Service Level Manager

Careers in IT service management

John Sansbury

• Publisher: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781780172965
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

Service level management provides a framework in which IT services are defined, agreed upon and delivered. The role of service level manager is a critical one in that the agreements negotiated with customers should inform most if not all of the activities of the service provider. Rarely is this the case however, and there are many tripwires awaiting the inexperienced or unwary. This practical book is aimed at helping those whose role is to establish, negotiate, manage or update service level agreements and to use these as the basis of continual service improvement. It covers areas such as purpose, required skills, responsibilities, interface and career progression as well as tools, standards and frameworks related to the role.

1	OVERVIEW OF THE FIELD

The purpose of this chapter is to position service level management within the wider context of service management. It is here that we introduce the concept of putting processes under control in order to ensure their repeatability, efficiency and effectiveness.

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIELD

The ability of an IT service provider to deliver consistent, reliable, efficient and effective services is dependent on a number of prerequisites. Few of these are more relevant and important than the maturity of its service management processes in general and the service level management process in particular. This is because this process ensures that the operational activities necessary to deliver efficient and effective services are recognised, understood, clearly defined and under control.

Process maturity is in effect a measure of the extent to which processes are under control. And if processes are not under control, then the services that they underpin are unlikely to be under control. This in turn impacts the ability of the service provider to meet the objectives of their stakeholders who depend on receiving effective services tailored to their needs. (Process maturity is covered in more depth in Chapter 10.)

If you doubt the value or question the investment necessary to have IT processes under control, ask an IT user about the extent to which they’re happy with the services. If they say ‘It depends’, for instance on which service they use or when they use it or who they talk to in IT to get something done, then the processes are not under control. That means that the service to the user community is inconsistent, sub-optimised and therefore less than fully effective.

A lack of process or processes with inadequate control means activities are more reliant on individuals. Instead of the activities being undertaken according to defined procedures, there is variance, and variance is the enemy of effective service provision. If knowledge is retained in people’s heads rather than in the service knowledge management system, then activities are conducted according to personal preferences or beliefs.

An analogy would be going to a restaurant and ordering your favourite dish but finding that what you were served was largely dependent on which chef was at work that day, or visiting a travel agent to book a holiday and having your destination, travel arrangements and the price of your holiday depend on the representative making the arrangements.

In my 45 years’ experience of working with IT departments, it is sad but true that many departments still struggle to offer consistent, predictable and reliable services aligned to the needs of their business and stakeholders.

The key to be able to do so is shown in Figure 1.1. The generic activities associated with all processes are defined in the ‘Process’ box in the middle. The ability to ensure that these processes are undertaken on a consistent basis, aligned to stakeholder requirements, is achieved through essentially three control aspects:

• having a process owner accountable for the process (see ‘The service level manager and the service level management process owner’ in Chapter 2);

• having a written and agreed policy for the management of the process (see Appendix B);

• having clearly defined objectives for the process and a measurement framework to demonstrate the level of achievement and provide the basis of continual process improvement (see ‘Measuring and reporting service performance’ in Chapter 5).

Figure 1.1 Generic process control

Service level management is often considered the most important process in the ITIL framework. This is because the main deliverable, the SLA, provides business users with a degree of confidence that their service provider understands and will provide the services and service performance necessary to support their business activities and processes.

For the service provider, arguably everything that the IT department does and those within it do should be aligned with or linked to the requirements defined in the SLA. In effect, it provides the menu for the delivery of services.

Having a clear definition of the services, service levels and responsibilities that the service provider and their customer commits to is one of the cornerstones of adopting a professional approach to service level management. In a managed service environment, this is driven by a contract, but the internal equivalent is the SLA that represents the start point and the lynchpin of good service management from which positive and mutually beneficial relationships can develop.

For each service management process, ITIL defines three roles:

• The process owner. This is the role accountable for the process in terms of establishing the process strategy and policy, its objectives and how it will be measured. These are the preliminary activities necessary to define how the process will operate. The process owner is also responsible for promoting the use of the process, providing the relevant training and awareness and, on an ongoing basis, auditing the process for efficiency and effectiveness and looking for ways to improve the process.

• The process manager(s). For service level management, this is the SLM role (or the SDM in a managed service environment) and the focus of this book. This role is responsible for managing and overseeing the day-to-day activities associated with the management of the process within the terms of reference established by the process owner.

• The process practitioner(s). The practitioners are the individuals or team carrying out the day-to-day activities under the direction of the process manager(s).

If the organisation has a single IT department (i.e. operating as a shared services environment), the roles of process owner and process manager are often assigned to a single individual. So, while this book is aimed at the SLM/SDM or process manager role, many process managers will also be assigned the process owner role. While there are clear demarcation lines, it is nonetheless important to recognise that for those of you who intend to use the guidance in this book to understand and improve the effectiveness of the SLM/SDM role, this is clearly influenced by the strategy, policy and objectives defined by the process owner.

If no process owner has been assigned (not at all an uncommon situation), the likelihood is that, by default, as the SLM/SDM you will be fulfilling at least part of the responsibilities of the process owner. For example, it would normally be the process owner who defines the structure of the SLAs, that is, customer-based or service-based. It would be the process owner who defines the key performance indicators (KPIs) for the process and how performance is reported. With no process owner in place, you will need to make these decisions.

2	THE ROLE OF THE SERVICE LEVEL MANAGER

In this chapter, we look at the specific objectives, aspects, requirements and skills associated with the role and in particular, its differentiation from that of the related but distinct role of business relationship manager (BRM).

INTRODUCTION

The role of the SLM is arguably one of the most important roles in IT. This is because it is instrumental in promoting positive relationships between the service provider and the service provider’s customers. It does this by providing a communications bridge between the two parties, aiming to ensure that IT services and the associated service levels remain aligned to the needs of business users and their departments.

Of course, as an IT service provider, your organisation may be providing services to internal customers, external customers or a combination of the two. Traditionally the SLM role is associated with the provision of services to internal customers. However, if customers are external, while the role is still appropriate, it takes on somewhat different characteristics since the relationship is on a commercial footing. In this case, the role of SLM may sit alongside or even be part of the role of account manager, since in a commercial relationship, service and finance are closely linked.

Nonetheless, even when the IT service provider’s customers are internal and no money actually changes hands, there is no good reason why the management of service levels and indeed service provision should not be undertaken on a professional basis, and this is a recurring theme throughout this book.

From this point forward I will, for convenience, refer to the SLM role, but please consider the guidance to be equally applicable to the SDM role, unless otherwise stated.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

For the service level management process to be considered under basic control in the process maturity model, that is, at level 3 or ‘defined’ maturity (see Chapter 10), there should be a written policy relating to service level management. In the event that this exists, it will provide a useful blueprint for your role as SLM. Should it not exist, you may find it useful and appropriate to draft one yourself to gain both corporate commitment and legitimacy of the process (and implicitly your role). A draft policy template is offered in Appendix B.

A key purpose of your role as SLM is to understand, capture and respond appropriately to your customer’s service level requirements on behalf of your organisation, which is acting as the IT supplier.

Your role is also instrumental in maintaining communication between IT and its customers in both directions, that is, providing information about IT services and capturing and acting on information about business requirements.

In fact, IT has two primary responsibilities: providing IT services to its customers and helping its customers make the most effective use of the IT services.

The second of these is often overlooked, yet is a key aspect of the SLM role, albeit in concert with the business relationship management role. In other words, it isn’t sufficient just to provide IT services; it is an inherent part of the IT supplier’s obligation to help its customers and users gain maximum advantage from those services. One could argue that this is more applicable to the provision of services to internal customers, but there’s no reason why a managed service provider or outsourcer should not make the same commitment.

In practice, this means:

• comparing customers’ requirements with the capability of the IT department to meet those requirements;

• managing the gaps;

• negotiating agreements that satisfy both parties;

• p...