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

Why do formal service management initiatives fail?

Whether an organization refers to its formal service management capability as a service management office (SMO), a service management center of excellence, a service management center of expertise, or a service management practice (SMP), the value is in the outcomes that are created for the overall organization. The importance of the name is grounded in the implication that the IT service provider has dedicated resources in place that focus on generating value for all of the stakeholders involved. Consider the following it statements:

  • It is initiating and managing (maintaining) the formal service management capability, both of which are key aspects of success
  • It is said that not learning from the past is a recipe for failure going forward
  • It is said that resting on your laurels (past accomplishments) is not moving forward

So, what are the barriers to success associated with initiating and sustaining a formal...