| Back-office
/ Back-end |
The
business processes and
operational functions that occur
internally or through the supply
chain. These often include
inventory management, purchasing
and distribution, order
processing and tracking and
shipping and receiving. |
|
|
| Back-out
plan |
A plan
that documents all actions to be
taken to restore the service if
the associated Change or
Release
fails or partially fails.
Back-out plans may provide for a
full or partial reversal.
In extreme circumstances they
may simply call for the IT
Service Continuity Plan to be
invoked. |
|
|
| Balance
Check |
A
calculation that checks whether
all direct and indirect costs
(the total costs of IT
provision) have been assigned to
customers or services. |
|
|
| Balanced
Scorecard |
An aid
to organisational performance
management. The balance
should be found between four
perspectives; Customers,
Internal Processes, Learning and
Growth and Financial. |
|
|
| Bandwidth |
The
amount of information carried by
a communications line within a
given time - normally measured
in bits per second. |
|
|
| Baseline |
A
snapshot of the state of a CI or
set of CIs frozen at a point in
time for a particular
purpose. A baseline will
often be recorder to ensure that
the infrastructure can be restored
to a trusted state should a
Change fail or the CI need to be
re-built. A baseline will
also be established for the roll
out of new CIs and for use in a
disaster recovery situation.
Although a position, such as
that described in a project
plan, may be updated later, the
baseline remains unchanged and
available as a reference of the
original state and as a
comparison against the current
position. |
|
|
| Baselining |
Process
by which the quality and cost
effectiveness of a service is
assessed, usually in advance of
a change to the service.
Baselining usually includes
comparison of the service before
and after the Change or analysis
of trend information. The
term Benchmarking
is normally used if the
comparison is made against other
enterprises. |
|
|
| Batch
Processing |
Executing
a series of non-interactive jobs
in a given sequence. The
term originated in the days when
punched cards were the normal
means of entering data into a
computer, usually a
mainframe. Each batch of
cards represented a job.
Batch jobs are often stored up
during normal working hours and
then executed during the evening
or whenever the computer is less
busy. Once a batch job
begins, it continues until it is
complete or until an error
occurs. Batch processing
implies that there is no
interaction with the User while
the program is being
executed. The opposite of
Batch Processing is Transaction
or Interactive
Processing. |
|
|
| Benchmarking |
A form
of comparison usually between
the activities of one
organisation and those of one or
more comparable external
organisations. Also used
to describe a form of simulation
modelling where the entire
operational environment is
replicated or simulated. |
|
|
| Billing |
The
process of producing an invoice
or a bill and recovering the
funds from the customer. |
|
|
| Brainstorming |
A
Problem Management technique
used to quickly generate,
clarify and evaluate a sizeable
list of ideas, Problems, issues
, themes, etc. by documenting
'what we know' as a team,
tapping the creative thinking of
the team and getting everyone
involved. The technique is
particularly useful in
identifying possible causes when
constructing a Cause / Effect
Diagram. |
|
|
| Bridge |
A
bridge is equipment and
techniques used to match
circuits to each other ensuring
minimum transmission impairment. |
|
|
| British
Quality Foundation |
Together
with the European Foundation for
Quality Management - the bodies
that promote the Business
Excellence Model, a formalised
approach to Total Quality
Management (best practice in
processes) that can be applied
both to the business and the
delivery of IT. |
|
|
| British
Standards Institution |
The
body responsible for creating
and maintaining British
Standards, including those for
Service Management. |
|
|
| BS15000 |
The
British Standards Institution
'Specification for IT service
management'. |
|
|
| BS
7799-1:2000 |
The
British Standards Institution
'Code of practice for
information security
management'. Also referred
to as ISO/IEC 17799-2000 |
|
|
| Budgeting |
The
process of forecasting and
controlling expenditure.
It consists of a periodic
negotiation cycle to set budgets
(usually annual) and the
day-to-day monitoring and
adjustment of current budgets
based upon actual or predicted
outturns. |
|
|
| Build |
The
final stage in producing a
usable configuration. The
process involves taking one or
more input CIs and processing
(building) them to create one or
more output CIs e.g. software
compile and load. |
|
|
| Build
Environment |
See
Live Build Environment, Test
Build Environment. |
|
|
| Business
Activity Levels |
The
predicted or historic levels of
business process activity that
are to be or have been supported
by the IT infrastructure.
Measured in business terms (e.g.
number of account holders). |
|
|
| Business
Capacity Management |
A
Capacity Management activity
responsible for ensuring that
the future business requirements
for IT services are considered,
planned and implemented in a
cost effective and timely
fashion. Business Capacity
Management has a strong
relationship with Service Level
Management. |
|
|
| Business
Case |
Information
that describes the justification
for setting up and continuing a
project or procurement. It
provides the reasons for the
expenditure and is updated at
key points during the project or
procurement process. |
| Business
Continuity Management |
Anticipating
Incidents which may affect
critical business functions and
processes and ensuring that the
organisation is capable of
responding to such Incidents in
a planned and rehearsed manner. |
|
|
| Business
Continuity Objective |
The
desired time within which
business process should be
recovered, and the minimum
staff, assets and services
required within this time. |
|
|
| Business
Continuity Plan |
Documents
describing the roles,
responsibilities and actions necessary
to resume business processes
following a disruption.
The Business Continuity Plan
will provide a defining
structure for and exert a major
influence upon the development
of IT continuity plans.
Its scope both encompasses and
exceeds IT Service Continuity
Management and is normally a
business responsibility. |
|
|
| Business
Continuity Plan Framework |
A
template Business
Continuity Plan (BCP) or set of plans, produced to
allow the structure and proposed
contents to be agreed before the
detailed BCP is produced. |
|
|
| Business
Continuity Planning |
Planning
for the resilience and recovery
of all identified business
processes and support
activities. |
|
|
| Business
Continuity Team |
One
of a number of groups of people
with defined, agreed and
documented roles within the
business recovery process. |
|
|
| Business
Function |
A
business unit within an
organisation e.g. a department,
division, branch. |
|
|
| Business
Impact Analysis |
A
formal analysis of the effect on
the business if a specific set
of IT services are not
available. It will also
identify the minimum set of
services that an organisation
will require to continue
operating. |
|
|
| Business/IT
Alignment |
An
approach to the delivery of IT
services to the business that
recognises the pre-eminence of
business needs. BITA
encompasses ways of organising,
managing, controlling and
measuring IS
resources so as to maximise
added value to the business and
includes:
 | Business
Assessment
 | Value
chain analysis |
| Ascertain
business goals |
| Define
IT requirements |
|
| IT Strategy
development
| Formulate
IT principles |
| Define
policies and standards |
| Determine
IT capability |
| Define
technical architecture |
| Define
IT process model |
| Define
IT organisational model |
|
| Customer
Relationship Management
| Market IT
services |
| Customer
satisfaction review |
| Customer
liaison |
| Strategic
business reporting |
| Define
customer support
requirements |
| Identify
new service needs |
|
|
|
|
| Business
Objectives |
The
measurable targets designed to
help an organisation achieve its
overall business strategy. |
|
|
| Business
Operations |
Activities
and procedures carried out by
the User community in performing
the business role of an
organisation. A Service
Desk is concerned with
supporting and dealing with the
comments and requests arising
from those business operations. |
|
|
| Business
Process |
A
series of related business
activities aimed at achieving
one or more business
objectives in a measurable
manner. Typical business
processes include receiving
orders, marketing services,
selling products, delivering
services, distributing products,
invoicing for services,
accounting for money
received. A business
process will usually depend upon
several business functions for
support e.g. IT, personnel,
accommodation. A business
process will rarely operate in
isolation, i.e. other business
processes will depend on it and
it will depend on other
processes. See also Process. |
|
|
| Business
Recovery |
See
Business
Continuity Management. |
|
|
| Business
Relationship Manager |
See
Account
Manager. |
|
|
| Business
Representative |
See
Customer. |
|
|
| Business
Service |
A
service that is clearly
identifiable by business
representatives and has a clear
link to the business' value
chain, interfacing closely with
explicit business
processes. Most business
services will have an easily
identifiable senior business
representative, are composed of
a number of specific
applications and rely for their
delivery upon the correct
functioning of infrastructure
services. Service Level
Objectives and Service Level
Agreements should be formulated
at the Business Service
Level. The provision of
all logistic components
underpinning the sale of
consumer goods is a typical
example of a business service.
To achieve a
productive and healthy BITA
it is important that IT services
are clearly linked to the
individual business services
they underpin and in a mature
Service Management environment,
the Customer's business services
will be top level CIs. |
|
|
| Business
Unit |
A
segment of the business entity
which both receives and causes
and controls expenditure.
Such revenues and expenditure
are used to evaluate segmental
performance. |
|
|
| Business
Value Chain |
A
sequence of activities that
creates a product or service in
which each step of the sequence
adds something that the customer
values. IT's contribution
to the value chain should be
understood and valued. In
cases where this proves
difficult it is probable that
the service has been defined at
the wrong level. |
