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4.5.2. Glossary (N-Z)
- Obtain/Build (SVC Activity): Ensure service components are available / meet specs.
- Practical Context: Acquiring, building, or configuring service components (hardware, software).
- Operational Level Agreement (OLA): Agreement between a service provider and another part of the same organization that supports service delivery.
- Practical Context: Internal agreements between IT teams (e.g., network team commits to the application team).
- Opportunity: Input to SVS representing options to add value or improve.
- Practical Context: Ideas for new services, improvements, or efficiencies.
- Organization: Person/group with own functions, responsibilities, authorities, relationships to achieve its objectives.
- Practical Context: The company or entity you work for.
- Organizational Change Management (OCM): Managing the people aspects of change.
- Practical Context: Helping people adapt to new processes, tools, or structures. Distinct from technical change.
- Outcome: A result for a stakeholder, enabled by outputs.
- Practical Context: The actual benefit or result experienced by the user or business from a service.
- Output: Tangible/intangible deliverable from an activity.
- Practical Context: What a process or activity produces (e.g., a report, a deployed update).
- Partners and Suppliers (Dimension): Includes relationships, contracts.
- Practical Context: Cloud providers, software vendors, hardware suppliers, etc., that your organization works with.
- PESTLE: External factors (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental).
- Practical Context: External influences that can impact your organization and its services.
- Plan (SVC Activity): Ensure shared understanding of vision, status, improvement direction.
- Practical Context: Strategic and tactical planning for IT services and operations.
- Practice: Set of organizational resources for performing work/accomplishing objective.
- Practical Context: The specific capabilities and activities like Incident Management, Change Enablement, etc.
- Problem: Cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents.
- Practical Context: The underlying reason why incidents are happening.
- Problem Management: Practice: Reduce likelihood/impact of incidents via cause identification, managing workarounds/KEs. Phases: Identification, Control, Error Control. Prioritize based on risk.
- Practical Context: The process of investigating and addressing the root causes of incidents.
- Product: Configuration of resources designed to offer value.
- Practical Context: The internal IT building blocks that are combined to create service offerings.
- Relationship Management: Practice: Establish/nurture links between org and stakeholders (strategic/tactical).
- Practical Context: Building and maintaining effective working relationships with users, customers, and other teams.
- Release Management: Practice: Make new/changed services/features available for use.
- Practical Context: The process of packaging and preparing changes to be deployed.
- Risk: Possible event causing harm/loss or hindering objectives.
- Practical Context: Potential issues that could negatively impact services or projects.
- Service: Means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes.
- Practical Context: What IT provides to enable the business.
- Service Actions: Provider performing work for consumer (part of Service Offering).
- Practical Context: Specific tasks performed by IT as part of a service (e.g., performing a backup).
- Service Configuration Management: Practice: Ensure accurate/reliable info on CIs /relationships available.
- Practical Context: Managing information about the components that make up your services.
- Service Consumption: Activities performed by consumer to use services.
- Practical Context: How users and customers utilize IT services.
- Service Desk: Practice: Capture demand; provide SPOC for users. Needs business understanding. Handles queries/requests.
- Practical Context: The primary point of contact for users needing help or requesting services.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA): Documented agreement between a service provider and a customer identifying services and expected service levels.
- Practical Context: The formal commitment to business stakeholders on service performance.
- Service Level Management (SLM): Practice: Set clear business-based targets (SLAs); ensure performance assessed/monitored/managed. Identifies CX metrics. Uses metric bundles.
- Practical Context: Managing expectations and monitoring the performance of services against agreed targets.
- Service Offering: Description of service(s) for target group; includes Goods, Access to Resources, Service Actions.
- Practical Context: The defined packages of services available to customers.
- Service Provision: Activities performed by provider to deliver services.
- Practical Context: The activities carried out by the IT department to make services available.
- Service Relationship Management: Joint activities by provider/consumer for continual value co-creation.
- Practical Context: Collaboration between IT and the business to ensure services meet needs and deliver value.
- Service Request: Request from user for pre-defined action (info, advice, resource, access). NOT incident resolution.
- Practical Context: A standard request from a user (e.g., requesting software installation, password reset).
- Service Request Management: Practice: Handle pre-defined, user-initiated requests. Relies on processes. Handles feedback/complaints.
- Practical Context: The process for managing and fulfilling standard user requests.
- Service Value Chain (SVC): Operating model; 6 activities representing steps organization takes to create value.
- Practical Context: The operational heart of the SVS, showing how value is delivered.
- Service Value System (SVS): Describes how components/activities work together for value co-creation. Components: Principles, Governance, SVC, Practices, CI.
- Practical Context: The holistic picture of how your organization creates value through services.
- Sponsor: Role that authorizes budget.
- Practical Context: The person who approves funding for services or projects.
- Standard Change: Low-risk, pre-authorized change, well understood, documented. Often fulfilled via SRM.
- Practical Context: Routine, low-impact changes that don't require full approval each time (e.g., adding a user to a distribution list).
- Supplier Management: Practice: Manage suppliers/performance for seamless service provision.
- Practical Context: Managing relationships and agreements with external service providers.
- Underpinning Contract (UC): Contract between a service provider and an external supplier that supports service delivery.
- Practical Context: Agreements with third-party vendors (e.g., cloud provider SLAs, maintenance contracts).
- User: Person who uses services. Submits Service Requests.
- Practical Context: The individuals who interact directly with IT services.
- Utility: Functionality offered ('what it does').
- Practical Context: The features and capabilities of a service.
- Value: Perceived benefits, usefulness, importance. Co-created.
- Practical Context: The ultimate goal of service management – what the service enables for stakeholders.
- Value Stream: Series of steps (using SVC activities/practices) to create/deliver products/services for specific scenario.
- Practical Context: The actual workflow for delivering a specific service or fulfilling a request.
- Warranty: Assurance service meets agreed requirements ('how it performs'). Affected by performance issues.
- Practical Context: Reliability, availability, performance, and security of a service.
Written byAlvin Varughese
Founder•15 professional certifications