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

Just in absorbing this chapter, it is apparent that there are many moving parts in the service management ecosystem. Yet, the appropriate level of understanding, coupled with a pragmatic approach, will likely result in success with formal service management. Whether it’s a framework, a standard, a method, a movement, or a BoK, all of these approaches and disciplines represent part of managing a service and therefore are key contributors associated with service management.

As presented earlier, understanding the history of service management (how we got here) can be a significant factor in learning the best approach toward applying it in an organization. In the most successful applications of service management, there is a strong commitment to understanding the business of the company, and what aspects of formal service management guidance apply to the current and proposed future state. No two organizations are the same, even in the same line of business. Culture,...