The ITIL Strategy book is primarily aimed at senior management within the IT service organisation. However there are "gems" in there for everyone involved in IT Service Management. This presentation uncovers five of these gems as "take aways" for all IT practitioners.

1. Five little known gems from the ITIL 2011 Service
Strategy book
Patrick Keogh, UXC Consulting

2. Background
It is new… Unexplored… And a little bit
strange!
ITIL 2011 Service Most people have However, even if your
Strategy book has not spent much time main focus is more
significant in this book. on Service Transition
differences to ITIL V3. and/or Service
Operation there are
some gems here for
you.

3. So let’s explore
In my time with the book I’ve found
some gems that ITSM practitioners
can use.
and share!
Of course there is a lot more to the
book than we can explore in 25
minutes.

4. But first let’s meet the book…
o “ITIL Service Strategy provides best-practice guidance for the
service strategy stage of the ITIL Service Lifecycle.”
o Target audience “executives and managers who are
responsible for defining the strategy of a service provider”.
o Identifies related sources of best practice, M_o_R
(Management of Risk), MoV (Management of Value), P3O
(Portfolio, Programme and Project Offices) with
MoP, MSP, PRINCE2
o Key concepts:
– Service value and service strategy
– Governance
– The Service Portfolio

5. So what
are these
five
gems?

6. 1. Saying no (p.35)
“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
(Porter, 1996)
Service
The Service
Catalogue Catalogue is our
guidance on what we
Service should say “yes” to
Portfolio because it reflects
what service assets
we have or do not
Service Assets have.
Service Strategy

7. Service Catalogue built on Service Assets
Service
What we do
Catalogue
Service
What we plan to do
Portfolio
Our capabilities
Service Assets and resources for
both the above
How this
Service Strategy aligns with
the business

8. So what’s the message?
Business Relationship Management
If we want to be successful in Demand Management
Service Operation, we need Service Portfolio Management
Design Coordination
to get involved much earlier Release and Deployment Management
in the service lifecycle. Transition Planning and Support
Make sure that you are
engaged in the planning Make sure that there are “C”s in the
RACI chart for you 
processes

9. 2. Governance (p.285)
What is • General description of IT
governance with references to
in the ISO/IEC 38500 and COBIT
• Relationship between governance
Direct
book? and risk management
What Monitor Evaluate
isn’t in • Practical advice on goal alignment
• Concrete steps to align goals, CSFs
the and KPIs (see next slide)
book?
“It is better for a thousand people to know ten figures than for ten
people to know a thousand.” Ericsson 2004. http://goo.gl/4FqeU

10. The Metrics Tree (Service Transition p.70)
This model
plugs directly
into COBIT

11. 3. Organizational change and culture
(pp.323 & 397)
”When culture conflicts with
strategy, culture wins and strategy
loses.”
Professor Willie Pietersen,Columbia University
Don’t spend to much time looking, the advice is not
there, except…
Reference to John Kotter’s work and publications (Leading
Change etc.)
Don’t forget though that ITSM itself is a powerful tool for
cultural change:
•Service oriented culture
•Customer oriented culture

12. Which brings me to…
The CSI book talks about metrics, and says that there are
three kinds:
•Service Metrics (the end game)
•Process Metrics (service assets)
•Technology Metrics (more service assets)
… but what about metrics to drive improvement in other
service assets?
•People?
•Partners?
The Service Strategy book gives us some support, let’s look at it.

13. 4. Competence and training
If people are one of our key service assets, how can we
define the competencies and level of skills that we need to
deliver good service?
How can we measure whether our skills are getting better
or worse over time?
These questions are just as valid for a service desk
manager, an apps dev team leader or the head of sales and
marketing at an ISP.

14. SFIA (pp.339, 398)
Skills Framework for the Information Age www.sfia.org.uk
can be used to measure and report our skills inventory.
• Define skills required for IT
job roles
• Defines levels of competence
for these skills
• Mapped to ITIL process roles
• Free!

15. 5. Suppliers
The supplier management process is part of
Service Design. It talks about “manage supplier
performance” but without providing a framework
for doing that.
Supplier quality and value for money are critical
factors in service delivery, so where do we turn
for advice on measuring and improving our
suppliers?

16. eSCM-SP (p.398)
eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers
http://www.itsqc.org/models/escm-sp/index.html
• Produced by Carnegie Mellon University
• Measures capability/maturity of suppliers
• Designed to improve supplier-customer
relationship
Most obviously applicable in Service Design, but referenced
in Service Strategy!

17. So there are my “five gems”
Not specifically process Other sources of best practice
focused. Building governance & improvement
into all that we do
Common theme is managing People, partners
and improving our service Measuring and reporting
assets. Managing supply and demand for
service assets

18. Questions?