Service Level Manager: Careers in IT service management

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CONTENTS

List of figures and tables

Author

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Glossary

Introduction

1. OVERVIEW OF THE FIELD

Introduction to the field

2. THE ROLE OF THE SERVICE LEVEL MANAGER

Introduction

Purpose of the role

Competencies, skills and knowledge

The service level manager and the service level management process owner

Where should the service level manager role sit within IT?

Separation from the business relationship manager role

3. RESPONSIBILITIES, INTERFACES AND DEPENDENCIES

Responsibilities

Interfaces and dependencies

4. KEY ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SERVICE DESIGN STAGE OF THE SERVICE LIFE CYCLE

Coordinating the service design activities

Establishing or validating the measurement and reporting capability

Identifying your customer

Gathering and documenting customers’ service level requirements

Deciding on the service level agreement structure

Managing and influencing customer requirements

Defining service levels

Meeting new or changed service level requirements

Drafting the service level agreement

Establishing operational level agreements

Managing service quality, maximising business value

Aligning service level agreements and supplier contracts

Measuring service level performance

5. KEY ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SERVICE OPERATION STAGE OF THE LIFE CYCLE

Reporting performance

Managing changes to services and service levels

Liaising with the business relationship manager(s)

Reviewing and managing existing service level agreements

Managing service improvement plans/programmes

Proactive management and prevention of service risks

Validating supplier contracts for continued alignment with business requirements

Providing a point of customer contact

Managing customer review meetings

Measuring and reporting service performance

Data granularity

Using meaningful measurements

Managing requests for change

Acting as an outbound communication channel

6. STANDARDS AND FRAMEWORKS

Standards

Best practice frameworks

7. TOOLS

Your service management tool

8. DEFINING SERVICE LEVELS

Monitoring and reporting of pre-service level agreement achievements

Ensuring service levels are achievable before committing to them

Verifying service level commitments prior to agreement

9. MARKETING THE SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

The importance of marketing the service level agreement

Management support

10. PROCESS MATURITY

Process maturity levels

Process maturity analysis

11. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A SERVICE LEVEL MANAGER

First things first

Performance reports and service improvement

Communication

Meeting preparation

At the meeting

After the meeting

Influencing without authority

Summary

12. CAREER PROGRESSION AND SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Career progression

Skills development

APPENDIX A: SAMPLE SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

APPENDIX B: SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT PROCESS POLICY

References

Index

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1.1 Generic process control

Figure 3.1 Five phases of the ITIL service life cycle

Figure 4.1 Mapping the IT vision to the organisation’s vision and developing the appropriate measurement framework

Figure 4.2 The main options for structuring SLAs

Figure 5.1 Sample weekly incident, problem and change activity report

Figure 5.2 Sample chart showing the number of respondents who selected each option

Figure 12.1 Relative perspectives of processes, services and technology

Table 2.1 Comparison of the business relationship management and service level management roles

Table 8.1 SMART service levels

AUTHOR

From 1991 to 1997 John Sansbury worked with London Electricity plc (now EDF), during which time, as service level manager, he negotiated and drafted the service level agreements between IT and the five business units. This work included devising the performance management and reporting framework to underpin the process and drive improvements.

In 1997, with Compass Management Consulting (now part of the ISG-One Group) John became global head of practice for service management. In this role, he advised corporate clients globally on good service management practice in all its aspects, including service level and performance management.

In 2011, John founded Infrassistance Development Limited, an IT consultancy and training company and creator of ‘ITIL®¹ In A Day’, the world’s only one-day, classroom-based ITIL Foundation course. He has since advised and worked with a multitude of clients in both the public and private sector on good practice with regard to service level management.

Between 2011 and 2013, John Sansbury and Colin Rudd, an ITIL author, co-developed the ITIL process self-assessment maturity model for the Cabinet Office/Axelos.

John is passionate about good service level management practice since he believes it forms the foundation of an effective and mutually beneficial relationship between IT and its stakeholders. For decades, he has been promoting the idea that internal IT teams should become more professional in the delivery of services to their internal customers. This means adopting many of the practices employed by managed service providers.

¹ ITIL® is a registered trademark of Axelos Ltd.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Permission to reproduce extracts from ISO/IEC 20000-2:2012 from British Standards on pp. 69–72 has been granted by BSI Standards Limited (BSI). No other use of this material is permitted. British Standards can be obtained in PDF or hard copy formats from the BSI online shop: http://shop.bsigroup.com/

The SFIA codes and their associated definitions of core SLM skills on pp. 108–10 are reproduced with kind permission from SFIA (www.sfia-online.org).

ABBREVIATIONS

AST agreed service time

BRM business relationship manager

BYOD bring your own device

CAB change advisory board

CFO chief finance officer

CIO chief information officer

COBIT Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies

CSF critical success factor

CSI continual service improvement

DIKW data, information, knowledge, wisdom

DT downtime

HR human resources

ITIL (formerly an acronym of) Information Technology Infrastructure Library

KPI key performance indicator

OLA operational level agreement

PDA personal digital assistant

PRINCE2 PRojects IN a Controlled Environment

SDM service delivery manager

SFIA Skills Framework for the Information Age

SIAM service integration and management

SIP service improvement plan or programme

SIPOC supplier, input, process, output, customer

SLA service level agreement

SLM service level manager

SMART Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely

SMS service management system

UC underpinning contract

GLOSSARY

Glossary definitions here and within the chapters are from the official ITIL Glossary of Terms which can be found at www.ITIL-officialsite.com. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2012. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced with the permission of AXELOS.

Critical success factor (CSF) Something that must happen if an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity is to succeed.

IT service management The implementation and management of quality IT services that meet the needs of the business.

ITIL framework A long-established, mature and globally adopted library of practical guidance focusing primarily on the 26 key processes associated with IT service management. It was first published in 1989 and was preceded by Government Information Technology Infrastructure Management (GITIM). It was commissioned by the Office for Government Commerce (OGC) to identify and document good practice in the management and delivery of IT services.

Key performance indicator (KPI) A metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity. Key performance indicators are used to measure the achievement of critical success factors. Many metrics may be measured, but only the most important of these are defined as key performance indicators