Service Management for Dummies®

Chapter 7. Launching into Service Management

In This Chapter

• Charting the service management journey

• Discovering the four key elements that are part of the journey

• Measuring, monitoring, and optimizing

We hope you understand that service management isn't just an operational issue; it's also a business issue. In Chapter 6, we discuss how a service management plan supports the actual service strategy. The types of services that your organization needs to manage are much more diverse than ever before. To get started with service management, you need to take a holistic approach. You need to understand that just about every asset under your control−be it physical or virtual −must be managed in a way that allows you to integrate all your capabilities and resources so that you can direct and control the costs, quality, and value of your services.

In Chapter 6, we also talk about some of the hard work involved in setting a new direction for service management, including education, strategy development, assessment, and design.

In this chapter, we give you some ideas of how to put your service management plan into action. First, however, here are two key things that you shouldn't do:

• Don't think of service management as being just an IT operations problem. In other words, you shouldn't begin by sending the IT staff to get best-practices certifications and assume that certification alone will help you deliver a successful service management plan. Before you send anyone for training, make sure that ...