Service Design

8. Implementing Service Design

This section of the publication considers the task of implementing the Service Design processes and tackles issues such as:

Where do we start?
How do we improve?
How do we know we are making progress?

The activities of implementing and improving Service Design need to be focused on the needs and desires of the customer and the business. Therefore these activities should be driven and prioritized by:

Business needs and business impacts
Risks to the services and processes.

The activities will be influenced significantly by the requirements outlined in the SLRs and by the agreements made in the SLAs.

8.1 Business Impact Analysis

A valuable source of input when trying to ascertain the business needs, impacts and risks is the Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The BIA is an essential element of the overall business continuity process (see section 4.7) and will dictate the strategy for risk reduction and disaster recovery. Its normal purpose is to identify the effect a disaster would have on the business. It will show which parts of the organization will be most affected by a major incident and what effect it will have on the company as a whole. It therefore enables the recognition of the most critical business functions to the company's survival and where this criticality differs depending on the time of the day, week, month or year. Additionally experience has shown that the results from the BIA can be an extremely useful input for a number of other areas as well, and will give a far greater understanding of the service than would otherwise be the case.

The BIA could be divided into two areas:

One by business management, which has to investigate the impact of the loss (or partial loss) of a business process or a business function. This includes the knowledge of manual workarounds and their costs.
A second role located in Service Management is essential to break down the effects of service loss to the business. This element of the BIA shows the impact of service disruption to the business. The services can be managed and influenced by Service Management. Other aspects also covered in 'Business BIA' cannot be influenced by Service Management.

As part of the design phase of a new or changed service, a BIA should be conducted to help define the business continuity strategy and to enable a greater understanding about the function and importance of the service. This will enable the organization to define:

Which are the critical services, what constitutes a major incident on these services, and the subsequent impact and disruption caused to the business - important in deciding when and how to implement changes
Acceptable levels and times of service outage levels - again important in the consideration of change and implementation schedules
Critical business and service periods - important periods to avoid
The cost of loss of service - important for Financial Management
The potential security implications of a loss of service - important considerations in the management of risk.

8.2 Service Level Requirements

As part of the Service Level Management process (see Chapter 4), the Service Level Requirements for all services will be ascertained and the ability to deliver against these requirements will be assessed and finally agreed in a formal SLA. For new services, the requirements must be ascertained at the start of the development process, not after completion. Building the service with Service Level Requirements uppermost in mind is essential from a Service Design perspective.

8.3 Risks To The Services And Processes

When implementing the Service Design and ITSM processes, business-as-usual practices must not be adversely affected. This aspect must be considered during the production and selection of the preferred solution to ensure that disruption to operational services is minimized. This assessment of risk should then be considered in detail in the Service Transition activities as part of the implementation process.

8.4 Implementing Service Design

The process, policy and architecture for the design of IT services outlined in this publication will need to be documented and utilized to ensure the appropriate innovative IT services can be designed and implemented to meet current and future agreed business requirements.

The IT Service Management processes outlined in Chapter 4 of this publication and in the other publications in this series will also need to be implemented to ensure service delivery that matches the requirements of the business.

The question often asked is 'Which process shall I implement first?' The real answer is all of them, as the true value of implementing all of the Service Management processes is far greater than the sum of the individual processes. All the processes are interrelated, and in some cases are totally dependent on others. What is ultimately required is a single, integrated set of processes, providing management and control of a set of IT services throughout their entire lifecycle.

While recognizing that (to get the complete benefit of implementing IT service Management) all of the processes need to be addressed, it is also recognized that it is unlikely that organizations can do everything at once. It is therefore recommended that the areas of greatest need be addressed first. A detailed assessment needs to be undertaken to ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of IT service provision. This should be undertaken by performing customer satisfaction surveys, talking to customers, talking to IT staff and analyzing the processes in action. From this assessment, short-, medium- and long term strategies can be developed.

It may be that 'quick wins' need to be implemented in the short term to improve the current situation, but these improved processes may have to be discarded or amended as part of the medium- or long-term strategies. If 'quick wins' are implemented, it is important that they are not done at the expense of the long-term objectives, so these must be considered at all times. However, every organization will have to start somewhere, and the starting point will be wherever the organization is now in terms of IT Service Management maturity.

Implementation priorities should be set against the goals of a SIP. For example, if availability of IT services is a critical issue, focus on those processes aimed at maximizing availability (e.g. Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Availability Management). Throughout the implementation process, key players must be involved in the decisionmaking process. These will include receivers as well as providers of the service. There can be a tendency, when analysing the areas of greatest need, to go straight for tools to improve the situation. Workshops or focus groups will be beneficial in understanding the requirements and the most suitable process for implementation that will include people, processes, products and partners.

The first thing to do is to establish a formal process and method of implementation and improvement of Service Design, with the appropriate governance in place. This formal process should be based around the six-stage process illustrated in Figure 8.1. More information can also be found on this process in the Continual Service Improvement publication.

It is important that when implementing or improving processes a structured Project Management method is used. The improvement process can be summarized as, first, understanding the vision by ascertaining the high level business objectives. The 'vision-setting' should set and align business and IT strategies. Second, assessing the current situation to identify strengths that can be built on and weaknesses that need to be addressed. So 'Where are we now?' is an analysis of the current position in terms of the business, organization, people and process. Third, 'Where do we want to be?' is a development of the principles defined in the vision-setting, agreeing the priorities for improvement, and fourth, detailing the SIP to achieve higher-quality service provision. Next, measurements and metrics need to be put in place to show that the milestones have been achieved and that the business objectives and business priorities have been met. Finally the process should ensure that the momentum for quality improvement is maintained.

The following are key elements for successful alignment of IT with business objectives:

Vision and leadership in setting and maintaining strategic direction, clear goals, and measurement of goal realization in terms of strategic direction
Acceptance of innovation and new ways of working
Thorough understanding of the business, its stakeholders and its environment
IT staff understanding the needs of the business
The business understanding the potential of IT
Information and communication available and accessible to everyone who needs it
Separately allocated time to familiarize with the material
Continuous tracking of technologies to identify opportunities for the business.

The implementation/improvement cycle is useful in checking the alignment between the business and IT, as shown in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1 Implementation/improvement cycle
Figure 8.1 Implementation/improvement cycle

8.4.1 What Is The Vision?

The starting point for all of these activities is the culture and environment of the service provider organization. The people and the culture have to be appropriate and acceptable to improvement and change. Therefore, before attempting anything else, the culture within the service provider needs to be reviewed to ensure that it will accept and facilitate the implementation of the required changes and improvements. The following key steps need to be completed to achieve this stage of the cycle:

Establish a vision, aligned with the business vision and objectives
Establish the scope of the project/programme
Establish a set of high-level objectives
Establish governance, sponsorship and budget
Obtain senior management commitment
Establish a culture focused on:
Quality
Customer and business focus
A learning environment
Continual improvement
Commitment to the 'improvement cycle'
Ownership and accountability.

8.4.2 Where Are We Now?

Once the vision and high-level objectives have been defined, the service provider then needs to review the current situation, in terms of what processes are in place and the maturity of the organization. The steps and activities that need to be completed here are:

A review, assessment or a more formal audit of the current situation, using a preferred technique:

An internal review or audit
Maturity assessment
An external assessment or benchmark
An ISO/IEC 20000 audit
An audit against COBIT
A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis
A risk assessment and management methodology

The review should include:

The culture and maturity of the service provider organization
The processes in place and their capability and maturity
The skills and competence of the people
The services and technology
The suppliers, contracts and their capability
The quality of service and the current measurements, metrics and KPIs
A report summarizing the findings and recommendations.

Figure 8.2 Cultural maturity assessment
Figure 8.2 Cultural maturity assessment

Figure 8.3 Process maturity framework
Figure 8.3 Process maturity framework

The review of the culture should include assessing it in terms of the capability and maturity of the culture within the IT service provider organization, as shown in Figure 8.2.

This assessment should be based on the fact that each growth stage represents a transformation of IT organization and as such will require:

Changes in people (skills and competences)
Processes and ways of working
Technology and tools (to support and enable the people and processes)
Steering (the visions, goals and results)
Attitude (the values and beliefs)
The appropriate level and degree of interaction with the business, stakeholders, customers and users.

The assessment should also include a review of the capability and maturity of the Service Design processes, as shown in Figure 8.3.

This review and should include all aspects of the processes and their use including the:

Vision: steering, objectives and plans
Process maturity, functionality, usage, application, effectiveness and efficiency together with ownership, management and documentation
People: the roles, responsibilities, skills and knowledge of the people
Products, including the tools and technology used to automate the processes
Culture: the focus, attitudes and beliefs.

The above framework can be used to provide consistency of process assessment. Assessing these two aspects will determine the current state of the organization and its Service Management capability and maturity. When starting out on the implementation or improvement of Service Design, or any set of processes, it is important to build on the strengths of the existing cultures and processes and rapidly identify and improve the weaknesses. A more detailed explanation of this framework is contained in Appendix H.

8.4.3 Where Do We Want To Be?

Based on the current state assessment, and the vision and high-level objectives, a future desired state can be defined. This should be expressed in terms of planned outcomes, including some or all of

Improved IT service provision alignment with total business requirements
Improved quality of Service Design
Improvements in service levels and quality
Increases in customer satisfaction
Improvements in process performance.

8.4.4 How Do We Get There?

A set of improvements should then be identified to move forward from the current state to the agreed future state. A plan to implement these improvements should then be developed, incorporating Service Transition and Service Operation, and should include:

The improvement actions
The approach to be taken and the methods to be used
Activities and timescales
Risk assessment and management
Resources and budgets
Roles and responsibilities
Monitoring, measurement and review.

8.4.5 How Can We Tell When We Have Got There?

Often organizations instigate improvement initiatives without considering or designing the measurement system from the outset. The success of the initiative cannot, therefore, be ascertained because we have no benchmark before, during or after the implementation. It is imperative that the measurements are designed before the implementation. A defined set of metrics needs to be utilized in order to ensure that the desired future state is achieved. This desired future state needs to be expressed in measurable terms such as:

X% reduction in Service Design non-conformances
X% increase in customer satisfaction
X% increase in the service availability of critical services.

Thus once the improvement actions and plans have been completed, checks and reviews should be completed in order to determine:

Did we achieve our desired new state and objectives?
Are there any lessons learnt and could we do it better next time?
Did we identify any other improvement actions?

8.4.6 How Do We Keep Going?

Having improved, we now need to consolidate and move on. The organization and the culture must recognize that we can always get better, and therefore must establish an environment of continual improvement. So, once we have achieved the new desired state, we must review the vision and objectives, identify more improvement actions and repeat the six-stage process again. So this stage is all about:

Developing a learning environment
Establishing a desire to improve throughout the organization
Recognizing and reinforcing the message that quality and improvement are everybody's job
Maintaining the momentum on improvement and quality.

8.5 Measurement Of Service Design

The success of the Service Design and the success of the improvement to the processes around the Service Design must be measured, the data must be analyzed and reported on. Where the design or process does not meet the requirements of the business as a whole, changes to the process may be required and the results of those changes must also be measured. Continuous measurement, analysis and reporting are mandatory requirements for both the Service Design process and the ITSM processes.

There are measurement methods available that enable the analysis of service improvement. The Balanced Scorecard is a method developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton as a concept for measuring a company's activities in terms of its vision and strategies. It gives a comprehensive view of the performance of a business. The system forces managers to focus on the important performance metrics that drive success. It balances a financial perspective with customer, internal process and learning and growth perspectives. More information can be found on the Balanced Scorecard method in the Continual Service Improvement publication.

.Six Sigma is a methodology developed by Bill Smith at Motorola Inc. in 1986, and was originally designed to manage process variations that cause defects, defined as unacceptable deviation from the mean or target, and to systematically work towards managing variation to eliminate those defects. Six Sigma has now grown beyond defect control and is often used to measure improvement in IT process execution. (Six Sigma is a registered service mark and trademark of Motorola Inc.)

Six Sigma (DMADV) is an improvement system used to develop new processes at Six Sigma quality levels and is defined as:

Define - formally define the goals of the design activity that are consistent with customer demands and organization strategy
Measure - identify Critical Success Factors, capabilities, process capability and risk assessment
Analyse - develop and design alternatives, create high-level design and evaluate design capability to select the best design
Design - develop detailed design, optimize design and plan for design verification
Verify - set up pilot runs, implement production process and hand over to process owners.

The Six Sigma (DMAIC) process (define, measure, analyse, improve, control) is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and looking for incremental improvement.

8.5.1 Prerequisites For Success

There are a number of prerequisites required for the Service Design and the successful introduction of new or revised processes. Often these prerequisites for success (PFSs) are elements of one process required by another. For example, fully completed and up-to-date Business Service Catalogue and Technical Service Catalogue are required before Service Level Management can design the SLA and supporting agreement structure, and before SLM can set up and agree the SLAs. Problem Management will depend on a mature Incident Management process. The PFSs can be much wider than just ITSM process interdependencies. For example, the design of availability and capacity for a new service cannot be achieved without details of the business plan for the utilization of the new service. The design of the service will be impossible without the Service Portfolio and Service Transition Pack. There are many more examples of these PFSs that need to be considered and planned before high process maturity levels can be achieved. Low maturity in one process will mean that high levels of maturity will not be achievable in other processes.

8.5.2 Critical Success Factors And Key Performance Indicators

Critical Success Factor (CSF) is a term for an element that is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission. CSFs can be used as a means for identifying the important elements of success.

CSFs are the things that have to be got right in the Service Design and within each ITSM process. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are measures that quantify objectives and enable the measurement of performance. KPIs should be set and measured against the design and for each of the processes to ensure the CSFs are met. Together, CSFs and KPIs establish the baseline and mechanisms for tracking performance.

It is recommended that each IT organization focuses on a small sub-set of CSFs and KPIs at any one time. The required CSFs and KPIs should be set at the beginning of the Continual Service Improvement Plan (CSIP).

It is important that CSFs are agreed during the design phase of a service and of the processes, and that Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are set, measured and reported on to indicate the quality of the Service Design and the Service Design processes. There is a requirement to be able to analyse how well the service infrastructure was designed. It is possible to arrive at a good design in a very resource-inefficient manner, and vice versa, so we need to look at the quality as well as resources required to achieve the required quality. KPIs around the success of delivery of the service indicate the effectiveness of the Service Design are applicable - for example, does the service meet the (defined) business requirements for availability, reliability, throughput, security, maintainability, serviceability, functionality etc.? KPIs around the resource estimates, however, will show us how efficient we were in the design.

These should be defined as part of QA planning and release acceptance. These KPIs could be supported by similar component metrics.

KPIs for the process of Service Design include:

Percentage of Service Design requirement specifications produced on time (and to budget)
Percentage of Service Design plans produced on time
Percentage of Service Transition packs completed on time
Percentage of QA and acceptance criteria plans produced on time
Accuracy of Service Design - for example, was the correct infrastructure built to support the service?
Percentage accuracy of the cost estimate of the whole Service Design phase
Accuracy of SLA(s), OLA(s) and contract(s) - do they really support the required level of service?

To judge service provision and ITSM process performance, clearly defined objectives with measurable targets should be set. Confirmation needs to be sought that these objectives and the milestones set in the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) stage of the lifecycle have been reached and that the desired service quality or desired improvement in quality has been achieved. It is vital when designing services or processes that KPIs are designed from the outset and collected regularly and at important milestones. For example, when designing at the completion of each significant stage of the programme, a Post Implementation Review (PIR) should be conducted to ensure the objectives have been met. The PIR will include a review of supporting documentation and the general awareness amongst staff of the refined processes.

A comparison is required of what has been achieved against the original goals set in the project. Once this has been confirmed, new improvement targets should be defined. To confirm that the milestones have been reached, KPIs need to be constantly monitored. These KPIs include customer satisfaction targets, so there will be a need to survey customers planned at various stages to confirm that changes made are improving the customer perception of the service quality. It is possible that the services have higher availability, that there are fewer incidents and that response times have improved, but at the same time the customer's perception of service quality has not improved. Clearly this is as important, and will need to be addressed by talking to customers to ascertain their concerns. Confirmation will need to be sought that CSIs put in place are addressing the customer's primary needs.

For further information on service improvement practices, please refer to the Continual Service Improvement publication.