WorkProductDescriptor
Work Product (Artifact): IT Services Strategy
The IT Services Strategy work product describes the desired future strategic set of IT services and how they would be provided to satisfy the business' requirements.
Purpose

The purpose of the IT Services Strategy is to identify the essential IT services that are required to support the future business model and to describe how they will be provided. It is necessary to understand the services that are to be provided in order to subsequently determine what IT capabilities are required and how those capabilities should be enabled or sourced.   

Therefore this work product is necessary to subsequently identify the enabling processes, organization and technology that must be designed and implemented in order to construct and deliver the required IT services.

Relationships
RolesResponsible: Modified By:
Description
Main Description

The IT Services Strategy work product describes the desired future strategic set or portfolio of IT services that must be provided to satisfy the business' requirements and describes the individual services making up that future service portfolio or service model.

An IT service is a specific IT function or output, performed on behalf of or in support of a consumer, that provides measurable value. Services are a basis for doing business with the consumer of IT services, require an understanding of their needs, and are delivered through a series of implemented activities.

An IT service brings together elements of process, organization and technology. The detailed service definitions show:

  • The activities, from one or more processes, that are executed in delivering the service;
  • The service roles or participants responsible for executing those activities;
  • The tools or information technology used to automate the execution of activities and deliver their results.

The IT services strategy describes the set of services that are to be provided and the way in which those services are grouped or categorized. The scope and granularity of the service model will depend greatly on the perspective being taken and the context within which the service model and service definitions are being created. The level of detail necessary in the service definition will vary considerably depending on the audience for that description and the purpose for which it is being created. For example, the IT Service model and service definitions used by a CIO or business executive to facilitate analysis of outsourcing options will be at a much higher level than the service definitions required by the first line IT manager responsible for defining and implementing service workflows.

Brief Outline

The IT Services Strategy may have several components, each of which may use a different notation.

The IT services portfolio will generally be a textual document with supporting diagrams. It will provide a high level model of the service groupings or categories. It may perhaps suggest a hierarchy of service groups, services and service elements depending on the scope and objectives of the engagement. Typically, a context diagram that shows the relationships between the service groups or the hierarchy of services will accompany the textual description of the model.

For the IT services which are identified as the focus of the project a textual service definition will be produced. There are a series of elements suggested below which may go into the service definition. Depending on the project scope and objectives it may not be necessary to define all these attributes of the required IT services. In subsequent stages of the design and implementation life cycle additional work products will be produced which will decompose the service portfolio and specify the services in greater detail.

There may sometimes be a series a of interim supporting outputs that document the processes and criteria that were used to develop the strategic IT service portfolio and to evaluate and select between alternate solution approaches.

Service Definition - Consumer View

From a consumer's perspective, the definition of a service should include:

  • Name - A noun/verb format is suggested, both to provide focus on the result (the noun) desired by the consumer, and to distinguish it from a functional process (which has a verb/noun format). Where possible, the name should reflect the service scope.
  • Description
  • Scope
    • In scope
    • Out of scope
    • Triggers
  • Assumptions
  • Policies
  • Principles
  • Identification of responsibilities
    • Consumers
    • Business Owner
    • Contacts
  • Success Criteria
  • Levels of Delivery
    • Quality Items
    • Timing (when, how often)
    • Availability
    • Performance
    • Security (Integrity and Confidentiality)
    • Business Volumes
  • Deliverable/product

Service Definition - Provider view
From a provider's perspective, the definition of a service should include the following:

  • Identification of responsibilities
    • Service Owner
    • Provider (organization(s)
    • Owner (individual)
    • Contacts
    • Support Groups
  • Objectives
  • Measurements
  • Participating processes and activities
  • Supporting services required
  • Procedure links (physical implementation level only)
  • Flows
    • Activities
    • Tasks
    • Roles
    • Timing
    • Sequence
    • Interfaces
  • Required Infrastructure
    • Tools
    • Information stores
    • Capabilities
  • Dependencies
Properties
Optional
Planned
Key Considerations

The IT Services Strategy could potentially lead to significant changes to the set of IT services provided and the way in which they are sourced and delivered. As a consequence it could have far-reaching implications for the IT organization, it's skills, processes and tools.

Tailoring
Impact of not havingThe IT service definitions provide the basis for the establishing the relationship between IT and the business - the consumer of IT services. Without this work product it will be much more difficult to adequately describe and understand the IT services that the business needs or expects and the levels of performance which are required. Consequently, it will be more difficult to establish an agreement on the conditions under which the services are to be provided and on the responsibilities of the involved parties.