ITIL/Foundation/Service Management/Processes functions and roles

This lesson introduces the main definitions about processes, functions and roles used by Information Technology Infrastructure Library 2011.

[[image:Nuvola_apps_package_utilities.png | 24px]] Objectives and Skills
Objectives and skills for this processes, functions and roles section of ITIL Foundation include:
 * Define processes and functions in service management context
 * Describe the various roles involved in service management

[[image:Nuvola_apps_korganizer.svg | 24px]] Activities

 * 1) Review the key terms, then the questions below.
 * 2) Use the  Discuss page to post comments and questions regarding this lesson.

Process
"A structured set of activities designed to accomplish a specific objective. A process takes one or more defined inputs and turns them into defined outputs. It may include any of the roles, responsibilities, tools and management controls required to reliably deliver the outputs. A process may define policies, standards, guidelines, activities and work instructions if they are needed."

Viewed from outside, a process could be seen with an output that will be the data produced by the process, an input of all what the process needs to be able to work and a trigger that will initiate the process. The output has to comply with the standards as well as the local regulations and can be used as the input of another process. The trigger could be any event, like the input arrival, that will cause the beginning of the process. Viewed from inside, the process contains all the roles, responsibilities, documentations and means needed to deliver the output in a reliable manner as well as tools that will measure and control the process efficiency in order for example to define where to improve it.

Procedure
"A document containing steps that specify how to achieve an activity. Procedures are defined as part of processes."

Work Instruction
"A document containing detailed instructions that specify exactly what steps to follow to carry out an activity. A work instruction contains much more detail than a procedure and is only created if very detailed instructions are needed."

Process model
A process model is a description of a process at the type level. The same process model is used repeatedly for the development of many applications and thus, has many instantiations. One possible use of a process model is to prescribe how things must/should/could be done in contrast to the process itself which is really what happens. A process model is roughly an anticipation of what the process will look like. What the process shall be will be determined during actual system development.

Process characteristics
An ITIL process should also comply with the following rules:
 * Well defined metrics have to be enabled in order to measure the process efficiency. The measurement should cover the needs of several kinds of stakeholders. Managers will be for example interested by cost and quality while the practitioners will be more focused on productivity and execution time.
 * The method to check the achievement of the expected outcome is clearly identified
 * Someone has to ensure the process will meet the customer expectation whatever he is internal or external.
 * The process should be traceable to specific triggers.
 * At last, a process should easily be amended in order to reply to a specific requirement.

Process automation
In order to reduce variations and, most of the time, costs, people try to automate the processes. Anyway, before doing so, the process should be simplified as soon as possible as well as activities well clarified. From another hand, this automation would not make so much sense for complex tasks that are not repetitive.

Functions
"A team or group of people and the tools or other resources they use to carry out one or more processes or activities; for example, the service desk."

The functions depict all internal support team in charge of the various IT components.

In small organisations, people could run several functions while in a big one a function could be shared between several departments. Anyway, in this latter case, management needs to take appropriate care to ensure someone keeps an end to end view of the whole process.

Role
"A set of responsibilities, activities and authorities assigned to a person or team. A role is defined in a process or function. One person or team may have multiple roles; for example, the roles of configuration manager and change manager may be carried out by a single person."

A role defined what is expected by each of the various stakeholders involved in a process. The role and responsibilities matrix that details all of them is part of the process documentation.

RACI
"A model used to help define roles and responsibilities. RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed."

A RACI matrix describes the participation by various roles in completing tasks or deliverables for a project or business process. It is especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and processes.

RACI is acronyms derived from the four key responsibilities most typically used:
 * R (Responsible): those who do the work to achieve the task. There is at least one role with a participation type of responsible, although others can be delegated to assist in the work required.
 * A (Accountable): the one ultimately answerable for the correct and thorough completion of the deliverable or task, and the one who delegates the work to those responsible. In other words, an accountable must sign off (approve) on work that responsible provides. There must be only one accountable specified for each task or deliverable.
 * C (Consulted): those whose opinions are sought, typically subject matter experts; and with whom there is two-way communication.
 * I (Informed): those who are kept up-to-date on progress, often only on completion of the task or deliverable; and with whom there is just one-way communication.

Service owner
"A role responsible for managing one or more services throughout their entire lifecycle. Service owners are instrumental in the development of service strategy and are responsible for the content of the service portfolio."

The service owner is the service representative within an organization. He is working with business representative in defining deliverables that will fit customer’s outcomes and is accountable of the service delivery.

Process owner
"The person who is held accountable for ensuring that a process is fit for purpose. The process owner's responsibilities include sponsorship, design, change management and continual improvement of the process and its metrics. This role can be assigned to the same person who carries out the process manager role, but the two roles may be separate in larger organizations."

The process owner is responsible for designing the processes necessary to achieve the objectives of the business plans that are created by the Business Leaders. The process owner is responsible for the creation, update and approval of documents (procedures, work instructions/protocols) to support the process. Many process owners are supported by a process improvement team. The process owner uses this team as a mechanism to help create a high performance process. The process owner is the only person who has authority to make changes in the process and manages the entire process improvement cycle to ensure performance effectiveness. This person is the contact person for all information related to the process. This person is accountable for the effectiveness of the process.

Process manager
"A role responsible for the operational management of a process. The process manager's responsibilities include planning and coordination of all activities required to carry out, monitor and report on the process. There may be several process managers for one process; for example, regional change managers or IT service continuity managers for each data centre. The process manager role is often assigned to the person who carries out the process owner role, but the two roles may be separate in larger organizations.I"

The process manager is focused on the operational topics while the process owner is more dealing with questions around design. He will therefore manage the appropriate resources and infrastructure to ensure the process activities are carried out as expected.

Process practitioner
The process practitioner is in charge of some of the task of the process. Even if he needs to have a view of the whole service, his main role is to ensure the task will be completed and will provide the results it is expected to give.

Competence and skills framework
Service management and human resources could use competence framework in order to ensure they have the skills required by the proposed services, allocate proper resources and developing new competences to follow the future business needs. One of the most common used in Information and Communication Technology world is the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) It maps out the range of skills as a two-dimensional table, by tagging each skill with a category and responsibility level.

[[image:Nuvola_apps_package_editors.png | 24px]] Review Questions
{What are the main components of a process? - Business case. - Infrastructure. + Input. + Output. - Resources. + Trigger.
 * type="[]"}
 * The business case is defined in strategy phase, before we start to think about the process.
 * Even if this is mandatory, it is more a component of the service.
 * Like for infrastructure, not having them is a show stopper. Anyway, this is also related to the service rather than the process.

{What should show a process model? - The assigned resources and infrastructure. + The input data. - The market analysis. + The metrics to check process efficiency. + The output data.
 * type="[]"}
 * The process should define the specifications of the resources needed but will not assign them.
 * The analysis has to be completed during the strategy phase, means before the process to deliver the service is defined.

{What main requirements should meet a process to be efficient? - The process has to be focused on value. + The process has to be manageable. + The process should be easy to modify. + The process should be easily reproducible. + The result should be measurable. - The triggers must be predictable.
 * type="[]"}
 * Actually it has to be aligned to activity and output but they have anyway to keep an eye on the value to stay efficient.
 * The event that will trigger the process is not always predictable. For example, in incident management, the processes are activated when an issue occurs.

{Which of the following statements apply to an ITIL function? - If well defined, no need to do coordination with other process functions. + One department could perform several functions. + This covers at least all ITIL component internal supports activities. - This defines the relationship between the process input and the process output.
 * type="[]"}
 * This would be the best way to have any stakeholder happy because their part is working well while the whole process will not be able to do what it is expected from an end to end point of view.
 * One process may/should have multiple functions.

{What covers a generic role compared to a specific role? - A generic role could be performed by several functions; a specific one has to be done by a specific function. - Generic role describes the tasks to be done; specific roles who will perform them. + Generic roles are needed at all lifecycle stage of a service; specific roles not. - Specific roles are only involved on the core service or some of the enabling or enhancing services.
 * type=""}

{Who has to report to whom in a process? -+-- has to report to Business leaders --+- has to report to Process Manager +--- has to report to Process Owner ---+ has to report to Process Practitioner
 * type=""}
 * Process manager| Process owner | Process practitioner | None of those listed below

{To which role is assigned the following tasks? --+ responsible for carrying out one or more process activities +-- responsible for process realization -+- responsible for process results +-- responsible for process structure
 * type=""}
 * Process manager| Process owner | Process practitioner

{To which role is assigned the following tasks? +-- accountable for operational management of the process -+- accountable for process being performed to agreed standards --+ carrying out the process activities --+ creating or updating records to show that activities have been carried out correctly -+- documenting the process -+- ensure the process fit for purpose --+ meeting the required Key Performance Indicators
 * type=""}
 * Process manager| Process owner | Process practitioner

{What is SFIA? - A functionality not needed by the customer, anyway provided but not documented (Superfluous Feature of an Installed Application) - A method used to increase service performance (Search For Improvment and Adjustment) + A model for describing and managing competencies (Skills Framework for the Information Age)
 * type=""}

{What means the R in RACI? - Registered - Relevant + Responsible - Retained
 * type=""}

{What means the A in RACI? + Accountable - Advised - Affected - Allowed
 * type=""}

{What means the C in RACI? - Committed - Communicated + Consulted - Contacted
 * type=""}

{What means the I in RACI? - Identified - Impacted + Informed - Involved
 * type=""}

{Which of the following addresses only one role? - Procedure. + Work instruction.
 * type=""}
 * This covers a whole process or activity whatever the number of stakeholder is.