| Scalability |
The
measure of a service's ability
to increase or decrease in
performance and cost in response
to Changes in throughput or
demand. |
|
|
| Scaling
(of Guidance) |
Applying
rules, guidance, process, etc.
to a size of organisation or
project different from its
original application.
Adapting a process to fit a
larger or smaller situation. |
|
|
| Scope |
Generally,
the extent to which a process or
procedure applies. The
scope of Configuration
Management may not, for example,
extend to Customer information
(other than on an 'as informed'
basis) and the scope of a Change
Management procedure may not
apply to 'Urgent Changes'.
Also a key concept in
outsourcing, defining which
activities are covered by the
base contract and which are
separately chargeable. |
|
|
| Script |
See
Diagnostic
Script. |
|
|
| Second
Level / Line Support |
Technical
resources (sometimes based
within the Service Desk) called
upon by Incident and Problem
Management to assist in the
resolution of an Incident, restoration
of service, the identification
of a Problem or Known Error, the
provision of a work-around or
the generation of a Change. |
|
|
| Second
Line Incident Control |
See
Incident
Control Support. |
|
|
| Security |
The
process of ensuring that
services are used in an
appropriate way by the
appropriate people. In IT
Service Management terms, the
Confidentiality, Integrity and
Availability of CIs - a task of
Availability Management. |
|
|
| Server |
A
computer on a network that
manages resources. Servers
are often dedicated, performing
no other tasks besides their
server tasks, such as the
control of files database, mail,
network traffic, printing or web
access. |
|
|
| Service |
An
integrated composite that
consists of a number of
components, such as management
process, hardware, software,
facilities and people, that
provides a capability to satisfy
a stated management need or
objective. |
|
|
| Service
Acceptance Certificate /
Document |
A
certificate or other document
that is completed immediately
prior to a new or modified
service being accepted into the
live environment for business
use. It provides a degree
of confidence that all required
activities have been undertaken
to ensure that the service is
capable of being delivered to
the Customer's
satisfaction. Where tasks
have not been completed
satisfactorily this should be
recorded, as should the degree
of risk to which these
shortcomings are now exposing
the business. Based upon
that information, the decision
can be taken as to whether the
new or changed components should
be released into the live
environment in accord with the
current release schedule. |
|
|
| Service
Acceptance Criteria |
A
prioritised list of criteria
that a service must meet before
the Customer will accept
it. They should be defined
and agreed with the Customer at
the outset. |
|
|
| Service
Achievement |
The
actual service levels delivered
by the IT directorate to a
Customer within a defined
time-span. |
|
|
| Service
Capacity Management |
A
discipline focused on the
performance of current services
used by the business. It
assesses the IT services, their
use resources, working patterns,
(i.e. peaks and troughs), and
ensures that the services can
and do meet their SLA targets. |
|
|
| Service
Catalogue |
A
document (printed or on
intranet/internet) produced by
the IT department for the
information of its Customers and
Users. It provides a brief
overview, in business terms, of
all the business and
infrastructure services offered
by the IT provider and may
include service charges.
This information, together with
more detailed technical
knowledge will be maintained for
internal use. |
|
|
| Service
Charter |
A
high level document, endorsed at
senior level, which briefly and
clearly states the generic
standard of service that any
Customer or User can expect from
the IT department, presented
within the context of the
Department's IT Service
philosophy. It is likely
to contain the IT Mission
Statement and make reference to
the organisation's culture,
vision and ethical policy. |
|
|
| Service
Culture |
A
Service Culture indicates that,
for everyone in the provider
organisation, Customer
satisfaction is the top priority
and that service provider
activities demonstrably
contribute to the business
objectives of the Customer. |
|
|
| Service
Definition |
See
Service Specification Sheet. |
|
|
| Service
Delivery |
Normally,
a reference to the five
management processes described
in the ITIL 'Service Delivery'
volume, i.e. Service Level,
Capacity, IT Service Continuity
and Availability Management,
plus Financial Management for IT
Services. |
|
|
| Service
Design and Management Processes |
One
of the Service Management
Processes identified in the BSi
Code of Practice, PD0005.
These processes (Availability,
Capacity, Continuity, Finance,
Security, Service Reporting and
Service Level Management) are
generally proactive and
performed over long time
frames. They deal with the
effective delivery of
appropriate services and service
levels to the business Customer. |
|
|
| Service
Desk |
An
alternative name for a Help
Desk, often used when the link
to other Service Management
processes is considered
important. It is
increasingly the name given to a
front line support group who add
value by doing a high proportion
of first time remote fixes. |
|
|
| Service
Hours |
The
agreed hours when the service is
to be available. |
|
|
| Service
Improvement Plan / Programme |
A
formal plan or programme
developed when the IT service
provider is not currently
delivering a service that meets
the legitimate SLRs of the
business representative or when
greater cost-effectiveness is
achievable. The SIP should
include clear milestones, which
will enable the business representative
to judge whether or not timely
progress is being made. |
|
|
| Service
Level Agreement |
A
formal negotiated document that
defines (or attempts to define)
in quantitative (and perhaps
qualitative) terms the service
being offered to a
Customer. Confusion must
be avoided over whether the
quantitative definitions
constitute thresholds for an
acceptable service, targets to
which the supplier should aspire
or expectations that the
supplier would strive to
exceed. Any metrics
included in a SLA should be
capable of being measured on a
regular basis and the SLA should
record by whom. Typically
it will cover: service hours,
service availability, Customer
support levels, throughputs and
responsiveness, restrictions,
functionality and the service
levels to be provided in a
contingency. It may also
include information on security,
charges and terminology.
Apart from
regular periodic reviews, SLAs
should be renegotiated whenever
a business service is subject to
a change of requirement, or
there is an inability to deliver
to requirement. |
|
|
| Service
Level Management |
The
process of defining, agreeing,
documenting and managing levels
of Customer service that are
required and cost
justified. It deals with
more than SLAs themselves,
including the Service Catalogue
and review meetings. |
|
|
| Service
Level Objective |
A
negotiated document that defines
the service that will be
delivered to a Customer in
qualitative terms, although a
small number of KPIs might also
be defined. SLOs are
increasingly being preferred,
certainly initially, to SLAs
because they provide a clearer
understanding of the true nature
of the service being offered,
focussing on the contribution of
the service to the business
value chain. Best practice
suggests that the business
representative should initially
draft SLOs. |
|
|
| Service
Level Requirement |
A
document recording the business
requirements for an IT
service. The SLR belongs
to the senior business
representative who owns the
service. The Service
Management Team have a
responsibility to support the
business representative in
drawing up the SLR to ensure
that the information contained
in the SLR is both
comprehensible and
comprehensive. The SLR
will provide a basis for
negotiations linked to the
formulation of SLOs or SLAs. |
|
|
| Service
Maintenance Objective |
The
total time that a component will
need to be unavailable to
prepare the component for
maintenance, carry out
maintenance and restore the
component to operational use. |
|
|
| Service
Management |
An
element of Business/IT
Alignment. The high
level process that manages IT
services on behalf of the
business customers. It has
authority to make decisions
about the delivery of the entire
portfolio of IT services.
The ITIL sees Service Management
as the overall philosophy, which
informs the operation of the
individual ITIL processes. |
|
|
| Service
Management Team |
Usually
comprising Account Managers,
Contract Managers and Service
Level Managers. A group of
managers who between them
provide a coherent approach to
the delivery of services.
Note that these three roles can,
if appropriate to an
organisation's structure and
resources, be combined in a
single role. In some IT
departments the SMT also
includes Change Management
staff. |
|
|
| Service
Manager |
A
senior manager, normally
reporting to the IT director,
who has overall responsibility
for ensuring services are
delivered in accordance with
agreed business
requirements. The Service
Manager is also responsible for
negotiating requirements with
senior business
representatives. The
Service Manager is responsible
for the Service Management Team
and is usually a member of the
high level CAB. The
Service Manager should have a
major say in the allocation of
resources between services. |
|
|
| Service
Outage Analysis |
An
Availability Management
technique used to analyse
downtime and to identify
opportunities to improve
end-to-end service uptime -
essentially a Problem Management
activity. |
|
|
| Service
Owner |
The
individual taking primary
responsibility for a service,
including its design, objectives
and progression. |
|
|
| Service
Planning |
Within
the major process group of
Service Design and
Management. Service
Planning involves defining
service requirements, defining
new services, financial
planning, defining and modelling
service data, defining IT
capabilities, benchmarking and
gap analysis. |
|
|
| Service
Provider |
An
organisation supplying services
or products to customers.
The Service Provider may be
internal or external. |
|
|
| Service
Quality Plan |
A
plan that underlies the Service
Strategy, detailing the internal
targets to be achieved within an
agreed period, typically one to
two years, to improve the agreed
service levels and the business
perception of service quality. |
|
|
| Service
Request |
A
request for a change, usually
both common and straightforward,
to be made to a service. A
Service Request is characterised
by the fact that the Change can
be made under strict,
well-defined procedural control
and is therefore (virtually)
risk free. Providing
access to services for a new
member of staff and relocating
PCs are two typical examples. |
|
|
| Service
Specification Sheet |
A
more detailed definition of a
service than is found in the
SLA. In effect the Service
Specification Sheet contains the
information about a service that
will constitute the service
entry in the CMDB. |
|
|
| Service
Strategy |
A
document agreed between the most
senior Customer and IT
representatives that lays out
future developments in the way
that IT resources will be
utilised in support of business
activities in the long
term. A well-formulated
Service Strategy will be
technology independent. |
|
|
| Service
Support |
Normally
a reference to the five
management processes described
in the ITIL 'Service Support'
volume, i.e. Incident, Problem,
Change, Configuration and
Release Management, plus the
chapter on the Service Desk
function. |
|
|
| Serviceability |
The
contractual conditions with
suppliers covering the
availability of, and the
conditions under which the
contractual conditions are valid
for, a CI or system. |
|
|
| Severity
Code |
A
simple code assigned to Problems
and Known Errors, indicating the
seriousness of their effect on
the quality of IT service.
It is a common name given to the
means of recording priority for
resolution. |
|
|
| Simulation
/ Simulation Modelling |
Use
of a program to simulate
computer processing by
describing in detail the path of
a job or transaction. It
can be extremely accurate but
requires a great deal of time
and effort from the modeller and
is therefore very
expensive. It is usually
only justifiable for business
critical systems. |
|
|
| Single
Point of Contact |
Where
all day-to-day communications
are channelled through one
place. Typically for IT
Services this will be the
Service Desk. This ensures
that Users are able to contact
trained staff, all contacts can
be recorded consistently,
specialist staff are able to
concentrate on their work
without interruption and work
can be co-ordinated and matters
dealt with once. |
|
|
| Single
Point of Failure |
A
component that has no back up
capability and can cause
significant impact to the
business if it fails. |
|
|
| Sizing
Report |
The
output of the Application Sizing
process. This report
indicates the sizing issues for
a specific project, including
standards for development, monitoring
and testing according to the
sizing specification. |
|
|
| SLAM
Chart |
Service
Level Agreement Management
Chart. This is a grid used
to identify at a glance where
SLAs are in danger of being, or
have already been,
breached. Sometimes
coloured red, amber and green to
indicate different levels of
concern and referred to as a RAG
Chart. |
|
|
| SMART
Objectives |
An
objective should comply with
principles of it being Simple,
Measurable, Achievable,
Realistic and Timely. |
|
|
| Society |
All
those who are, or believe they
are, affected by the
organisation, other than its
people, customers and partners. |
|
|
| Software
Configuration Item |
See
Configuration
Item. |
|
|
| Software
Environment |
Software
used to support the application,
such as operating system,
database management system,
development tools, compilers and
application software. |
|
|
| Software
Library |
A
controlled collection of SCI’s
designated to keep those with
like status and type together
and segregated from unlike, to
aid in development, operation
and maintenance. See also Definitive
Software Library. |
|
|
| Software
Process Improvement and
Capability dEtermination |
Software
Process Improvement and
Capability dEtermination (SPICE)
is a reference process model for
software development developed
for ISO. The SEI (See Capability
Maturity Model) was one of
the organisations to assist in
its development. SPICE is
partly based on CMM but,
although less specific in
determining the elements that
must be included for an
organisation to reach a certain
maturity level, the scope of
SPICE is wider than that of CMM
and some aspects have been
elaborated in more detail. |
|
|
| Specsheet
/ Sepcification Sheet |
A
working document used to specify
the customers' requirements
(external) and the consequences
this has for the service
provider (internal), such as
required costs, resources and
skills and applicable
constraints. |
|
|
| Stakeholders |
All
those who have an interest in an
organisation, its activities and
it achievements. These may
include Customers, partners,
employees, shareholders, owners,
government and regulations. |
|
|
| Stand-by
Arrangements |
Arrangements
to have available the assets
which have been identified as
replacements should the primary
assets be lost following a
business disruption.
Typically these include
accommodation, IT systems and
networks and people. |
|
|
| Standard
Change |
A
Change that is recurrent, well
known, has been proceduralised
to follow a pre-defined,
relatively risk-free path, and
is the accepted response to a
specific requirement or set of
circumstances, where authority
is effectively given in advance
of implementation. |
|
|
| Standard
Costs |
Pre-determined
calculation of expected costs
under specified working
conditions. Typically used
to provide a basis for control
through variance accounting,
valuation of work, and fixing
selling prices. |
|
|
| Standard
Operational Task |
See
Standard
Change. |
|
|
| Status
Accounting |
See
Configuration
Status Accounting. |
|
|
| Storage
Management |
A
specific Systems Management
activity relating to the policy,
techniques and technology
deployed to enable the economic
and effective storage and
maintenance of data. |
|
|
| Strategic |
Relating
to the highest of the three
levels of planning and
delivery. Strategic is
concerned with the overall goals
of an organisation or process. |
|
|
| Structured
Systems Analysis and Design
Method |
SSADM
is a method used in the analysis
and design stages of systems
development. Initially
developed by the UK CCTA in
1981, SSADM is now recognised as
an open standard. |
|
|
| Super
User |
A
skilled User (sometimes known as
Expert User) able to deal with
first-line support Problems and
queries. This is typically
in specific application areas,
or geographical locations, where
there is not the requirement for
full-time support staff. |
|
|
| Supply
Chain |
The
delivery of goods, services and
information from supplier
through to end-User/Customer. |
|
|
| Supply
Chain Management |
A
systematic approach to handling
the constituent links in the
supply chain. |
|
|
| Support
Hours |
The
hours or times when support,
e.g. the Service Desk, is
available. |
|
|
| System |
An
integrated composite that
consists of one or more of the
processes, hardware, software,
facilities and people, that
provides a capability to satisfy
a stated need or objective. |
|
|
| Systems
Management |
The
tools, policies, procedures and
reports used to manage and
provide information about an IT
infrastructure, Systems
Management differs from Service
Management in that its focus is
on technology rather than
process. The key elements
of Systems Management include:
 | Tools
providing for the automation
of routine tasks and the
reporting of status
and event information |
| The timely
reporting of status
information |
| The setting
of policies for the IT
environment such as
standardisation, fault
tolerance, procurement. |
Systems
Management has an interface to
all Service Management
processes, often providing tools
and information to support those
disciplines. |
|
|
| Systems
Outage Analysis |
See
Service
Outage Analysis. |
