Want to know what I do for CA? I think about Service Management,
specifically Service Level Management. I
don't just think about it, I create and test SLM scenarios, speak with
customers regarding SLM implementations and assist them with their
implementations and look for ways that SLM can integrate with other ITIL
processes. There is one thing that I
have found to be consistent with many of these initiatives and efforts: SLM is
difficult and challenging to implement.
After a conversation with some colleagues, I got to asking
myself, ‘self, why is SLM so difficult to implement?'
The answer that I came up with is in order to implement SLM,
an IT organization needs to have a few components in place before they can start
identifying, documenting and agreeing upon service levels, actually measuring
and reporting on them.
Challenge #1: The
first component that needs to be in place is the actual service
definition. As discussed in my
colleague Peter Doherty's blog, ‘What
nobody will tell you regarding defining Services in Service Management - Heresy
you say!', this can be quite a challenging task, because the guidelines for
defining a service are vague at best.
After working with many customers and other CA professionals, I can say that there is
still some debate about what a service should or should not be.
Challenge #2: Once
the challenge of defining the service offering has been conquered, the next component
is to identify and document the service levels for delivering the service
offering. As ITIL states, these service
levels should be SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic
- Timely
Here is where the challenge comes into play, how does the IT
organization do this? The IT
organization needs to determine if metrics are set up to measure and
support service levels. IT also needs to
know what their baselines are and over what time span or if they even exist.
Challenge #3: Once
the IT organization conquers Challenge #2, they need start reporting on the
service levels. This challenge has
always been interesting for me. This is
the challenge that forces the IT organization to look at its KPIs and address
the following sub-challenges:
- What data is needed to
evaluate the KPIs?
- Where is the data located
and how to gain access to this data?
- Who owns the data and how
to convince them to give access to this data?
- How load and normalize the
data so that it can be used?
From experience, addressing these sub-challenges can be
daunting and time consuming.
If your IT organization can conquer these challenges and
manage to put these components in place, your IT organization will be able to
implement SLM and show its value to the business.