IT Fundamentals Tutorial on Topic 8 (ITSM) SAMPLE SOLUTIONS What is ITSM?

ITC544 IT Fundamentals
Tutorial on Topic 8 (ITSM) SAMPLE SOLUTIONS
1. What is ITSM Why ITSM is important?
ITSM is the acronym of IT Service Management. It means how you manage the information
systems that deliver values to your customers. IT Service Management (ITSM) includes
activities like planning and managing changes, fixing things when they go wrong or
managing the IT department annual budget. The term IT Service Management is used in a
lot of ways by different management frameworks. But some standard elements for most
definitions of ITSM include:
Description of the processes needed to deliver and support IT Services for
customers.
The primary aim is to deliver and support the technology or products needed by
the business to meet key organizational goals.
Defining the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in managing
services, including IT staff, customers, and other stakeholders.
The management of 3rd party suppliers (partners) involved in the delivery and
support of the technology, products, and services.
ITSM is important for a variety of reasons. Implementing ITSM can help regularize processes
through structured delivery and documentation. ITSM implementation also helps in saving
costs by building a predictable IT org. Implementing ITSM has business benefits by bringing
actionable IT insights to the business that help in decision making.
2. Describe the benefits of ITSM.
Although the benefits of implementing IT Service Management practices vary depending on
the organization’s needs, a few distinctive benefits of implementing ITSM include:
Improving the quality of service.
Maintaining a cost justifiable service quality.
Regularize services to meet business, customer and user demands.
Implementing the concept of integrated centralized processes.
Making everyone aware of their roles and responsibilities within the IT
Organization.
Learning from previous experience and improving efficiency.
Demonstrate performance benchmarks and indicators.
Reduce the cost of delivering IT services by lowering the wasted effort and
concentrating on getting things right the first time.
Page 1 of 8

3. Describe the ITSM stages
ITSM processes are the elements of an ITSM framework. An ITSM process supports its major
concepts and describes the way of IT service management. ITSM processes can be divided
into the following stages:
Service Strategy (SS) is the first and foremost stage in an ITSM process. The ITSM benefit of
this stage is to help determine what exactly customers are looking for, and verify whether
the service is financially workable. Service Strategy gives an overall understanding of a
company’s services in connection to the Service Portfolio, Financial Management, Business
Relationship Management, etc.
Service Description (SD) enables strategic identifications with a detailed description of
services offered by an enterprise. A key ITSM benefit from this stage is the assurance that
the IT service delivery meets the requirements, and that the organization is capable enough
capacity to deliver the services securely.
Service Transition (ST) is accountable for the auctioning of the company’s services. The
ITSM benefit of the ST stage is the maintenance of the stability of services while allowing
them to be dynamic by hosting changes judiciously. The processes at this stage are Change
Management, Release Management, Knowledge Management, etc.
Service Operation (SO) ensures that the services work without hindrance, promptly warding
off any disruptions. There are 6 main processes that help SO do that:
Event management - Monitors and provides notifications on how the services are
running
Incident management - Restores the normal flow of IT processes as soon as possible,
in case of disruptions
Problem management – Caters to the underlying cause of incidents
Request fulfilment – Deals with low-risk, recurrent and pre-defined circumstances
Access management - Deals with accounts and passwords
Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - Constant improvement of the services
delivered
4. What are the different ITSM frameworks? Which of them are most popular?
While there are numerous frameworks that can organize ITSM, the most prominent ITSM
framework is the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). With companies
having quite a few different subsidiaries, divisions, and locations globally, it’s easy to see
how an organization can meet their different requirements by integrating several different
frameworks, processes, and standards into their ITSM stages. Other frameworks include:
COBIT – This governance framework was created by the IT Governance Institute and the
Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) and complements ITIL for IT
governance. The focus of COBIT is on the quality, control, and reliability of information
systems.
Page 2 of 8

Six Sigma – Introduced in 1986 by Motorola, six sigma focuses on process improvement.
Statistics are used to measure the quality and capabilities of processes and eliminate
defects.
ISO/IEC 20000 – This internationally recognized standard has two parts. ISO/IEC 20000-1
provides best practices for developing and implementing an ITSM solution and ISO/IEC
20000-2 provides best practices for integrating people, process, and technology. ISO/IEC
20000 works in conjunction with ITIL and other ITSM frameworks
Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) – A series of 23 documents that provide guidance
across the IT lifecycle with the goal of helping IT establish consistent and cost-effective
services.
TOGAF – The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) provides methods and
solutions, which include the Architecture Development Method for managing the lifecycle
of architecture using repeatable processes.
FitSM – A free and lightweight ITSM standard with the goal of creating a clear standard for
effective ITSM. FitSM is not managed by an established standards organization.
eTOM – Business operations framework specifically for telecommunications service
providers.
The most popular frameworks and processes
47% use Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) for ITSM, which focuses
on aligning IT services with the business needs
36% use Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT)
36% are using Business Process Framework (eTom) - commonly used by telecom
service providers in the telecommunications industry
34% use Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) - provides another framework for
managing the IT life cycle
5. How to implement the ITSM processes?
The way to choose the right ITSM processes is to look at what your business needs,
specifically. For instance, if you have a small IT support team that’s constantly firefighting
similar issues, it makes more sense to find the root cause and resolve it once and for all. A
simple example of it would be a storage space issue – you can keep deleting files and
applications every time the hard drive maxes out. But simply installing a bigger hard drive is
a better longer-term solution.
In ITSM terms, it translates to going from mere Incident Management to Problem
Management. In the example above, the computer running out of storage space is the
Page 3 of 8