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Service Design Package (SDP) and the Service Catalog

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Both the Service Design Package (SDP) and the Service Catalog are produced in the service design stage of the service lifecycle and to some extent both drive the activities that happen in all subsequent stages of the service lifecycle.  The SDP will detail all aspects of a service and its requirements throughout the entire lifecycle.  A service design package is produced for all new services, major changes to an existing service or the removal of a retired service.  

From a high level the service design package will contain the following:
·   Business requirements

·   Service applicability requirements (how/where used)

·   Service contracts

·   Service functional requirements

·   Service and operational management requirements

·   Service design and topology (including service definition and model

·   Organizational readiness assessment

·   Service Program (timescales and phasing of transition, operation and improvement of the new service)

·   Service transition plan (overall transition strategy, objectives, policy and risk assessment).

·   Service operational acceptance plan (overall operational strategy, objectives, policy and risk assessment).

·   Service acceptance criteria (acceptance criteria for the progression through each stage of the lifecycle)
The service catalog provides a single source of information for all operational (live) services, services that are about to go live and are currently being prepared for deployment to the live environment.  Your service catalog can initially start as a simple matrix, table or spreadsheet.  As you grow your ITSM processes in maturity, your catalogs sophistication can grow along with them.  Many organizations will integrate their service portfolio and their service catalog and maintain them as part of the Configuration Management System (CMS).
The service catalog can be produced with two distinct views available. You can have the business/customer view which relates IT services to business units and processes.  This view represents what your customers will see.  The second view is the technical/supporting service view.  This relates IT services to supporting services and to the underlying components that underpin the delivery of the IT services and business functions.  This includes items that will not be viewed by the customer.  Both will enable proactive service level management and quicker more effective incident and change impact analysis.
Some critical success factors (CSF) that should be accomplished by the service catalog and service catalog management could be to produce an accurate and up to date catalog.  This should lead to a greater awareness of the services being provided to the business and should also enhance the IT staffs ability to support these services and their related underlying technology more efficiently and effectively.
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