Service Improvement involves the establishment of good practice. Good practice needs to be documented into procedures. Case studies can be used to identify good and bad practice, and Quality Manuals can be used to identify required standards of performance. Benchmarking is traditionally used to compare one organisation against another.

ITIL consists of a library of reference books outlining good practice guidelines for the management of IT Services. Good or Best practice refers to proven activities or processes that have been successfully used by multiple organisations. ITIL is documented good practice and can be adopted, adapted or ignored accordingly.

ITIL stands for 'Information Technology Infrastructure Library' and is developed and owned by the OGC (formerly the CCTA) for the UK Government. IT Infrastructure signifies all the hardware, software, networks and facilities required to develop, test, deliver, monitor, control and support IT Services. Infrastructure does not include people, processes and documentation

ITIL provides a framework for IT to meet corporate aims and satisfy business needs. ITIL recommends that IT should be delivered in the form of Services. To ensure that these services meet present and future business needs, they should be managed, continuously reviewed and, if necessary, updated.

A Service is

providing something of value to a customer that is not goods

or

a means of delivering value to customers 
by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve, 
without ownership of specific costs and risks

The Service Owner is accountable for a specific service within an organisation. The Service Owner:

• represents the service across the organisation
• understands the service
• acts as prime customer contact for the service
• ensures service delivery meets agreed requirements
• identifies opportunities for service improvement
• negotiates SLAs and OLAs
• represents the service at CAB
• liases with Process Owners throughout the Service Management Lifecycle
• participates in internal and external service review meetings

The various components that make up a service are:

Business Processes

The processes that define the functional needs of the service being provided,eg sales, marketing, accounting, flight-bookings

Service

The service that is being delivered to the customer

Service Design Package

Documents describing all aspects of a service and its requirements through each stage of its lifecycle

Business Case

Justification for service investments and expenditure

SLA and SLR

Documentation agreed with customer specifying requirements for the service

Infrastructure

IT equipment needed to deliver the service

Environment

Facilities required to secure and operate the infrastructure

Data

The data needed to support the service and provide the information required by the business processes

Applications

Applications used to manipulate data and provide the functional requirements of the business processes

Integration

Solutions to provide a unified view of disparate data sources and applications

OLAs and Contracts

Underpinning agreements to support the delivery of SLA targets

Supporting Services

Services needed to support the delivery of the service

IT Processes

The processes that control and deploy the resources engaged in the service

Functions

Internal teams that support any of the components required to provide the service

Roles

Responsibilities, activities and authorities granted to individuals or teams that control and deploy the resources engaged in the service

Suppliers

External service providers supporting any of the components required to provide the service

Processes, Functions and Roles are defined as follows:

Process

A structured set of activities designed to accomplish a defined 
objective. Processes have inputs and outputs. 
Processes are described as closed-loop systems because they result in a 
goal-oriented change, and utilise feedback for self-enhancing 
and self-corrective actions. 
Processes are measurable, provide results to customers or stakeholders, 
are continual and iterative and are always originating from a certain event.

Function

A team or group of people and the tools they use to carry out 
one or more processes or activities, specialised in fulfilling 
a specified type of work, and responsible for specific end results. 
Functions have their own practices and their own knowledge body. 
Functions can make use of various processes.

Role

A role is a set of responsibilities, activities and authorities
granted to a person or team. A role is defined in a process and
one person may have multiple roles.

Processes are driven by a set of objectives that define the outputs, specific measurable results, that are required by the process customers or stakeholders. Processes are defined in terms of actions, dependancies and sequence and respond to specific events (triggers). Once the process is defined, it should be documented and controlled. Data or metrics from each process is used by the Process Manager for day-to-day control of the process.

The Process Owner will assess the results based on performance indicators to ensure that the process meets its objectives and is improved. Clear indicators are essential to judge whether the process is under control. The Process Owner:

• defines the process strategy
• defines policies and standards for the process
• assists with and has responsibility for process design
• documents and publicises the process and changes to the process, ensuring that adequate training and awareness of the process
• defines and reviews KPIs for the process
• is responsible for improving the process and provides input for the Service Improvement Plan
• addresses issues with the running of the process
• reviews and audits process, roles, responsibilities and documentation
• interfaces with line management to ensure staffing resources available to fulfill process

Functions focus on assigned outcomes, but poor coordination between functions result in functional silos and impact cross-organisational cooperation.

Service Level Agreements describe exactly what the agreed service is - what both parties provide as part of the agreement and how the level of service will be measured

ITIL defines Service Management as

a set of specialised, organisational capabilities, 
providing value to customers in the form of services

Customers are budget holders or decision makers. They define requirements or changes to a service and may act as Service owner or sponsor. Value is something that is useful, satisfying a business need

The value of a service is defined in terms of its utility and warranty. ITIL defines

Utility

the functionality offered by a service
from the customer's perspective

Warranty

the assurance that a service will meet
its agreed requirements. This may be a formal agreement
such as a Service Level Agreement or contract, 
or it may be a marketing message or brand image

Service Management is thus a methodology to guarantee the delivery of services that are useful to the customer. 'Useful' in this context means 'meets a particular need'. The guarantee should cover availability, capacity and security.

ITIL is a methodology to be used by organisations responsible for the delivery of IT services: IT departments, software vendors, IT contractors. ITIL identifies three types of Service Provider:

Type I: Internal Service Provider

An internal service provider that is embedded within a Business Unit

Type II: Shared Services Unit

An internal service provider that provides shared IT Services to one or more business units

Type III: External Service Provider

A service provider that provides IT Services to external customers

ITIL Lifecycle

The ITIL methodology is grouped into five interrelated phases collectively referred to as the ITIL Lifecycle. Each phase has associated functions and processes. Although a process may occur in multiple phases, each process is described only once in the ITIL handbook to which it has the closest association:

1. Service Strategy
   • Financial Management
   • Service Portfolio Management
   • Demand Management
2. Service Design
   • Service Catalogue Management
   • Service Level Management
   • Capacity Management
   • Availability Management
   • IT Service Continuity Management
   • Information Security Management
   • Supplier Management
3. Service Transition
   • Transition Planning and Support
   • Change Management
   • Service Asset and Configuration Management
   • Release and Deployment Management
   • Service Validation and Testing
   • Evaluation
   • Knowledge Management
4. Service Operation
   • Event Management
   • Incident Management
   • Request Fulfillment
   • Problem Management
   • Access Management
   • Monitoring and Control
   • IT Operations
   • Service Desk
5. Continual Service Improvement
   • The 7-Step Improvement Process
   • Service Reporting

Phases of Organisational Development

Stage 1: Network

Characterised as technologically capable and informally managed. Geared towards fast delivery of services.

Stage 2: Directive

Introduction of stronger management controls, with services driven by strategy and rigid definitions of roles and responsibilities.

Stage 3: Delegation

Encouragement of innovation and improvement of technical efficiency to reduce costs and improve services

Stage 4: Coordination

Introduction of formal systems to achieve better coordination

Stage 5: Collaboration

Improved cooperation with contractee

Sourcing Options

Sometimes it is more efficient to outsource certain activities: gaining resources and capabilities from another organisation at a reduced cost. This is known as the Separation of Concerns principle. A number of sourcing approaches exist for the provision of a service

• Type 1 Internal: uses internal IT staff to support one business area
• Type 2 Shared services: uses internal IT to support many business areas
• Type 3 Traditional Outsourcing: a single contract with one service provider
• Co-sourcing: a combination of in-sourcing and outsourcing
• Partnership or Multi-sourcing: formal arrangement for two or more organisations to work together to provide a service
• Business Process Outsourcing: relocation of entire business functions to another organisation for management
• Application Service Provision: formal arrangement with an Application Service Provider
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing: for the provision of domain-based processes and business expertise

Related Standards

ITIL version 1 was released between 1992 and 1998, and ITIL v2 was pubished in 2000. ITIL v3 was released in May 2007 and in September 2009, the OGC announced plans to update ITIL to include quality improvements to use idiom-free, plain English and remove inconsistencies across the five titles.

The OGC appointed the APM Group as the accrediting body for ITIL. APMG accredit ITIL examination bodies and training organisations. The ISEB administer qualifications and examinations

Various standards exist to assist organisations to adopt best practice processes.

ISO/IEC 20000

The IT Service Management standard covering any organisation offering IT Services

ISO/IEC 27001

The Information Security Management standard, specifying requirements for establishing and maintaining a documented Information Security Management System

ISO 9001:2008

The Quality Management Standard, requiring organisations to define, follow, monitor, record and improve the procedures that cover all their key business processes

BS25999

The standard for Business Continuity Management

ISO/IEC 19770

The standard for Software Asset Management Process

COBIT

Control Objectives for IT provides a governance framework

CMMI

Capability Maturity Model assists in the delivery or acquisition of products and services

Six Sigma

Problem management good practice

Other important Quality Management standards of note include EFQM and Deming. The next version of ITIL will be more closely aligned to PPRM guidance (MSP, M_o_R, PRINCE2 and P3O). Good practice should also consider academic research, training and education and proprietary experience of staff.