IT Service Systems for Enterprises

HANDOUT 3 (ITSM)

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

It has become the standard for organizations to use as it aims to provide guidance on how services must be defined, developed, built, and operated. Microsoft, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise are known to be using ITIL for their internal operating guidelines.

ITIL Processes

A ______ is a structured set of activities made to accomplish specified objectives and takes different inputs to turn them into defined outputs. It can be envisioned as a set of activities performed one after the other to achieve something.

ITIL Functions

In ITIL V3, a ______ is described as a team or group of people and the tools and resources they use to conduct processes or activities. These teams could be the networking team, the Java team, the web development team, or any group of people that are selected based on their depth of knowledge on a specific specialty.

ITIL Practices

A process takes in inputs and when the trigger kicks in, an output is achieved. _________ can be considered an extension of a process as it not only defines the activities but also brings various capabilities and tools together to accomplish a set of objectives.

(7) guiding principles

How many ITIL guiding principles are set of recommendations for ITSM?

Focus on Value

The services should be designed with a customer’s satisfaction in mind. It is key to determine what the customers want to precisely match it with a value they will appreciate. But this is something that changes over time that can benefit an organization to grow with their customers.

Start Where You Are

This does not mean resetting everything from the start. This means focusing on what is already available and improving that existing system. Existing systems already have value on their own, so it is best to assess their strength and use that as the starting point.

Progress Iteratively with Feedback

This reminds the people involved not to accomplish everything at once, as it can be overwhelming. Divide tasks into smaller parts and focus on each step to assess the value it can provide. Getting feedback after every step is also advised to ensure problems are solved, and oversights are reworked before it is too late.

Collaborate and Promote Visibility

This aims to take advantage of the different sets of strengths and weaknesses that each member of the IT team has through delivering collaborative efforts. It is best to prioritize honesty and visibility to collaborate effectively.

Think and Work Holistically

To create the best service, it all must be connected, as no service, practice, process, or function stands alone. All activities should align with the same focus on the delivery of value.

Keep it Simple and Practical

This is a reminder to not over-complicate anything to be done. Complicating any process increases the risks of going wrong and having more errors. Continuously assess the work and ensure that only the necessary steps are involved

Optimize and Automate

Optimization makes things functional, so automation of any activity should be optimized first to utilize the resources to the best of their limits. Automation relieves the work on frequent and repetitive tasks. The human resources that could have been working on those tasks can be put into more complex tasks that contribute to the value.

DevOps

Is the combination of development and operation teams to deliver an objective. It brings people together from across disciplines to collaborate as a unit with an open mind and to remove inefficiencies.

1. People

2. Process

3. Technology

The three (3) elements (PPT) support and enable DevOps:

Culture

cannot be changed in an instant as it is embedded into human behavior and would require an overhaul to do so. But there are some behavioral traits that DevOps seeks to change:

o Taking responsibility for the entire product and not just the task performed

o Stepping out of the comfort zone to innovate

o Communication, collaborating, and developing an affinity with the teams

o Experimenting as much as possible

Automation

An enabler of faster delivery and crucial for providing rapid feedback. Repetitive tasks that do not require human intelligence are the kinds of activities that can be efficiently automated.

Lean

DevOps borrowed from Lean technology which is about keeping things simple and not overcomplicating them. This allows the teams to focus and work on things that are easy to comprehend and simple to work with.

Measurement

The only way to find out whether the outcome is favorable is by measuring it. This principle provides direction about the measures to implement and keep tabs to feel the reception of the overall software delivery. Feedback could be used as a measurement to automate processes. Measurements in monitoring such as in applications and infrastructure, can indicate when an event is a warning or an exception.

Sharing

The shared knowledge, experience, ideas, and thoughts can help others in making them better and more profound. This leads to collaboration instead of competition and skepticism. In DVCS, accessing, adding, combining, and delivering the code is faster compared to CVCS.