Problem Management and Professionalism in IT Service Management

The provided content discusses the importance of problem management in an IT service, highlighting its reactive and proactive aspects. It emphasizes the significance of understanding root causes to prevent future incidents. Additionally, it touches on measurement analysis and metrics, specifically key performance indicators (KPIs), goals, baseline, and critical success factors (CSFs). The concept of the Deming Cycle is introduced as a continuous quality improvement model. Furthermore, the content focuses on professionalism in IT companies, describing characteristics such as appearance, competence, reliability, organizational skills, and accountability. It also touches on the importance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and professional bodies.

Service IT and Management
ITECH-7400

WEEK 1 – Lecture Summary:
This lecture is based on ITIL and ITSM approaches that are practiced in the IT organizations to meet
the standards of IT market and have a proper management. There has been short discussion on
what is good and bad practice. Overall ITIL framework, models and its core values are explained in
this lecture. Let us summarize the lecture.
There are some important keywords that have been defined like IT, Service, customer and user.
Then ITSM is explained which include complete set of activities required to provide service to an
organization, including policies and strategies. ITSM as a profession seeks to use its influence
through the development of good practice guidance and advice in order to improve the standard of
performance in its given field.
(Osgood, 2006)To follow the standards of organization, there are some practices that have to be
followed. They can be good or bad. It is always recommended to follow good practice. Let us have a
look at both. A ‘best practice’ is a method or technique that has been generally accepted as superior
to any alternatives because it produces results that are superior to those achieved by other means,
or because it has become a standard way of doing things. Enterprises should not be trying to
‘implement’ any specific best practice, but adapting and adopting it to suit their specific
requirements. They may also draw upon other sources of good practice, such as public standards
and frameworks, or the proprietary knowledge of individuals and other enterprises.
Next we talk about ITIL in detail which is infrastructure library. It is not a technology or a standard; it
is a framework which recommends following good practices in order to run the show smoothly. ITIL
allows the organization to establish a baseline from which it can plan, implement, and measure. It is
used to demonstrate compliance and to measure improvement.
There is also a small introduction to COBIT which means Control Objectives for Information and
Related Technology. Provides both good-practice and best-practice frameworks for IT management
and IT governance. COBIT is broader than ITIL in its scope of coverage. ITIL focuses on ITSM and
provides much more in-depth guidance in this area. Every service provider has some service models
that drive its functionality. A service model describes how a service provider creates value for a given
portfolio of customer contracts by connecting the demand for service from the assets of its
customers with the service provider’s service assets. It describes both the structure and the
dynamics of the service. To fulfill the requirements, there are certain roles that need to be carried
out by different individuals to sustain the processes. ITIL defines four generic roles: Process owner,
process manager, process practitioner, and service owner.

Week 2 – Lecture Summary:
This outlines some important aspects of governance and risk. While delivering the services, there has
to be some strategies, design and transition to make the service work and meet the requirements of
the client. Same has been discussed in this lecture. Governance is central to the sound operation and
management of all healthy organizations. It covers various policies, processes and structures
established by senior management to ensure the smooth running and effective control of the
organization.
ITIL describes the framework of the governance that should be applied in the organizations. The ITIL
framework can be a key part of the foundations for excellent IT governance. IT is a service business,
and the adoption of ITIL service management practices is an effective way to address IT governance.
With every service delivery, comes a factor called risk which is known to both the parties. Risk is
defined as a possible event that could cause harm or loss, or affect the ability to achieve objectives.
Risk can also be defined as the uncertainty of outcome (a range of outcomes). The effective
management of risk, an important issue for all successful organizations, is a key component of
governance.
there are four Ps that make up the core of service strategy and they are: Strategy as a Perspective:
relates to vision, direction and IT service provider’s philosophy for doing business with its customers.
Strategy as a Position: describes strategy in terms of IT service provider’s general approach to its
service offerings (e.g. high value or low cost, emphasis on utility or warranty); Strategy as a Plan:
describes strategy as a plan showing how the IT service provider will move from where it is today to
where it wants to be; Strategy as a Pattern: describes strategy as a consistent way of making
decisions.
Strategies are made according to the type of IT customer. They can be internal service provider: In-
house IT unit typically positioned within the business. External service provider: This is a separate
commercial entity from the businesses it services, and operates as a competitive business in the
marketplace.
There is a requirement of keen understanding of requirements in order to develop an effective
strategy. New services must fit into the framework of existing services and any other new services
with which they will likely share common services and compete for resources.
At an early stage in the development of the service strategy, the initial, conceptual details of the new
service will be captured in the service portfolio and the new service will begin its journey through its
lifecycle. Service design has an important role to play in supporting continual service improvement
and is as important for managing changes to existing services as it is in designing new services. A

service design package is produced for each new IT service, major change or IT service retirement.
WEEK 3 – Lecture Summary:
This lecture is mainly about the ITIL operations are that are executed to run the show properly. It is
quite necessary for continuity of quality service which has to be delivered to the client. Service
operation is day-to-day management of IT services and ‘business as usual’ activities.
Service operation is where the value that has been modeled in service strategy and confirmed
through service design and service transition is actually delivered. It has its main purpose to deliver
the product on time and for that all the activities and tasks need to be done in an organized and
sequential way. There are four core points that has to remember to deliver the product smoothly
and without any escalation. Internal IT view versus external business view; Stability versus
responsiveness; Quality of service versus cost of service; Reactive versus proactive.
Conflict arises because constant, agreed levels of service need to be delivered in a continually
evolving technical and organizational environment. Getting the balance wrong can mean services are
too expensive, unable to meet business requirements, or unable to respond in good time. There has
to be some standards set to make the project successful and for this ITIL procedures are laid. These
procedures not only make the project work properly; but also minimizes the chances of conflicts
between the employees of the organization.
Each of the stages of the ITIL service lifecycle adds and provides value to the business. Service
operation does this by carrying out the processes and running the services as intended by the service
strategy, service design and service transition stages of the lifecycle.
To deliver the right product we not only work once, but work continuously to satisfy the customer
and keep up with the reputation of the company. The performance of the IT service provider is
continually measured and improvements are made to processes, IT services and the IT infrastructure
in order to increase efficiency, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Continual service improvement
(CSI) aims to deliver business value by ensuring that the service management implementation
continues to deliver the desired business benefits. There also has to be continuous improvement in
the system and this is widely practiced in all the companies. ITIL recommends that a CSI register is
kept to log the improvement opportunities and categorize them into small, medium and large. There
are so many guidelines to deliver the project on time, and if failed, there is a penalty. this os done by
a doc called SLA. This ITIL process is also responsible for ensuring that all Operational Level
Agreements and Underpinning Contracts are appropriate, and to monitor and report on service

levels. SLM aims to negotiate Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the customers and to design
services in accordance with the agreed service level targets. (Osgood, 2006)
Week 4: Lecture Summary
This lecture summarises the value of processes in IT that helps to manage the finance and sales of
the company in a better way. No business can survive for long, let alone flourish, if it fails to manage
its money effectively. Most of the people working in IT care about services they provide, Service
Level Agreements (SLAs), vendors, suppliers, technology… but, there are always a lot of questions
concerning financial issues of the IT services. There is an effective system for financial planning and
budgeting; Financial plans and budget allocations are aligned with the service portfolio; All proposed
investments have a business case that meets the standards of the organization; All significant
financial risks are identified and fully managed. The main objective of well defined processes is
proper governance. All financial expenditure is properly accounted for and there is an audit process
to ensure proper stewardship of financial resources. The costs and value of all IT services, processes
and activities are monitored, measured and understood and appropriate actions are taken on the
basis of their financial performance.
Financial management is concerned with business case development, assessment of investment
opportunities, evaluation of different service options, the evaluation of financial risks and the
determination of service value. there has to be proper accounting and auditing of the processes that
are being followed. Following this, there has to be some business cases which should be analyzed for
future improvement. A business case is a decision support and planning tool that projects the likely
consequences of a business action. The core of the business case is usually a financial analysis, but
the justification of investments frequently depends on more than financial considerations. It is
essential that the business case makes it clear how the benefits and costs have been assessed.
Here is an example which properly explains the concept of business case. A local authority wished to
establish a service for quickly identifying whether a child had been previously identified as being at
risk. If a child appeared at the local hospital accident and emergency department, the duty doctor
would be able to check the child’s details against the At Risk Register and notify Social Services if
there was a positive result. This involved a considerable investment in IT systems and support
services but there was no direct financial benefit. Nevertheless, the potential benefits (e.g. in
avoiding the unnecessary death or injury of a child at risk) overrode the financial cost.
Accordingly, demand should also be managed carefully to function in the company properly. This can
be done by Characterizing and codifying business activities into specific and recognizable patterns
that have a common service consumption profile. (Iden, 2014)

Week 5: Lecture Summary
This lectures takes you through the capacity management and how with the help of proper
management there can be continuity of services. Capacity management is the practice of right-sizing
IT resources to meet current and future needs. Capacity management is part of ITIL Service Delivery.
Capacity and performance are tightly linked because although service levels are usually expressed in
terms of performance (e.g. response time), when resources run short of capacity, performance
suffers. Effective capacity management is proactive, not reactive. Those doing well at capacity
management make sure that business and service needs are met with a minimum of IT resources. A
good analogy is a supermarket’s ability to serve its customers in a reasonable time.
In order to allow shoppers to checkout without having to queue for a long time, there is a continual
need to balance the number of checkout staff with the number of shoppers.
The management should be well aware that there are sufficient IT resources to satisfy the current
and future needs of the business. This is analyzed on the basis of two approaches which are
mentioned here. Supply versus demand: Sufficient resources must be available to meet the business
demand and maintain service levels. Costs versus resources: Spend on resources must be justified by
business need and resources must be used efficiently.
There has to be a proper planning to manage the capacity of the resources that the company is left
with. Capacity planning is the process of determining the capacity needed by an organization to
meet changing demands. The capacity plan is a key output of the process since it predicts and costs
the impact of new and changing business plans on the current IT environment. The capacity plan
provides IT management with a reliable forecast to support decisions necessary to maintain service
stability. Capacity management has a close relationship with many of the other service management
processes. Capacity management contributes to financial management via the capacity plan.
The capacity plan describes and financially quantifies the resources required to deliver the
committed level of service. This allows financial management to budget for the cost of the
resources.
There is a strong relation between capacity management and service continuity management.
Capacity management contributes to the service continuity management process by sharing plans
and modeling output to help ensure that the alternative facilities provided by service continuity
management remain in line with the live environment and can continue to provide contingency in
the event of being invoked. The Capacity Manager is responsible for ensuring that services and
infrastructure are able to deliver the agreed capacity and performance targets in a cost effective and
timely manner.

There is an interesting tool to analyze the business and the impacts on it. BIA is the activity
performed by ITSCM that works with the business to understand the impact of degraded services or
losing an IT service or component.
Week 6: Lecture Summary
Any company can do lots of compromises but when it comes to compromise on data or information
security, the answer is a big NO. This lecture summarizes the importance of the security in the
organization and different steps by which we can prevent data security breaches. Information
security (InfoSec) describes activities that relate to the protection of information and information
infrastructure assets against the risks of loss, misuse, disclosure or damage. Information security
management (ISM) describes controls that an organization needs to implement to ensure that it is
sensibly managing these risks. There is a certain standard developed to ensure information security
and that is called as information security policy. It should include separate policies for use and
misuse of assets, access control, password control, email and internet, anti-virus, information
classification, document classification, remote access, supplier access to IT services and information,
and asset disposal. Facility management (FM) is an organizational function which integrates people,
place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the productivity of
the core business. Every organization deals with issues and problems and comes up with a solution
due to proper problem management. Problem Management is the process responsible for managing
the lifecycle of all problems that happen or could happen in an IT service.
Problem management provides value to an organization by avoiding, reducing and mitigating the
adverse business impact of problems. Problem management has reactive and proactive aspects.
From a reactive perspective, the purpose of the process is to manage the lifecycle of problems from
identification to elimination by determining the root cause and then applying the necessary
change(s) to prevent recurrence. From a proactive perspective, the purpose of the process is to
prevent future incidents wherever possible or reduce the impact of those incidents that can’t be
prevented.
(Iden, 2014)It is of great significance that which kind of approach you are following. Reactive
problem management responds to incidents and problems that occur. The proactive side of problem
management is concerned with preventing incidents and problems occurring. It is often triggered by
continual service improvement. There are several problem solving techniques such as Pareto
analysis in which the rule states that for many events, roughly 80 per cent of the effects come from
only 20 per cent of the causes.

Week 7: Lecture Summary
This lecture summarizes the concept of measurement analysis and metrics. There are various
performance indicators that portray the performance of the company. These are known as KPI or
key performance indicators. A KPI is a metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan,
project or other activity. KPIs are used to measure the achievement of critical success factors.
Many metrics may be measured, but only the most important of these are defined as key
performance indicators and used to actively manage and report on the process, IT service or activity.
To make an improvement, you have to identify that something has gone wrong and then understand
why. Only then can you diagnose the root cause and apply a change to eliminate it, preventing the
same thing from happening again and thereby improving performance. There is certain limit set that
needs to completed in order to deliver the product properly. A baseline is a benchmark that is used
as a foundation for measuring or comparing current and past values. (Iden, 2014)
For example, a company wanting to measure the success of one of its product lines can use the
number of units sold during the first year as a baseline from which to evaluate subsequent sales
growth.
Goals, baseline, KPIs, and CSFs are interrelated in performance management and improvement
framework.
KPIs reference goals rather than just performance.
Baselines tell us where we started from, or where we were the last time we checked.
Goals, CSFs and KPIs tell us where we are going and if we have arrived, or at least if we are still going
in the right direction.
there is a cycle that has been adopted widely in the IT industry. This is called as deming cycle. The
Deming Cycle is a continuous quality improvement model consisting out of a logical sequence of four
repetitive steps for continuous improvement and learning. The objective is continual service
improvement. The Deming Cycle may be used to improve, for example, an online ordering service or
the service level management process within an organization.
For example, if 200 changes were implemented last month and four failed, instead of reporting a 98
per cent success rate and patting each other on the back, report that there were four failures. These
represent the improvement opportunity and provide a focus for action. There are also certain critical
areas that need to be analyzed to be successful in the project. These are called as critical success
factors. CSFs identify areas that are critical to the success of the enterprise. They tend to be high
level and few in number. Example: Involvement of the business and improved IT service quality

could be sensible CSFs for IT service management. Also, clearly-defined roles and responsibilities
could be a a CSF in any organization. (Stern, 2006)
Week 9: Lecture Summary
This lecture focuses on the professionalism that is so much required in the IT companies. It is
required at each step and with each person. It discusses about the mannerism, appearance and the
overall personality. There is no single definition of a profession. One of a limited number of
occupations involving special learning and carrying a certain social prestige, especially the learned
professions – law, medicine, IT. There are many characteristics of professionalism such as
appearance, competence, reliability, organizational skills, and accountability, phone and e-mail
etiquettes. A profession is typically organized into one or more professional bodies.
A professional body usually starts by a group of people coming together because of a shared interest
in a particular type of activity.
A professional body may also be started by people engaged in the same type of activity, who want to
protect their business against others who may be trying to enter it without having the proper
knowledge or who may be practicing it dishonestly.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is an association for information and communications
technology professionals with over 26,000 members Australia-wide.
According to its Constitution, its objects are "to advance professional excellence in information
technology" and "to promote the development of Australian information and communications
technology resources". International Association of Software Architects (IASA) is the largest global,
professional, non-profit association for enterprise and technology architects.
IAS is a premier association focused on the architecture profession through the advancement of best
practices and education while delivering programs and services to IT architects of all levels around
the world. IASA has created the world’s first and only IT Architecture Body of Knowledge (ITABoK)
that contains 250 skill sets that are critical for every business and IT professional to possess in order
to deliver strategic values of technology for the business. It is required at each step and with each
person. It discusses about the mannerism, appearance and the overall personality. There is no single
definition of a profession. One of a limited number of occupations involving special learning and
carrying a certain social prestige, especially the learned professions – law, medicine, IT. There are
many characteristics of professionalism such as appearance, competence, reliability, organizational
skills, and accountability, phone and e-mail etiquettes. There are certain drawbacks of being a
professional body. Most professional organizations require the payment of annual fees which might
be expensive. In addition to the application and membership fees, you will also be spending money

on association breakfasts, lunches and dinners as well as transportation costs or gas expenses.
(Stern, 2006)Profession includes people with a wide variety of political alignments, religious beliefs
and personal values. This may create stressful situations. Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) is defined as the systematic maintenance and improvement of professional knowledge and
skills throughout an individual’s professional working life.
A professional body supports CPD both by providing a formal structure through which it can be
recorded and assessed, and by providing some of the means by which it can be achieved.
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