Services Inventory and Attributes

The Services Inventory governs every Service the enterprise has chosen to govern as a managed value-delivery asset — every named, owned, defined offering that meets the criteria of a governed Service per the IF4IT Single Service Definition Pattern. A governed Service has a clearly identified and accountable Service Owner; a clearly defined purpose and description; clearly defined performance expectations consisting of Service Indicators, Service Objectives, and Service Agreements; clearly defined inputs and outputs; a clearly defined Service Manager; clearly defined Service Providers / Service Actors; and clearly defined supporting tools and technologies. A Noun Instance in this inventory is a single Service — not a Service Request, a Service Record, a Service Ticket, an Application, a Capability, or a Process. The inventory governs Service definitions; the operational systems of record govern Service transactions and Service performance.

Services that do not meet the eight-point Service Definition criteria do not belong in this inventory. An informal team activity is not a Service. An application that has not been deliberately exposed as a governed Service is not a Service — it is an enabling asset that may participate in one or more Services. A process that orchestrates work without an accountable Service Owner is not a Service — it is a Process governed by the Processes Inventory. A Service Catalog entry is not automatically a governed Service; if it has been published without the eight definitional elements in place, it is a placeholder, not a Service. The Services Inventory governs the Services the enterprise has actually defined, owned, and committed to govern — not the broader set of activities, applications, or processes that practitioners may informally call “services.”