Goals and Functions of the IT Service Lifecycle Phases
Published: April 25, 2008 | Updated: October 10, 2008
The following sections discuss the goals and functions of each phase and how the particular SMFs within that phase achieve their objectives.
Plan Phase
Figure 4 illustrates the Plan Phase.
Figure 4. Plan Phase
During the Plan Phase business and IT work together to determine how IT will deliver valuable services that enable the organization to succeed. Doing that requires:
- Understanding the business strategy and requirements and how the current IT services support the business.
- Understanding what reliability means to this organization and how it will be measured and improved, as well as reviewing and taking action to improve the current state where needed.
- Understanding the organization’s policy requirements and how they affect the IT strategy.
- Providing the financial structure to support the IT work and drive the right decisions.
- Creating an IT strategy that provides value to the business strategy and making portfolio decisions accordingly.
The goal of the Plan Phase is to make the right decisions about IT strategy and the project portfolio, ensuring that the delivered services have the following attributes and outcomes:
- Are valuable and compelling in terms of business goals
- Are predictable and reliable
- Are cost-effective
- Are in compliance with policies
- Can adapt to the changing needs of the business
- The following SMFs support the primary activities of the Plan Phase.
Table 2. Plan Phase SMFs
SMF |
Deliverable/Purpose |
Outcomes |
Business/IT Alignment |
Deliverable: IT service strategy Purpose:
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Reliability |
Deliverable: IT standards Purpose:
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Policy |
Deliverable: IT policies Purpose:
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Financial Management |
Deliverable: IT financial planning and measurement Purpose:
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Deliver Phase
Figure 5 illustrates the Deliver Phase.
Figure 5. Deliver Phase
Once you have a solid plan for IT service strategy in place, you can begin to create new or updated IT services. The goal of the Deliver Phase is to help IT professionals work within a project management discipline to build, stabilize, and deploy IT services, applications, and infrastructure improvements in the most efficient way possible.
Think of the IT service lifecycle as a continuum: it begins with the efforts of IT to understand the services that the business needs and ends with those services operating in a production environment. The Deliver Phase, then, is the part of the continuum where changes to the services are planned, designed, built, and deployed.
Goals of the Deliver Phase
The primary goals of the Deliver phase are to ensure that IT services, infrastructure projects, or packaged product deployments are envisioned, planned, built, stabilized, and deployed in line with the organization’s requirements and the customer’s specifications.
Specifically, that means ensuring that the project team:
- Captures the business needs and requirements prior to planning a solution.
- Prepares a functional specification and solution design.
- Develops work plans, cost estimates, and schedules for the deliverables.
- Builds the solution to the customer’s specification, so that all features are complete, and the solution is ready for external testing and stabilization.
- Releases the highest-quality solution by performing thorough testing and release-candidate piloting.
- Deploys a stable solution to the production environment and stabilizes the solution in production.
- Prepares the operations and support teams to manage and provide customer service for the solution.
The following SMFs support the primary activities of the Deliver Phase:
Table 3. Deliver Phase SMFs
SMF |
Deliverable/Purpose |
Outcomes |
Envision |
Deliverable: Vision document Purpose:
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Project Planning |
Deliverable: Project plan document Purpose:
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Build |
Deliverable: Developed solution Purpose:
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Stabilize |
Deliverable: Tested and stable solution Purpose:
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Deploy |
Deliverable: Service in operation Purpose:
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Operate Phase
Figure 6 illustrates the Operate phase.
Figure 6. Operate Phase
The Operate Phase of the IT service lifecycle represents the culmination of the two phases that precede it. The Operate Phase focuses on what to do after the services are in place.
After an IT service has been successfully deployed, ensuring that it operates to meet business needs and expectations becomes the top priority. This is the focus of the Operate Phase, which depends on four primary endeavors:
- Effective ongoing management of the service
- Proactive and ongoing monitoring of its health
- Effective and readily available help to assist with use of the service
- Restoration of a service to health when things go wrong
The primary goal of the Operate Phase is to ensure that deployed services are operated, maintained, and supported in line with the service level agreement (SLA) targets that have been agreed to by the business and IT.
Specifically, that means ensuring:
- That IT services are available by improving IT staff use and better managing workload.
- That IT services are monitored to provide real-time observation of health conditions, and ensuring that team members are trained to handle any problems efficiently and quickly.
- That IT services are restored quickly and effectively.
The following SMFs support the primary activities of the Operate Phase:
Table 4. Operate Phase SMFs
SMF |
Deliverable/Purpose |
Outcomes |
Operations |
Deliverable: Operations guide Purpose:
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Service Monitoring and Control |
Deliverable: IT health monitoring data Purpose:
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Customer Service |
Deliverable: Effective assistance for service users Purpose:
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Problem Management |
Deliverable: Effective problem resolution process Purpose:
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Manage Layer
Figure 7 illustrates the Manage Layer.
Figure 7. Manage Layer
The Manage layer integrates the decision making, risk management, and change management processes that occur throughout the IT service lifecycle. It also contains the processes related to defining accountability and associated roles.
The Manage Layer represents the foundation for all phases of the lifecycle. The Manage Layer promotes consistency in planning and delivering IT services and provides the basis for developing and operating a resilient IT environment.
The primary goal of the Manage Layer is to establish an integrated approach to IT service management activities. This approach helps to coordinate processes described throughout the three lifecycle phases: Plan, Deliver, and Operate. This coordination is enhanced through:
- Development of decision making processes.
- Use of risk management and controls as part of all processes.
- Promotion of change and configuration processes that are controlled.
- Division of work so that accountabilities are clear and do not conflict.
Specific guidance is provided to increase the likelihood that:
- The investment in IT delivers the expected business value.
- Investment and resource allocation decisions involve the appropriate people.
- There is an acceptable level of risk.
- Controlled and documented processes are used.
- Accountabilities are communicated and their ownership is apparent.
- Policies and internal controls are effective and reliable.
Meeting these goals is most likely to be achieved if IT works toward:
- Explicit IT governance structures and processes.
- The IT organization and the business organization sharing a common approach to risk management.
- Regularly scheduled management reviews of policies and internal controls.
The following SMFs support the primary activities of the Manage Layer:
Table 5. The Manage Layer SMFs
SMF |
Deliverable/Purpose |
Outcomes |
Governance, Risk, and Compliance |
Deliverable: IT objectives achieved, change and risk managed and documented Purpose: Support, sustain, and grow the organization while managing risks and constraints
|
IT services are seamlessly matched to business strategy and objectives |
Change and Configuration |
Deliverable: Known configurations and predictable adaptations Purpose: Ensure that changes are planned, that unplanned changes are minimal, and that IT services are robust
|
IT services are predictable, reliable, and trustworthy |
Team |
Deliverable: Clear accountabilities, roles, and work assignments Purpose: Agile, flexible, and scalable teams doing required work
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IT solutions are delivered within specified constraints, with no unplanned service degradation Service operation that is trusted by the business |
The following list describes how each of the Manage Layer SMFs can be applied to the phases of the IT services lifecycle:
- The Plan Phase purpose is getting business and IT to productively work together. In this phase, the focus of GRC is on the clear communication of strategy, IT decisions being made by the desired stakeholders, and an overall consideration of risk and benefits in terms of the service portfolio. Change management is oriented to issues related to program plans and approaches to initiatives. Plan accountabilities described in the Team SMF are Service and Architecture.
- The Deliver Phase is focused on building the desired solution in the right way. Here, GRC is focused on project scope decisions, project stakeholder involvement, and project risks. Change management is also project-focused, often driving risk management activity for each project. The Deliver accountability described in the Team SMF is Solution,
- The Operate Phase is primarily focused on the daily running and service delivery tasks of IT. In this phase, GRC focuses on capturing information from processes and applications, as well as on demonstrating compliance to policy and regulations. Change management is applied to minimize unplanned changes, preserving service performance and availability, and smoothly introducing standard changes. Operate accountabilities described in the Team SMF are Operations and Support.
There is also an interrelationship among the Manage SMFs themselves. The Change and Configuration SMF processes provide information needed for the Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) SMF processes. In turn, the GRC SMF helps determine who is involved in change management, defines the process for identifying, evaluating, and managing risk associated with the change, ensures that changes reflect policy, and documents these changes appropriately. The Manage accountabilities described in the Team SMF are Management and Compliance.
Objectives, Risks, and Controls
To ensure that the work done in each phase of the IT service lifecycle meets its key objectives, MOF identifies internal controls to minimize the risks to those objectives. Controls are processes and procedures put in place in each phase to ensure that the tasks are performed as expected and that management objectives can be achieved. Many of the controls are driven by the management reviews.
Further information about controls can be found in the Manage Layer Overview. The specific controls to ensure that the work performed in each phase is completed as agreed are described in the individual phase overview documents.