6 Service Support

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The Service Support component of ITIL deals more with the day-to-day support and maintenance processes of Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management, Configuration Management and Release Management plus the Service Desk function.

Figure 5: The Service Support Process

Figure 5 illustrates that the Service Desk function provides the major interface to the business and it also shows the major deliverables from each of the Service Support processes.

The Service Desk provides a single, central point of contact for all Users of IT within an organisation, handling all Incidents, queries and requests. It provides an interface for all of the other Service Support processes.

Incident Management is responsible for the management of all Incidents from detection and recording through to resolution and closure. The objective of Incident Management is the restoration of normal service as soon as possible with minimal disruption to the business.

The goal of Problem Management is to minimise the adverse impact of Incidents and Problems on the business. To achieve this, Problem Management assists Incident Management by managing all major Incidents and Problems, while endeavouring to record all workarounds and ‘quick fixes’ as Known Errors where appropriate, and raising Changes to implement permanent structural solutions wherever possible. Problem Management also analyses and trends Incidents and Problems to proactively prevent the occurrence of further Incidents and Problems.

A single centralised Change Management process, for the efficient and effective handling of Changes, is vital to the successful operation of any IT organisation. Changes must be carefully managed throughout their entire lifecycle from initiation and recording, through filtering, assessment, categorisation, authorisation, scheduling, building, testing, implementation and eventually their review and closure. One of the key deliverables of the process is the Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) a central programme of Change agreed by all areas, based on business impact and urgency.

The Release Management process takes a holistic view of Changes to IT services, considering all aspects of a Release both technical and non-technical. Release Management is responsible for all legal and contractual obligations for all hardware and software in use within the organisation. In order to achieve this and protect the IT assets, Release Management establishes secure environments for both hardware in the Definitive Hardware Store (DHS) and software in the Definitive Software Library (DSL).

Configuration Management provides the foundation for successful IT Service Management and underpins every other process. The fundamental deliverable is the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), comprising one or more integrated databases detailing all of the organisation’s IT infrastructure components and other important associated assets. It is these assets that deliver IT services and they are known as Configuration Items (CIs). What sets a CMDB apart from an ordinary asset register are the relationships, or links, that define how each CI is interconnected and interdependent with its neighbours. These relationships allow activities such as impact analyses and ‘what if?’ scenarios to be carried out. Ideally the CMDB also contains details of any Incidents, Problems, Known Errors, and Changes associated with each CI.

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