Glossary

Phases

  • Service strategy – The Library IT service strategy highlights principles, strategic design, and core values that support the Library’s mission, as described by organizational objectives and customer needs. Every organizational asset, including people, services, and processes, should relate to the strategy. The service strategy informs the design, transition, and operation phases of the service life cycle.
  • Design – The design of the services, governing practices, processes, and policies required to realize the Library strategy, and to facilitate the introduction of services into production.
  • Transition – Ensures that new or modified services can be supported and documented as developed in the service strategy and service design stages, and aligns support expectations between IT and the service owner.
  • Support – Coordinates and carries out the activities and processes required to deliver and manage services at agreed levels to Library users and customers.
  • Continuous improvement – Ensures that services are aligned with changing Library needs by identifying and implementing improvements to IT services that support Library processes. Continuous improvement is a core stage for ITIL, but the Library is not including it in early stages of implementing service life cycle management.

Milestones

Status of the service in the service life cycle.

  • Ideation – Any concept for a technology or service that is new or different for the Library. These can come from individual investigators or units, or as part of research, innovation, assessment, or other grants.
  • Exploration – Early proof-of-concept work to explore the feasibility of a potential service or solution, and to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to the idea. May include sandbox, prototype, wireframe, container, etc. as proof of concept.
  • Development – A more organized commitment of development resources by the sponsoring unit, in coordination with Library IT.
  • Provision – Infrastructure resources are allocated to begin transitioning the service into production support.
  • Document – Collecting and preparing final documentation for configuration, installation, and support of the service, including final service commitment, and internal and public support documentation
  • Implement – Resources have been fully provisioned and tested for performance, security, monitoring, etc.
  • Manage and maintain – Addressing any incidents affecting the service, and any critical bugs as defined by the service commitment. Following established procedures for change control, regular patching, performance monitoring, etc.
  • Review – Regular evaluation of service effectiveness, including alignment with the service strategy and analysis of alternate ways of providing the service.

Decision points

Opportunities for evaluation at various points in the service life cycle, as the service moves through the various milestones.

  • Ideation – An expression of intent by an idea owner to spend time investigating an idea, captured in the format of a user story
  • Service charter – Creation of preliminary scope statement, schedule, budget, and resource estimates, and a problem statement or statement of purpose.
  • Service level decision – Drafting the necessary actions to support the service in production, or next steps if the service is to be supported at a level other than production.
  • Service commitment – Filling out the service commitment template with proof of documented processes, procedures, etc. The service commitment represents an agreement between the service owner and Library IT regarding service responsibilities and support.
  • Production acceptance – Formal transition of the service from development to IT production services
  • Service review – periodic review of active service commitments, evaluation of how well the service meets the Library service strategy, and how well the underlying technology supports the service

Utility

  • The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. “What does the service do?”

Warranty

  • Assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements. “How will the service be delivered?”

Service commitment

  • A document outlining what the service is, the intended audience, and relevant information for maintaining the service.

Roles

  • Idea owner – Person responsible for the early formation and exploration of an idea. The idea owner has a vested interest in developing and stewarding an idea into a project, and potentially a production service.
  • Service owner – A role responsible for stewarding one or more services throughout their entire lifecycle. Service owners are instrumental in the development of service strategy.
  • Application manager – A role responsible for technical management of a production service.
  • Stakeholder – A person who has a vested interest in an IT service or project. May include customers, partners, vendors, employees, etc.
  • End user – Intended audience that consumes the service on a day-to-day basis.
  • Technical support (via ITIL) – Responsible for providing technical skills in support of services, and management of the IT infrastructure. Defines the roles of support groups, as well as the tools, processes, and procedures required.
  • Project sponsor (via pmi.org) – Provides clear direction for the project and how it links with the organization’s overall strategy, and champions the project at the executive level to secure buy-in.

Service catalog

  • A document or system to document:
    • Pipeline services in development or under consideration;
    • Catalog of services currently in production;
    • Legacy services that are lightly supported or retired.

Service life cycle

  • IT Service Management (ITSM) implementation strategy emphasizing coordination and control of tools and technologies from inception, through development and maintenance, and into legacy support and retirement, based on the ITIL framework.

Governance

  • Dean of Libraries and Executive Committee

Administration

  • Procedure and process – Administrative Council
  • Policy – Executive Committee