ISO/IEC 20000-1 Quiz

The Need for Service Management

• Services, including legal, transport, and governmental, have been around for a long time.
• IT services led to the rise of IT Service Management (ITSM) to control costs and improve service.
• ITSM has broadened into general Service Management due to the IT component in most services today.
• Service Management, rather than ITSM, is referred to because it applies to all types of services.
• Service management does not have to be an old-fashioned, rigid framework.
• The new ISO/IEC 20000-1 standard supports newer methodologies like Lean, Agile, and DevOps.

Adhering to ISO/IEC 20000-1 Requirements

• ISO/IEC 20000-1 requirements can be conformed to in various ways, adapted to management practices and services.
• It applies to both waterfall and continuous delivery practices.
• Conformance is based on service management policy and principles, which are dependent on the organization's culture.
• Service management enables a structure for provisioning that is adaptable to the organization's culture.
• Working within this structure gives people flexibility and autonomy for independent decision-making.
• Implementing such structure ensures customers expect consistent value and management promotes efficiency while reducing costs.

The ISO/IEC 20000 Standard Series

• ISO/IEC 20000 is a series of ten documents, including the primary standard ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018.
• The ISO decided to distinguish these documents when it assigned numbers to them.
• ISO/IEC 20000-1 is the international standard for service management, providing requirements for a Service Management System (SMS).
• ISO/IEC 20000-10 (Part 10), updated in 2018, gives a broad overview of the series and the goals it sets out.
• ISO/IEC 20000 includes terms, definitions and ISO standards too.
• ISO/IEC 20000-2 (Part 2) provides guidance on interpreting and implementing standard requirements that Part 1 specifies are concise and auditable.
• ISO/IEC 20000-3 (Part 3) gives guidance on setting scope.
• ISO/IEC 20000-5 (Part 5) gives guidance on business cases and templates for SMS implementation plans for Part 1.
• ISO/IEC 20000-6 (Part 6) gives certification requirements.
• Part 6 remains valid for the 2011 and 2018 editions of Part 1.
• ISO/IEC 20000-7 (Part 7) guides integrating management systems based on ISO/IEC 20000-1, ISO 9001 (quality management), and ISO/IEC 27001 (information security management).
• ISO/IEC 20000-11 (Part 11) compares Part 1 with ITIL.
• ISO/IEC 20000-12 (Part 12) compares Part 1 with CMMI-SVC.
• ISO/IEC 20000-13 (Part 13) compares Part 1 with COBIT.
• Some parts (4, 8, and 9) are missing due to cancellation, withdrawal, or renumbering.

Structure and Content of ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018

• ISO/IEC 20000-1 is aligned with the "Annex SL" high-level structure and terminology (ISO Directives appendix).
• This aligned structure applies to all management standards, like ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001, ISO 14001 and others.
• High-level structure results in similar requirements across standards, making integration of multiple management easy.
• Completing an ISO 9001:2015 certification lets you re-use achieved work to obtain your ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018.
• ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 remains similar to the 2011 edition, although there are differences.
• Appendix B outlines the specific changes between the two ISO editions.

Clause 1 - Scope

• It describes the standard, stating that ISO/IEC 20000-1 establishes, implements, maintains and improves SMS.
• Applies to businesses of all sizes and service types (IT, cloud, transport, healthcare).

Clause 2 - Normative References

• It may reference must-have standards, but ISO/IEC 20000-1 requires no references and can thus be used as a stand-alone.

Clause 3 - Terms and Definitions

• Defined terms include 'organization', 'service', and 'incident'.
• Many definitions are sourced from Annex SL and others specifically for ISO/IEC 20000-1, or included in ISO/IEC 20000-10.

Clause 4 - Context of the Organization

• This section contains default Annex SL requirements
• Performing basic activities determines the environment for services and the SMS.
• Identifying internal/external issues affecting SMS and service operation, objective achievement and value generation for customers (positive or negative issues).
• Identifying internal/external stakeholders ("interested parties") needs/expectations.
• Defining the SMS scope and indicating which organization/services are included.

ISO/IEC 20000-3

• The document that guides on defining the scope of your SMS.
• It is beneficial in more complex cases, such as when you use one or more suppliers to provide your services.

Clause 5 - Leadership

• Top management accountable for the SMS must support its establishment and its implementation while running an SMS that supports customer service, including:
• Ensuring a service management policy (overall SMS direction), measurable service management objectives and an SMS implementation/maintenance plan are created/communicated.
• Supervision of third parties involved in the SMS via service level agreements (SLAs).
• Measuring the effectiveness of SMS and service objective attainment.
• Making staff, information, budgets, and technologies available to run SMS and services.
• Giving the right people accountability so they can make independent decisions.
• Top management is more of a management role rather than a strategic role for bodies like director boards.
• A governing body oversees the organization but the top management implement them in an operational environment.
• Small businesses may have consolidated governing body and top management. Governance of IT is covered in ISO/IEC 38500.
• The SMS service management policy must offer commitment to fulfil the SMS criteria and sustain improvement.

Clause 6 - Planning

• The specific section for defining the requirements for planning the SMS.
• Includes risk management, setting service management objectives and planning to create an SMS.
• Assess risks and opportunities and follow up on stakeholders and matters in Clause 4.
• The whole organization must set service management objectives, so that the SMS goals are accessible. Such goals measure the SMS performance.
• Plan your actual SMS in a service management plan, following Clauses 4-6. SMS measures must be documented so service workers can fulfil and understand it.

Clause 7 - Support

• This contains elements of communication, competency, knowledge, awareness and other forms of resources.
• A documentation is needed for the SMS.
• Resources should enable SMS and service lifecycle success.
• Competency of services and SMS individuals must be evaluated for operation, also training and education.
• All personnel should know SMS standards and objectives in order to stay motivated and provide the right support.
• You must organize timing or communication, so that stakeholders understand what they must do.
• Documentation is important for a sound service and will demonstrate a SMS works.
• Service documentation must be able to improve and support SMS and service implementation.
• People with the SMS will require training in service provision.

Clause 8 - Operation

• Encompasses the key service management processes, and is the most extensive section of the standard.
• Control processes needed to meet SMS requirements.
• Operational planning should cover:
• Outsourced services to third parties
• Alignment with the service management plan (6.3)
• Achievement of service requirements
• Achievement of service management objectives (6.2)
• Coordinating support for SMS and service.
• Alignment of services with requirements.
• Align services with strategy and budget to achieve goals.
• Third-party control maintains accountability in the SMS.
• All processes and services generate desired results.
• Achieving standards in Clauses is possible with outside assistance.
• Create a public service listing, for the benefit of your internal organization and customer needs.
• The service catalogue can be customer-facing or purely internal.
• Identify service needs (software, hardware, location) with requirements in asset administration.
• Configuration of resources should also be met.
• Configuration Items can be servers, software, trucks, and other vital parts of the service you are providing.
• Incident management for service interruptions.
• Maintain contact between your organization and clients to satisfy business outcomes.

Effective service level management through service level agreements (SLAs).

• Service providers should be able to handle customers based on their service requirements.
• Third-party suppliers should be able to ensure a seamless service.
• Budgeting should happen as a part of your financial practices and service provision.
• SMS should be able to provide feedback to the budget to monitor finance and data performance.
• Keep track of the demand for services and accommodate where required.
• Adequacy if resources for services is needed to satisfy requirements.
• The resources should be technical, human, capital and informational.
• Any changes should be carried out to maintain standards of quality.
• Outlining minor/major changes helps service direction.
• Evaluate any changes.
• The SMS maintains stability.

Managing service changes

• Focus on existing service requests to manage changes. These should be in the change management policy to manage customer and service impact in line with Clause 6.3.
• Coordinate SMS and services.

Service Plans

• Identify crucial services and deliver on time with agreed quality, whilst aligning with service requirements.
• Transferal of support to other providers that is associated with change.
• Activities must deploy in a live environment, with approved changes and zero interruption.
• Incidents of human, technological issues should be prioritized and managed.
• Recovering support is essential with problem analysis.
• Higher-ups typically deal with major incidents.
• Service requests should be efficient and provide customer benefit.
• The root of the problem is an actual incident.
• The cause of a problem should stop future instances.
• Assess service availability and minimize risks.
• Provide continual use.
• Monitor service targets.
• Risk continuity must evaluate service continuity to better customers that create a business continuity program.

Secure information policies

• The confidentiality, integrity and assured validity of used information will create security.
• Risk checks using badges, firewalls creates safe information.

Clause 9 - Performance Evaluation

• Covers SMS evaluation including measurement and audit.
• ISO/IEC 20000-1 adds service reporting elements.
• Performance such as service level needs measuring.
• Management regularly reviews SMS performance to find recommendations.
• Audit SMSs regularly to identify areas for improvement.
• Audit and service reporting must be impartial
• Stakeholders can make appropriate decisions about how well new services perform.

Clause 10 - Improvement

• How to refine SMS with continual progress while fixing gaps:
• SMS requirements should identify, analyze, and correct performance.
• Action to prevent problems ensure SMS continuation
• Improvements must produce more value from customers.
• Measure value to determine quality using metrics.
• Various methodologies are used such as Lean, Six Sigma' and Deming Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act, PDCA).

Test your knowledge of ISO/IEC 20000-1, the international standard for service management. Questions cover key clauses, scope definition, responsibilities, and objectives. Assess your understanding of SMS implementation and stakeholder management.