ITIL/Foundation/Strategy

This lesson introduces the strategy part Information Technology Infrastructure Library 2011.

[[image:Nuvola_apps_package_utilities.png | 24px]] Objectives and Skills
Objectives and skills for this IT Service management section of the ITIL foundation include:
 * Define the main ITIL components.

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

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

Service strategy
"A stage in the lifecycle of a service. Service strategy defines the perspective, position, plans and patterns that a service provider needs to execute to meet an organization’s business outcomes. Service strategy includes the following processes: strategy management for IT services, service portfolio management, financial management for IT services, demand management, and business relationship management. Although these processes are associated with service strategy, most processes have activities that take place across multiple stages of the service lifecycle."

Pattern of Business Activity
"A workload profile of one or more business activities. Patterns of business activity are used to help the IT service provider understand and plan for different levels of business activity."

Service portfolio
"The complete set of services that is managed by a service provider. The service portfolio is used to manage the entire lifecycle of all services, and includes three categories: service pipeline (proposed or in development), service catalogue (live or available for deployment), and retired services."

Service catalog
"A database or structured document with information about all live IT services, including those available for deployment. The service catalogue is part of the service portfolio and contains information about two types of IT service: customer-facing services that are visible to the business; and supporting services required by the service provider to deliver customer-facing services."

Business case
"Justification for a significant item of expenditure. The business case includes information about costs, benefits, options, issues, risks and possible problems."

Governance
"Ensures that policies and strategy are actually implemented, and that required processes are correctly followed. Governance includes defining roles and responsibilities, measuring and reporting, and taking actions to resolve any issues identified."

Risk
"A possible event that could cause harm or loss, or affect the ability to achieve objectives. A risk is measured by the probability of a threat, the vulnerability of the asset to that threat, and the impact it would have if it occurred. Risk can also be defined as uncertainty of outcome, and can be used in the context of measuring the probability of positive outcomes as well as negative outcomes."

[[image:Nuvola_apps_package_editors.png | 24px]] Review Questions
Review all the ITIL definitions seen in the sub chapters previously listed:

{Which of the following objectives apply to service strategy? - Define clearly the needed supporting services to limit improvement that would be further needed during the next lifecycle stages. + Define how services will be delivered and funded. + Define services and identify customers who could use them. + Ensure the organizations ability to handle the cost and risk associated with the service portfolio. - Facilitate the services implementation into the existing services. + Identify opportunities to deliver services. + Link provider activities with customer critical outcomes. + Think about why something has to be done before thinking of how. - Turn business strategies into a plan to deliver the business objectives. + Understand what capabilities are needed to properly deliver a service.
 * type="[]"}
 * This will also be done during the service design.
 * This is part of service design.
 * This would be a good motto for Service Strategy.
 * This is part of the design.

{What value characteristics have to be taken into account during strategy phase? - An efficient service has to deal with a value that will not change over time. - The provider has to deliver as much feature he can for what the customer is ready to pay. - The provider should define a proper value to his service. + The provider should not be only seen as a cost but mostly as a value contributor.
 * type="[]"}
 * This would be a nice dream. Anyway, in the real life, business is going through continuous changes that will modify customer objectives, outcomes and their expectations.
 * The customer would prefer to pay less than having things he does not ask.
 * It is the customer who defines what he is ready to pay for the service.

{What is the definition of the three service value parts that have to be defined during service strategy step? --+ What a customer would like. +-- What a customer will receive. -+- How a customer see what he get.
 * type=""}
 * Outcome | Perception | Preference

{What elements have to be taken in account by a customer when he estimates the value of a service? - The revenue the customer will be able to generate with the service. + What the customer would have to pay if he get the service by himself. + What the customer will lose by no more delivering by himself the service. + What the provider will ask the customer to pay.
 * type="[]"}
 * Even if the service should provide more revenues than what will have to be paid for it, this should not influence the value.
 * Less the value will be more it will be against asking the service to a provider.
 * This covers the documentation of implicit tasks, the loss of flexibility in last moment changes … By the way this should not be forgotten during the evaluation.
 * More the amount will be less will be the advantage to ask for the service.

{What means PBA acronym? + Pattern of Business Activity. - Previous Baseline Application. - Process Build Assessment. - Proposed Billing Acknowledgement.
 * type=""}

{What are various PBA items that have to be defined? + Asset requirements. + Attributes. + Classifications. - Funding. - KPI. + Requirements.
 * type="[]"}
 * Duration, frequency, volume …
 * Type of outcome, of workload, of trigger …
 * This is evaluated after the PBA has been defined.
 * The Key Performance Indicators are used to measure the efficiency of a process or a service and are defined in Continuous Service Improvement and not already during the strategy phase.
 * Warranty needed to properly deliver the service.

{To which service part should a portfolio be focused on? + The value. - The OLA. - The processes.
 * type=""}
 * A portfolio list what a provider could propose to a customer. An Operational Level Agreement defines what a customer asks a provider to achieve.
 * This is definitely something a vendor would be difficult to sell to a customer.

{What is the intended audience of a service portfolio? - Customer. + Provider. - Supplier. - User.
 * type="[]"}
 * Customer will only see the service catalogue.
 * More specifically, this is for marketing department.

{What will contain a service portfolio? - All enabling services. + Retired services. + Services nowadays under development. + The price of the services.
 * type="[]"}
 * Only those that could be a key differentiator with the competitors will be mentioned. For example the infrastructure support contracts will only be evoked if they provide a better availability than what customers use to find on the market.
 * This is part of a service pipeline.
 * This is a key point in the customer decision.