Service Management Best Practices

Overview

Every service is delivered through one or more enabling products, platforms, tools, or technologies. The service is the capability delivered to the customer. The enabling product or technology is the mechanism through which that capability is delivered. Confusing the service with its enabling technology leads to poor investment decisions, poor risk management, and poor service governance — because the levers for improving customer experience are different from the levers for managing technology assets.

Best Practice

Maintain explicit documentation of the products and technologies that enable each service. For each service, identify the enabling products and technologies it depends on, the nature of that dependency, and the implications of changes to those enabling assets for the service and its customers. Treat the management of enabling products and technologies as a separate but related discipline from the management of the services they enable.

Benefit(s)

Understanding the relationship between services and their enabling technologies produces better decisions at every level of service management. Investment decisions account for the total cost of ownership including the underlying technology stack. Risk assessments consider the cascading effects of technology changes on dependent services. Service improvements can be correctly attributed to either service design enhancements or technology capability improvements. The organization develops a sophisticated understanding of its service delivery architecture that supports both strategic planning and operational management.