ITIL® Foundation Certification Notes : Service Transition : Processes

1. 1) Cover everything from configuration items (servers, infrastructure, documentation, services and configuration), management systems and tools, processes, metrics, solution and architecture from design strategy to continual service management excluding organization and business changes, and minor operational changes.

2. 2) Manage all changes in a controlled manner on all levels (strategic, tactical and operational) by making reference to the service portfolio.

3. 3) Change management is not responsible for the coordination of processes for the successful implementation of projects. This will be handled through the planning and transition support process.

D) Types of change request

There are three service change types they are: Standard, Emergency and Normal.

1. 1) Standard Change: A pre-authorized change that is low risk, relatively common and follows a procedure or work instruction.

2. 2) Emergency Change: A change that must be implemented as soon as possible, for example to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch.

3. 3) Normal Change: Any service change that is not a standard change or an emergency change. Normal changes are often categorized into three types:

   1. Minor change - authorized by change management staff directly.

   2. Significant change - requires advice from change advisory board (CAB)

   3. Major change - requires change proposal, business management approval

E) Change models

Change model is a repeatable way of dealing with a particular category of change. Change Models defines specific agreed steps that will be followed for a change of this category. Change models may be very complex with many steps that require authorization (e.g. major software release) or may be very simple with no requirement for authorization (e.g. password reset).

Change models include:

1. 1) Steps to handle the change, including issues and unexpected events.

2. 2) Order steps should be taken, with dependences or co-processing defined

3. 3) Responsibilities - who should do what?

4. 4) Timescales and thresholds for completion of the actions.

5. 5) Escalation procedures - who should be contacted and when

F) Remediation Planning

Remediation is an action taken to recover after a failed change or release. Remediation may include back-out, invocation of service continuity plans, or other actions designed to enable the business process to continue.

G) Change Advisory Board and Emergency Change Advisory Board

Change Advisory Board:

1. 1) A group of people that supports the assessment, prioritization, authorization and scheduling of changes.

2. 2) A change advisory board is usually made up of representatives from: all areas within the

IT service provider; the business; and third parties such as suppliers.

Emergency Change Advisory Board

1. 1) A subgroup of the change advisory board that makes decisions about emergency changes.

2. 2) Membership may be decided at the time a meeting is called, and depends on the nature of the emergency change.

H) Lifecycle of a Normal change

The Change Management Process consists of seven high-level activities specifically developed to manage the life cycle of change requests. Typical activities in managing individual changes are:

1. 1) Create and record the Request for Change (RFC).

2. 2) Review the RFC

   1. a) Filter changes (e.g. incomplete or wrongly routed changes)

3. 3) Assess and evaluate the change

   1. a) Establish the appropriate level of change authority

   2. b) Establish relevant areas of interest (i.e. who should be involved in the CAB)

   3. c) Evaluate justification, impact, cost, benefits, risks, and predicted performance

   4. d) Submit a request for evaluation to initiate activity from the change evaluation

4. 4) Authorize the change

   1. a) Obtain authorization/rejection

   2. b) Communicate the decision with all stakeholders, in particular the RFC initiator

5. 5) Plan updates

6. 6) Coordinate change implementation

7. 7) Review and close change

   1. a) Collate the change documentation, e.g. baselines and evaluation reports

   2. b) Review the change(s) and change documentation

   3. c) Ensure lessons learned details are recorded in the SKMS

   4. d) Close the change document when all actions are completed

5.6.2 Release and Deployment Management Process

Release and Deployment management is a process responsible for planning, scheduling and controlling the build, test and deployment of releases, and for delivering new functionality required by the business while protecting the integrity of existing services.

In the Release and Deployment management process different considerations apply in respect of the way in which the release is deployed. The most frequently occurring options for the rollout of releases are: "big bang" versus phased, "push and pull", automated or manual.

A) Purpose of Release and Deployment Management Process

1. 1) The purpose is to ensure that consistent and integral release packages are deployed in line with agreed policy and with plans agreed with the customers and stakeholders, and that this takes place under full and effective control.

2. 2) Any associated business and business process changes, including training and skills transfer, must be managed to take place in a timescale that is aligned with the release timetable.

B) Objectives of Release and Deployment Management Process

1. 1) The objective of release and deployment management is to build, test and deliver the capability to provide the services specified by service design.

2. 2) to define and agree on deployment plan with stakeholders

3. 3) Create and test release packages

4. 4) Maintain the integrity of the release packages and ensure that they are secured in DML.

5. 5) Ensure the new / changed services meets utility and warranty needs

6. 6) Capture lessons learned

7. 7) Ensure that skills and knowledge are transferred to operations and support staff

C) Scope of Release and Deployment Management Process

1. 1) The processes, systems, and functions required to deliver a release into production

2. 2) Build, ensure testing and deploy the release to the utility and warranty requirements

3. 3) Handover of service to operation teams

4. 4) Manage all CIs and things related to the release.

D) Four phases of Release and Deployment Management Process

The process activities of release and deployment management are:

1. 1) Release and Deployment Planning - begins with planning a release and ends with change authorization to create the release

2. 2) Release Build and Test - the release package is built, tested, and checked into the DML, end with authorization to include the package in DML

3. 3) Deployment - deploy the package from DML and handover of service to operation, early life support might be needed for faster response and knowledge transfer

4. 4) Review and Close - experience and feedback are captured, performance targets, achievements are reviewed and lessons are learned

5.6.3 Knowledge Management Process

Knowledge Management is a process responsible for sharing perspectives, ideas, experience and information, and for ensuring that these are available in the right place and at the right time. The knowledge management process enables informed decisions, and improves efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge.

A) Purpose of Knowledge Management Process

The purpose of Knowledge Management is to ensure that the right person has the right knowledge at the right time to enable them to make sensible decisions about courses of action.

B) Objectives of Knowledge Management Process

1. 1) Improve the quality of management decision-making by ensuring that reliable and secure knowledge, information and data is available throughout the service lifecycle

2. 2) Enable the service provider to be more efficient and improve quality of service, increase satisfaction and reduce the cost of service by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge

3. 3) Ensure staff have a clear and common understanding of the value their services provide to customers and ways in which benefits are realized from use of services

4. 4) Maintain a service knowledge management system (SKMS) that provides controlled access to knowledge, information and data that is appropriate for each audience

5. 5) Gather, analyze, store, share, use and maintain knowledge, information and data throughout the service provider organization

C) Scope of Knowledge Management Process

1. 1) the management of data and information across the service management processes share of information with customers and users

2. 2) NOT including the detailed collection and maintenance (in Service Asset and Configuration Management)

D) Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to-Wisdom (DIKW) structure
Knowledge Management is typically displayed within the Data-to-Information-to-Knowledge-to Wisdom (DIKW) structure.

1. 1) Data -- discrete facts about Events. Most organizations capture significant amounts of data in highly structured databases such as service management and service asset and configuration management tools/systems and databases.

2. 2) Information - comes from providing context to data. Information is typically stored in semi-structured content such as documents, email and multimedia. The key knowledge management activity around information is managing the content in a way that makes it easy to capture, query, find, re-use and learn from experiences so that mistakes are not repeated and work is not duplicated.

3. 3) Knowledge - includes tacit experiences, ideas, insights, values, and judgments of individuals. People gain knowledge both from their own and from their peers expertise, as well as from the analysis of information

4. 4) Wisdom - makes use of knowledge to create value through correct and well-informed decisions. Wisdom involves having the application and contextual awareness to provide strong common-sense judgment.

E) Service knowledge Management System (SKMS)

SKMS is a set of tools and databases that are used to manage knowledge and information. The SMKS includes the Configuration Management System, as well as other tools and databases. The SKMS stores, manages, updates and presents all information that an IT Service Provider needs to manage the full Lifecycle of IT Services.

One very important part of the SKMS is the configuration management system (CMS). The CMS describes the attributes and relationships of configuration items, many of which are themselves knowledge, information or data assets stored in the SKMS.