Overview of Continual Service Improvement Stage

Author: Eashani Rodrigo

Purpose of Continual Service Improvement

The purpose of the Continual Service Improvement stage of the life-cycle is to align IT services with changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to IT services that support business processes. 
These improvements activities support the life-cycle approach through service strategy, service design, service transition and service operation. CSI is always seeking ways to improve service effectiveness, process effectiveness and cost effectiveness.

The value delivered by Continual Service Improvement to the business:

• Gradual and continual improvement in service quality
• Ensure that IT services remain continuously aligned to business requirements
• Result in gradual improvements in cost effectiveness through a reduction in costs
• Identifying opportunities for improvement in all lifecycle stages and processes
• Identifying opportunities for improvements in organizational structures, resourcing capabilities, partners, technology, staff skills and training, and communications

Continual Service Improvement Processes

There are four main processes under Continual Service Improvement Strategy stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Seven-Step Improvement Process
• Service Reporting process 

Seven-Step Improvement Process provides a seven-stage framework that helps to guide the improvement and correction of service performance.

Service Reporting process helps to build a business-focused service reporting framework.

Overview of Service Transition Stage

Author: Eashani Rodrigo

Purpose of Service Transition

The purpose of the service transition stage of the service lifecycle is to ensure that new, modified or retired services meet the expectations of the business as documented in the service strategy and service design stage of the life-cycle.

The value delivered by Service Transition to the business:

• Enable projects to estimate cost, timing, resources and risks associated with transition
• Result in higher volumes of successful change
• Makes it easier for people to adopt and follow
• Enable service transition assets to be shared and re-used across projects and services
• Reduce delays from unexpected clashes and dependencies
• Reduce the effort spent on managing service transition test and pilot environments
• Improve expectation setting for all stakeholders involved in service transition
• Increase confidence of delivering new or changed service to specification
• Ensure that new or changed services will be maintainable and cost-effective
• Improve control of service assets and configurations   

Service Transition Processes

There are seven main processes under Service Transition stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Transition Planning and Support
• Change Management
• Service Asset and Configuration Management
• Release and Deployment Management
• Service Validation and Testing
• Change Evaluation
• Knowledge Management.

Transition Planning and Support process helps to plan and coordinate the resources to deploy a major Release within the predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

Change Management process helps to control the lifecycle of all Changes; enable beneficial Changes to be made, with minimum disruption to IT services.

Service Asset and Configuration Management process helps to maintain information about Configuration Items required to deliver an IT service, including their relationships.

Release and Deployment Management process helps to plan, schedule and control the movement of releases to test and live environments.

Service Validation and Testing process helps to ensure that deployed Releases and the resulting services meet customer expectations, and to verify that IT operations is able to support the new service.

Change Evaluation process helps to assess major Changes before proceeding to the next phase in their lifecycle.

Knowledge Management process helps to gather, analyze, store and share knowledge and information within an organization.

Overview of Service Operation Stage

Author: Eashani Rodrigo

Purpose of Service Operation

The purpose of Service Operation stage of the service life-cycle stage is to coordinate and carry out the activities and processes required to deliver and manage services at agreed levels to business users and customers. Service Operation is also responsible for the ongoing management of the technology that is used to deliver and support services.

The value delivered by Service Operation to the business:

• Reduce unplanned labor and costs for business and IT
• Reduce duration and frequency of service outages
• Provide operational results and data
• Meet goals and objectives of the organization’s security policy
• Provide quick and effective access to standard services
• Provide basis for automated operations

Service Operation Processes

There are five main processes under Service Operation stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Event Management
• Incident Management
• Problem Management
• Request Fulfillment 
• Access Management

There are four main functions under Service Operation stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Service Desk
• Technical Management
• IT Operations Management
• Application Management

Service Operation Processes: 

Event Management process helps to ensure CIs and services are constantly monitored, and to filter and categorize events in order to decide on appropriate actions.

Incident Management process helps to manage the lifecycle of all Incidents; primary objective is to return the IT service to users as quickly as possible.

Problem Management process helps to manage the lifecycle of all Problems. Primary objectives are to prevent Incidents from happening, and to minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented.

Request Fulfillment process helps to fulfill Service Requests, which in most cases are minor changes or requests for information.

Access Management process helps to grant authorized users the right to use a service, while preventing access to non-authorized users.


Service Operation functions: 

Service Desk – It is the single point of contact for users when there is a service disruption, for service requests or even for some categories of Request for Change (RFC).

Technical Management – It provides detailed technical skills and resources needed to support the ongoing operation of the IT Infrastructure. Technical Management also plays an important role in the design, testing, release and improvement of IT services.

IT Operations Management – It is the function responsible for the daily operational activities needed to manage the IT Infrastructure. IT Operations Management has two functions, which are generally formal organizational structures. These are: IT Operations Control & Facilities Management.

Application Management – It is responsible for managing applications throughout their lifecycle. The Application Management function supports & maintains operational applications & also plays an important role in the design, testing and improvement of applications that form part of IT services

Overview of Service Design Stage

Author: Eashani Rodrigo

Purpose of Service Design

The Purpose of Service Design stage of the life-cycle is to design IT services, together with the governing IT practices, processes and policies to realize the service provider’s strategy and to facilitate the introduction of these services into supported environments ensuring quality service delivery, customer satisfaction and cost-effective service provision.

The value delivered by Service Design to the business:

• Reduce total cost of ownership
• Improve quality of service
• Improve consistency of service
• Ease the implementation of new or changed services
• Improve service alignment
• Improve service performance
• Improve IT governance
• Improve effectiveness of service management and IT processes
• Improve information and decision-making
• Improve alignment with customer values and strategies

Service Design Processes

There are eight main processes under Service Design stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Design Coordination
• Service Catalogue Management
• Service Level Management
• Capacity Management
• Availability Management
• IT Service Continuity Management
• Information Security Management
• Supplier Management

Design Coordination process helps to coordinate all service design activities, processes and resources.

Service Catalogue Management process helps to ensure that a Service Catalogue is produced and maintained, containing accurate information on all operational services and those being prepared to be run operationally.

Service Level Management process helps to negotiate Service Level Agreements with the customers and to design services in accordance with the agreed service level targets.

Availability Management helps to focus on defining, analyzing, planning, measuring and improving all aspects of the availability of IT services.

IT Service Continuity Management helps to manage risks that could seriously impact IT services.

Information Security Management helps to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and availability of an organization's information, data and IT services.

Supplier Management helps to ensure that all contracts with suppliers support the needs of the business, and that all suppliers meet their contractual commitments.

Capacity Management process helps to ensure that the capacity of IT services and the IT infrastructure is able to deliver the agreed service level targets in a cost effective and timely manner.

Overview of Service Strategy Stage

Author: Eashani Rodrigo

Purpose of Service Strategy

The purpose of the service strategy stage of the service life cycle is to define the perspective, position, plans and patterns that a service provider needs to be able to execute to meet an organization’s business outcomes.

The value delivered by Service Strategy to the business:

• Support the ability to link activities performed by the service provider to outcomes
• Have a clear understanding of types and levels of service will make customers satisfied 
• Respond quickly and effectively to changes in the business environment
• Support the creation and maintenance of a portfolio of quantified services
• Facilitate functional and transparent communication between customer and provider
• Provide means to organize to provide services in an efficient and effective manner

Service Strategy Processes

There are four main processes under Service Strategy stage of ITIL lifecycle: 

• Service Portfolio Management
• Financial Management
• Business Relationship Management
• Demand Management. 

Business Relationship Management process helps to establish and maintain a business relationship between the service provider and the customer and also helps to identify customer needs.

Service Portfolio Management process helps to ensure that the service provider has the right mix of services to balance the investment in IT with the ability to meet business outcomes.

Financial Management process helps to manage service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.

Demand Management process helps to understand, anticipate and influence customer demand for services.

ITIL Life-Cycle Stages

Author: Eashani Rodrigo 

ITIL Life-Cycle

The ITIL core consists of five lifecycle stages.

• ITIL Service Strategy
• ITIL Service Design 
• ITIL Service Transition
• ITIL Service Operation
• ITIL Continual Service Improvement

The service life cycle uses hub-and-spoke design; Service Strategy phase act as the hub, while Service Design, Transition and Operation act as the circling life-cycle stages or ‘spokes’, anchored by Continual Service Improvement which supports all stages of service life-cycle. Each phase of this life-cycle influence on the other phases relying on the others for inputs and feedback, to ensure that the services adapt and effectively respond to changing business demands.