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

Understanding Service Management

Many of the concepts that are adopted in service management have their origins in other industries (for example, the building industry, emergency response, and others). Service management is not, in and of itself, a concept born in information technology (IT). All of us, in our daily lives, are surrounded by service management applications all the time. Understanding this perspective helps set the stage for what it means to be a service provider.

Through a play-on-words approach, you will understand what aspects make up the ingredients to construct and maintain a service management capability. We will explain why non-IT resources (for example, the director of marketing, administrative assistants, auditors, and others) can understand and be successful with service management education and certification, at least at a foundation level. Many, after attending education, have said “This just seems like common sense!

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

  • The origins of many service management aspects
  • Common service management examples and wordplay for service management
  • Service management can improve life personally and professionally
  • Common sense aspects of service management