ITIL 4 Practices

Practice

1. A set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective

2. provides guidance on 34 practices that support the Service Value System and Service Value Chain.

   General Management

   Service Management Technical Management

Continual Improvement

1. Happens everywhere in the organization (SVS, SVC, Practices)

2. Ideas need to be reprioritized when new ones are added

3. it is a responsibility of everyone

4. Organizations may have a continual improvement team for better coordination

5. All 4 dimensions need to be considered during any improvement initiative.

6. Example: Applying Continual Improvement

   • What is the vision? → “Improve customer satisfaction.”

   • Where are we now? → Avg. response time is 8 hours.

   • Where do we want to be? → Reduce to 2 hours.

   • How do we get there? → Add self-service, improve training, automate routing.

   • Take action → Implement changes.

   • Did we get there? → Measure performance metrics.

   • Keep momentum → Share results, update knowledge base, look for new issues.

Change Enablement

1. The practice of ensuring that risks are properly assessed, and that authorized changes are managed and implemented with minimal disruption to services.

2. Types of Changes

   • Standard Change

     • Pre-authorized, low-risk, repeatable

   • Normal

     • Needs risk assessment and authorization

     • Cannot be pre-authorized (like standard changes)

     • Isn't urgent (like emergency changes)

   • Emergency

     • Needs to be implemented ASAP (e.g., security patch)

Incident Management

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

2. One of the core components of this process is the use of formalized, consistent procedures for logging incidents

3. focuses on quick restoration, not in-depth root cause analysis.

4. A key part of this process is accurate and efficient information gathering.

   • Scripts for collecting initial information about incidents

     • Guiding service desk staff through standard questions to ask users

Problem Management

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

2. Phases

   • Problem Identification → Problem Control → Error Control.

Service Desk

1. The practice of capturing demand for incident resolution and service requests. It should also be the entry point and single point of contact for the service provider with all of its users.

2. Channels

   • E-Mail

   • Phone

   • Chat

   • Self-Service

   • Text Messaging

   • Forums

3. Skills

   • Incident analysis and prioritization

   • Effective communication

   • Emotional Intelligence

   • Excellent Customer service skills.

Service Level Management

1. 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.

2. identifies metrics and measures that are a truthful reflection of the customer's actual experience and level of satisfaction with the whole service.

3. Monitors and develops reports to deliver the agreed level of service.

4. SLA (Service Level Agreement)

   • A documented agreement between a provider and customer about expected service performance

   • Are used to measure the performance of services from a customer's point of view.

5. OLA (Operational Level Agreement)

   • An internal agreement between teams within the same organization to support SLA achievement

6. Underpinning Contract (UC)

   • A contract with external suppliers that supports the delivery of a service

7. Recommendations

   • Clear language, no jargon

   • simply written, easy to understand

   • should relate to defined outcomes

   • listen actively to customer needs.

Service Request Management

handles common, low-risk requests such as password resets, access to applications, or installing approved software. These are often fulfilled through standard changes.

Information Security Management

1. The practice of protecting information needed by the organization to conduct its business.

2. Ensures appropriate levels of

   • Ensure confidentiality (only authorized access)

   • Ensure integrity (accuracy and trustworthiness)

   • Ensure availability (accessible when needed)

   • Support compliance with legal, regulatory, and contractual requirements

Relationship Management

1. a service management practice focused on building and maintaining positive relationships between the service provider and its stakeholders (such as customers, users, suppliers, and partners).

2. Makes sure we find the best possible ways to communicate and collaborate with different internal and external stakeholders

3. Relationships are Identified → Analyzed → Monitored → Improved

Supplier Management

1. the practice that ensures an organization’s suppliers and their performance are managed properly to support the delivery of high-quality products and services.

2. Goal is to make sure “we get what we paid for” from our vendors and suppliers

3. Agreements and contracts are made in the form of UC’s (Underpinning Contracts)

IT Asset Management

1. The practice of planning and managing the full lifecycle of all IT assets, to help the organization maximize value, control costs, manage risks, support decision-making about purchases, and meet regulatory requirements.

2. IT Asset

   • any valuable component that is used to deliver IT services.

   • Hardware Asset - Laptops, servers, routers, printers

   • Software Asset - Licensed applications, OS, cloud-based tools

Monitoring and Event Management

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

2. Event

   • any change of state that has significance for the management of a service or IT component.

3. Types of Events

   • Informational

     • Normal operation info

   • Warning

     • Indication of a potential issue

   • Exception

     • A breach or failure (e.g., threshold exceeded, service down)

Release Management

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

2. Release

   • a version of a service or component that is made available for use — either as a new feature, bug fix, configuration update, or enhancement.

Service Configuration Management

1. 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 it is needed.'

2. Configuration Item (CI)

   • any component that needs to be controlled and tracked to deliver an IT service.

   • CI Examples

     • CI Examples

     • Hardware (e.g., servers, routers)

     • Software (e.g., apps, OS, licenses)

     • Documentation (e.g., SLAs, manuals)

     • People (e.g., service owners)

     • Services (e.g., payroll system)

3. Configuration Management Database (CMDB)

   • A database or collection of databases holding CI’s and their connections

4. CMS (Configuration Management System,)

   • a frontend / user interface for CMDB’s

Deployment Management

the practice that focuses on moving new or changed hardware, software, documentation, or other components into live environments — ensuring everything is deployed correctly and safely.