Service Management Best Practices

Overview

Services that depend on products and technologies they do not own are exposed to changes they do not control. A platform upgrade can change the behavior of a service. A vendor discontinuation can eliminate the enabling technology entirely. A security vulnerability in a shared component can force changes across every service that depends on it. Organizations that do not actively manage these dependencies discover them through service disruptions rather than through proactive governance.

Best Practice

Actively manage the dependencies between services and their enabling products and technologies. Maintain a current map of which services depend on which enabling assets. Monitor the lifecycle and roadmap of enabling products and technologies for changes that could affect dependent services. Establish change management practices that assess service impact before enabling technology changes are made. Plan for the retirement or replacement of enabling technologies with sufficient lead time to manage the transition without service disruption.

Benefit(s)

Active dependency management transforms technology change from a source of unexpected service disruption into a managed organizational activity. Service owners know in advance when changes to enabling technologies will affect their services and can plan accordingly. Technology changes are coordinated with service governance rather than imposed on it. The organization develops resilience in its service delivery capability because dependencies are visible, managed, and planned for rather than discovered through failure.