SERVICE TRANSITION (TRANSITION) VOL – 8

During the Service Transition phase, the  Transition Manager creates and uses an integrated set of transition plans to establish the operational capability and structure of the application support team.  Using these plans, the Transition Manager and the application support team also define a set of work processes to govern how work will be organized and managed as it flows through the team.

The  Transition Manager then defines these work processes and team resources in an appropriate process and work event management tool selected to fit organizaitonal needs.

SERVICE TRANSITION PROCESSES

The following four processes are used by the Transition Manager and the application support team during the Service Transition phase:

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

• Documents the standard methods and procedures that will be used to develop and implement all application changes
• Documents the procedures that will be used by the team to ensure that all changes to service management processes, service assets and configuration items are recorded in the customer’s configuration management system and  application knowledge notebook
• Documents the procedures to ensure that all changes done by the team will be performed in a way that minimizes risk to the business
• Documents the procedures that the team will use to assess and evaluate the risks associated with an application change
• Documents the procedures a team will use to develop contingency plans (back-out plans) for unexpected results from an application change implemented into the production environment

SERVICE ASSET AND CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

• Catalog Configuration Items (CIs)—application components (programs, use cases, data structures)—associated with the applications
• Document the criticality and complexity of application components
• Document additional items (hardware, software, documentation, personnel) on which the services are dependent
• Create process controls that the team will use to track Configuration Items (CIs) associated with the application changes

RELEASE AND DEPLOYMENT MANAGEMENT

• Creates the procedures that the team will use to build, test, and bundle application changes into a release package
• Creates the procedures that the team will use to move application enhancements into the production environment

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

• Create the application knowledge notebook that stores critical application knowledge used by the support team and application users
• Create the operational procedures that the team will use to collect and analyze application change information and knowledge
• The application knowledge notebook is used to:

▫          Mitigate the risk of staff or application user turnover

▫          Increase accuracy of development and support estimates

▫          Increase speed and accuracy of problem detection and correction

▫          Reduce dependency on knowledge residing solely with specific subject matter experts

▫          Understand and document the critical pressure points within an application

▫          Document change and incident history for the application

SERVICE TRANSITION VALUE

Service Transition ensures that an application support team is transitioned into a customer’s environment with minimal risk.  Service Transition is also used to add new services to an existing team’s scope of responsibilities.  The following benefits are delivered by Service Transition:

• New services are compliant with business and governance requirements
• Levels of risk during and after the Service Transition are minimized and managed
• Contingency plans are used to ensure that all disruptions are addressed quickly and effectively
• Consistency and quality of work products and services delivered by the application support team are improved

SERVICE DESIGN (OPERATIONS ASSESSMENT) – VOL 7

During this phase, the customer’s business operating environment and the team’s technical operating environment are identified and documented.  The profiles of the supported applications are documented.  All services within the agreed scope are documented as well as the associated service levels and third-party contracts.  Requirements for capacity, availability, continuity, and security are also identified and documented.      

SERVICE DESIGN OUTCOMES

The CAI Assessment Consultant and the CAI Transition Consultant create a “Service Design Package” that is composed of:

• Operational Assessment Findings that describe:

▫          The customer’s business operating environment

▫          The team’s technical operating environment and tools

▫          Supported application profiles

▫          Third-party contracts

• Statement of Work that documents:

▫          All services within the agreed scope

▫          The capacity, availability, continuity, and security requirements

▫          The application support team’s ongoing service improvement strategy

• Service Level Agreement that includes:

▫          Functional service requirements documented in an operational level agreement (OLA)

▫          Service level requirements

• Operational Process Requirements that document:

▫          The intersection of the application support processes, the customer’s processes, and operating environment

▫          Process controls that allow the team to monitor and measure the capacity, availability, continuity, and security requirements of the service and applications

▫          Preliminary model of the service desk, incident management, and problem management processes

• Service Lifecycle Plan that is composed of:

▫          Preliminary service transition plan

▫          Preliminary service operational acceptance plan

▫          Preliminary service delivery acceptance criteria

SERVICE DESIGN VALUE

Service Design ensures that the application support team delivers consistent high-quality services that meet the agreed-to business requirements.  The following benefits will be delivered:

• Improved consistency of service
• Easier implementation of new or changed services
• Improved service alignment with business needs
• Improved IT governance
• Improved quality of service
• Improved performance against agreed SLAs

SERVICE STRATEGY (STRATEGY ASSESSMENT) – Vol 6

In the Service Strategy phase, the Service Package is produced and is used to define the services and environment that will be managed by the application support team.  The service package also documents the service level expectations for the team as well as the financial plan that is the budget funding the team’s activity.

SERVICE STRATEGY VALUE

This phase allows the application support team to understand the following:

• Services that the application support team will provide
• User departments and applications that the team will support
• Cost/risk associated with providing the application support service
• Capacity requirements for service delivery

ITIL V3 & THE APPLICATION SUPPORT LIFECYCLE – Vol 5

ITIL is the leading standard for ITSM.  It was developed in the United Kingdom and is considered to be a framework of ITSM good practices that cover the main activities of IT services organizations.  ITIL helps define the functions that are found in an ITSM-focused organization.

 The ITIL Service Management life-cycle is a broad service management model that can apply to any IT service-related activity.  The following posts will illustrate how the V3 Service Lifecycle can apply specifically to the application support function. 

 This post provides an overview of  the ITIL V3 Service Management Life-Cycle and how it applies to an Outsourced Application Support  lifecycle implementation approach:

• How each phase applies to application support
• The primary implementation resource responsible for each phase
• How each process applies to application support
• How each process outcome applies to application support
• The value of each application support life-cycle phase

 In the following posts, the primary resource responsible for implementing each phase is discussed.  Any IT organization can use this implementation approach for application support with equivalent resources.  In order to be effective, the resources should have the appropriate skill set and focus for each implementation phase.

IT Service Management (ITSM) is a Process-Based Management Practice – Vol 4

 IT Service Management (ITSM) is a process-based management practice that aligns the delivery of information technology (IT) services with the needs of the business by emphasizing outcomes that provide benefits to customers.   IT organizations provide a wide variety of services that include infrastructure support, application development, and application support. 

 In the foollowing articles we will show  how an ITSM strategy will improve overall performance and effectiveness of the IT organization.  How a service management strategy enables the IT organization to focus on providing improved services to the business in addition to managing projects and developing software.

We will focus on software maintenance as one of the most significant elements of an ITSM strategy.  We will review the functions within a Software Maintenance organization and how they can be improved with an ITSM strategy.

We will introduce the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Management lifecycle as a guide for developing an ITSM strategy for software maintenance.  We will also discuss how a service-oriented approach to software maintenance helps improve IT service capability and performance. 

What are the problems that are associated with narrowly viewing software maintenance as a discipline that focuses only on “fixing bugs and mistakes.”  By viewing a software maintenance organization from a functional perspective, we can establish a stronger focus on IT Service Management.  This focus allows IT organizations to improve overall performance and service delivery.