Understand the format of the service catalog as a database or structured document, forming one of the three service portfolio elements. Be able to describe its contents and information about all live IT services, including those available for deployment. Understand the purpose of the service catalog as a single source of consistent information to authorized individuals on all current and forthcoming operational services and the importance of this information being kept accurate and current. There are two types of services included in the catalog: customer-facing services that are visible to the business and supporting services required by the service provider to deliver customer-facing services. Understand that the customer and the service provider will therefore have different views of each service. Understand also that different customer types such as wholesale or retail customers may have different views.

Understand the type of information held in the service catalog for individual services such as service details, status, interfaces, and dependencies and the way in which this information is used by other processes, such as service level management. The scope of the service catalog includes only those services that have been or will be transitioned to the operational environment. Remember that these may be listed individually or in the form of service packages.

Understand what is meant by availability and how it is calculated. Remember that the user is concerned with end-to-end availability, and the failure of one component can make the whole service unavailable to that user. Measurement of availability takes into account only agreed service time so that agreed downtime and out-of-hours availability are not included in the calculation. Identifying vital business functions helps availability management target its activities to the best effect.

Be able to describe the availability concepts of reliability, resilience, maintainability, and serviceability. Reliability concerns how long a service, component, or CI can function without an interruption and the impact of this on overall availability. Understand what is meant by mean time between failure and how it is calculated. A resilient service design may suffer component failures without the service being affected. Understand the role of redundant equipment in providing resilience. Maintainability concerns how quickly a service, component, or CI can be restored to normal working status following a failure, as well as the impact of this on overall availability. Understand what is meant by mean time to restore service and how it is calculated. Serviceability is how well a third party is able to provide the response and fix times required in its contract following a failure, as well as the impact of this on overall availability.

Understand the purpose and importance of the information security policy. The level of security required is a business decision, and it is the responsibility of the information security manager to then ensure the required level of protection is provided. Understand the purpose of related policies such as password and Internet use policies and how they contribute to the overall protection of the organization’s data. Understand the concepts of confidentiality (restricting access to data to authorized users), integrity (maintaining data free of any corruption or unauthorized change), and availability (able to be accessed when required) of data. Security rules must be clearly communicated so that all staff members are aware of them and senior management is enforcing them. SLAs, OLAs, and underpinning contracts play a central role in documenting and agreeing on responsibilities in this area. All security breaches must be documented and responded to appropriately and should be considered opportunities to improve security.

Understand the importance of suppliers to ensuring the quality of the overall service and the need to ensure that suppliers deliver value for money. Understand the link between underpinning contracts as part of service level management and the management of suppliers. Understand the lifecycle of supplier management, from the signing of the contract through the management of the delivery by the supplier against that contract to its renewal or termination. Be able to explain the importance of the supplier management policy and the role of the supplier and contract management information system. Understand the different categories of suppliers (strategic, tactical, operational, and commodity) and how suppliers are assessed in terms of value, importance, risk, and impact to determine which category is appropriate.

Understand the role of capacity management in providing the current and future capacity and performance that the business requires, when it requires it, and at a cost it can afford. Understand the use of demand management to affect this requirement. Be able to explain the subprocesses of business, service, and component capacity management and the role each plays in delivering what is required. Understand the involvement of the different functions in assessing and providing sufficient capacity. Understand the purpose and contents of the capacity plan and the requirement for it to be revised as requirements change. Understand the purpose and contents of the capacity management information system.

Understand how IT service continuity management (ITSCM) is responsible for providing an agreed level of service in the event of a major disruption to normal working conditions. Be able to differentiate between the responsibilities of business continuity management and ITSCM. Be able to explain the concept of business impact analysis and the requirement for the participation of the business in this exercise. The two stages of risk management are identification of risks and cost-justifiable risk mitigation. ITSCM is not entirely about recovering from a catastrophic event; it also addresses the need to prevent or reduce the impact of such an event. Understand the importance of keeping the plan up-to-date and the need to assess changes for possible impact on it. Remember that the plan needs to be rehearsed to ensure that it works as designed.

Understand the role of design coordination in providing a single point of coordination and control for all service design activities and processes. Understand the role of design coordination in managing resources and capabilities and its responsibility for compiling the service design package. It has a key role in ensuring quality and consistency across designs and ensuring the conformance of designs to governance requirements. Design coordination ensures the successful handoff of a service first from strategy to design and then to transition. The coordination process helps control cost, ensure adherence to warranty and utility requirements, and ensure activities are appropriately scheduled. A central coordinating role is able to learn from each design stage and implement improvements to all the service design activities.