Key Terms

Question 1

Service

Answer 1

any intangible activity, process, or benefit that fulfills a need without requiring the ownership of a physical item.

Question 2

Utility

Answer 2

A series of steps an organization undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers.

Question 3

Warranty

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

Customer

Answer 4

The role that defines the requirements for a service and takes responsibility of service consumption

Question 5

User

Answer 5

A role that uses the service

Question 6

Service Management

Answer 6

A set of specialized organizational capabilities for enabling value for customers in the form of services.

Question 7

Sponsor

Answer 7

The role that authorizes budget for service consumption. Can also be used to describe an organization or individual that provides financial or other support for an initiative.

Question 8

Cost

Answer 8

The amount of money spent on a specific activity or resource.

Question 9

Value

Answer 9

The perceived benefits, usefulness and importance of something.

Question 10

Organization

Answer 10

A person or a group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities, and relationships to achieve its objectives.

Question 11

Outcome

Answer 11

A result from a stakeholder provided by one or more inputs.

Question 12

Output

Answer 12

A tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity

Question 13

Risk

Answer 13

A possible event that could cause harm or loss, or make it more difficult to achieve objectives. 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.

Question 14

Utility

Answer 14

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’.

Question 15

Service Offering

Answer 15

A formal description of one or more services, designed to address the needs of a target consumer group. A service offering may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.

Question 16

Service Relationship Management

Answer 16

Joint activaties performed by a service provider and a service consumer to ensure continual value co-creation based on agreed and available service offerings.

Question 17

Service Provision

Answer 17

Activities performed by an organization to provide services. It 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. It may also include the supply of goods.

Question 18

Service Consumption

Answer 18

Activities performed by an organization to consume services. It includes the management of the consumer’s resources needed to use the service, service actions performed by users, and the receiving (acquiring) of goods (if required).

Question 19

Focus on Value

Answer 19

All activities conducted by the organization should link back, directly or indirectly, to value for itself, its customers, and other stakeholders.

Question 20

Start where you are

Answer 20

Do not start over without first considering what is already available to be leveraged.

Question 21

Progress iteratively with feedback

Answer 21

Resist the temptation to do everything at once. Even huge initiatives must be accomplished iteratively. By organizing work into smaller, manageable sections that can be executed and completed in a timely manner, the focus on each effort will be sharper and easier to maintain.

Question 22

collaborate and promote visibility

Answer 22

When initiatives involve the right people in the correct roles, efforts benefit from better buy-in, more relevance (because better information is available for decision-making) and increased likelihood of long-term success.

Question 23

Think and work holistically

Answer 23

No service, practice, process, department, or supplier stands alone. The outputs that the organization delivers to itself, its customers, and other stakeholders will suffer unless it works in an integrated way to handle its activities as a whole, rather than as separate parts. All the organization’s activities should be focused on the delivery of value.

Question 24

Keep it simple and practical

Answer 24

Always use the minimum number of steps to accomplish an objective. Outcome-based thinking should be used to produce practical solutions that deliver valuable outcomes. If a process, service, action, or metric fails to provide value or produce a useful outcome, then eliminate it. Although this principle may seem obvious, it is frequently ignored, resulting in overly complex methods of work that rarely maximize outcomes or minimize cost.

Question 25

Optimize and automate

Answer 25

Organizations must maximize the value of the work carried out by their human and technical resources. The four dimensions model (outlined in Chapter 3) provides a holistic view of the various constraints, resource types, and other areas that should be considered when designing, managing, or operating an organization.

Question 26

Organizations and People

Answer 26

The complexity of organizations is growing, and it is 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.

Question 27

Information and technology

Answer 27

When applied to the SVS, the information and 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.

Question 28

Partners and suppliers

Answer 28

The partners and suppliers dimension encompasses an 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.

Question 29

Value streams and processes

Answer 29

A value stream is a series of steps that an organization uses to create and deliver products and services to a service consumer. A value stream is a combination of the organization’s value chain activities (see section 4.5 for more details on value chain activities and Appendix A for examples of value streams).

Question 30

ITIL service value system

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Interconnected nature of the service value chain and how this supports value streams

Answer 31

At Axle Car Hire, the value chain is the way that our company operates. It has multiple value streams. Each value stream adopts and adapts the activities of the value chain for carrying out particular tasks. For example, there is one value stream for innovation, and another for providing standard services to existing customers. The value stream for providing standard services to existing customers represents the activities that are carried out when a customer hires a car. This starts with engagement, when a customer contacts Axle, and then proceeds to delivery, when they receive a car (although engagement can still happen at this stage). Some value chain activities may be ongoing throughout a particular value stream, or may not be involved at all. In this stream, planning activity is continuous, but design and procurement activities will typically not be involved. The stream ends with more engagement activities, when cars are returned by customers, feedback is given, and orders are closed.

Question 32

Plan

Answer 32

The value chain activity that ensures a shared understanding of the vision, current status, and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across an organization.

Question 33

Improve

Answer 33

The value chain activity that ensures continual improvement of products, services, and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management.

Question 34

Engage

Answer 34

The value chain activity that provides a good understanding of stakeholder needs, transparency, continual engagement, and good relationships with all stakeholders.

Question 35

Design & Transition

Answer 35

The value chain activity that ensures products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs, and time to market.

Question 36

Obtain/Build

Answer 36

The value chain activity that ensures service components are available when and where they are needed, and that they meet agreed specifications.

Question 37

Deliver & support

Answer 37

The value chain activity that ensures services are delivered and supported according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’ expectations.

Question 38

Information Security Management Practice

Answer 38

The practice of protecting an organization by understanding and managing risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.

Question 39

Relationship Management Practice

Answer 39

The practice of establishing and nurturing links between an organization and its stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels.

Question 40

Supplier Management Practice

Answer 40

The practice of ensuring that an organization’s suppliers and their performance levels are managed appropriately to support the provision of seamless quality products and services.

Question 41

IT Asset Management Practice

Answer 41

The practice of ensuring that an organization’s suppliers and their performance levels are managed appropriately to support the provision of seamless quality products and services.

Question 42

Monitoring and Event Management Practice

Answer 42

The practice of systematically observing services and service components, and recording and reporting selected changes of state identified as events.

Question 43

Release Management Practice

Answer 43

The practice of making new and changed services and features available for use.

Question 44

Service Configuration Management Practice

Answer 44

The practice of ensuring that accurate and reliable information about the configuration of services, and the configuration items that support them, is available when and where needed.

Question 45

Deployment Management Practice

Answer 45

The practice of moving new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or any other service component to live environments.

Question 46

Continual Improvement Practice

Answer 46

The practice of aligning an organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of all elements involved in the effective management of products and services.

Question 47

Change Enablement Practice

Answer 47

The practice of ensuring that risks are properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed and managing a change schedule in order to maximize the number of successful service and product changes.

Question 48

Incident Management Practice

Answer 48

The practice of minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible.

Question 49

Problem Management Practice

Answer 49

The practice of reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors.

Question 50

Service Request Management Practice

Answer 50

The practice of supporting the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.

Question 51

Service Desk Practice

Answer 51

The practice of capturing demand for incident resolution and service requests.

Question 52

Service Level Management Practice

Answer 52

The practice of setting clear business-based targets for service performance so that the delivery of a service can be properly assessed, monitored, and managed against these targets.

Question 53

IT Asset

Answer 53

Any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service.

Question 54

Event

Answer 54

Any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or other configuration item.

Question 55

Configuration Item

Answer 55

Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service.

Question 56

Change

Answer 56

The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services.

Question 57

Incident

Answer 57

An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service.

Question 58

Problem

Answer 58

A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents.

Question 59

Known Error

Answer 59

A problem that has been analysed but has not been resolved.

Question 60

Continual Improvement

Answer 60

The practice of aligning an organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of all elements involved in the effective management of products and services.

Question 61

Change Enablement

Answer 61

The practice of ensuring that risks are properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed and managing a change schedule in order to maximize the number of successful service and product changes.

Question 62

Incident Management

Answer 62

The practice of minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible.

Question 63

Problem Management

Answer 63

The practice of reducing the likelihood and impact of incidents by identifying actual and potential causes of incidents, and managing workarounds and known errors.

Question 64

Service Request Management

Answer 64

The practice of supporting the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.

Question 65

Service Desk

Answer 65

The point of communication between the service provider and all its users.

Question 66

Service Level Management

Answer 66

The practice of setting clear business-based targets for service performance so that the delivery of a service can be properly assessed, monitored, and managed against these targets.