Validity of testing

Suitable tools

Service Management training

Adequate training and awareness can have much wider overall benefits. As well as creating champions of a few, it can be used to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of many. Service Operation staff must all be aware of the consequences of their actions, both good and bad, on the organization – and all must be instilled with a ‘Service Management culture ’.

It is possible to have the finest Service Operation practice and tools in the world – but Service Management will not be successful unless the people are also attuned to the overall Service Management objective s. Buy-in and support of all staff are therefore very important – and the role of training and awareness, and even formal qualification s that benefit the individual, should not be underestimated.

Training required for successful Service Management includes:

• Training IT staff on the processes that have been implemented. This will include generic training so that they understand the concepts fully, as well as training specially targeted at the organization’s own processes
• Training on ‘soft’ or ‘people’ skills, especially for those staff in customer -facing positions
• Training about understanding the business, and the importance of achieving a service culture
• Where tools have been implemented, training on how to use and manage those tools
• Also, customers and user s need appropriate training on how to work with IT – access services, request changes, submit requests, use tools, etc.

Many Service Operation processes and activities cannot be performed effectively without adequate support tools (as outlined in Chapter 7). Senior management must ensure that funding for such tools is included in ongoing budget s and support their procurement, deployment and ongoing maintenance.

The quality of IT service s that can be provided in Service Operation is dependent upon the quality of systems and component s delivered into the operational environment.

The quality level will be significantly enhanced if adequate and complete testing of new components and release s is carried out in good time. Documentation should also be tested for completeness and quality.

This requires a comprehensive and realistic testing environment to be in place for all systems/components – which mirrors the operational environment in terms of volume as well as characteristics. There should be independent testers wherever possible. Funding for such testing environments is essential if high-quality services are to be achieved.

Additionally, sufficient time and effort are needed to ensure that testing is properly planned and designed – and adequate time is included for testing, and re-testing should some parts fail! The best way to ensure this is by following the guidance in the Service Transition publication.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-23