It is a core tenet of ITIL that to be under control, a service management process requires three things:
• a process owner accountable for the process;
• a process policy that describes the organisation’s framework for managing the process;
• a set of clear objectives for the process.
At a high level, ITIL describes what needs to be done to keep processes and activities under control. Being a generic framework intended to be applicable to all organisations in all industry sectors of all sizes and operating in both commercial and non-profit making environments, ITIL is less specific on how these activities should be managed. The reason for this is that organisations can adopt the generic framework but should tailor it to their specific needs.
The policy document that is a basic prerequisite for each process therefore describes how the process will operate specifically for your organisation. It is created and owned by the process owner. The intention of this section is to provide guidance on the contents and structure of the policy.
The purpose of the policy is to promote the efficient, effective and consistent application of good process practice throughout the organisation and wherever the process is undertaken. The management of the day-to-day process activities is the responsibility of the process manager or managers who will operate the activities in accordance with the policy.
An example policy document is shown below.
SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT PROCESS POLICY
Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to promote the efficient, effective and consistent application of leading practice principles to the organisation’s service level management activities as contained within the ITIL framework.
This policy therefore describes how the organisation’s service level management activities will be conducted wherever they occur. This will ensure a standard approach that represents the optional methods that the organisation deems appropriate for its needs.
Scope of service level management
The scope of the service level management process includes the following activities:
• defining and documenting customers’ service level requirements;
• analysing and reviewing the requirements to derive the feasibility, cost and time frame to meet the requirements and to determine the dependency on other internal functions and external organisations;
• negotiating the service levels applicable to each service;
• constructing the service level agreements (SLAs) and operational level agreements (OLAs) with internal departments, and contracts with external supplier organisations;
• provisioning support to supplier management to ensure that supplier contracts are aligned with the service levels in the SLA;
• assisting with the design and maintenance of the service catalogue;
• monitoring, measuring and reporting of service level achievements;
• conducting service review meetings with business representatives to identify improvement opportunities for inclusion on the CSI register and managing appropriate service improvement programmes;
• developing and documenting contacts and relationships with the business, customers and other stakeholders, in cooperation with business relationship management;
• logging and managing complaints and compliments, in coordination with business relationship management;
• updating or renegotiating the SLAs at the request of either party or in response to an external trigger;
• periodically reviewing the SLAs for relevance and applicability and revising the SLAs as necessary;
• terminating an SLA.
Objectives of service level management
The objectives of the process are as follows.
• Define, document, agree, monitor, measure, report and review the level of IT services.
• Provide and improve the relationship and communication with the business and customers in conjunction with business relationship management.
• Ensure that specific and measureable service levels are developed for all IT services (as defined in the service catalogue).
• Monitor and improve customer satisfaction with the quality of service delivered.
• Ensure that IT and the customer have a clear and unambiguous expectation of the level of service to be delivered.
• Ensure that even when all agreed service levels are met, the levels of service delivered are subject to proactive, cost-effective, continual improvement.
SLA structure
SLAs will be customer-based, that is, there will be one SLA per customer, to include all of the services used by that customer. In addition, each customer SLA will include information about the corporate services available to all customers.
Process activities
The activities associated with the process are shown in Figure 1. It also defines the responsibilities of the various stakeholders.
[Figure 1 would be a process flow chart included here, with swim lanes to indicate responsibilities.]
Key performance indicators
The key performance indicators (KPIs) that are used to measure the performance of the process are as follows:
• percentage of business units with whom IT has a signed and current SLA;
• percentage of services in the service catalogue for which there is an SLA;
• percentage of service review meetings conducted on time in the last 12 months;
• percentage of SLAs that have been reviewed at least once in the past 12 months;
• percentage of SLA reports issued on time in the last 12 months;
• number of customer complaints received in the last 12 months concerning the service level management process;
• percentage reduction in service levels missed over the last 12 months;
• percentage reduction in service levels missed over the last 12 months that were attributable to third party suppliers;
• percentage increase in the survey responses that indicate satisfaction, or better, with the process.
Roles and responsibilities
[The relevant roles and responsibilities would be defined here, including SLM, customers, supplier manager and so on.]