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4.5.1. Glossary (A-M)
- Access to Resources: Granting rights/licenses to use provider resources (part of Service Offering).
- Practical Context: Managing user permissions, software licensing.
- Change: The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on services.
- Practical Context: Any modification to the IT environment, from a server patch to a new application deployment.
- Change Authority: Person or group who approves a change before it is deployed. Assigned per change type/model.
- Practical Context: The person or committee responsible for reviewing and approving changes to minimize risk.
- Change Enablement: Practice: Maximize successful IT changes via risk assessment, authorization, scheduling.
- Practical Context: The process and activities used to manage changes in your organization.
- Change Schedule: Used to plan changes and help avoid conflicts.
- Practical Context: A calendar or list showing planned changes to the IT environment.
- Configuration Item (CI): Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service.
- Practical Context: Servers, applications, network devices, documentation – anything you track to manage your services.
- Continual Improvement: Practice: Align practices/services with changing business needs. Everyone's responsibility. Decisions based on accurate, analyzed data. Uses CIR.
- Practical Context: The ongoing effort to make things better in your team and organization.
- Continual Improvement Register (CIR): Database/document to track and manage improvement ideas.
- Practical Context: A backlog or list of potential improvements.
- Cost: Amount of money spent. Consumer evaluates costs removed vs. costs imposed.
- Practical Context: Financial considerations of services, from operational costs to the cost savings a service provides to the business.
- Customer: Person who defines requirements and takes responsibility for outcomes.
- Practical Context: The business unit or external client who uses the service and is concerned with its impact.
- Customer Engagement (in SLM): Active listening/discovery (e.g., asking about goals) before service definition/measurement.
- Practical Context: Proactively working with customers to understand their needs and expectations for a service.
- Demand: Input to SVS representing need/desire for products/services.
- Practical Context: The business need or user request that initiates activity within the IT department.
- Deliver and Support (SVC Activity): Ensure services delivered/supported per specs/expectations.
- Practical Context: The core activities of running and supporting live IT services.
- Deployment Management: Practice: Move new/changed components to environments.
- Practical Context: The technical process of installing or moving software/hardware into test or production environments.
- Design and Transition (SVC Activity): Ensure products/services meet stakeholder expectations (quality, cost, time-to-market).
- Practical Context: The phase where new or changed services are designed, built, and prepared for live use.
- Engage (SVC Activity): Understand stakeholder needs, foster relationships.
- Practical Context: Interacting with users, customers, and suppliers to understand requirements, gather feedback, and build relationships.
- Event: Any change of state that has significance for the management of a CI or service.
- Practical Context: A notification from a monitoring tool, a system log entry, etc.
- Feedback Loop: Using output/result of an activity as input for subsequent actions.
- Practical Context: Using lessons learned from incidents to improve processes, using customer feedback to improve a service.
- Four Dimensions: Organizations & people; Information & technology; Partners & suppliers; Value streams & processes.
- Practical Context: The key areas to consider for a holistic view of service management in your organization.
- Goods: Tangible resources transferred to consumer (part of Service Offering).
- Practical Context: Hardware provided to a user (e.g., a laptop).
- Governance: System by which organization is directed and controlled. Includes Evaluate, Direct, Monitor.
- Practical Context: The oversight and decision-making structures that ensure IT activities align with business strategy.
- Guiding Principles: Recommendations guiding organizations in all circumstances; help adopt/adapt ITIL.
- Practical Context: The core values and recommendations that should guide your actions and decisions daily.
- Improve (SVC Activity): Ensure continual improvement of products, services, practices.
- Practical Context: The ongoing activity of identifying and implementing improvements.
- Incident: Unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in quality.
- Practical Context: Something is broken or not working as expected.
- Incident Management: Practice: Restore normal service operation ASAP. Log all incidents.
- Practical Context: The process your organization uses to handle and resolve service disruptions.
- Information Security Management: Practice: Protect organization's info (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability - CIA triad).
- Practical Context: Ensuring the security of information and systems you work with.
- IT Asset: Any financially valuable component that can contribute to delivery of an IT product/service.
- Practical Context: Hardware, software licenses, etc., that have financial value.
- IT Asset Management (ITAM): Practice: Plan/manage full lifecycle of IT assets (max value, control cost, manage risk).
- Practical Context: Tracking and managing the financial and lifecycle aspects of IT assets.
- Known Error (KE): Problem that has been analyzed and has not been resolved. Remains in KE status if no cost-effective fix.
- Practical Context: A diagnosed issue with a known cause and potentially a workaround, but no permanent fix yet.
- Monitoring and Event Management: Practice: Systematically observe services/components, record/report state changes (Events).
- Practical Context: Using tools to watch systems and services for changes in status.
Written byAlvin Varughese
Founder•15 professional certifications