Lesson 13 Service Operation Functions PDF

Lesson 13 Study Guide
The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

www.itiltrainingzone.com
Service Operation Functions
Welcome to the thirteenth chapter of your Study Guide. This document is

supplementary to the information available to you online, and should be used in
conjunction with the videos, quizzes and exercises.
After your subscription to the course has finished online, you will still have the Study Guide to
help you prepare for your exam - if youve not taken the exam by the time your subscription
expires.
Youll download a Study Guide at the end of most Lessons as you progress through the course.
This Chapter contains the Study Guide information for Lesson 13 Service Operation
Functions.
Use this Study Guide in conjunction with your own notes that you make as you progress
through the course. You may prefer to print the Study Guides out, or use them on-screen.
After each Lesson, you can consolidate what you have learnt whilst watching the videos and
taking the quizzes by reading through the chapter of the Study Guide.
If you progress on to the formal exam, your Study Guide will provide you with vital revision
information.
Remember, your Study Guide is yours to keep, even after your subscription to the course has
finished.
Page 1 of 16
2011 IT Training Zone LTD
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ITIL is a registered trademark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries

Table of Contents
Study Guide Icons
Lesson Contents
The Service Desk
Exercise Service Desk Justification
Service Desk Structures
Technical Management
11
Application Management
12
IT Operations Management
15
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Study Guide Icons
Watch out for these icons as you use your Study Guide. Each icon highlights an important
piece of information.
Tip this will remind you of something you need to take note of, or give
you some exam guidance.
Definition key concept or term that you need to understand and

remember.
Role a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.
Exercise Solution suggested solution to one of the exercises you will

complete throughout the course.
Goal or Objective for a particular process or core volume.
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Lesson Contents
This Lesson looked at the four functions described in the Service Operation core
volume.
We studied:
The Service Desk

Text in "italics and quotation marks" is drawn from the ITIL core volumes
Quoted ITIL text is from Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation
and Continual Service Improvement
Crown copyright 2011 Reproduced under license from OGC.
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The Service Desk
The Service Desk is similar to the traditional Help Desk, but offers a more
complete range of services. The objective of the Service Desk is to restore
normal service to users as quickly as possible.
The Service Desk is a single point of contact or SPOC. If a user wants to contact IT, they should
always go via the Service Desk. They should not call or email contacts or colleagues in IT areas
such as second line support.
The Service Desk uses the Incident Management and Request Fulfillment processes.
The Service Desk team leader or manager is also normally the incident manager, although it is
possible the Incident Management process owner could sit elsewhere within an organization.
The Service Desk meets its goal by using the Incident Management process to restore service as
quickly as possible. This could mean fixing a fault using a workaround provided by Problem
Management.
The Service Desk provides a single point of contact for users, and keeps ownership of incidents
throughout their lifecycle. Service Desks need to provide excellent levels of customer service,
and provide levels of first time fix in line with business requirements.
Service Desk Responsibilities

The Service Desk acts as the single point of contact for the end user. Their role includes:
Providing excellent customer service

Providing set levels of accessibility
Providing quick turnaround of requests and incidents
Providing management information and reports
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Exercise Service Desk Justification

This Lesson included an Exercise to look at justifying the Service Desk. If you didnt have time to
complete the exercise during the Lesson, why not attempt it now?
Exercise
Imagine your organization has no Service Desk. If people need IT support, they ring any number
they can find. New users often have no idea who to call.
Put together a case to justify introducing a Service Desk.
List at least 8 benefits it would bring to the organization.
Exercise Solution
Here are some ways that a Service Desk can benefit an organization are they
similar to the reasons you listed?
Users always know who to call and are not confused

Expectations are clearly set so users dont expect everything done
immediately
A centralized view of ITs workload can be found easily
Statistics can be tracked to show if services are performing poorly
User training needs can be identified
More expensive, second line support resources dont have to deal with
simple incidents
Work doesnt get lost if someone is on holiday
Work isnt duplicated if a user rings 2 different people
Information can be communicated back out to the business
Remember, if you found this exercise challenging or have any questions, you can
email a tutor at tutor@itiltrainingzone.com.
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Service Desk Structures
Centralized Service Desk

Centralized Service Desks are very common. They are in a single or a small number of locations,
and support the whole organization from there.
This can be very resource efficient and cost-effective, but remember that some form of local
presence may still be required for hardware fixes and desk side visits.
Centralized Service Desk staff can develop better skills as they are familiar with frequently
occurring incidents for the whole infrastructure.
Service Operation fig. 6.3 Centralized Service Desk

Crown copyright 2011. Reproduced under license from OGC
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Local Service Desk

Local Service Desks are located near the users they serve. For example - if an organization has
three offices, there could be a service desk in each office.
Local Service Desks help to build good relationships with the business. They can, however, be
less cost efficient than a centralized desk. There is also a risk that individual local working
practices can develop - leading to a loss of consistency.
A local Service Desk may be justified for a number of reasons. These could include different
languages or cultures and time zones. If there are specialized services or users, they may need
a local desk to contact, or VIP users may need a local desk.
Service Operation fig. 6.2 Local Service Desk

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Virtual Service Desk

Virtual Service Desks use technology and tools to give the impression of a single Service Desk
while using resources located anywhere. For example, all of the Service Desk staff could work
from home, but from the user perspective they still call a single phone number and receive a
consistent level of service.
For larger organizations, virtual Service Desks can transform into follow the sun Service Desks.
This means that the user will still call a single number but the organization is able to take
advantage of geographical and global locations to create a follow the sun service.
Changing time zones are used to provide twenty four hour coverage more cheaply, as people
work their shift within their own normal business hours.
Follow the sun Service Desks are often used by large software houses. For a follow the sun desk
to work well, the Service Desk analysts all need to have access to the same tool. They also need
to adhere to the same processes to work efficiently and provide a consistent service.
Service Operation fig. 6.4 Virtual Service Desk

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Specialized Service Desk Groups

Some organizations prefer to create specialized Service Desk groups. Within the Service Desk
whether central, local, virtual or follow the sun, groups can be created containing staff with
specialized skills.
Calls can be routed to different staff allowing incidents to be resolved faster. For example, a
routing system might ask callers to press 1 for a hardware issue, and 2 for a software issue.
Be careful not to make this too complicated though, or it might cause confusion for end users.
Staffing Considerations
The Service Desk is the single point of contact for end users getting in
touch with the IT service provider.
A good Service Desk can reflect well on the whole department, and a
bad service desk can cause real problems for the relationship between
IT and its customers.
Service Desks need good staff. The Service Desk manager needs to be
a good team leader and motivator who can remain calm under
pressure.
Service Desk Analysts need to have skills to allow them to manage and
resolve incidents in line with business requirements. They will require
good customer service skills, business and industry awareness, as well
as some technical knowledge.
Service Desks generally have a high turnover of staff due to the
pressure of the job.
The loss of key team members can have a minimal impact on the team
if the necessary processes and procedures are well documented to
allow new staff to be trained quickly.
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Technical Management includes the groups, departments and teams that

provide technical expertise and manage the IT infrastructure.
The role of Technical Management breaks down into 2 areas:
They are the custodian of technical knowledge for managing infrastructure

including design, test, management and improvement
They provide the resources to support the service lifecycle making sure that
resources are trained and deployed to the right areas
Technical Management will cover infrastructure teams across the organization. Although they
sit within Service Operation, they will have a role to play throughout the lifecycle, particularly
providing input into the design and build of infrastructure.
Skills, Usage and Cost

Technical Management needs to balance the skill level, usage and cost of resources.
Specialized resources are expensive, so their time needs to be used productively.
Some larger organizations develop pools of specialized resources that can be deployed to
programs and projects as required.
Technical Management plays an important role by guiding IT operations. IT operations carry
out much of the day-to-day work on the infrastructure including tasks like backup and restore
of data. The relationship between IT operations and Technical Management needs to be good
to allow knowledge to be transferred.
Function Objectives
Technical Management has a number of objectives.
They will plan, implement and maintain a stable infrastructure to support the business. To do
this, they need to create a well designed, resilient and cost effective environment.
They will use technical skills to maintain the infrastructure, and resolve any incidents or failures
that occur.
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Application Management supports the organization by helping to design,

deploy, manage and support applications.
The role of Application Management covers all applications, whether developed in house or
procured from an external supplier. They also manage knowledge and provide resources for
support.
Application Management performs a very similar function to technical management, but for
applications. It has a link back to Service Design to ensure new applications are fit for purpose
and fit for use.
Application Management is the custodian of technical knowledge related to applications, and
provides resources through the service lifecycle. One of the important decisions it supports is
whether to buy applications or design them in-house.
As with Technical Management, Application Management needs to balance the cost of
resources with their skill level and utilization. It will provide guidance to IT operations about
how to manage applications on a day-to-day basis.
Its important to ensure that application management is integrated into the full service
lifecycle, from strategy and design through to improvement and retirement.
Function Objectives
Application Management makes sure that applications can support business objectives. They
will make sure applications are well designed, resilient and cost effective, with the functionality
that the business needs.
They will use their skills to maintain applications and resolve any failures that occur.
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Application Development and Application Support

In many organizations, there is an application development team and an application support
team. Recent trends in IT have brought these teams closer together, making developers
responsible for support and getting support teams involved in development.
This can provide a more responsive service for the business.
For application management and development to combine successfully, there needs to be a
single point of communication for the business. Staff need to have targets set to reflect both
development and operations, and a single change management process needs to span both
groups.
The table below provides further information about application development and
management.
Nature of
activities
Application development
One-time set of activities to design and
construct application solutions
Application management
Ongoing set of activities to oversee
and manage applications
throughout their entire lifecycle
Scope of
activities
Performed mostly for applications

developed in house
Performed for all applications,

whether purchased from third
parties or developed in house
Primary focus
Utility focus
Both utility and warranty focus
Building functionality for their customer
What the functionality is as well as

how to deliver it
What the application does is more

important than how it is operated
Management
mode
Manageability aspects of the

application, i.e. how to ensure
stability and performance of the
application
Most development work is done in

projects where the focus is on delivering
specific units of work to specification, on
time and within budget
Most work is done as part of

repeatable, ongoing processes. A
relatively small number of people
work in projects
This means that it is often difficult for

developers to understand and build for
ongoing operations, especially because
they are not available for support of the
This means that it is very difficult

for operational staff to get
involved in development projects,
as that takes them away from their
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application once they have moved on to

the next project
ongoing operational
responsibilities
Measurement
Staff are typically rewarded for creativity Staff are typically rewarded for
and for completing one project so that
consistency and for preventing
they can move on to the next project
unexpected events and
unauthorized functionality (e.g.
bells and whistles added by
developers)
Cost
Development projects are relatively easy

to quantify because the resources are
known and it is easy to link their
expenses to a specific application or IT
service
Ongoing management costs are

often mixed in with the costs of
other IT services because
resources are often shared across
multiple IT services and
applications
Lifecycles
Development staff focus on software

development lifecycles, which highlight
the dependencies for successful
operation, but do not assign
accountability for these
Staff involved in ongoing

management typically only control
one or two stages of these
lifecycles operation and
improvement
Service Operation table 6.2 Application development vs. application management

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IT Operations Management works to maintain the status quo of the

infrastructure by using day-to-day processes and activities, whilst identifying
improvements and resolving faults.
It splits into two main areas:
IT Operations Control
Facilities Management
IT Operations Control
IT Operations Control is responsible for operational activities and monitoring. They will execute
routine tasks for example jobs set up by Technical and Application Management.
Their role also includes:
Console management or management of the operations bridge

Job scheduling and management
Backup and restore
Print management for large print jobs
Maintenance activities
Facilities Management
Facilities Management looks after the physical environments that make up our IT estate. If
these environments are managed by non-technical facilities teams, problems can arise due to
lack of understanding.
Facilities Management will also be involved in any large scale projects like data centre moves or
server consolidation.
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IT Operations Management Value

IT Operations Management adds value in 2 ways. Firstly, they carry out the day-to-day tasks
defined in Service Design and handed over in Service Transition.
Secondly, they will add value by providing an adaptive service to the business and identifying
opportunities for improvement.
To carry out their role effectively, IT operations need to understand a number of different
areas, including:
How technology links to services, and how important services are

Procedures and manuals for technology management
What metrics and targets have been achieved
How technology performance can affect services
How cost can be optimized or reduced, and how value is more important than cost
IT Operations need to manage technology, but they also need to understand the services that
technology underpins.
IT Operations Management Objectives

The objectives of IT Operations Management are to:
Maintain the status quo through day-to-day processes and activities

Improve service and reduce costs, without affecting service stability
Use their skills to respond to any IT operations failures
Application Management, Technical Management and IT Operations Management often

overlap in their activities, and they may collaborate together as part of the operational and
support processes.
In order for these functions to work effectively, roles and responsibilities must be clearly
defined.
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Lesson 13 Study Guide

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Service Operation Functions

Welcome to the thirteenth chapter of your Study Guide. This document is

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Study Guide Icons

The Service Desk

Exercise Service Desk Justification

Service Desk Structures

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Study Guide Icons

Definition key concept or term that you need to understand and

Role a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.

Exercise Solution suggested solution to one of the exercises you will

Goal or Objective for a particular process or core volume.

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

The Service Desk

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

The Service Desk

Service Desk Responsibilities

Providing excellent customer service

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Exercise Service Desk Justification

Users always know who to call and are not confused

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Service Desk Structures

Centralized Service Desk

Service Operation fig. 6.3 Centralized Service Desk

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Local Service Desk

Service Operation fig. 6.2 Local Service Desk

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Virtual Service Desk

Service Operation fig. 6.4 Virtual Service Desk

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Specialized Service Desk Groups

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Technical Management includes the groups, departments and teams that

They are the custodian of technical knowledge for managing infrastructure

Skills, Usage and Cost

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Application Management supports the organization by helping to design,

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

Application Development and Application Support

Performed mostly for applications

Performed for all applications,

Both utility and warranty focus

Building functionality for their customer

What the functionality is as well as

What the application does is more

Manageability aspects of the

Most development work is done in

Most work is done as part of

This means that it is often difficult for

This means that it is very difficult

The ITIL Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management

application once they have moved on to

Development projects are relatively easy

Ongoing management costs are

Development staff focus on software

Staff involved in ongoing

Service Operation table 6.2 Application development vs. application management