Five Major Aspects of Service Design

As mentioned, concentrating on just the service solution will not be sufficient; other aspects need to be considered. The design process must take a holistic approach to designing new or changed services, because success depends not only on the technical solution but also the management and architectural environment in which that solution is to operate, the processes and skills that will be required to ensure it runs effectively, and the metrics that need to be provided to monitor and manage it. In the next two chapters, we will cover the service design processes; however, in order for them to be effective, the following five essential elements of design must be considered.

Service Solutions

The first aspect is the solution itself; in other words, the new functionality offered by a new application or other service. The requirements will have been defined in the service portfolio; it is the job of service design to deliver a solution that meets these requirements within any technical or financial constraints that exist. The solution must conform to corporate rules and must work with the existing services. The supporting services must be able to deliver to the level required; if this is not possible, the overall design will need to be altered. Figure 4.2 shows typical design constraints.

FIGURE 4.2 Design constraints driven by strategy

Based on Cabinet Office ITIL material. Reproduced under license from the Cabinet Office.

It is likely that a structured design approach will be used to deliver the service solution, ensuring that it meets the required utility, warranty, and service levels and that it is delivered on time and within budget. As the service lifecycle progresses, requirements may change, so the approach must be not only structured but also flexible enough to meet the developing requirements.

Management Information Systems and Tools

Management information tools and systems are used to support and automate processes. They are usually part of a bigger framework of policies, processes, functions, standards, guidelines, and tools in use within the organizations. Organizations may have (for example) a quality management system, an information security management system, and the service management system. The second aspect to be considered when designing a service, therefore, concerns ensuring that the new or changed service will integrate with existing management information systems, such as the service knowledge information system (SKMS). The SKMS holds details about the service within the service portfolio and service catalog. These management information systems need to be examined to ensure that they are able to provide the information required to manage the service effectively. These management information systems must also be compatible with the rest of the management information framework in use within the organization, such as its quality and security management systems.

Architectures

The organization will have existing systems, and the new or changed service will need to be compatible with them. This is another aspect to be considered during design. There will be an existing architectural platform as well as agreed technical standards, and they will need to be evaluated to see whether they can support the new service. If not, then either the architectures or management systems will need to be amended or the design of the new service will need to be revised.

Measurement Systems

The next aspect of service design is that of measurement. The design needs to ensure that what is being measured meets the requirement. The current metrics that are gathered must be sufficient to enable the service to be assessed for efficiency and effectiveness. If not, then the measurement methods will need to be improved, or the service metric requirement will need to be altered.

Processes

Each new or changed service will require processes. These processes may be existing processes or specific to the service. Any processes, roles, responsibilities, and skills that will be required by the new or changed service need to be considered. New processes will need to be designed, and existing processes need to be checked to see whether they require any improvement in order to support the new service. If they cannot be improved, the design of the service will need to be amended. Be aware that the processes being evaluated here are not only the processes under service design, but all IT and service management processes throughout the lifecycle. Process models can be used to clarify the processes. Remember the generic requirements of every process that we discussed in Chapter 1; in particular, all processes should have defined inputs, outputs, and triggers.