Services Inventory and Attributes - Lifecycle and Status attributes for the Services Inventory
Services Inventory and Attributes
Chapter 12. Lifecycle and Status attributes for the Services Inventory
Executive Summary: Chapter Overview
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Core Concepts
| Concept | Definition & Strategic Role |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle Status | The current lifecycle state — Proposed, Planned, Designed, Piloted, Active, Deprecated, Retired, Rejected, Under Review — governed by the Service Owner through a documented process. |
| Service Availability Status | The current operational availability — Available, Degraded, Unavailable, Maintenance — distinct from lifecycle state and typically derived from monitoring systems. |
| Replacement Service | For Deprecated or Retired Services, the Semantic ID of the successor Service — enabling requester transition guidance and Service evolution analysis. |
| Lifecycle Anchor Dates | First Available Date, Deprecation Date, and Decommission Date — historical anchors that support audit, tenure analysis, and Service portfolio evolution reporting. |
Quick Q&A
Question: Why is Lifecycle Status at Crawl maturity when so many other lifecycle details are Walk or Run?
Question: How does Lifecycle Status differ from Service Availability Status?
Read More Below
Lifecycle and Status attributes record where each Service is in its lifecycle, what its current availability is, and the dates that anchor lifecycle transitions. Lifecycle accuracy is foundational to all higher-order Service Portfolio analysis.
| Attribute Name | Maturity | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lifecycle Status | Crawl | Description — The current lifecycle state of the Service. Aligns with the nine canonical states defined in the IF4IT Service Management Best Practices document. Benefit(s) — Provides the foundational governance signal for Service Portfolio, Service Pipeline, and Service Catalog management. Enables practitioners to distinguish Services available for normal consumption from Services in development, deprecation, or retirement. Source — Manual. Examples — Proposed, Planned, Designed, Piloted, Active, Deprecated, Retired, Rejected, Under Review Notes — Valid values: Proposed, Planned, Designed, Piloted, Active, Deprecated, Retired, Rejected, Under Review. Lifecycle Status is governed by the Service Owner and updated through a documented governance process — not by individual practitioners changing it ad hoc. |
| Service Availability Status | Walk | Description — The current operational availability state of the Service. Distinct from Lifecycle Status: Lifecycle Status reports where the Service is in its overall lifecycle; Service Availability Status reports whether the Service is currently operationally available right now. Benefit(s) — Provides operational visibility distinct from lifecycle visibility. Enables Service Catalog presentation to reflect current operational state and supports Service Desk routing decisions. Source — Manual. Examples — Available, Degraded, Unavailable, Maintenance Notes — Valid values: Available (fully operational), Degraded (operational with reduced capacity or performance), Unavailable (not operational), Maintenance (planned unavailability). Service Availability Status may be derived from monitoring systems in mature implementations. |
| First Available Date | Walk | Description — The date the Service first transitioned to Active lifecycle state and became available to its Service Requester Community. Benefit(s) — Supports historical analysis: how long has this Service been operational? Enables Service age and tenure analysis for portfolio rationalization decisions. Source — Manual. Examples — 2024-03-15, 2025-09-01 Notes — Record in YYYY-MM-DD format. Should not change once recorded — represents the historical fact of when the Service first became Active. |
| Deprecation Date | Walk | Description — The date the Service transitioned to Deprecated lifecycle state. Aligns with the IF4IT Service Management Best Practices guidance that Services should be deprecated before retirement when requesters or dependencies need transition time. Benefit(s) — Supports Service deprecation governance. Enables tracking of how long Services remain in Deprecated state before retirement. Provides evidence for deprecation communication to requesters. Source — Manual. Examples — 2025-12-01 Notes — Empty for Services not in Deprecated lifecycle state. Should be paired with a Replacement Service reference where one exists. |
| Decommission Date | Walk | Description — The date the Service transitioned to Retired lifecycle state — when it was decommissioned and no longer operational. Benefit(s) — Supports retirement governance and historical reporting. Provides the timeline anchor for archival policies, audit retention, and replacement Service rollout reporting. Source — Manual. Examples — 2026-03-31 Notes — Empty for Services not in Retired lifecycle state. Should not be removed when the Service is archived — represents the historical fact of when the Service was retired. |
| Replacement Service | Walk | Description — The Service (referenced by Semantic ID) that supersedes this one. Populated for Services in Deprecated or Retired lifecycle states where a successor Service exists. Benefit(s) — Supports requester transition guidance: when a requester encounters a Deprecated Service, they can be directed to the Replacement Service. Enables Service evolution analysis across the portfolio. Source — Manual. Examples — SVC-ONBOARDING-EMPLOYEE-V2 Notes — Empty for Services without a designated replacement. A Service may be replaced by multiple successors — in that case, record the primary Replacement Service and use the Notes field to enumerate the others. |
| Entry Criteria Met Date | Run | Description — The date the Service met the lifecycle entry criteria for its current Lifecycle Status. Refer to the IF4IT Service Management Best Practices document for the Service lifecycle entry criteria discipline. Benefit(s) — Supports lifecycle governance audit: when was this Service verified to have met the criteria for Active state (or any other state)? Provides evidence for lifecycle transition decisions. Source — Manual. Examples — 2025-08-15 Notes — Run maturity because the formal entry-criteria-verification discipline is a sign of mature Service Management practice. Many enterprises will not maintain this attribute until Service governance matures. |
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