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

Summary

In this chapter, you were given guidance on the importance of setting baselines for a variety of key elements of the service management program. You reviewed the need to establish a baseline that can be used to compare what has been achieved against a known starting point. We explored the importance of identifying and communicating progress on an initiative to various stakeholders. We also explored managing the pace of change that your organization can accommodate to improve the possibility of achieving success. You reviewed information on the resources needed to accomplish a program, including people, money, and tools. This chapter wrapped up by describing some of the tools and technology necessary to support delivering the key elements of a service management program.

There are many examples of organizations that failed to understand the significance of each of these elements of a service management program and did not achieve the intended results. Every organization must...