ITIL v3 Foundation Certification Notes: Service Transition

[ITIL® v3 Foundation Notes]  The Service Transition phase of the ITIL® 4 Foundation Certification exam is covered here with an introduction of Service Transition and the Change Management Process. Service Transition is concerned with the delivery of a new / changed service into operation.

Purpose, Objectives and Scope of Service Transition

• All stakeholders need to be considered in the transition planning to ensure customers satisfaction of the service
• Provide a consistent and managed approach to reduce risks and enhance efficiency and effectiveness of service introduction

Purpose of Service Transition

• The purpose of Service Transition is to ensure that the agreed services are now delivered from service design to service operation effectively (deployment)

Objectives of Service Transition

• Plan and manage changes to services (either introducing new or retiring existing services) and to deploy the new services successfully to support business objectives while ensuring the integrity of all existing services
• Ensure the service can be operated and supported according to the service design
• Manage the risks associated
• Set the expectations of the business with testing on the performance
• Provide knowledge and info of the service / service assets to relevant people to ensure smooth operation

Scope of Service Transition

• Provide guidance on the development and improvement of the required capabilities
• Provide guidance on service transition between internal and external service providers including relationship between strategy, design and transition (also considers service retirement and transfer of services between service providers)
• Provide guidance on management of transition for the coordination of all activities involved (among different projects)
• Communicate with all parties concerned

Processes of Service Transition

• Knowledge Management
• Transition Planning and Support
• Change Management
• Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM)
• Release and Deployment Management
• Service Validation and Testing (*not covered in ITIL® v3 Foundation exam)
• Evaluation (*not covered in ITIL® v3 Foundation exam)

Change Management Process

• [definition] A change is the addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT services
• Change requests are submitted as Requests for Change (RFC), the degree of formality of the RFC depends on the extent of the change
• Change Records are to be used to capture the details of the lifecycle of the changes making references to the configuration items affected (stored in configuration management system), one change record for each individual change
• No change should be approved without a back-out or remediation plan (to restore the initial configuration)
• [definition] Remediations are actions taken to recover after a failed change or release. Remediation may include back-out, invocation of service continuity plans, or other actions designed to enable the business process to continue.
• Purpose: to control the lifecycle of all changes, enabling beneficial changes to be made with minimum disruption to IT services.
• • uncontrolled changes might cause a surge in incidents
  • to consider all aspects (intended and unintended) a change may bring
• Objectives
  • to keep abreast of and support the changes in the business environment (by reducing incidents, disruption and rework)
  • to ensure that changes are recorded and evaluated, and that authorized changes are prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented and reviewed in a controlled manner as recorded in the configuration management system (CMS)
  • to optimize risk (balance between risk of doing and risk of not doing)
  • to control the assets of the infrastructure
• Scope
  • cover everything from configuration items (servers, infrastructure, documentation, services and configuration), management systems and tools, processes, metrics, solution and architecture from design strategy to continual service management excluding organization and business changes, and minor operational changes
  • manage all changes in a controlled manner on all levels (strategic, tactical and operational) by making reference to the service portfolio
  • Change management is not responsible for the coordination of processes for the successful implementation of projects; this will be handled through the planning and transition support process.
• Output
  • change schedule (CS, also an input)
  • projected change outage (PSO)
  • remediation plan
• ITIL® recommends the use of a change model or change process model to handle changes in a consistent manner:
  • Steps for handling the change
  • The order in which the steps should be carried out, including any dependencies
  • Responsibilities throughout the process
  • Timescales
  • Escalation procedures
• Types of Changes
  • Standard Change – a change to a service or other configuration item, which has a preauthorized approach to its execution, well understood for risks, follow a standard procedure with a predefined trigger
    • e.g. installation of a new computer
    • RFC not required, logged as service requests
    • enhance the effectiveness of change management
    • records need to be reviewed regularly
  • Emergency Change – a change in response to or in order to prevent a business-critical error
    • need to have a clear definition of the authority levels associated with emergency changes (e.g. emergency change advisory board (ECAB)
    • may not have enough time for extensive testing
    • documentation may need to be updated afterwards
    • risk of failure is high
  • Normal Change –
    • Typical flow (all information stored in SKMS):
      • Create the request for change (RFC) -> trigger the creation of the change record
      • Review the RFC – sufficient information, appropriate budget, is it practical by the change manager
      • Assess and evaluate the change (after approval of RFC) – need Change Proposal?
        • Who raised the change?
        • What is the reason for the change?
        • What is the return required from the change?
        • What are the risks involved in the change?
        • What resources are required to deliver the change?
        • Who is responsible for the build, test, and implementation of the change?
        • What is the relationship between this change and other changes?
      • Authorize the change – by a change authority usually CAB, update the change schedule and projected service outage (PSO) with a remediation plan
      • Plan updates – build and test
      • Coordinate change implementation – to ensure changes are deployed as scheduled
      • Review and close the change – pass the acceptance criteria: success -> close the change record; failure -> remediation plan or workaround
    • Change Proposal: submitted for major change that involves significant cost, risk or organizational impact, before the new/change service is chartered, normally created by Service Portfolio management. Change proposals include a high-level description of the change, a detailed business case (including risk assessment) and schedule for design and implementation. When authorized, the service is chartered.
    • RFC should specify the details of the change, including the risks, benefits, costs, and proposed schedule for implementation, depending on guidelines.
• Change Advisory Board (CAB)
  • determine whether normal changes should be authorized
  • include people from business and technical sides, stakeholders to reflect a balanced view
• Change management process is an trigger for change evaluation process
• Change management involve the assessment of a large number of other processes (e.g. capacity, IT service continuity, security, etc.)

Conclusion: ITIL® v3 Foundation Service Transition

This ITIL® v3 Foundation study note touches upon the definition, purpose, objectives and scope of Service Transition. The Change Management Process, which is an important process in service transition stage, is also covered together with the concepts of change management include the types of changes (standard, emergency and normal changes), change models and change advisory board.

The next study notes on Service Transition will cover release and deployment management, knowledge management, service asset and configuration management, transition planning and support.