The Four Dimensions of Service Management

For every system that is utilized to provide a service, there are four dimensions of service management. If we are to think and work holistically that means that every practice, and every aspect of service management for services need to be considered in light of these four dimensions.

Organizations and People

The aspects of the organization and people dimension are all related to the creation, delivery, and improvement of services. To improve these aspects, everyone in an organization must understand its objectives and how they contribute to those objectives. It is not uncommon to see organizations restructuring in an effort to reap the benefits of Agile, Lean, and DevOps practices. Organizations are increasingly forming cross-functional teams or product teams in an effort to break down silos and enable more effective collaboration. None of this can be accomplished without understanding how powerful the culture is in terms of its influence on organizations and individuals. Focus here must be on the people! A healthy organizational culture begins with shared values, collaboration, and trust.

Information and Technology

Common throughout these four dimensions of service management is the fact that they apply not only to management but also to the services that are being managed. The Information and Technology dimension of service management is no exception. It includes the required technologies and the knowledge needed to manage services. The focus here should ensure the relationships between different components of the service value system, such as the inputs and outputs of activities and practices. Organizations do not want to find themselves slipping behind and must seek out and adopt technologies that have become common practice. To ensure the use of emerging technologies, the information architecture of services should be well understood and continually assessed for optimization. Information criteria ensures availability, security reliability, and compliance. For most services, information management is the primary means of enabling customer value.

Partners and Suppliers

This dimension encompasses an organization's relationship with other organizations that are involved in the design, development, and delivery of a service. This dimension also includes support and ongoing improvement of services. Because this dimension is built on relationships with other organizations it must also incorporate contracts and agreements required. An organization's supplier strategy defines the plan for how it will leverage the contribution of the supplier in the achievement of its overall service management strategy.

Value Streams and Processes

Value Steams and Processes is a dimension that is applied to the entire service value system and is concerned with how the various parts of the organization work in an integrated and coordinated way to ensure value creation. Value streams and processes are sets of defined activities. Value streams represent a macro-level view of activities and are artificially simple enough to reflect the flow of information and materials. This high-level (macro) view makes it easier to identify and better yet to address waste. A process is a lower-level view and defines the sequence of activities and decision points needed to fulfill the activities in the value stream. Business requirements are dynamic and therefore we must be consistently improving our service value system to ensure that the organization achieves its objectives in an optimal way.

Peter Senge, a scientist and senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management says it best. “…Vision without systems thinking ends up painting lovely pictures of the future with no deep understanding of the forces that must be mastered to move from here to there.” Master the forces!

… Educate and Inspire

Four Service Characteristics

Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.” Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL 4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group. As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions 1. Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. ...

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

This article was originally published in 2015. With the Introduction of ITIL 4, some of this best practice has changed. See ITIL 4 and the Evolving Role of Roles . Updated Definitions in ITIL 4: Process Owner: In ITIL 4, the concept of 'processes' has expanded into broader 'practices.' Consequently, the Process Owner is now often referred to as the 'Practice Owner.' This individual is accountable for the overall design, performance, integration, and improvement of a specific practice within the organization. They ensure that the practice achieves its intended outcomes and aligns with the organization's objectives. Process Manager: Now commonly known as the 'Practice Manager' in ITIL 4, this role is responsible for the day-to-day management of the practice. The Practice Manager ensures that activities are carried out as intended, manages resources assigned to the practice, and oversees the practitioners performing the work. Process Practit...

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