Book Image

A Practical Guide to Service Management

By : Keith D. Sutherland, Lawrence J. "Butch" Sheets
4 (1)
Book Image

A Practical Guide to Service Management

4 (1)
By: Keith D. Sutherland, Lawrence J. "Butch" Sheets

Overview of this book

Many organizations struggle to find practical guidance that can help them to not only understand but also apply service management best practices. Packed with expert guidance and comprehensive coverage of the essential frameworks, methods, and techniques, this book will enable you to elevate your organization’s service management capability. You’ll start by exploring the fundamentals of service management and the role of a service provider. As you progress, you’ll get to grips with the different service management frameworks used by IT and enterprises. You'll use system thinking and design thinking approaches to learn to design, implement, and optimize services catering to diverse customer needs. This book will familiarize you with the essential process capabilities required for an efficient service management practice, followed by the elements key to its practical implementation, customized to the organization’s business needs in a sustainable and repeatable manner. You’ll also discover the critical success factors that will enhance your organization’s ability to successfully implement and sustain a service management practice. By the end of this handy guide, you’ll have a solid grasp of service management concepts, making this a valuable resource for on-the-job reference.
Table of Contents (28 chapters)
1
Part 1: The Importance of Service Management
6
Part 2: Essential Process Capabilities for Effective Service Management
18
Part 3: How to Apply a Pragmatic, Customized Service Management Capability
Appendix B: SLR Template

BRM policies

Appropriate governance is a key aspect of success for any initiative or practice and applies significantly to a formal service management capability. Governance is inclusive of management, measurement, and assurance, as there has to be some way of knowing where we are on the journey, whatever that journey is. In the case of BRM, the importance of related policies as a means of providing direction and control, is as critical to the success as having a formal service management practice in place, as mentioned earlier. For instance, it is long known that accountability without authority limits the chance for long-term success. Given that the BRM role is intended to operate at a strategic (preferred) and tactical level, how and where should a BRM be positioned on an organization chart? Policies should be in place to speak to that. Policies are considered to be rules of engagement, describing boundaries being applied to the process to ensure appropriate controls are in place...