidents
Event Any change of state that has significance for the
management of a service or other configuration item (CI).
Release The purpose of the release management practice is to
Management make new and changed services and features available
for use
Release A version of a service or other configuration item, or a
collection of configuration items, that is made available
for use
Service The purpose of the service configuration management
Configuration practice is to ensure that accurate and reliable
Management information about the configuration of services, and the
CIs that support them, is available when and where it is
needed

This includes information on how CIs are configured

and the relationships between them
Configuration Item Any component that needs to be managed in order to
deliver an IT service
Deployment The purpose of the deployment management practice is
Management to move new or changed hardware, software,
documentation, processes, or any other component to
live environments

It may also be involved in deploying components to other

environments for testing or staging

New Acronyms

SVS
SVC
VS
CIR
CI