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 – final tips on this book

In establishing a formal service management capability, organizations make a conscious, significant effort and dedicate themselves to governance, formalizing the capability, and putting a significant investment into funding and people. This chapter speaks to the attributes required to produce value for the entire stakeholder ecosystem (for example, internal and external providers, business partners, and other stakeholders). A continual perspective on the health of a formal service management capability should yield self-sustaining momentum and further satisfy its purpose.

The entirety of this book was broken down into three major areas:

  • The importance of service management: Understanding that service management serves as a structure from which other complementary frameworks, methods, movements, and standards can be harmonized to provide value for customers in the form of desired outcomes (products and services).
  • Essential service...