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

Exploring planning and execution

Once clarity about the current and future states has been defined and documented, it is time to develop the plan.

Your leadership team needs to determine what the organization can invest in to make the necessary improvements to achieve the future state. This will help you determine what improvements to make and the approach to managing those improvements:

  • Do we need to establish a multi-generational program to cover the short, medium, and long-term projects that will be initiated to manage the improvements that are being identified?
  • Are there existing programs or projects or initiatives that can be leveraged to accelerate some of the benefits the improvements will deliver?

It is appropriate to consider the current state’s capabilities when developing the plans for the changes that must be made to achieve the desired future state. SWOT analysis or benchmarking activities will provide significant input in determining what...