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ITIL 4

IT Service Management Around the World

On Location: Golden Circle Tour – Reykjavik, Iceland

Case Topic: ITIL Guiding Principles – Progress Iteratively with Feedback – Collaborate

Sun Voyager – Sculpture of Viking Longboat

Iceland – the ancient land of fire and ice. The land of Vikings, rich with their history of exploration and settlement. A land today that offers amazing natural wonders and UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Tourism is obviously a large and competitive industry in Iceland and every tour company operates and guides their clients to many of the same main attractions.

Geysir

They get you there, they give you tips but you either get the picture of “Geysir” or you miss it. So can one tour company differentiate itself? Can they use IT to deliver a better experience?

Icelandic Horse

They can’t control the weather or the timing of “Geysir” (yet) but IT is becoming significant for their business models in solving tour issues and enhancing services.

What if one tour company decided to develop an app for their drivers.

The features of the app would be designed to:
1. Solve issues that arise on most tours
2. Promote unique features of their tour
3. Offer special service enhancements

Let’s look at a digital transformation project that is in the final stages of development. The ITIL guiding principles of progress iteratively with feedback and collaborate and promote visibly are well in evidence.

The project manager has worked closely with many individuals across the company. He has interviewed and talked to most of the drivers and he has gone on several ride-along trips to fully witness the delivery of the tour service in many different circumstances.

He has worked with Service Desk staff to improve the classification of calls coming in from drivers while on a tour. Improvements were made in their ability to differentiate calls that were simple Service Requests and calls that were requests for help with issues that were related to a breakdown in service delivery – both IT related and non IT.

Many improvement ideas were directed towards the booking and registration applications even though the focus of his project was the new app for the drivers. 

The project team has documented the value stream to describe the activities for moving forward with a final live test and then app deployment.

Value Stream for Live Test

Value: The true value for the tour company will continue to be co-created as the app is used and improved, continually, to deliver service and business improvements. The collaboration and promotion should continue throughout the lifecycle of the service.

About the Author

Jim Jackson

Jim Jackson is the Managing Director of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC. Jim holds the ITIL Expert Certificate (V3) and has also completed ITIL 4 Foundations certification. Jim is a service management professional and has been an accredited instructor of ITIL Foundations since 2005. He has shared his open, non-restricted view of the ITIL framework as he has trained and assisted hundreds of candidates to prepare for and pass the ITIL Foundations examinations. Jim has also written accredited courseware for earlier versions of ITIL Foundations and he contributed to ITIL 4 accredited course materials for Thought Rock in 2019.

About the Series – IT Service Management Around the World

These are fictional stories of service management and any similarity, you may find, to your own organization is purely coincidental. The purpose of these service management musings is to introduce service management and ITIL concepts as well as postulate on how ITIL and its components could be at play in any size business located anywhere in the world. The opinion stories are written to motivate customer centric, service oriented thinking and discussions. The content is not intended to constitute advice of any sort. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information no liability is accepted for any loss resulting from the use of or reliance on this content.

Acknowledgements

ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited.

Diagrams and images contained in this article have been created by Jim Jackson and remain the property of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC, Copyright 2019.

IT Service Management Around the World – Value Stream

On Location: Executive Strategy and Planning Retreat – Nowy Swiak, Warsaw, Poland
Case Topic: ITIL 4 Foundations: Value Stream – Strategic Service Planning

Headquarters – Warsaw, Poland.

“Global Growth” is the theme for this year’s executive meeting retreat; 2 days of strategic analysis, discussions and planning. Last year there was no representation in the meeting from IT. The most senior IT role in the company was the Director of IT Operations. Now, the new CIO is key to the company’s digital transformation initiatives. What difference a year makes! Let’s follow the CIO and see how she operates.

Six countries now but growing to 16, all with multiple lines of existing business. Fresh and Frozen Packaged Cook-and-Serve products for grocery stores, branded and unbranded product for restaurant supply, company branded kiosks and food trucks with franchising and now talk of new lines of business for seasoning packs and pierogi cooking classes. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the opening presentation from the company Executive Vice President.

The changes within the organization over the last year have been subtle yet monumental. It has truly been a cultural change in acceptance that has allowed IT to make progress with ITSM projects and initiatives. Teams regularly work closely with the business to ensure that efforts and activities in IT, are targeted on the services and issues that match the business priorities. They have also fully embraced IT’s focus on continual improvement.

Let’s take a look at how the CIO uses ITIL 4 to apply to the planning session meeting, particularly the section on the presentation of opportunities.

In ITIL 4 we describe how activities are integrated across the service value chain activity stages to create and support a product or service. Individuals involved in IT service management activities can define interactions, ensuring that all activities are tied to the co-creation of value with the stakeholders.

ITIL 4 Demand to Value Diagram

Demand to Value

The Demand to Value diagram illustrates the stages of the whole service value chain and the ITIL practices that tend to make major contributions in the identified stages but please note that each and every practice can be involved in every stage of the service value chain.

Activities that are conducted to create products and services will be documented and described as value streams. An organization will have multiple value streams since each value stream is a series of actions taken to create and deliver a service component.

The value stream for the Strategic Service Planning activity taking place in this meeting would be directed at describing how to go from ideas presented in a meeting to the initiation of service design activities. The first output is illustrated as a meeting request for the purpose of beginning the process of defining service requirements. The value for the Executive VP and any other identified stakeholders is that the organization as a whole is working towards achieving the plans that they have communicated.

The Value Stream diagram shows an example of the activities that could take place in the Plan, Engage and Design and Transition service value chain stages. Key practices would be utilized and areas for improvement would also be identified.

Value Stream Diagram

Value Stream

Value: The meeting request and resulting meeting provides value. The stakeholders will have the opportunity to participate in a relationship of value co-creation.

About the Author

Jim Jackson

Jim Jackson is the Managing Director of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC. Jim holds the ITIL Expert Certificate (V3) and has also completed ITIL 4 Foundations certification. Jim is a service management professional and has been an accredited instructor of ITIL Foundations since 2005. He has shared his open, non-restricted view of the ITIL framework as he has trained and assisted hundreds of candidates to prepare for and pass the ITIL Foundations examinations. Jim has also written accredited courseware for earlier versions of ITIL Foundations and he contributed to ITIL 4 accredited course materials for Thought Rock in 2019.

About the Series – IT Service Management Around the World

These are fictional stories of service management and any similarity, you may find, to your own organization is purely coincidental. The purpose of these service management musings is to introduce service management and ITIL concepts as well as postulate on how ITIL and its components could be at play in any size business located anywhere in the world. The opinion stories are written to motivate customer centric, service oriented thinking and discussions. The content is not intended to constitute advice of any sort. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information no liability is accepted for any loss resulting from the use of or reliance on this content.

Acknowledgements

ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited.

Diagrams and images contained in this article have been created by Jim Jackson and remain the property of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC, Copyright 2019.


IT Service Management Around the World: ITIL Guiding Principles – Focus on Value – Start Where You Are

On Location: Summer Wine Festival – Rheingau Region, Hochheim, Germany
Case Topic: ITIL Guiding Principles – Focus on Value: Start Where You Are

Wine Region

The summer wine festival. It is a celebration of previous years successes. Everyone is enjoying the bounty of past harvests while appreciating the health and progress visible on this year’s vines. Various vintners practicing their art to produce their products. The experience of everyone involved contributing to the final products. It’s “Old School” and “Tried and True” … but … can it evolve … should it evolve?

Wine Region

One small winegrower is establishing a well respected brand and looking to the future. Their operation has 30 workers across the vineyards, the cellar, the retail store and the office operations. They use software for compliance reporting, inventory management and retail point of sale. All of the vineyard activities are still performed the old fashioned way, by feel and by experience. Reliance on staff and their experience has worked thus far – or has it? Could they have done better?

Wine Region

Maybe it’s time for change and growth. The winegrower wants to feel more confident with the vineyard operations. Just the specter of climate change requires a need for greater efficiency and the ability to react quickly. Inspecting the canopy, soil and fruit during a walkthrough is part of the artistry of wine making but more information and data could allow even better decision making for the prosperity of the business.

The winemaker has approached the supplier of their existing software systems to see if there are solutions to support their desired advancements in managing vineyard production. Let’s look at how ITIL concepts apply to the supplier relationship.

In the current situation the service provider could be very excited by the opportunity to implement all kinds of COOL technology for their customer. The provider might already be dreaming of installing remote sensors in each area of the various vineyards managed by this wine maker. The sensors would be monitoring different conditions and sending alerts for disease conditions, pest infestations, frost conditions and more. This may even be the opportunity to get the first customer onto the spectral mapping service especially when they see how it links to apps that they can run on their phones. Apps for irrigation control or task allocations for work teams; and of course the new app for canopy analysis related to sunlight hours producing recommendations for cover crops and replanting rotations. Oh oh and lets also do the app that works with fruit samples to track Brix and pH values for the determination of prime harvest time and … STOP!

The service provider may have an extensive service catalog and may be able to deliver all of these services with very high levels of quality, availability, reliability and support BUT what does this winemaker actually want? This scenario calls for our service provider to concentrate on the guiding principles of Focus on Value and Start Where You Are. These principles then guide the activities to create a value stream forascertaining and documenting service requirements for this customer.

Our service provider prepares for the meeting with the customer. These preparations are planning activities as they review the status of the vineyard products and the features and benefits associated with each. Our service provider then meets with the customer to gather and document information and also to present overview information.

Gather and document service requirements as well as current state.

  • how does the customer describe their objectives
  • how does the customer envision and describe success
  • existing issues that customer wants to resolve
  • priorities and timelines
  • existing resources and capabilities within people, infrastructure and operations

Documenting these service requirements helps to ensure that the services to be recommended to the customer are ones that will directly provide solutions to meet their priorities. The current state details will also allow better release and deployment plans providing the customer the best opportunity to achieve the valuable outcomes that they desire.

The provider also provides information during the initial meeting –

  • descriptions of available services and their features
  • benefits typically associated with those services
  • assurance of ability to deliver

The meeting should provide all stakeholders with a vision of a relationship that can be established for the co-creation of value between the customer and the service provider.

The activities of the service provider can be documented and described as a Value Stream. This Value Stream diagram shows an example of the activities that could take place in the Plan, Engage and Improve service value chain stages. Examples of the involved practices are also illustrated in the Value Stream.

Value Stream Diagram

Value Stream

Value: The initial meeting provides value. The stakeholders will have the information required to determine if they want to move forward.

About the Author

Jim Jackson is the Managing Director of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC. Jim holds the ITIL Expert Certificate (V3) and has also completed ITIL 4 Foundations certification. Jim is a service management professional and has been an accredited instructor of ITIL Foundations since 2005. He has shared his open, non-restricted view of the ITIL framework as he has trained and assisted hundreds of candidates to prepare for and pass the ITIL Foundations examinations. Jim has also written accredited courseware for earlier versions of ITIL Foundations and he contributed to ITIL 4 accredited course materials for Thought Rock in 2019.

About the Series – IT Service Management Around the World

These are fictional stories of service management and any similarity, you may find, to your own organization is purely coincidental. The purpose of these service management musings is to introduce service management and ITIL concepts as well as postulate on how ITIL and its components could be at play in any size business located anywhere in the world. The opinion stories are written to motivate customer centric, service oriented thinking and discussions. The content is not intended to constitute advice of any sort. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information no liability is accepted for any loss resulting from the use of or reliance on this content.

Acknowledgements

ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited

Diagrams and images contained in this article have been created by Jim Jackson and remain the property of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC, copyright 2019.

IT Service Management Around the World – ITIL 4 Foundations: Simple Service Value Stream

On Location: Salvaleon De Higuey, Dominican Republic
Case Topic: Simple Service Value Stream

Beach

The idea of an all inclusive resort vacation. Everyone has visions of what that must be like… just picture it: blue sky, fluffy clouds, palm trees, golden beach, blue water and waves gently lapping at the sand.

Beach 2

Now put yourself there. Leave the office and all the stress behind. Just you and your special someone, lounge chairs perfectly positioned for the serene views and warm sun’s rays.

The beach, sun and surf are a great distraction but we need to take a look at how IT can support a service at a resort – hey, you’re the one that opened the e-mail!

Your resort hotel actually offers many services that leverage IT resources to provide value for you. Even the simplest of services may require many different activities to be able to adequately go from identifying your request or “demand” to the delivery of a product or service action in an effort to provide a valuable outcome for you.

Demand to Value Diagram

ITIL 4 Demand to Value

For our Simple Service Value Stream example think of the activities that would take place when a client presents themselves to the front desk to check in at the resort.

Service Value Stream

Value: The key and the room package allow the client to access their room as the first step in starting their stay at the resort perfectly meeting their expectations.

This Service Value Stream utilizes practices to conduct activities in the key areas of “Engage” and “Deliver and Support” for the delivery of their product and service. They also conduct “Improve” activities as they capture improvement ideas to ensure that they will continue to co-create value with their customers.

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About the Author

Jim Jackson

Jim Jackson is the Managing Director of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC. Jim holds the ITIL Expert Certificate (V3) and has also completed ITIL 4 Foundations certification. Jim is a service management professional and has been an accredited instructor of ITIL Foundations since 2005. He has shared his open, non-restricted view of the ITIL framework as he has trained and assisted hundreds of candidates to prepare for and pass the ITIL Foundations examinations. Jim has also written accredited courseware for earlier versions of ITIL Foundations and he contributed to ITIL 4 accredited course materials for Thought Rock in 2019.

About the Series – IT Service Management Around the World

These are fictional stories of service management and any similarity, you may find, to your own organization is purely coincidental. The purpose of these service management musings is to introduce service management and ITIL concepts as well as postulate on how ITIL and its components could be at play in any size business located anywhere in the world. The opinion stories are written to motivate customer centric, service oriented thinking and discussions. The content is not intended to constitute advice of any sort. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information no liability is accepted for any loss resulting from the use of or reliance on this content.

Acknowledgements

ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited.

Diagrams and images contained in this article have been created by Jim Jackson and remain the property of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC, Copyright 2019.

IT Service Management Around the World – ITIL 4 Foundations: How is it different from ITIL 3?

On Location: Ypres, Belgium
Case Topic: ITIL 4 Foundations – How is it different from ITIL 3

ITIL 4

Foundations training is focussed on the key concepts and terminology of ITIL. The ITIL library is a collection of publications that document the best practices for the management of IT enabled services. This ITIL framework provides guidance and a common language for the management of IT supported services.

ITIL 4

The ITIL framework provides flexibility to organizations. It allows them to determine what components to implement and how to prioritize and proceed based on how they view ITIL and service management in general within their operations. Guidance is provided across the spectrum from strategic considerations to tactical, operational details and processes.

ITIL 4

New business initiatives continue to leverage IT and technology supported services. There are new markets, new products and new services created everyday and tech and IT seem central to it all.

The ITIL framework supports this evolution and progress and ITIL 4 is the latest description of how IT service management is fully adopted to these modern technologies and ready for what will come in the future.

There are significant differences in ITIL 4 as an evolutionary step from ITIL 3. Let’s examine some of the major changes.

In this comparison we will look only at the key concepts at the foundations level. ITIL 3 describes the 5 stages of the service lifecycle, 5 aspects of service design, the 4 Ps considerations, processes, functions and key service management terms. Extensive focus is put onto the service lifecycle stages, the processes and the functions with the unifying concept that everything is done in an effort to provide value to the customer in the form of services.

ITIL 3

In ITIL 3 Foundations we described how the processes and functions worked to create and support a service at any stage in its lifecycle and we had a comprehensive framework to describe a service throughout its lifecycle. Individuals involved in IT service management activities could define interactions, ensuring that all activities were tied to the provision of value for the stakeholders. The adoption of the generic service lifecycle model for IT service management also assisted integration and cultural acceptance in many large organizations.

ITIL 3 Demand to Value Diagram

ITIL 3 Demand to Value

ITIL 4

ITIL 4 has a shift in focus. The key concepts are identified as the service value system, service value chain, 4 dimensions of service management, the ITIL guiding principles, practices and key service management terms. The unifying concept is the co-creation of value in the relationship between the service provider and the consumer.

ITIL 4 Foundations does not really discuss the service lifecycle but instead focusses on the activities involved in the service value chain. Activities to create products and services that are part of the co-creation of value can be documented and described as value streams. When you look at how the service value chain integrates activities from the ITIL practices to create value streams the results are very similar to our demand to value diagram from ITIL 3, where the processes are integrated across the service lifecycle.

ITIL 4 Demand to Value Diagram

ITIL 4 Demand to Value

In ITIL 4 Foundations we describe how the practices work within the service value chain activity stages to create and support a product or service. Individuals involved in IT service management activities can define interactions, ensuring that all activities are tied to the co-creation of value with the stakeholders. The focus is on the integration of activities, documented as value streams.

An organization will have multiple value streams since each value stream is a series of actions taken to create and deliver a service component. The challenge with value streams is that they are unique to each organization because they are based on each organization’s service value chain and their resources, capabilities and practices. By example, the value stream for incident resolution in my organization will be different from value stream for incident resolution in your organization. This means that effectively, value streams are post activity descriptions vs prescribed activity templates.

Their value to service management and to the organization as a whole is that, through value stream mapping, they can all be thoroughly documented, maintained and improved to fully support new ways of working and organizational agility.

Summary of Differences in ITIL 4

  1. Focus is on the service value system and the service value chain and not on the service lifecycle.
  2. Concept of value streams is introduced and will be the subject of future publications under ITIL 4
  3. Four dimensions of service management replaces the 4 Ps of service management
  4. ITIL guiding principles replace the 5 aspects of service design
  5. Processes and functions have been redefined as practices
  6. Concept of value co-creation
  7. Consumer roles described with an excellent definition of the “customer” that fully supports the value co-creation concept.

About the Author

Jim Jackson

Jim Jackson is the Managing Director of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC. Jim holds the ITIL Expert Certificate (V3) and has also completed ITIL 4 Foundations certification. Jim is a service management professional and has been an accredited instructor of ITIL Foundations since 2005. He has shared his open, non-restricted view of the ITIL framework as he has trained and assisted hundreds of candidates to prepare for and pass the ITIL Foundations examinations. Jim has also written accredited courseware for earlier versions of ITIL Foundations and he contributed to ITIL 4 accredited course materials for Thought Rock in 2019.

About the Series – IT Service Management Around the World

These are fictional stories of service management and any similarity, you may find, to your own organization is purely coincidental. The purpose of these service management musings is to introduce service management and ITIL concepts as well as postulate on how ITIL and its components could be at play in any size business located anywhere in the world. The opinion stories are written to motivate customer centric, service oriented thinking and discussions. The content is not intended to constitute advice of any sort. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information no liability is accepted for any loss resulting from the use of or reliance on this content.

Acknowledgements

ITIL is a registered trademark of AXELOS Limited.

Diagrams and images contained in this article have been created by Jim Jackson and remain the property of Blue Sky AFC Associates LLC, Copyright 2019.

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