ITIL® 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS)

Your companion to the ITIL 4 Managing Professional CDS certification

Claire Agutter

• Publisher: ITGP
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781787783393
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

ITIL ® 4 Create, Deliver and Support

If you've achieved your ITIL ® 4 Foundation certificate, you're probably planning the next stage in your ITIL journey and which qualification to work towards. ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) provides essential knowledge and capabilities for service management professionals, focusing on a value stream based approach to IT-enabled products and services – a must-have skillset practitioners should seek beyond Foundation level.

The majority of this book is based on the official AXELOS ITIL ® 4: Create, Deliver and Support publication and the associated Create, Deliver and Support Managing Professional syllabus. It provides students with the information they need to pass the Create, Deliver and Support exam, and help them become a successful practitioner.

Suitable for existing ITIL v3 experts, ITIL 4 Managing Professional (MP) students, ITSM (IT service management) practitioners who are adopting ITIL 4, approved training organisations, IT service managers, IT managers and those in IT support roles.

The guide focuses on:

• Service value system key concepts and challenges;
• Using a shift-left approach;
• Planning and managing resources in the service value system;
• The use and value of technology across the service value system;
• ITIL practices and value streams for new services and user support;
• How to create, deliver and support services; and
• Exam preparation.

A useful tool throughout your career

In addition to being an essential study aid, the author — a seasoned ITSM professional — also provides additional guidance throughout the book which you can lean on once your training and exam are over. The book includes her own practical experience from which she gives advice and points to think about along the way so that you can refer back to this book for years to come – long after you've passed your exam.

The essential link between your ITIL qualification and the real world – buy this book today!

Part of Claire Agutter's ITIL 4 Series. For more information about the other books in the series, visit: www.itgovernancepublishing.co.uk/author/claire-agutter

CHAPTER 1: SERVICE VALUE SYSTEM KEY CONCEPTS AND CHALLENGES

The first chapters in this book look at how to plan and build a service value system (SVS) to create, deliver and support services. This includes:

•Understanding the concepts and challenges relating to the SVS;

•Understanding how to use a ‘shift-left’ approach;

•Knowing how to plan and manage resources in the SVS; and

•Understanding the use and value of information and technology across the SVS.

This information provides the foundation for the activities and choices practitioners and managers can use as services are created, delivered and supported.

SVS concepts and challenges: Organisational structure

The way an organisation is structured will have an impact on how it works. Structure affects how people work together, how decisions are made, and how new ideas are shared.

Table 1: Organisation Structures
Functional	Functional structures are typically hierarchical, with defined formal lines of authority, clear roles and responsibilities, and clear allocation of power and responsibility. Examples of functions could be sales, finance, IT, etc.
Divisional	Divisional structures are based around organisational entities such as markets, products or geographical areas. In a divisional structure, each division may operate as an individual entity with its own profit and loss, support teams, etc.
Matrix	A matrix structure occurs when staff have dual reporting lines; for example, to a line manager and a product manager for a piece of work. Matrix organisations are represented as a grid of relationships, and often describe ‘pools’ of people who can move between projects and products. They can support more agile ways of working and rapid reconfiguration of resources.
Flat	Flat organisations have very little hierarchy and can support fast decision-making by enabling autonomy. This may, however, create challenges as an organisation grows.

Think about the structure or your current, or most recent, employer. Does it fall into one of these types? What benefits did the organisational structure offer? Did it create any challenges?

The key differences between organisational structures are often defined by:

•Grouping/team basis (e.g. product, function, customer);

•Location – co-located or not;

•Relationship to value streams – responsible for individual step(s) or an entire value stream; and

•Levels of autonomy and authority (command and control vs delegation or self-organising teams).

Digital transformation requires organisations to be more flexible and agile, which has an impact on structure. Matrix structures, resource pools and the ability to use external staff can all offer benefits. Some organisations are moving from project-based to product-based teams to provide consistency and ownership from demand to value. Any change in organisation structure should have appropriate change controls applied.

Take a look at the Banksbest case study and read about the organisation’s relationship with Employeez on Demand. This supplier provides extra resources during peak times. What would Banksbest need to consider from a contractual and a service management perspective to ensure its customers receive a good service when they are speaking to Employeez on Demand staff?

SVS concepts and challenges: Integrated/collaborative culture

Collaboration and cooperation are separate concepts that should not be confused. Collaboration requires active and passive participation from all people and groups in the organisation to be effective. Cooperation is often based around goals; a group that is focused solely on its own goal can become a silo as it loses sight of the bigger picture.

For collaboration to take place, goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for groups need to be shared, integrated, and aligned to organisational goals.

Table 2: Collaboration and Cooperation
Collaboration	Cooperation
Work together towards a shared goal/objective	Separate goals can lead to silo working
Shared and integrated goals	Aligned goals
Everyone succeeds or fails together	Individuals and teams succeed independently
Goals and resources aligned in real time	Cooperative, friendly, willing to share information
Technology is necessary but not sufficient	Technology is necessary but not sufficient
Needs respect, trust and transparency	Less need for trust and transparency
Needs respect, trust and transparency	Less need for trust and transparency
Needs multi-channel communication (stand ups, face-to-face, active listening, tool-mediated, etc.)	Needs effective communication
Everyone needs to understand how they contribute to the big picture	Everyone needs to understand their own role
Need to understand PESTLE* factors for all stakeholders	Need to understand PESTLE factors for own role

* PESTLE analysis looks at these factors as part of an analysis:

•Political

•Economical

•Social

•Technological

•Legal

•Environmental

The work that a team does may be classed as algorithmic or heuristic.

Table 3: Algorithmic or Heuristic
Algorithmic tasks	Heuristic tasks
Follow a defined process, with established instructions	Depend on human understanding and intervention
Follow the rules	Learn or discover what is needed
Clear inputs, outputs, instructions, branches, etc.	Need flexibility, information, knowledge and experience
Reassignment and handover between teams where needed	Collaboration, swarming and DevOps often appropriate
People doing the work may recognise opportunities to improve how it is done – this should be part of their role	New insights can be recorded for future use, moving some work to algorithmic (removing ‘toil’ – manual, repetitive work that is devoid of enduring value. Toil scales in a linear way, for example more users equals more password resets.)

Think about your typical working day. How much of your work is pre-planned, and how much just ‘happens’? Are your tasks algorithmic or heuristic? Algorithmic tasks may be suitable for automation or improvement, but to identify that, you will also need time to review what you are doing. Teams, for example, that spend much of their time firefighting and carrying out reactive work may struggle to find time to identify ways to do things better.

Collaboration happens within IT teams, as well as with service consumers, service provider employees, shareholders, regulators, partners, suppliers, and any other relevant stakeholders. Whether an organisation offers business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) services also has an impact on the stakeholders it will need to collaborate with. Technology (such as Slack or Microsoft Teams) can support collaboration, but don’t forget the guiding principle is to collaborate and promote visibility. Don’t l...