Management of IT Environment (6)
Riadenie IT prostredia
ITIL: Service Transition
Martin Sarnovský
Department of Cybernetics and AI, FEI TU Košice
IT Mnagement (6)
LS 2013/2014
1
Content
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Service Transition
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Goal, inputs and outputs, list of processes,
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Purpose, goals, scope,
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Context, interfaces, principles
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Services as business assets.
Service Transition Processes
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Service transition planning,
Change management,
Configuration and service assets management,
Release and deployment management,
Validation and testing services,
Evaluation,
Knowledge management.
IT Mnagement (6)
LS 2013/2014
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Service Transition
Service transition = step in IT service life cycle:
Goal: delivery of operating service for targeted businesses.
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Input: Service Design Package (documents), which was created
during the design phase of service,
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Output: delivery of all parts and components of service in operational
conditions for next phase: Service Operation.
Included processes:
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Service transition planning,
Change management,
Configuration and service assets management,
Release and deployment management,
Validation and testing services
Evaluation,
Knowledge management,
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Service Transition Purposes
Phase of service transition should provide:
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Planning and management of capacity (necessary resources) and
deployment of service (i.e. development, testing, release, ...),
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Consistent framework for evaluation of service options and risks
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Integrity of all service assets defined by Service Transition,
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Quality knowledge and information for change, release and
deployment management,
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Effective and reusable / generic installation mechanism,
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Service maintenance in accordance with demands specified in
phase of Service Design.
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Service Transition Scope
Continual Service Improvement
Change Management
RFC
RFC
RFC
RFC
RFC
Requests for
Change
RFC
Service Asset & Configuration Management
BL
BL
BL
BL
BL
BL
Points to capture
Baselines
BL
Service Transition Planning & Support
Oversee management of organization & stakeholder change
Evaluation of a Change or Service
Eval
Service
Strategy
Service
Design
Plan &
prepare
release
Build
&
test
Eval
Service
testing &
pilots
Points to evaluate
the Service Design
Eval
Plan &
prepare for
deployment
Transfer,
deploy,
retire
Review &
close
service
transition
Service
Operation
Early Life Support
Release & Deployment Management
Service Validation & Testing
Knowledge Management
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Service Transition Life-Cycle
Input: Service Design Package (documents)
Life-cycle phases:
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Acquiring and testing of input configuration units and components.
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Build and testing,
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Service release testing,
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Operational readiness testing,
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Deployment,
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Early life support – support provided during initial stages deployment,
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Service Transition evaluation and termination.
Output: provision of all service components in fully operational state for
Service Operation Phase.
IT Mnagement (6)
LS 2013/2014
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Service Transition Processes
Processes included in Service Transition Phase:
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1. Service transition planning,
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2. Change management,
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3. Configuration and service assets management,
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4. Release and deployment management,
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5. Validation and testing services
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6. Evaluation,
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7. Knowledge management.
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1. Service Transition Planning
Purpose and Goals of service transition planning:
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Capacity and resource planning for development, implementation, release,
testing and deployment of service into operation,
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Team support for team realizing service transition i.e. workers who personally
realize activities of service transition ,
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Change planning, to ensure integrity of customer assets, activity configuration
and assets and their management during service transition,
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Securing reports of transition process, risks and differences pre for all relevant
involved parties, mainly employees holding key managerial posts,
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Project activity coordination, coordination of developers and providers,
Effective Service Transition Planning Includes:
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Definition and application of Service Transition Policy.
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Definition of Release Policy.
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2. Configuration and Asset Management
Management of Service
Configuration and Assets:
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Process responsible for
configuration management
and assets management:
Configuration Management:
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Process responsible for storage of
information about Configuration Items
(CI) required for provision of IT service
and their (CI) relationship.
Assets Management:
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Process responsible for tracking and reporting of financial assets value and
ownership during their life-cycle.
IT Mnagement (6)
LS 2013/2014
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Configuration Item
Definition: Configuration Item (CI):
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Any component, which needs to be managed (directed, administered)
as a part of IT service provision.
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Information about every CI is recorded in Configuration Management
System and they are stored during whole life-cycle of Configuration
Management.
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Configuration Management is part of a process number 3 of Service
Transition: Management of Service Configuration and Asset.
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CIs are managed by Change management.
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CIs typically includes IT services, hardware, software, buildings, human
resources and formal documentation e.g. process documentation and
SLA.
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Configuration Item
Definition: Configuration Item (CI):
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Any component, which needs to be managed (directed, administered)
as a part of IT service provision.
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Information about every CI is recorded in Configuration Management
System and they are stored during whole life-cycle of Configuration
Management.

CIs typically includes IT services, hardware, software, buildings, human
resources and formal documentation e.g. process documentation and
SLA.
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CI scope – from complete service or system (including the components,
HW, SW, etc.) to SW modules, HW parts
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Configurational Hierarchy – model of the infrastructure
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CMDB: Configuration Database
Definition: Configuration Management Database, CMDB
 Database used to store configuration records during their whole
life-cycle
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Configuration management system stores one or more CMDB,
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Every CMDB stores CI attributes and their relations to other CIs.
Definition: Configuration Record
 Record which contains details about Configuration Item.
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Every configuration record contains information about one CI life-cycle.
Life-cycle
example: asset
and CI
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CMDB: Configuration Database
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ITIL definition – approved configuration of IT environment components
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Goal of CMDB – to help the organization to understand the relations
and associations between the components and to monitor their
configuration (state)
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Logical/data model of the Configuration Records
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Usually described by these attributes:
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Technical
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Ownership
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Relations
.
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Configuration Management System
Definition: Configuration Management System (CMS)
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Package of tools and databases which are used for Configuration Item
management by IT service provider.
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CMS also contains information about incidents, problems, known bugs,
changes and releases.
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CMS may contain information about employees, providers, locations,
business units, customers and users.
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CMS includes tools for acquiring, storing, management, actualization
and presentation of Configuration Items and their relationship.
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CMS is maintained configuration management, which is used by all IT
service management processes.
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Configuration System Management - Example
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3. Change Management
Change Management
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Process responsible for operational
management of life-cycle of all
changes.
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Main goal of Change Management
is to realize useful IT service
changes during least possible IT
service downtime.
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Change
Change arise from:
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Proactive, e.g. by finding new possibilities of gaining business
advantage: cost reduction, service enhancement, efficiency
enhancement ...
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Reactive, as response to bugs / failures or as adaptation to business
environment changes.
Goals of Change Management:
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Risk optimalization, in line with business risk optimalization.
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Minimize count of necessary changes to services / infrastructure.
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Success at first trial.
Definition: Service Change
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Addition, change, or removal of approved, planned or supported IT
service or service component (documentation included).
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Change Risk Estimation
Goal: Business Impact of Change Analysis
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Method: Indicators quantifying scope of downtime / time needed for
change realization.
Definition: Mean Time to Restore Service (MTRS)
 Mean time needed to restore Configuration Item or IT service after failure.
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MTRS is measured from failure of Configuration Item or IT service until its
full restoration and provision of normal functionality.
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Other indicators: MTTR - Mean Time to Repair, MTBF - Mean Time
Between Failure, ...
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Requests for Change - RFC
Definition: Requests for Change (RFC)
 Formal proposal for change execution.
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Request for Change contains detailed information about proposed
change and can be recorded on physical or electronic medium.
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Term Request for Change is often used incorrectly referring to Change
Record, or to express notion of “change”.
RFC types:
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RFC document (physical / electronic),
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Service Desk call,
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Project initiation document, etc.
IT organization should choose adequate approach and scope of formal
expression / documentation of RFC (e.g. based on particular degree of
complexity of particular change).
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Change Management Workflow
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4. Release and Deployment Management
Release and Deployment Management:
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Process responsible for Release and Deployment Management.
Release Management:
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Process responsible for
planning, creating schedules
and management of release
transfer into: testing and
operational environment.
Main goal is to ensure
integrity of operational
environment and that right
components are used.
Deployment (Rollout):
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Activity responsible for transfer of new or changed hardware, software,
documentation, process etc. into operational environment.
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Release Policy
Service Release Types:
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Major releases – extensive expansion, new functionality, bug fixes.
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Minor releases – lesser expansions and fixes, some of them possibly included
in previously released emergency releases.
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Emergency releases – fix to small number of known bugs and problems, i.e.
expansion towards critical business requirements.
Service Release Responsibility Matrix (RACI model):
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5. Validation And Testing
Goal: to ensure quality of provided service.
Strategy: Transformation of service design outputs into testing
requirements, selection of appropriate test combination to include all
risks, acceptation criteria defines test inputs and outputs.
Validation and testing process example:
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6. Evaluation
Definition: Evaluation
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Process responsible for evaluation
of new or changed IT services.
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Ensures, that risks were considered
and helps decide if change should
be implemented.
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Evaluation is also process of
comparison between planned and
actual outputs, or comparison of
possible alternative solutions.
IT Mnagement (6)
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7. Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management:
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Process responsible for acquiring,
analyzing, storing and sharing of
knowledge and information in
organization.
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Main purpose of Knowledge
Management is to improve efficiency
by reducing necessary knowledge
refresh rate. .
Service Knowledge Management System, SKMS:
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Tools and databases, which are used to manage knowledge and information.
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SKMS includes Configuration Management System + additional tools, databases.
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SKMS stores, manages, actualizes and presents all information, which are needed
by IT service provider to manage whole IT service life-cycle.
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Questions?
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