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    Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management
    Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management
    Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management
    Ebook206 pages2 hours

    Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management

    By John Sansbury

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    About this ebook

    Service level management provides a framework in which IT services are defined, agreed upon and delivered. The role of service level manager is a critical one in that the agreements negotiated with customers should inform most if not all of the activities of the service provider. Rarely is this the case however, and there are many tripwires awaiting the inexperienced or unwary.

    This practical book is aimed at helping those whose role is to establish, negotiate, manage or update service level agreements and to use these as the basis of continual service improvement. It covers areas such as purpose, required skills, responsibilities, interface and career progression as well as tools, standards and frameworks related to the role.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
    Release dateAug 4, 2017
    ISBN9781780172965
    Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management

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      Book preview

      Service Level Manager - John Sansbury

      BCS, THE CHARTERED INSTITUTE FOR IT

      BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT champions the global IT profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession for the benefit of all. We promote wider social and economic progress through the advancement of information technology, science and practice. We bring together industry, academics, practitioners and government to share knowledge, promote new thinking, inform the design of new curricula, shape public policy and inform the public.

      Our vision is to be a world-class organisation for IT. Our 70,000 strong membership includes practitioners, businesses, academics and students in the UK and internationally. We deliver a range of professional development tools for practitioners and employees. A leading IT qualification body, we offer a range of widely recognised qualifications.

      Further Information

      BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT,

      First Floor, Block D,

      North Star House, North Star Avenue,

      Swindon, SN2 1FA, United Kingdom.

      T +44 (0) 1793 417 424

      F +44 (0) 1793 417 444

      www.bcs.org/contact

      http://shop.bcs.org/

      © 2017 BCS Learning & Development Ltd

      All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, except with the prior permission in writing of the publisher, or in the case of reprographic reproduction, in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries for permission to reproduce material outside those terms should be directed to the publisher.

      All trade marks, registered names etc. acknowledged in this publication are the property of their respective owners. BCS and the BCS logo are the registered trade marks of the British Computer Society charity number 292786 (BCS).

      Published by BCS Learning & Development Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, First Floor, Block D, North Star House, North Star Avenue, Swindon, SN2 1FA, UK. www.bcs.org

      ISBN: 978-1-78017-294-1

      PDF ISBN: 978-1-78017-295-8

      ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78017-296-5

      Kindle ISBN: 9-781-78017-297-2

      British Cataloguing in Publication Data.

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available at the British Library.

      Disclaimer:

      The views expressed in this book are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Institute or BCS Learning & Development Ltd except where explicitly stated as such. Although every care has been taken by the author(s) and BCS Learning & Development Ltd in the preparation of the publication, no warranty is given by the author or BCS Learning & Development Ltd as publisher as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained within it and neither the author nor BCS Learning & Development Ltd shall be responsible or liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising by virtue of such information or any instructions or advice contained within this publication or by any of the aforementioned.

      BCS books are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sale promotions, or for use in corporate training programmes. Please visit our Contact us page at www.bcs.org/contact

      Typeset by Lapiz Digital Services, Chennai, India.

      CONTENTS

      List of figures and tables

      Author

      Acknowledgments

      Abbreviations

      Glossary

      Introduction

      1. OVERVIEW OF THE FIELD

      Introduction to the field

      2. THE ROLE OF THE SERVICE LEVEL MANAGER

      Introduction

      Purpose of the role

      Competencies, skills and knowledge

      The service level manager and the service level management process owner

      Where should the service level manager role sit within IT?

      Separation from the business relationship manager role

      3. RESPONSIBILITIES, INTERFACES AND DEPENDENCIES

      Responsibilities

      Interfaces and dependencies

      4. KEY ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SERVICE DESIGN STAGE OF THE SERVICE LIFE CYCLE

      Coordinating the service design activities

      Establishing or validating the measurement and reporting capability

      Identifying your customer

      Gathering and documenting customers’ service level requirements

      Deciding on the service level agreement structure

      Managing and influencing customer requirements

      Defining service levels

      Meeting new or changed service level requirements

      Drafting the service level agreement

      Establishing operational level agreements

      Managing service quality, maximising business value

      Aligning service level agreements and supplier contracts

      Measuring service level performance

      5. KEY ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SERVICE OPERATION STAGE OF THE LIFE CYCLE

      Reporting performance

      Managing changes to services and service levels

      Liaising with the business relationship manager(s)

      Reviewing and managing existing service level agreements

      Managing service improvement plans/programmes

      Proactive management and prevention of service risks

      Validating supplier contracts for continued alignment with business requirements

      Providing a point of customer contact

      Managing customer review meetings

      Measuring and reporting service performance

      Data granularity

      Using meaningful measurements

      Managing requests for change

      Acting as an outbound communication channel

      6. STANDARDS AND FRAMEWORKS

      Standards

      Best practice frameworks

      7. TOOLS

      Your service management tool

      8. DEFINING SERVICE LEVELS

      Monitoring and reporting of pre-service level agreement achievements

      Ensuring service levels are achievable before committing to them

      Verifying service level commitments prior to agreement

      9. MARKETING THE SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

      The importance of marketing the service level agreement

      Management support

      10. PROCESS MATURITY

      Process maturity levels

      Process maturity analysis

      11. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SERVICE LEVEL MANAGER

      First things first

      Performance reports and service improvement

      Communication

      Meeting preparation

      At the meeting

      After the meeting

      Influencing without authority

      Summary

      12. CAREER PROGRESSION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

      Career progression

      Skills development

      APPENDIX A: SAMPLE SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

      APPENDIX B: SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT PROCESS POLICY

      References

      Index

      LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

      Figure 1.1 Generic process control

      Figure 3.1 Five phases of the ITIL service life cycle

      Figure 4.1 Mapping the IT vision to the organisation’s vision and developing the appropriate measurement framework

      Figure 4.2 The main options for structuring SLAs

      Figure 5.1 Sample weekly incident, problem and change activity report

      Figure 5.2 Sample chart showing the number of respondents who selected each option

      Figure 12.1 Relative perspectives of processes, services and technology

      Table 2.1 Comparison of the business relationship management and service level management roles

      Table 8.1 SMART service levels

      AUTHOR

      From 1991 to 1997 John Sansbury worked with London Electricity plc (now EDF), during which time, as service level manager, he negotiated and drafted the service level agreements between IT and the five business units. This work included devising the performance management and reporting framework to underpin the process and drive improvements.

      In 1997, with Compass Management Consulting (now part of the ISG-One Group) John became global head of practice for service management. In this role, he advised corporate clients globally on good service management practice in all its aspects, including service level and performance management.

      In 2011, John founded Infrassistance Development Limited, an IT consultancy and training company and creator of ‘ITIL®¹ In A Day’, the world’s only one-day, classroom-based ITIL Foundation course. He has since advised and worked with a multitude of clients in both the public and private sector on good practice with regard to service level management.

      Between 2011 and 2013, John Sansbury and Colin Rudd, an ITIL author, co-developed the ITIL process self-assessment maturity model for the Cabinet Office/Axelos.

      John is passionate about good service level management practice since he believes it forms the foundation of an effective and mutually beneficial relationship between IT and its stakeholders. For decades, he has been promoting the idea that internal IT teams should become more professional in the delivery of services to their internal customers. This means adopting many of the practices employed by managed service providers.

      ¹ ITIL® is a registered trademark of Axelos Ltd.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Permission to reproduce extracts from ISO/IEC 20000-2:2012 from British Standards on pp. 69–72 has been granted by BSI Standards Limited (BSI). No other use of this material is permitted. British Standards can be obtained in PDF or hard copy formats from the BSI online shop: http://shop.bsigroup.com/

      The SFIA codes and their associated definitions of core SLM skills on pp. 108–10 are reproduced with kind permission from SFIA (www.sfia-online.org).

      ABBREVIATIONS

      AST agreed service time

      BRM business relationship manager

      BYOD bring your own device

      CAB change advisory board

      CFO chief finance officer

      CIO chief information officer

      COBIT Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies

      CSF critical success factor

      CSI continual service improvement

      DIKW data, information, knowledge, wisdom

      DT downtime

      HR human resources

      ITIL (formerly an acronym of) Information Technology Infrastructure Library

      KPI key performance indicator

      OLA operational level agreement

      PDA personal digital assistant

      PRINCE2 PRojects IN a Controlled Environment

      SDM service delivery manager

      SFIA Skills Framework for the Information Age

      SIAM service integration and management

      SIP service improvement plan or programme

      SIPOC supplier, input, process, output, customer

      SLA service level agreement

      SLM service level manager

      SMART Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely

      SMS service management system

      UC underpinning contract

      GLOSSARY

      Glossary definitions here and within the chapters are from the official ITIL Glossary of Terms which can be found at www.ITIL-officialsite.com. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2012. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced with the permission of AXELOS.

      Critical success factor (CSF) Something that must happen if an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity is to succeed.

      IT service management The implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business.

      ITIL framework A long-established, mature and globally adopted library of practical guidance focusing primarily on the 26 key processes associated with IT service management. It was first published in 1989 and was preceded by Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management (GITIM). It was commissioned by the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) to identify and document good practice in the management and delivery of IT services.

      Key performance indicator (KPI) A metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity. Key performance indicators are used to measure the achievement of critical success factors. Many metrics may be measured, but only the most important of these are defined as key performance indicators

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