Process Inter-relationships
Service Desk |
Incident |
Problem |
Change |
Configuration |
Release |
Service Level |
Availability |
Capacity |
Continuity |
Financial
Service Desk is provided input from:
Incident Management
Provides basic data retained in the Incident Management system on workarounds which are used by Service Desk agents to respond to queries.
Service Fulfillment Management
Fulfillment Management provides updates on progress towards the fulfillment of service requests and creates escalations which may require attention when service delivery timeframes are in jeopardy.
Problem Management
PM is responsible for the creation, updating and overall quality of Knowledge Bases used by Service Desk agents to resolve questions and incidents at first point of contact.
Change Management
CM provides information on pending changes which may be the source of incidents which are reported to the Service Desk.
Configuration Management
CFM ensures the integrity of the CMDB which provides the basic blueprint of the infrastructure to identify Configuration Item(s) for which all service event inquiries should relate.
Release Management
RM provides the service desk with a 'Defect List' which become Known Errors in the production environment. These Known Errors are potential causes of Incidents.
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Incident Management is provided inputs from:
Service Desk
The SD routes Incidents (including automated routing) and service request fulfillment requests to the appropriate IM analyst based upon established criteria. The Service Desk ensures that routed events are within the scope of IM, authenticates the initiator, records or updates contact and infrastructure details and provides initial diagnostic information.
When an Incident is reported from many sources the SD correlates and matches reported instances of the incident against a designated Incident record. This recording may be used to indicate the magnitude or overall impact of the incident.
Problem Management
PM addresses why incidents continue to occur. PM takes the data recorded during the IM process and attempts to predict and prevent incidents from happening, especially known errors that represent common or repetitive incidents at the service desk.
Configuration Management
Incidents, as recorded by the service desk, are evaluated against the CMDB. IM may update the CMDB to show the identified incidents and affected CIs. In cases where there are similar reports of the incident, the CMDB produces information on those CIs that caused the incident and/or problem possible resolutions that were successful. If no match is found, the incident creates a new record in the CMDB to manage the current incident and provide reference for future use.
Change Management
Changes to the infrastructure are a primary source of incidents so that CM should constantly keep IM aware of changes (eg. online provision of change schedules).
Availability Management
Because a primary concern of AM is the continued availability of systems and services, AM shares a concern with IM for early recovery from outages. Frequently, AM leads, or is integrally involved in, the restoration of high severity incidents (ie. Situations).
Capacity Management
Optimization of service performance implies monitoring the application for end-to-end response times. In a well run IT shop, performance levels are forecast and the monitoring system sets threshold alarms to trigger alerts before the customer of the service is aware of an issue. It is central to alerts affecting capacity and for judging the need for contingency or service continuity measures. Operating level objectives for service capacity monitoring and control require management data views through custom or selected vendor software products. Automated monitoring tracks performance levels of an IT service. Threshold alarms allow response for out of range conditions.
Service Level Management
SLM negotiates and documents in SLAs the performance targets within which IM operates.
Problem Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
Typically, a problem begins its life cycle as a series of incidents reported to the service desk by customers. As incidents escalate in number and scope, they are analyzed as potential problems and are considered by the problem management process.
Change Management
CM is responsible for ensuring the RFCs submitted by PM are implemented in a timely manner and with minimal impact to the stability of the IT environment.
Configuration Management
The CMDB provides basic information on the interdependencies amongst CIs which may be the subject of Root Cause Analysis.
Release Management
RM provides Defect Lists which become Known Errors which are placed under Error Control by PM. In addition, complex releases (particularly when grouped in Packaged Releases) become fodder for the surfacing of new Problems.
Service Level Management
SLAs may contain statements and directives which determine how Problems are prioritized for consideration.
Availability Management
AM and PM share a concern and probable involvement in the recovery of major incidents. AMs' concern is with reducing the period of outage in order to meet availability performance metrics while PM is concerned with identifying the underlying cause of the outage. Identifying the root cause will ensure it does not re-occur and thus contribute to overall availability.
Capacity Management
CapM provides a specialist infrastructure role to identify and diagnose capacity or performance related problems. It provides ongoing feedback and recommends changes resulting from incidents traced to known errors effected by or causing degraded performance levels of the service.
Financial Management
Solutions to Problems must be evaluated to ensure that the department remains within budget.
Change Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
As incident trends that are found to be problems are analyzed within the problem management process and the analysis reveals specific CIs that are affected, an RFC is designed to eliminate or minimize the impact of future recurrences of the incident. The change management process is responsible for implementing the CI improvement necessary to resolve current incidents and prevent future ones, and to deploy these changes with minimal impact to the stability of the system.
Problem Management
Solutions identified by Problem Management typically become RFCs to be processed through Change Management.
Configuration Management
During the change and release processes, CFM is tasked with updating the CMDB with all IT system component changes and documenting the status of all components.
The configuration coordinator will be responsible for performing a baseline assessment of the IT environment. Change management uses this baseline assessment in evaluating the impacts of a change.
Release Management
RM works closely with CM. It provides details of rollout schedules, provides risk mitigation and assessment to be recorded on the RfC, assures appropriate testing has been carried out in development and follows tested strategies for the movement of applications and the introduction of hardware products in the production environment.
Service Level Management
SLAs may contain statements and performance metrics with regard to how changes are prioritized and commitments regarding their implementation.
Availability Management
Availability management frequently generates RFCs.
Capacity Management
The Capacity Manager will review RFCs to determine the impact of implementing the change on the performance and capacity of the existing IT infrastructure. CapM will also evaluates the IT infrastructure following implementation is complete so that the actual impact to the IT environment can be assessed. Capacity management frequently generates RFCs.
Near term daily operational changes may surface as job scheduling accommodates the more routine capacity changes.
Continuity Management
Service Continuity Plans should be under CM. Changes to these plans should undergo testing and back-up as directed by CM.
Financial Management
FM can evaluate the affordability of proposed changes and help incorporate the cost of changes into the budget.
Configuration Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
Incidents should be referenced to Configuration Items (CIs) thereby providing a historical record of the failure and or trouble rate of various infrastructure elements.
Problem Management
Problems are recorded in the CMDB (or an adjunct to the CMDB) as problem records and related to Configuration Items (CIs). Recording problems allow for the efficient tracking of issues and provide a historic record for correlation with future incidents and problems.
PM updates the CMDB as resolutions or work-arounds to problems and known errors are found.
Change Management
CFM and CM work closely together to ensure that all changes are recorded in the CMDB. Throughout the change process, CM provides configuration management with system updates that must be recorded in the CMDB.
Release Management
RN and CFM work together to ensure that the movement of applications in and out of the definitive software library (DSL).
Service Level Management
SLAs, OLAs and UCs should be Configuration Items which are maintained in the CMDB (either directly or through a virtual link).
Availability Management
Availability management works with configuration management to assess what system components will be affected by scheduled maintenance and other planned activities.
Capacity Management
Service level agreement (SLA) availability and capacity data allow more proactive measurement of performance based on SLA compliance. This data is an important input to capacity management. Associated demand and workload requirements, resulting performance, and resource metrics are recorded in the capacity management database (CDB). Effective coordination and correlation of related elements between these logical databases are required for timely information and on-going capacity recommendation and planning.
Continuity Management
Service Continuity Plans should be maintained in the CMDB (either directly or through a virtual link).
Financial Management
FM should verify with CFM the receipt and installation of all software and hardware products ordered.
Release Management is provided inputs from:
Service Desk
The SD should provide support during the pilot program and immediately following full release implementation. If adequate support is not provided, users can become frustrated and reject the new system.
Problem Management
RM may coordinate the implementation of the change as identified through the problem process.
Change Management
When an organization's change manager and change advisory board (CAB) approve a change for implementation, they pass it to the appropriate organizational groups for the development/procurement of change components. Authorization also is given to RM to initiate release planning. CM is responsible for monitoring the release process and making sure that the release meets the expected schedule deadlines, and for facilitating the correction of any problems.
Configuration Management
CFM coordinates the preparations for live environment releases with release team coordinators prior to release installation. Part of this preparation includes conducting a baseline assessment of the existing environment to determine the hardware and software that are currently in use. This information is used to determine the effects that the release will have upon the environment, and the modifications to the environment that are necessary to support the release. CFM also documents the release process by tracking and logging all infrastructure modifications and release components that are moved into the live environment.
Configuration Management
CFM assists RM in determining the CIs affected by a release and the extent of the impact.
Service Level Management
SLAs and OLAs may contain references to how releases are implemented into the production environment.
Availability Management
Implementation of a release in the live environment should be managed by AM in order to minimize disruptions to system availability during the pilot and full releases.
Capacity Management
Based on the release scope, the CapM determines the infrastructure modifications that are required to maintain system performance and availability after the release is implemented. CapM coordinates all modifications with release team members.
Financial Management
FM will provide information on the cost of components and resources required for releases.
Service Level Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
IM will provide performance targets and actuals to SLM on service restoration efforts.
Problem Management
PM may provide performance targets and actuals to SLM on problem resolution efforts.
Change Management
CM will provide performance targets and actuals to SLM on change efforts.
Configuration Management
CFM will provide SLM with information on components in the infrastructure.
Availability Management
AM designs a system to meet users needs expressed in Service Level Requirement or through Service Improvement Programs. Highlights of an Availability Plan should form part of an SLA (or be referenced from within the SLA).
Capacity Management
CapM ensures that systems can meet both existing and future capacity requirements for the users. The present and future capacity requirements for a service are captured in SLAs. These requirements are broken down into individual OLAs for each layer in the IT infrastructure.
Continuity Management
SCM seeks to ensure the availability of a service from extreme situations as expressed in SLAs. A Service Continuity Plan should be referenced from within a SLA.
Financial Management
FM acts as a filter, ensuring that the needs of the users justify the cost of the solution required to meet them.
Availability Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
IM will provide AM with outage information which may direct AM priorities and suggest areas for attention to increase overall availability.
Problem Management
AM and PM share a concern and probable involvement in the recovery of major incidents. AMs' concern is with reducing the period of outage in order to meet availability performance metrics while PM is concerned with identifying the underlying cause of the outage.
Change Management
The RFC assessment process must be coordinated with the availability coordinator to establish the effect of implementing a proposed change on the availability and reliability of the IT environment.
Configuration Management
CFM provides basic information on the interdependencies of configuration items which is used to develop availability models and scenarios.
Service Level Management
SLM takes primary responsibility for interfacing with the customer and determining which IT services are most crucial to the survival of the company. AM draws on this prioritization work and identifies the key IT infrastructure components that support these critical services and determines whether they contain any single points of failure or other risks to availability that can be cost-effectively addressed through the use of appropriate countermeasures.
Capacity Management
AM has a very close tie to CapM, since optimal use of IT resources to meet performance levels at a justifiable cost is greatly effected by effective AM.
The Availability Plan needs to be coordinated with the capacity planning process. The same technology solution can often meet the needs of both plans. The availability and capacity plans should be created in collaboration. Some solutions that cannot be cost-justified for one plan may be justified in combination with the other.
Continuity Management
AM and SCM are closely related as both processes strive to eliminate risks to the availability of IT services. SCM caters to the more extreme and relatively rare availability risks such as fire or flood.
Financial Management
FM acts a filter ensuring that solutions proposed by AM can be justified in terms of their cost to implement versus their benefit to the customer.
Capacity Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
IM provides CapM with information on capacity related incidents which may need to be reflected in Capacity upgrades.
Problem Management
PM provides CapM with information on capacity related problems which may need to be reflected in Capacity upgrades.
Change Management
CM provides CapM with information on changes which may affect Capacity planning.
Configuration Management
The CMDB serves as a source of reference for capacity management. The information contained in the CMDB provides a complete picture of components in the IT environment. This facilitates the activities of capacity management, such as capacity planning and performance management.
Service Level Management
Service level agreement (SLA) data allows a more proactive measurement of performance based on SLA compliance. This data is an important input to capacity management.
Availability Management
Availability reporting and measurement highlight availability trends indicating capacity or performance issues.
Availability data allows a more proactive measurement of performance based on SLA compliance. This data is an important input to CapM.
The Capacity Plan needs to be coordinated with the availability plan. The same technology solution can often meet the needs of both plans. The availability and capacity plans should be created in collaboration. Some solutions that cannot be cost-justified for one plan may be justified in combination with the other.
Continuity Management
SCM may develop Continuity Plans which have implications for CapM.
Financial Management
FM acts a filter; ensuring that solutions proposed by CapM can be justified in terms of their cost to implement versus their benefit to the customer.
Service Continuity Management is provided inputs from:
Configuration Management
CFM provides SCM with basic configuration details needed to assess the scope and needs reflected in disaster recovery plans.
Service Level Management
SLM takes primary responsibility for interfacing with the customer and determining which IT services are most crucial to the survival of the company.
Availability Management
AM and SCM are closely related as both processes strive to eliminate risks to the availability of IT services. AM handles the routine risks that can be expected on a day-to-day basis such as the failure of a hardware component.
AM identifies the key IT infrastructure components that support critical services and determines whether they contain any single points of failure or other risks to availability that can be cost-effectively addressed through the use of appropriate countermeasures. Where no straight-forward countermeasures are available or where the countermeasure is prohibitively expensive or beyond the scope of a single IT service to justify in its own right, then these availability risks are passed to service continuity management to handle.
Capacity Management
SCM may rely on CapM input to judge the level of performance when the continuity countermeasures are enacted.
Financial Management
Cost information helps management put a price on service continuity planning and the cost of not performing such planning. Managers should include budgeting as part of their continuity planning. FM acts a filter ensuring that solutions proposed by SCM can be justified in terms of their cost to implement versus their benefit to the customer.
Financial Management is provided inputs from:
Incident Management
On the costs of processing incidents which need be reflected in budget plans
Problem Management
On the costs of resolving problems which need be reflected in budget plans.
Change Management
On the costs of processing changes which need be reflected in budget plans.
Configuration Management
CFM includes the processes and procedures necessary to account for the equipment in its' current configuration, and for the historical documentation of all subsequent changes to that configuration. CFM is responsible for making FM aware of any IT environment changes, such as discarding or relocating hardware components.
Release Management
On the costs of introducing releases which need be reflected in budget plans.
Service Level Management
SLM provides FM with the description of services as itemized in service catalogues and referenced in SLAs.
Availability Management
Availability scenarios which need to be costed.
Capacity Management
Planning for CapM entails the planning for new hardware and software. These costs should be incorporated into the annual budget. CapM also creates upgrade plans that need to be included in the budgeting process.
Continuity Management
SCM plans which need to be costed.
