The Service Package
Thursday, 15 May 2008

In ITIL V3 The Service Package consists of a Core Service Package and one or more Service Level Packages. These combine to provide a Differentiated Offering. Service Level Packages are ways of differentiating the offering by providing specific units of Utility and/or Warranty for a given service.

Utility (fitness for purpose) is the term given to describe the functionality of an IT Service; whereas Warranty (fitness for use) is used to describe the non-functional aspects of the service; for example, availability, security, continuity and capacity.

Value is created when a service is both:

Fit for Purpose

- AND -

Fit for Use

The Service Package itself is an output of the Service Strategy phase of the Lifecycle. However, the publication does not seem to identify any particular process as being responsible for its production. This is something that has been on my mind for a little time now. You could certainly make a case for several processes being involved in its creation: Strategy Generation, of course, but also Demand Management and Service Portfolio Management.

It may be that all of these processes are involved in the construction of the Service Package: Demand Management from the 'what does the customer want' perspective; Strategy Generation in the 'Develop the Offerings' step within the process; and Service Portfolio Management which is where a service really begins its life.

This subject is something we will need to return to in the future. More clarity is most certainly required, I feel, around the subject of the Service Package.

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posted by Will Edwards @ 09:09, ,


ITIL Factoids
Saturday, 12 April 2008

"Someone said the last person to know everything was the Librarian of Alexandria". - Source: The IT Skeptic

I actually heard exactly the same factoid some time ago, but it was concerning Leonardo Da Vinci! It just goes to show that just because it sounds good doesn't make it so!

As usual the IT Skeptic doesn't mix his words when talking about the spread of information via internet memes.

It is certainly true that people want to spread the word about the growth and acceptance of ITIL. Many of those people actually produce or write for internet Blogs; and much of their source material comes from other bloggers or from web sources.

So, in this new age of blogging, we need to think carefully about apparent facts and how they are propagated. Just because something is in print, does not make it so - especially in these days of the web!

posted by Will Edwards @ 23:52, ,


Free Exam Questions
Wednesday, 9 April 2008

I had intended, at some future stage, to put together a list of sites where you could access sample Version 3 exam questions. Well it seems our friend the IT Skeptic has made a nice little start on that project.

So for now, here are eight sources for ITIL Version 3 exam questions ...

Exam Questions

I also notice he has some Version 2 sites there too so you can use them as preparation for your ITIL Version 2 and/or Version 3 Foundation examination.

If you have difficulty with any of these questions, you can post your questions here and I will answer them for you.

posted by Will Edwards @ 00:14, ,


ITIL Game
Thursday, 27 March 2008

Just recently I came across this free online game ...

ITIL Game

It looks very professional and I was, at first, excited to see a free ITIL resource that might benefit my visitors. Having now had a brief 'play' with the thing, I am left feeling that it does not really cut the mustard.

It's - quite naturally - a marketing tool and so it has some advertising embedded which is a bit of a shame. However, if you have a few minutes over coffee, I suggest you go over there and have yourself a bit of a laugh!

posted by Will Edwards @ 16:41, ,


Request Fulfillment
Wednesday, 26 March 2008

This year the question even got more confusing with the release of ITIL V3 which dictated that the “Password Reset” is not an Incident which is what I thought it was for the last nine years and now calls it a Service Request. The premise being that an Incident is a service impacting event.

Source: Troy DuMoulin's Blog

ITIL V3 has deliberately changed the definition of an incident and introduced new processes called Request Fulfillment to handle things like password resets; and Event Management to handle changes of state in the infrastructure e.g. warning messages.

Personally, I like the idea. The reason is simple - it makes for better incident stats! In V2, an incident was actually defined as an event: some ... event that is not part of the normal operation of the system ... was the actual phrase.

However, in V3, an incident concerns an impact on the quality of the service; something that an event does not actually do!

Similarly, password resets are not really incidents. They, of course, need to be logged and correctly handled, but keeping them out of your incident stats has to be desirable when it comes to subsequent analysis; and that's what the request fulfillment process is there for.

Naturally, the whole Adapt and Adopt philosophy of ITIL means that you can, if you wish, continue to handle service requests through your incident management process - just as you did in V2. If that approach suits your operation for some reason, then just do it! In the short term, you might have to do that because of a limitation within the Service Desk tool.

In the future, I think we will come to see the introduction of these two new processes as progress.

posted by Will Edwards @ 00:00, ,


Enterprise Architecture - Part 2
Thursday, 20 March 2008

In the Service Design publication, we find ITIL does have something to say about Enterprise Architecture. It actually quotes Gartner's definition of Enterprise Architecture ...
The process of translating business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change, by creating, communicating and improving key principles and models that describe the enterprise's future states and enables its evolution.
There is a complete table of Enterprise Architecture frameworks included, some of which are proprietary; and some of which are non-proprietary ...

- ARIS
- BredeMeyer
- BTEP
- C4ISR
- Catalyst
- CIMOSA
- Gartner
- EAP
- E2AF
- FEA
- GERAM
- IAF
- Forrester
- RM-ODP
- TAFIM
- TEAF
- TOGAF
- Zachman

All of these frameworks include guidance on processes, organisational structures, policies, governance and management.

The ITIL V3 Service Design book also includes guidance on the same areas, so it appears that the ITIL view is that Enterprise Architecture forms an integral part of the Service Management discipline.

posted by Will Edwards @ 07:23, ,