Chapter 30
Implementation and Improvement of Service Transition

THE FOLLOWING ITIL INTERMEDIATE EXAM OBJECTIVES ARE DISCUSSED IN THIS CHAPTER:

  • ✓  The key activities in the introduction of service transition
  • ✓  How to adopt an integrated approach to service transition processes
  • ✓  Implementing service transition in a virtual or cloud environment

The learning objective for this chapter is to gain sufficient knowledge of service transition principles, techniques, and relationships to be able to understand how these are applied to ensure new, modified, or retired services meet the expectations of the business.

The Key Activities in the Introduction of Service Transition

Unless setting up an entirely new service provider organization (in what is known as a greenfield situation), we are seldom in the position of implementing service transition processes from scratch; even badly run organizations will have some process for introducing new services, however inadequate. In the vast majority of cases, we shall be attempting to improve current processes. The ITIL Continual Service Improvement publication provides guidance on assessing the current approach to service transition processes and establishing the most effective and efficient improvements to make, prioritized according to the business benefit. The syllabus for the ITIL CSI Intermediate exam, which covers this guidance, is covered in Part 5 of this book, in Chapters 43–50. The CSI approach to implementing improvements, as shown in Figure 30.1, should be used. We have seen this diagram before; the CSI approach applies to all stages of the service lifecycle.

Flow diagram shows six questions associated with business vision and objectives, baseline assessments, measurable targets, service and process improvements, and measurements and metrics.

Figure 30.1 Steps to improving the service transition processes

Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2010. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS.

Introducing new or improved service transition processes will mean a significant organizational change. It should also improve the services delivered by the service provider. Logically, the guidance on delivering new or changed services contained in the ITIL Intermediate Service Transition course (which is covered in this section of the book) applies to introducing service transition itself. Although, as we have said, this is seldom carried out from scratch, implementing improvements to service transition is itself a service transition exercise. It will result in a change to how services are delivered by the service provider, and as with any transition, this carries a risk of disruption unless done carefully.

The key activities in the introduction of service transition are as follows:

  • Justifying service transition
  • Designing the service transition components
  • Introducing the components to the organization
  • Delivering the service (business as usual)

We are going to look at each of these in turn, but first you should note that the preceding list conforms to the usual service lifecycle; the justification stage is strategy, the design stage is design, introduction of components is transition, and business as usual is operation. Once implemented, the process will be subject to continual service improvement.

Justifying Service Transition

Effective service transition is essential if the service provider is to deliver quality services to the business. Transition delivers the design into day-to-day operations. If service transitions are executed successfully, the processes behind that delivery are invisible to customers; this means that they do not understand the importance of ensuring that these processes are properly resourced. A failed service transition will highlight a lack of or inadequate processes, but the challenge is to show the business how important they are, without having to “prove” it through a failed transition. To win the support of stakeholders for the implementation or improvement of service transition, the service provider must show them the benefits of such an initiative. The benefits should be quantified as far as possible, showing the balance between the impact to the business (negative and positive) and the cost. The negative impact of delayed implementation should be emphasized.

To justify improvement, the service provider may need to provide evidence of the costs that have resulted from previous failed changes, such as budget overruns and the number and impact of errors found in live running that could have been detected during test transition.

Designing Service Transition

The design of service transition should ensure that all the required legislative standards and policies are incorporated. Examples of such requirements include Sarbanes-Oxley regulations and/or the rules governing organizations responsible for the management of credit card payments.

Relationships

The new or changed IT service will often be there to support new business practices. In many situations, service transition must work together with parts of the organization that are transitioning other elements of a business change, such as HR, facilities management, education, and training. The processes should facilitate these relationships. The implementation of the business change can involve many parties, so it is essential that ownership of each component of the overall service is clear.

In addition to these other internal support services, service transition includes working with other stakeholders:

  • Program and project management. Many large transitions involve specialist project and program management staff, using processes frameworks such as PRINCE2 or the PMBOK Guide. Service transition will form part of the overall project and will need to adhere to the requirements of the project management framework in terms of reporting and agreeing on the deliverables and milestones.
  • Internal development teams and external suppliers. Service transition will need to choose a method of raising defects such as errors found during testing with these groups.
  • Customers/users. It is essential that customers and users are communicated with properly to manage their expectations and to let them know what will be happening and when. This process can be helped by formulating a strategic stakeholder contact map. Often this communication will be routed through business relationship management or service level management.
  • IT stakeholders. These could include staff involved in IT service continuity management, network management, security, and other areas as appropriate.
  • Non-IT stakeholders within the organization such as facilities management, HR, and physical security.
  • External stakeholders, such as landlords and regulatory bodies.

Budget and Resources

Although service transition provides an overall net benefit to the organization in that it saves the disruption and expense of failed changes, it has to be funded itself. The service transition strategy needs to address who provides the funding and the level of funding that is required. For example, service transition requires an infrastructure including testing environments, a CMS, and an SKMS.

The costing of transition objectives must be an integral part of design, whatever the funding mechanism may be, and will involve service transition and customers working with design.

The responsibility for the provision of the resources required by service transition must also be decided. These resources will include staff, test data, and network resources. The maintenance of the test environment is a significant cost item, but failure to fund this adequately or to provide the staff resources required will lead to inadequate testing, with the consequential risk of failed changes.

Introduction of the Components to the Organization

Careful consideration should be given to the introduction of service transition to existing projects. It will be practical to introduce these processes only when the project is at the transition stage, rather than attempting to “retrofit” the desired practices at an earlier stage. When bringing existing projects into the new process, the conversion from old to new process should be considered. This transition from one process to another needs to take place without risking the successful transition of the project. The conversion from old to new should be designed (and tested where possible) as part of the design responsibility.

Cultural Change

Even if procedures already exist, formalizing them may meet with resistance and will involve a degree of cultural change.

The support of service transition staff and those supporting and being supported by service transition need to understand why the changes to procedures are being made, the benefits to themselves and to the organization, and how their roles will change. A cultural change program is required that addresses all stakeholders. This should continue throughout and after transition to ensure that the changed attitudes are firmly embedded.

Risk and Value

As with all transitions, decisions around transitioning should be made only with a full understanding of the expected risks and benefits. Alienation of support staff, excessive costs to the business, and unacceptable delays to business benefits are all examples of possible risks. Measures of the benefits resulting from service transition might include customer and user satisfaction, reduced incident and failure rates for transitioned services, and reduced cost of transitioning.

The risks and beneficial values require a baseline of the current situation if the changes are to be measurable.

Delivering the Service (Business as Usual)

During the initial period immediately after the new processes are introduced, there should be extra support provided to ensure that staff have the guidance they need until the processes are fully understood and embedded. This early life support is a feature of all types of service transition. Following the successful introduction of service transition processes, the processes should be used for all transitions. Reporting the benefits of each transition should help to win over those who were previously unconvinced because in operation these benefits can be proved. There will be a need to adjust the processes over time to better fit the requirements, and this should be done in conjunction with continual service improvement.

An Integrated Approach to Service Transition Processes

The processes involved in the service transition stage of the service lifecycle are inter-independent. The relationships between them are complex, and it is not possible to design and implement them separately. The diagram in Figure 30.2 is a simplified example of the steps that might be required for a single service transition.

Diagram shows processes such as transition planning and support, change management and evaluation, service asset and configuration management, release and deployment management, and service validation and testing.

Figure 30.2 An example of a path through the processes that might be required for a single service transition

Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2010. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS.

An integrated plan for introduction or improvement of service transition processes must consider how the processes fit together and the roles and responsibilities of all those involved. It must match the inputs, outputs, and triggers of each process step with the corresponding steps in other processes. Such a plan would include the following items:

  • A clear understanding of how the processes will work together in practice for different types of transition.
  • Each required input will be the output of another process step.
  • Each activity should have accountable and responsible roles defined and people to fill those roles.
  • The critical success factors (CSFs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and metrics should work together to support the objectives of the organization.
  • Any improvements to one process will still integrate with other processes, including where those processes have been improved.

Implementing Service Transition in a Virtual or Cloud Environment

Implementing virtualization or cloud architectures will have an impact on how an organization manages the design, implementation, and operation of service transition. These technologies pose particular challenges due to the dynamic nature of the environments involved. They often require rapid provisioning of new virtual servers or migration of virtual servers between hosts to support changing workloads. Many activities such as the following examples will be automated:

  • The creation, deployment, and retirement of virtual servers
  • Adding physical resources to increase capacity to an existing virtual server
  • Moving a virtual server from one physical server to another to allow maintenance activities

The automation required in virtual and cloud environments can be an opportunity but may also cause difficulties when implementing service transition processes. The challenges will need to be understood, and the processes need to be designed to work under such circumstances. This may necessitate more sophisticated tools, which will then need to integrate with the existing tools.

Configuration information is particularly challenging in this environment because configurations are so dynamic. The service provider might choose to document all allowed configurations and identify preferred configurations for use by the incident, problem, and change management processes as well as others. Alternatively, it may be sufficient to document the high-level configuration and use discovery tools to identify the current state when needed. Factors, such as the agreed warranty for the service and the specific service levels, will need to be considered when deciding which of these approaches is appropriate. The virtual or cloud architecture may also require the creation of new configuration item (CI) types, release models, change models, and standard changes. In addition, managing this technology will require different tools, activities, authorities, roles, and responsibilities. Adopting cloud or virtual architecture will therefore require new operational level agreements and underpinning contracts. There may be changes required to change, release, and deployment processes to ensure that they work in both physical and virtual environments. Where external services are used, the supplier management process becomes even more important because the services using the cloud architecture are likely to be business critical.

The service asset and configuration process may actually become easier if an organization uses a public cloud because most of the underlying complexity will be managed by the external service provider. The organization still needs to carry out service asset and configuration management, but the CIs are likely to be at a much higher level.

Summary

This chapter covered the implementation and improvement of service transition in an organization.

We explored the following topics:

  • The key activities in the introduction of service transition
  • How to adopt an integrated approach to service transition processes
  • Implementing service transition in a virtual or cloud environment

Exam Essentials

Be able to list the other stakeholders involved in service transition. Successful transition requires understanding who is affected and building the required relationships with affected groups, whether these are in the business, external to the organization, or other service provider teams.

Be able to explain and describe the four key activities in the introduction of service transition. It is important to understand that the organization needs to know why service transition is necessary and the benefits it will bring. Also, the introduction of the process is like any other transition; it must be designed, and the introduction must be planned so that it goes smoothly. Finally, it needs to be embedded.

Understand the interrelationships and dependencies between the different service transition processes. Know why the processes need to be introduced together and the importance of an integrated approach, such that the outputs of one process provide the required inputs for the next.

Be able to describe the particular challenges of implementing service transition in a cloud or virtual environment. Understand how some aspects may be easier, due to automation or the level of management provided by the external supplier, and some may be more challenging, due to the dynamic nature of such environments.

Review Questions

You can find the answers to the review questions in the appendix.

  1. Which of these statements is/are correct?

    1. Introducing new or improved service transition processes will mean a significant organizational change.
    2. Introducing or improving service transition is itself a service transition exercise.
      1. Statement 1 only
      2. Statement 2 only
      3. Both statements
      4. Neither statement

  2. Which of these are valid activities for service transition involvement?

    1. Justification for the implementation (strategy)
    2. Design of the service transition components (design)
    3. Introduction of the new or changed components to the organization (service transition)
    4. Running in normal mode (service operation)
      1. 1 only
      2. 1 and 2 only
      3. 2 and 3 only
      4. 1, 2, and 3

  3. Justification for service transition may require evidence of poor transition. Which of these are examples of evidence of poor transition?

    1. Cost of failed changes
    2. The actual costs of transitions exceeding the budget
    3. The discovery of errors during live running, instead of during the test phase
      1. 1 and 2 only
      2. 2 and 3 only
      3. 1, 2, and 3
      4. 1 and 3 only

  4. Which of these is a key consideration for justifying service transition?

    1. Well-designed services are easier to transition and operate.
    2. Strategic planning is a key part of the lifecycle.
    3. It is difficult to “retrofit” new practices.
    4. Operational services require precise design.

  5. True or False: An integrated plan for introduction or improvement of service transition processes should be based on an understanding of how the processes fit together.

    1. True
    2. False

  6. Which of the following shows the correct order of the steps in the CSI approach, together with the correct matching inputs?

    1. Where do we want to be? (measurable targets); what is the vision? (business vision, mission, goals, and objectives); how do we get there? (service and process improvements); where are we now? (baseline assessments); did we get there? (measurements and metrics); how do we keep the momentum going?
    2. What is the vision? (measurable targets); where are we now? (measurements and metrics); where do we want to be? (business vision, mission, goals, and objectives); how do we get there? (service and process improvements); did we get there? (baseline assessments); how do we keep the momentum going?
    3. What is the vision? (business vision, mission, goals, and objectives); where are we now? (baseline assessments); where do we want to be? (measurable targets); how do we get there? (Service and process improvements); did we get there? (measurements and metrics); how do we keep the momentum going?
    4. Where do we want to be? (baseline assessments); what is the vision? (business vision, mission, goals, and objectives); how do we get there? (service and process improvements); where are we now? (measurable targets); did we get there? (measurements and metrics); how do we keep the momentum going?

  7. Which of the following are possible challenges when seeking support and funding to introduce or improve service transition?

    1. The business is not aware of what happens during service transition.
    2. The service transition processes are regarded as introducing delay at the end of a project without any obvious benefit because the business presumes that the service would have worked properly without them.
    3. The cost benefit of effective service transition is only apparent following a failed transition due to poor or absent processes.
    4. Errors that should have been found during testing but become apparent during live operation are blamed on the operation stage rather than the transition stage, therefore making it harder to convince stakeholders that support and funding for transition are necessary.
      1. 2, 3, and 4 only
      2. 1, 2, and 3 only
      3. All of the above
      4. 1, 3, and 4 only

  8. Service transition may require liaison with other stakeholders. Which of the following are among possible stakeholders listed within the ITIL Service Transition publication?

    1. Regulatory bodies
    2. Landlords
    3. HR
    4. Project management
    5. Suppliers
    6. Business relationship managers
      1. None of the above
      2. 1, 4, 5, and 6 only
      3. 1, 2, 3, and 5 only
      4. All of the above

  9. Which of the following statements about the introduction of service transition processes is/are TRUE?

    1. Service transition processes should be introduced to all projects, wherever they are in the service lifecycle.
    2. Service transition processes should be implemented one at a time to ensure that each is accepted and embedded before the next process is introduced.
    3. The introduction of service transition processes involves an element of risk.
    4. IT staff will usually welcome the introduction of service transition processes because it will make their job easier.
    5. Service transition processes should be based on best practice and therefore will not need to be amended after introduction; such amendments should be avoided because they will cause confusion.
      1. 1, 3, and 5 only
      2. 3 only
      3. 2 and 4 only
      4. 1, 2, and 5 only

  10. Which of the following statements about implementing service transition in a virtual or cloud environment is/are TRUE?

    1. Configuration management can be more difficult due to the dynamic nature of the environment.
    2. The configuration process may actually become easier if an organization uses a public cloud because most of the underlying complexity will be managed by the external service provider.
      1. Both
      2. Only 1
      3. Only 2
      4. Neither
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