How, for example, are IT services that are offered and sold to the customer represented and classified in ITIL, in contrast to the tasks that are required purely internally to produce the services?
In ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), IT services are typically classified based on their customer-facing or internal nature, and there is a systematic approach to distinguishing between these two types of services. These distinctions help in effective service management and resource allocation. Here's a breakdown of how IT services are represented and classified in ITIL:
1. Customer-Facing Services:
Service Definition: Customer-facing services are those services that are directly delivered to external customers or end-users, whether they are individuals, departments, or other organizations.
Examples: These services include products or offerings that customers purchase or use, such as email services, cloud storage, software licenses, and helpdesk support for external clients.
2. Supporting (Internal) Services:
Service Definition: Supporting services are services that are not directly visible to external customers but are essential for delivering customer-facing services. They are internal in nature and primarily support the organization's IT infrastructure and service delivery capabilities.
Examples: Infrastructure maintenance, server monitoring, database management, and software development for internal tools are examples of supporting services.
3. Service Classification:
Service Portfolio: ITIL often organizes services into a service portfolio, which includes three categories: „Service Pipeline“ (future services under development), „Service Catalog“ (currently available services to customers), and „Retired Services“ (services no longer in use).
Service Catalog: The Service Catalog specifically contains customer-facing services that are currently available for use or purchase.
Service Design Package (SDP): For each customer-facing service, there may be associated internal service design packages that describe the supporting services and components needed to deliver the customer-facing service effectively.
4. Service Dependencies:
ITIL emphasizes understanding and documenting service dependencies. This includes mapping how supporting services underpin customer-facing services and how changes to supporting services may impact customer services.
5. Service Design and Transition:
ITIL's Service Design and Transition phases focus on designing services with customer value in mind, ensuring that both customer-facing and supporting services are aligned to business needs and IT strategy.
6. Service Level Management (SLM):
SLM in ITIL helps establish service level agreements (SLAs) and service level requirements (SLRs) for customer-facing services, ensuring they meet customer expectations.
Internal service level agreements (ISLAs) may also be defined to manage the performance and availability of supporting services.
7. Service Ownership and Responsibility:
Ownership of customer-facing services typically lies with service owners who are responsible for the overall service quality.
Supporting services may have their own owners responsible for their effective delivery.
8. Change and Release Management:
Changes to customer-facing services and supporting services are managed through change and release management processes to ensure minimal disruption to customers.
While ITIL provides a systematic framework for classifying and managing IT services, organizations may also adopt other service management frameworks or methodologies, such as COBIT (Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies) or ISO/IEC 20000, to achieve similar goals of effective service management and clear differentiation between customer-facing and internal services. These frameworks often align with ITIL principles and can be adapted to an organization's specific needs and goals.