ITIL® 4:
Drive Stakeholder Value
Reference and Study Guide
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Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgements
vi
viii
About this guide
ix
1 Introduction
1
2 Customer journeys
2
2.1 Co-creating service value through customer journeys
2
2.2 Designing and improving customer journeys
7
3 Step 1: Explore – understand markets and
stakeholders
17
3.1 Customer needs and impacting factors
17
3.2 Identifying service providers and value propositions
19
3.3 Market characteristics
21
3.4 Marketing activities and techniques
22
4 Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
25
4.1 Communication and collaboration
26
4.2 Service relationship types
28
4.3 Customer relationships and engagement
33
4.4 Relationship management practice
41
4.5 Supplier management practice
42
5 Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings 44
5.1 Managing demand and opportunities
44
5.2 Specifying and managing customer requirements
47
5.3 Designing digital services
53
iii
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
5.4 Selling and obtaining services
57
5.5 Business analysis practice
60
6 Step 4: Agree – align expectations and agree service 62
6.1 Plan for value co-creation
62
6.2 Negotiate and agree service levels
64
6.3 Service level management practice
67
7 Step 5: Onboard – get on board or leave the journey 70
7.1 Planning onboarding
71
7.2 Fostering user relationships
77
7.3 User engagement and delivery channels
79
7.4 Enabling users for service
82
7.5 Elevating mutual capabilities
84
7.6 Offboarding
85
7.7 Service catalogue management practice
87
7.8 Service desk practice
88
8 Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
8.1 A service mindset
90
8.2 Provisioning user services
92
8.3 Requesting services
94
8.4 Triaging requests
95
8.5 Customer and user feedback
98
8.6 User communities
99
8.7 Service request management practice
99
9 Step 7: Realize – capture value and improve
iv
90
101
9.1 Realizing service value
101
9.2 Tracking service value
104
Contents
9.3 Assessing and reporting service value
108
9.4 Evaluating service value
109
9.5 Realizing value for the service provider
110
9.6 Portfolio management practice
112
10 Taking the DSV examination
115
10.1 Purpose of the ITIL 4 DSV qualification
115
10.2 Examination overview
115
10.3 Question type examples
116
10.4 Examination modalities
118
11 The ITIL 4 certification scheme
11.1 ITIL Foundation
120
120
11.2 ITIL Managing Professional stream
121
11.3 ITIL Strategic Leader stream
124
11.4 ITIL Master
126
11.5 ITIL and the T-shaped individual
126
12 ITIL 4: Drive Stakeholder Value syllabus
129
References
135
Further information
137
Index
140
v
Foreword
It is insightful that stakeholder value is one of the primary components
of ITIL 4. Not enough people yet realize the social significance of it: just
how broad the implications of the term ‘stakeholder’ are.
The concept of stakeholder value is not just a recognition of the
networked multi-entity nature of the flow of value in reality, though that
matters. Our old models of the bounded linear flow of value from one
entity through ours to another are an approximation that is often
misleading in the modern hyper-connected world of co-created value.
This is not your mum’s or dad’s value stream.
Nor is this concept of stakeholder value as our purpose merely a
replacement for shareholder value, though it is about time. We need to
bury the unfortunate idea that Milton Friedman gave us in the last
century, that greed is good. We will be unravelling the damage that that
particular belief has caused for decades. Peter Drucker knew that
Friedmanism was (and still is) wrong:
‘… this is not enough. Any institution exists for the sake of society
and within a community. It, therefore, has to have impacts; and one
is responsible for one’s impacts. In the society of institutions of the
developed countries, the leadership groups, that is, the managers of
the various institutions, also have to take social responsibility, have
to think through the values, the beliefs, the commitments of their
society, and have to assume leadership responsibility beyond the
discharge of the specific and limited mission of their institutions’
(Drucker, 1973).
Drucker said that the purpose of a business is to create a customer,
which is better but still too narrow. Neither Drucker nor Friedman speak
to those outside of commerce.
vi
Foreword
Gary Hamel clinched it in his theory of humanocracy. He said that the
purpose of any organization – commercial, not-for-profit, or government
– is to be better together than apart. An organization should have ‘one
goal in mind – to maximize human contribution’ (Hamel and Zanini,
2020). We come together as one body, a company, a corporation, with
that aim. We create value together that we cannot readily make alone.
The concept of stakeholder value supports Hamel’s assertion because it
recognizes the importance of everyone coming together in networks and
corporations – yet it goes even further. It also recognizes that not all
stakeholders have the same idea of value. Investors want a return,
customers desire fulfilment, staff want to be able to flourish, suppliers
require a market, society seeks a contribution, and the environment
needs nurturing.
The realization is slowly dawning on us that we are all stakeholders,
from customer to community to planet. We must deliver to all human
values, rather than fixating on shareholders’ return or customer delivery.
It’s about values over value.
When you read this guide, please do so in the context of a better world
for all. We want to make work better: better results, better lives, and
better society.
Rob England
Teal Unicorn
vii
Acknowledgements
Lead author
Christian Feldbech Nissen
CFN Consult
Reviewers
Akshay Anand
AXELOS
Alison Cartlidge
Sopra Steria
Phil Hearsum
AXELOS
Mark Lillycrop
itSMF UK
Contributing authors to ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value
Pavel Demin, Cleverics; Signe-Marie Hernes Bjerke, Teambyggerne AS;
Roman Jouravlev, AXELOS; Antonina Klentsova, independent consultant.
viii
About this guide
This guide can be used as a study aid for candidates taking the ITIL 4
Managing Professional Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV) qualification and
as a quick reference guide for those who want a high-level overview of
key points from the AXELOS core guidance ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder
Value. Although the guide does not include exhaustive examinable
content, it is a summary for quick revision with specific references to
the core guidance should you wish to read more (found in practical
tabular format linked to learning requirements in Table 12.1).
Further information is also available in the practice guides on the
AXELOS My ITIL platform (one year’s subscription to My ITIL is included
with any ITIL exam).
ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value provides guidance on establishing,
maintaining, and developing effective service relationships at
appropriate levels. It leads organizations on a service journey in their
service provider and consumer roles, supporting effective interaction
and communication.
Note that this title is not intended to replace ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder
Value nor to be a substitute for a course provider’s training materials.
ix
1
Introduction
ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value provides guidance on establishing,
maintaining, and developing effective service relationships at
appropriate levels. It leads organizations on a service journey in their
service provider and consumer roles, supporting effective interaction
and communication.
Services are not manufactured, produced, or delivered but co-created
between two or more stakeholders. The service experience is formed by
individual touchpoints and service interactions on a joint journey as well
as by the journey as a whole. To improve stakeholder satisfaction, each
touchpoint should lead to a good experience, and the whole journey
should meet or exceed the stakeholders’ expectations.
The purpose of ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value is to optimize the value
of the service journey for all involved stakeholders by converting
opportunity and demand into value. In other words, to drive stakeholder
value. All stakeholders contribute to the creation of service value by:
● exploring value propositions
● fostering relationships
● keeping engagement channels open
● shaping demand
● designing service offerings
● aligning and agreeing on expectations
● co-creating service experiences
● realizing value.
ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value provides recommendations for how to
engage in and contribute to each of these activities.
1
2
Customer journeys
2.1 Co-creating service value through customer journeys
To drive stakeholder value, all stakeholders must contribute to the
co-creation of service value. They engage in a joint experience, known
as the customer journey.
Every customer journey involves several touchpoints and service
interactions between the service provider, service consumer, and
other stakeholders.
Definitions
● Customer journey The complete end-to-end experience that
service customers have with one or more service providers and/
or their products through touchpoints and service interactions.
● Touchpoint Any event where a service consumer or potential
service consumer has an encounter with the service provider
and/or its products and resources.
● Service interaction A reciprocal action between a service
provider and a service consumer that co-creates value.
Service interactions include:
● transfer of goods
● provision of access to resources
● interaction with service provider resources
● joint service actions.
2
Customer journeys
Touchpoints and service interactions are not necessarily the same. A
user may be in contact with a service provider resource without
interacting with the service provider. A customer may also enter into an
interaction with a service provider through a third party without being in
direct contact with the service provider.
During a customer journey, there is a line of visibility beyond which one
party cannot see the other party’s activities.
Definition: Band of visibility
Activities and resources within a service relationship that are
visible to both the service provider and the service consumer.
The band of visibility is where the service experience is formed, i.e. the
customer journey. It includes the touchpoints, service interactions, and
parts of the products and environment that are visible to stakeholders in
a service relationship. Figure 2.1 illustrates the band of visibility.
Explore
Engage
Offer
Agree
Onboard
Co-create
Realize
Customer
Service provider
Line of
visibility
Band of
visibility
Figure 2.1 The band of visibility
3
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Customer journeys are not the same as value streams but are closely
related, as illustrated below and in Figure 2.2:
● A customer journey always relies on at least one value stream from
each of the involved parties.
● One value stream typically supports multiple customer journeys.
● One customer journey may span more than one service provider
value stream from different service providers.
● The customer journey only includes value stream activities that are
part of the band of visibility.
● Because organizations have value streams that are invisible to the
other parties, some value streams will not be a direct part of the
customer journey.
Consumer A
Customer journey 1
Consumer B
Customer journey 2
Value
stream 1
Value
stream 2
Value
stream 3
Value stream 4
Value stream Z
Service provider A
Service provider B
Figure 2.2 Relationships between value streams and customer journeys
Customer journeys are important sources for customer and user
experience (CX and UX). However, experiences are also influenced by
4
Customer journeys
environmental factors and by the interactions and exposures that the
consumer may have with the service provider’s brand, as shown in
Figure 2.3.
Perceived
brand
touchpoints
Customer/user
experience
Perceived
service
environment
Perceived customer/user journey
Figure 2.3 Three aspects of the customer and user experience
Definitions
● Customer experience The sum of the functional and emotional
interactions with a service and service provider as perceived by
a customer.
● User experience The sum of the functional and emotional
interactions with a service and service provider as perceived by
a user.
2.1.1
Stakeholder aspirations
To form the stakeholder’s experience, their aspirations should be
uncovered. It is important to understand stakeholder value, which
requires exploring the functional, social, and emotional dimensions
5
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
that explain why stakeholders need certain products and services,
including their:
● Needs The outcomes that are essential to a stakeholder.
● Wants Things that stakeholders would prefer to have or that would
improve their experiences. Needs are requirements, but fulfilling
wants is how service providers exceed expectations.
● Stereotypes The preconceived notions, positive or negative, that
stakeholders have about the experience, including history and culture.
● Emotions Emotional intelligence and behavioural psychology are
keys to understanding and mastering the emotional aspect of the
journey. A stakeholder’s emotional state will fundamentally affect
their experience.
Mastering the customer journey helps to maximize stakeholder value
through co-creation, focusing on both outcomes and experience, as
shown in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1 The purposes of identifying, understanding, and mastering
the customer journey
Facilitate outcome and
experience
6
For the service
consumer
For the service provider
To gain optimal service
value and experience from
the service relationship
To identify and support
specific service consumer
behaviours and outcomes
To understand what the
service consumer needs
and desires
To optimize and improve
products, services, and
customer journeys for
future value realization
Customer journeys
For the service
consumer
For the service provider
Optimize risk and
compliance
To ensure key service
consumer risks have been
identified and addressed
To focus on the customer
satisfaction issues and
key areas with the highest
pay-outs
Optimize resources and
minimize costs
To work together with the
service provider to
commit and optimize the
use of resources during
the service lifecycle
To commit and optimize
the use of resources
during the service
lifecycle
To be fair and transparent
regarding costs
2.2 Designing and improving customer journeys
When the stakeholder experience aspirations are understood, the next
stage is to identify, understand, and master the end-to-end experience
of the customer journey by defining personas, scenarios, journey maps,
and service blueprints, as shown in Figure 2.4.
Stakeholder
aspirations
Service
blueprint
Scenarios
Personas
Journey
map
Figure 2.4 The stages involved in designing end-to-end customer
journeys and experiences
7
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
2.2.1
Personas
A journey is a specific, discrete experience in a service consumer
lifecycle. However, mapping individual customer journeys is unfeasible.
Therefore, customer journey maps normally represent a generic flow for
a group of stakeholders, often represented by a persona.
Definition: Persona
A fictitious yet realistic description of a typical or target customer
or user of a service or product.
Although personas are archetypes, not actual people, they should be
described as if they were real.
2.2.2
Scenarios
Scenarios are short stories about personas trying to achieve their goals
by using the service or product in their contexts. Good scenarios are
concise and answer the following questions:
● Who is the user?
● Why does the service consumer want the service?
● What goals does the service consumer have?
● How can the service consumer achieve its goals?
Using a scenario-based approach, it is possible to identify ideal
experiences for the scenarios that are most important to the different
customer segments. Then the different experiences can be combined to
create a high-level customer journey map that is applicable to all.
8
Customer journeys
2.2.3
Customer journey maps
A customer journey map visualizes the service consumer’s experience.
There are many ways to visualize the customer journey. Simple maps
typically include the steps of the journey, duration, touchpoints and
service interactions, personas, service experience, and service provider
teams and roles who interact with the service consumer. An example
can be seen in Figure 2.5.
Co-create
Experience
Service provider
teams
Team 1
Realize
Invoice
Track, assess. and
evaluate value.
Evaluate journey
Dashboard
User access portal
Acceptance test
Data migration
Service catalogue
Consume service
and engage in the
service interaction
Satisfaction survey
Onboard
Service desk
Agree
Negotiate and
Procure and perform
agree service utility,
customer transition
warranty, and experience
activities
Sign agreement
Story kickoff
Feature kickoff
Template
23 days
Product defect
Offer
Specify
requirements
Workshop
E-mail
Intranet
Build
relationships
3 days
Negotiation
Engage
Explore
Understand needs and
value, and identify
service providers
Touchpoints/
interactions
62 days
Demo
16 days
E-mail
Steps
12 days
Meeting
Duration
Personas
Sponsor
Customer
User
Team 2
Team 3
Role 1
Figure 2.5 Example of a customer journey map
Attributes such as goals, products and product features, channels,
environmental properties, data sources, moments of truth, and prior
improvements, may be added to the map for each step depending on
the purpose, complexity, and nature of the customer journey.
Aspects such as organizational branding and the (digital) environment
influence the customer experience. Therefore, feedback should reflect
the individual customer journey touchpoints and service interactions and
also examine brand touchpoints and environmental conditions, including
their impact on comfort, ease, and speed.
9
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
According to the Johari window (see Figure 2.6), it is evident that some
areas are unknown to the service provider but known to the service
consumer. Therefore, the service provider must seek feedback on
behaviour in the invisible areas of the service relationship. Likewise,
there are areas that are known only to the service provider, but would
benefit the customer experience if the service consumer was aware of
them. These areas should be disclosed to the service consumer by the
service provider.
Known by self
Unknown by self
Ask
Known by others
Open
area
Blind
area
Feedback
Shared discovery
Tell
Self-disclosure
Self-discovery
Unknown by others
Hidden
area
Unknown
area
Figure 2.6 The Johari window
Adapted with permission from Luft (1969), used by permission of MindTools
2.2.4
Designing the customer journey (service blueprint)
The overall objective for the customer journey is to plan and design
customer journeys that facilitate optimal value co-creation and
outstanding customer experiences. Customer journey design is part of
service design.
Before designing the actual customer journey, the desired outcome and
stakeholder experience should be defined, including:
10
Customer journeys
● outcome
● experience
● utility
● warranty
● risk and compliance
● cost and resources.
The desired value should be defined for each major stakeholder in the
customer journey.
2.2.4.1 Design thinking
Design thinking is a method that puts the user at the centre of the design
process. True innovation requires designers to engage with real users to
understand their problems and explore different ideas for a resolution.
At a high level, five principles of service design thinking may be adopted
to guide the design process (Schneider and Stickdorn, 2012):
● User-centred The customers and users need to be put at the centre
of the design process.
● Co-creative Facilitating co-creation in groups representative of the
stakeholders is a vital aspect of design thinking.
● Sequencing Service design thinking deconstructs customer
journeys into single touchpoints and service interactions. These,
when combined, create service moments.
● Evidencing Physical evidence or artefacts, such as souvenirs, can
trigger the memory of positive service moments. Service evidence
prolongs service experiences beyond the actual service period.
● Holistic We see, hear, smell, touch, taste, and emotionally feel the
physical manifestation of services. The entire environment of a
customer journey, service, or product should be considered.
11
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
At a more practical level, a typical customer journey design process
may include the stages proposed by the Hasso Plattner Institute of
Design at Stanford, which are:
● Empathize Know your stakeholders. Understand the human needs
involved. Define and test personas and scenarios.
● Define Construct a point of view that is based on user needs and
insights. Re-frame and define the problem in human-centric ways.
Map the existing customer journey. Define and plan for the desired
outcome, experience, and value. Set goals and define metrics.
● Ideate Brainstorm and come up with creative solutions. Create
many ideas in ideation sessions to think of improvements to the
customer journey.
● Prototype Build a representation of one or more of your ideas to
show to others. Adopt a hands-on approach in prototyping. Design
customer journey maps and service blueprints.
● Test Test your ideas for feedback. Perform usability testing, role
plays, and A/B testing. Track usage, build in feedback loops, review
metrics, and role play to test that the design helps to deliver the
planned outcome, experience, and value.
2.2.4.2 Leveraging behavioural psychology
Humans behave predictably irrationally. Therefore, the design of
customer journeys should incorporate knowledge of cognitive biases and
intuitive behaviour, including:
● Peak-end bias We do not seem to perceive experience as a whole,
but the average of how it was at its peak. In particular, unpleasant
endings have a strong negative impact.
12
Customer journeys
● Availability bias We base our judgements on events that are most
available in our memory, despite the fact that the availability of a
memory is often influenced by unique and emotional factors.
● Loss aversion The pain of giving up something is greater than the
utility associated with obtaining it. We want to be in control of our
journey and other immediate aspects of our life affected by the
customer journey.
By understanding these cognitive biases, it is possible to take advantage
of them in the design of the customer journey.
2.2.4.3 Design for different cultures
Definitions
● Mental model An explanation of someone’s understanding of
how something works in the surrounding world.
● Culture A set of values that is shared by a group of people,
including expectations about how people should behave and
their ideas, beliefs, and practices.
Culture is part of the mental model and should be considered when
designing customer journeys for different cultural groups or personas.
Culture maps are tools which map cultures to decode the influences of
intercultural collaboration. They are useful for analysing and designing
service consumer scenarios as a basis for customer journey design.
Figure 2.7 shows the culture of two user groups mapped to eight
dimensions to identify similarities and differences (Meyer, 2014).
13
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Communicating
Low-context
High-context
Evaluating
Direct negative feedback
Indirect negative feedback
Persuading
Principles first
Applications first
Leading
Egalitarian
Hierarchical
Deciding
Consensual
Top down
Trusting
Task-based
Relationship-based
Disagreeing
Confrontational
Avoid confrontation
Scheduling
Linear time
Flexible time
Figure 2.7 The eight dimensions of culture
2.2.5
Measuring and improving the customer journey
To continually improve, it is important to measure stakeholder
behaviour, experience, and feedback both across the journey and at
individual touchpoints and service interactions. Additionally, indirect
measures, such as service quality, product quality, and the quality of
the enabling value streams, practices, and resources can highlight
stakeholder experience and satisfaction.
It is best practice to start at the top, with a metric to measure the
customer experience, and then cascade downwards into their key
customer journeys and indirect performance and output indicators.
Problem management techniques should be used to isolate the causes of
gaps and identify improvements to all levels of the service stack: customer
journey, service and product design, underpinning value streams,
practices, and resources that enable the value streams and services.
14
Customer journeys
2.2.6
Customer journey steps
ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value discusses the main stepping stones of a
customer journey, providing guidance on how to co-create the most
valuable journey. The customer journey can be broken down into seven
steps as identified in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2 The stepping stones of the customer journey
Step
Description
ITIL practices
in scope of
exam
1. Explore:
understand
markets and
stakeholders
The customer journey often begins before the
service provider and service consumer have
established a relationship. Both parties may
explore their own needs and market
opportunities for identifying partners that may
contribute to the fulfilment of their respective
needs, including operational context, strategic
objectives, and organizational capabilities
2. Engage:
foster
relationships
An important precondition for co-creating value
through services is a functioning relationship
between the service provider, service consumer,
and other stakeholders. Good relations are a
prerequisite for a cooperative relationship or
partnership
Relationship
management
3. Offer:
shape
demand and
service
offerings
To determine whether the parties may benefit
from a mutual service relationship, the service
consumer and service provider should articulate,
shape, and match their demand and supply in
the form of requirements and service offerings.
Products and services can be designed only
when the service consumer needs are well
articulated and understood
Business
analysis
Supplier
management
Table continues
15
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 2.2 continued
Step
Description
ITIL practices
in scope of
exam
4. Agree:
align
expectations
and agree
service
It is crucial to align expectations, plan value
co-creation and tracking, and agree service
scope and quality before investing
Service level
management
5. Onboard:
get on board
or leave the
journey
The parties should undergo a transition that
involves the integration or separation of both
parties’ resources
Service
catalogue
management
6. Co-create:
provide and
consume
The service consumer makes use of accessible
service provider resources, consumes the goods
provided, and acts together with the service
provider to co-create value based on the agreed
service offerings
Service request
management
7. Realize:
capture value
and improve
Value must be tracked and driven based on the
value co-creation planning, and improvements
must be applied to continually maintain and
increase the service value
Portfolio
management
Service desk
The customer journey rarely follows a pre-defined path. Sometimes the
journey progress is straight from one touchpoint to the next, but most
often a journey consists of going from one touchpoint to another and
back again. The journey may also start in the middle of the expected
path and then approach the expected starting point.
16
3
tep 1: Explore – understand markets
S
and stakeholders
Explore is the first step on the customer journey. On this step, both
parties explore their own needs as well as market opportunities for
fulfilling them. For the service consumer one option could be to request
help from an internal or external service provider.
3.1 Customer needs and impacting factors
Before a service consumer is able to completely understand and
articulate its needs for service, the organization’s purpose and any
influencing external and internal factors must be understood.
3.1.1
Purpose
When trying to understand an organization, it is easy to focus on what it
does, rather than how or why it does it (the golden circle model by
Sinek, 2009):
● What? Every organization knows what they do.
● How? Some organizations know how they do what they do. Their
methods and practices set them apart.
● Why? Few organizations know why they do what they do. ‘Why’ is
the purpose, cause, or belief: the reason an organization exists.
Understanding an organization means understanding its purpose. The
purpose will provide direction for identifying service needs.
A stakeholder analysis is required to understand how service value is
created for an organization and its stakeholders. Stakeholder analyses
identify important stakeholders and their needs and interests. The
stakeholders can be internal and external to the organization.
17
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
3.1.2
External factors
The context of the organization, including the markets, customers, and
other stakeholders, must be understood before obtaining services. A
widely used technique to explore the external context is the PESTLE
analysis. A PESTLE analysis covers six areas that are likely to affect the
business: political, economic, sociological, technological, legal, and
environmental. A PESTLE analysis helps service consumers to identify
opportunities and constraints.
3.1.3
Internal factors
Internal factors should be carefully assessed before changing or
obtaining services. The objective is to gain a common understanding of
the current situation and to establish a baseline. The result of this
assessment can be a baseline report. The four dimensions of service
management should be assessed in order to understand internal factors,
including value streams and processes, organizations and people,
information and technology, and partners and suppliers.
There are a number of methods that can be used to assess internal
factors and establish a baseline, including interviews, workshops,
surveys, questionnaires, and maturity or capability assessments.
3.1.4
SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis is often used to combine the results of internal and
external assessments to evaluate whether a service is needed and
whether it should be provided internally. It involves four specific aspects
of an organization: the internal strengths and weaknesses, and the
external opportunities and threats.
18
Step 1: Explore – understand markets and stakeholders
3.1.5
Objectives and opportunities
When a service consumer understands its overall needs for a service, it
can then convert these into service objectives and explore opportunities.
The ITIL continual improvement model may be a useful way to do this:
1. What is the vision?
2. Where are we now?
3. Where do we want to be?
4. How do we get there?
5. Take action
6. Did we get there?
7. How do we keep the momentum going?
3.1.6
Risks and mitigation
Risk assessment is a key part of Step 1: Explore. The assessment
should include threats, vulnerabilities, and the potential impact of all
relevant aspects on the current and desired situation. Based on the risk
profile results, benefits, and costs, the optimal opportunities for services
should be explored further to ensure that any residual risks are either
mitigated or accepted (see the risk management practice guide for more
details about risk assessment and mitigation).
3.2 Identifying service providers and value propositions
When an organization has identified its demand for a service and the
opportunities for satisfying this demand, the next step is to identify and
evaluate options to source this service. Service providers may be
internal or external to the organization, depending on governance
decisions and sourcing policies.
There may be numerous service providers to choose from for any
needed service. Most service providers widely advertise their brand and
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
services, which may serve as initial input for a shortlist of suitable
service providers. To create a shortlist, it is important to assess:
● products and services offered and their functional coverage
● delivery models, warranties, architectural fit, and integration options
● price
● geographical presence and language capabilities
● service attitude, proactivity, and responsiveness
● competency levels, skills, and experience
● availability of resources and partners
● governance profile (policies, security, etc.)
● size of organization
● flexibility and scalability
● financial situation
● brand, reputation, credentials, certifications, and reference
customers
● trust and existing relationship
● charges.
The choice also depends on service provider types, their interests, value
propositions, power positions, and histories.
Industry standards and reference architectures may affect the selection
of service providers. These standards and architectures may be imposed
by regulators, supervisory authorities, private sector organizations, other
external stakeholders, or by the service consumer itself. The final
selection of one or more service providers, whether internal or external,
will typically occur only when the service consumer has gone through
Step 2: Engage or even Step 3: Offer.
20
Step 1: Explore – understand markets and stakeholders
3.3 Market characteristics
A market consists of subgroups of service consumers that have
characteristics in common, so they have similar product and service
needs. To understand who potential service consumers are, a service
provider conducts market analysis and planning. A market analysis is a
quantitative and qualitative assessment of a market; it explores the
market size and opportunities in volume and value, including:
● various service consumer segments
● customer expectations and buying patterns
● trends and dynamics
● competition
● key players
● economic factors.
Market segmentation allows a service provider to target a service
consumer with specific needs and desires. Generally, there are three
factors that identify different market segments:
● homogeneity or common needs within a segment
● distinction and uniqueness from other groups
● reaction or a similar response to the market.
There are two main segmentation approaches:
● Characteristic-based segmentation Based on the characteristics of
the service consumer and area such as geography, demography,
behaviour, psychography, etc.
● Need-based segmentation Based on consumer needs. Tailor
messages to the needs of the service consumers that generate most
sales. Use the 80/20 rule to identify the 20% of the service
consumers that generate 80% of the sales.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
A useful approach is to understand why current or potential service
consumers hire a product or service. Another is to use predictive analytics
(e.g. cognitive technologies, such as machine learning) based on historical
market data and service consumer data. This includes demographics,
buying behaviour, conversion, retention, churn, up-sell, cross-sell,
organizations with attributes similar to existing customers, etc.
The service provider portfolio is used to track, evaluate, and prioritize
the market and service consumer needs for services and products (see
the portfolio management practice guide for more details).
3.4 Marketing activities and techniques
To build a brand and attract target customers, internal and external
service providers should invest in marketing. Marketing promotes
products and service offerings and strengthens brands. A well-written
value proposition is one of the most important elements of marketing.
It differentiates a service or product from that of the competitors.
Definition: Value proposition
An explicit promise made by a service provider to its customers
that it will deliver a particular bundle of benefits.
Value propositions should be tailored to targeted customers by
addressing their needs. They should concisely tell customers:
● how the product or service can solve their problems
● what they can expect if they obtain the product or service
● the advantages of doing business with the company over
its competitors.
22
Step 1: Explore – understand markets and stakeholders
Service providers must explore different channels in order to reach their
customers in targeted markets in the marketplace and marketspace.
The marketplace is the physical world, whereas the marketspace is
defined by all the possible channels made available on the internet.
Profiling is a method of tracking service consumer behaviour in order to
understand consumers’ needs. Personalizing is about knowing what
range of service offerings the customer is most likely to want to obtain
and presenting those specific offers to the customer.
Marketing campaigns work best when the service provider tailors the
message to a specific group of people and their needs and desires. To
do this effectively, specific user profiles (personas) must be used. This
will allow the service provider to write personal messages to potential
customers which address their true needs.
To formulate the message, simple techniques, such as AIDA
(Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action), can be used, as shown in
Figure 3.1. AIDA helps to raise targeted customers’ awareness of an
offer, stimulate interest and desire, and trigger actions.
Awareness
Cognitive stage
Interest
Affective stage
Desire
Action
Behaviour stage
Figure 3.1 The AIDA model
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
A brand is a combination of someone’s perception of an organization
and its products and services in the market. Developing a good
relationship with the target market is an essential part of influencing a
brand. A brand is built iteratively and is reflected in the way people
speak about the organization and its people, products, and services.
Sustainability is an area that greatly impacts brand and reputation.
Sustainability can be defined as ‘development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs’ (Brundtland et al., 1987).
The term ‘bottom line’ normally refers to accounting. However,
sustainability goals have become increasingly important, so to address
sustainability, organizations often adopt the triple bottom line
(Elkington, 1994), which is an accounting framework that covers
financial, social, and environmental aspects.
Keeping existing customers happy is important, as new customers are
more difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to reach than existing
customers. As soon as stakeholders understand the opportunities for
co-creating value, they are ready to establish a good service relationship.
24
4
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
The purpose of this step is to build transparency, continual engagement,
and trust between the stakeholders in order to ensure a good mutual
understanding of each stakeholder’s need for outcome, preferences,
and experience.
In most cases, it is not enough for a service to meet a stakeholder’s
actual need for outcomes. The stakeholder also needs to trust that the
service provider will continue to provide a certain level of service and
improve it over time. The parties must have a shared understanding of
expectations, not only in terms of outcomes but also in experience and
preferences. This is highlighted in Figure 4.1.
Outcomes
Service
value
Preferences
Experiences
Figure 4.1 Aspects of service value
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
4.1 Communication and collaboration
Communication is fundamental for building relationships and trust.
Poor communication can ruin good intentions and lead to costs,
delays, unnecessary disputes, and poor service delivery. The
effectiveness of communication depends on the type of relationship
between those communicating:
● Cooperation is working with others to achieve your own goals.
These goals may form part of a common goal. Individual/team goals
are achieved, but organizational goals may be missed.
● Collaboration is the process where individuals/teams work together
to achieve a common objective.
Listening is crucial for efficient communication. Poor listening causes
mistakes, misunderstandings, and cooperation failures. A common scale
of listening was proposed by Stephen Covey in 1989:
● Ignoring Making no effort to listen.
● Pretend listening Giving the appearance you are listening.
● Selective listening Only hearing the parts of the conversation that
interest you.
● Attentive listening Paying attention and focusing on what the
speaker says.
● Empathetic listening Listening and responding to understand the
speaker’s words, intent, and feelings.
This scale can be simplified further into three basic listening modes as
shown in Table 4.1.
26
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
Table 4.1 Three modes of listening and their application in different
service management situations
Listening
mode
Description
When to use
Covey’s scale
Internal
listening
Focus is inward. Most
of the attention is
given to how the
subject affects the
listener, what
emotions it evokes
Useful when
reviewing work
results reports,
being coached or
mentored,
reviewing
documentation, etc.
Ignoring
Focused
listening
Focused listening is a
level of empathy,
clarification, and
collaboration.
Listeners notice tone,
body language, and
ongoing reactions
May be used
when discussing
requirements
for a service,
participating in
decision-making,
planning changes,
etc.
Attentive listening
Global
listening
Global listening, or
environmental
listening, includes
everything that can be
observed through all
senses
May be used when
solving problems,
designing products
and services, in
teaching, and
when coordinating
teamwork
Empathetic
listening
Pretend listening
Selective listening
Today’s world is very diverse. Therefore, many factors should be
considered when cooperating in service relationships, including:
● cultural differences and language
● time zones and locations
● seasonal factors (e.g. summer vacations)
● organizational culture.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
It is always important to:
● foster a respectful attitude
● use the right language
● create an environment where it is safe to express all perspectives
● finish with actionable conclusions
● continually align as the work proceeds.
4.2 Service relationship types
Relationship activities may differ depending on the objectives the
customer pursues, the type of service, and the service provider type, as
shown in Table 4.2.
4.2.1
Basic relationship
A basic relationship is usually appropriate for standard products and
services. The service provider is interested in a resilient and repetitive
operation that enables the achievement of certain service levels with
minimum effort and deviation. The customer usually has good control
of the service provider in terms of achieving service level, but often
struggles to assess service value. Table 4.3 highlights some advantages
and disadvantages of a basic service relationship from different
service perspectives.
4.2.2
Cooperative relationship
In a cooperative service relationship, the service provider usually tailors
the products and services to the service consumer needs. The customer
expects that the service provider will focus on service outcome and
experience, not just service levels. Information should be exchanged
easily between the involved parties.
28
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
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Organization B
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an
figure
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d
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e
Service
relationship
type
Obtain
an
Table 4.2 Engaging and fostering relationships in different environments
fe r
o
Pr
Basic relationship
Cooperative relationship
Partnership
Key
attributes
Provider acts as an
ad-hoc order taker
Demand is prioritized
based on weak or
subjective data
The service provider is
reactive and does not
challenge customer
requests
There is a lack of quality
data to support cost or
value analyses
‘Loudest in, first out’
Costs are usually
transparent, but value
may be hidden
Provider acts as a
trusted adviser
There is a mutual
understanding of
demand and supply
The service portfolio is
appropriate to service
consumer needs
The service provider
engages in the customer
decision cycle, and there
is a shared
understanding of value
Relationship is based on
mutual respect and
understanding
Provider acts as a
strategic partner
The service provider and
service consumer share
common goals with a
focus on value realization
There is clear
accountability for
achieving value from
investments in products
and services and quality
data to support value
analysis
Shared goals for
maximizing value and
shared risks and rewards
Approach
for building a
relationshipa
Minimize informationsharing
Set up a single channel
of communication
Establish price-driven
ways of working
Reduce barriers to exit
the relationship (or
provide alternatives)
Proactively seek
opportunities to add
value
Provide multiple points
and channels of contact
Forecast independently
rather than jointly
Limit information-sharing
Invest in relationship
management
Establish a deep sense
of trust and partnership
Both parties
acknowledge each
other’s importance
Jointly work on a wide
range of activities and
invest in streamlining
processes
Freely exchange sensitive
information
Create barriers to exit
the relationship
a BRM Institute (2014).
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 4.3 Pros and cons for a basic service relationship
Service
consumer
Advantages
Disadvantages
Easy to exit
Emphasis is placed on
efficiency and transactions
Easy to control
Hard to develop a deeper
relationship
Hard to assess service value
Service
provider
Single channel of
communication
Emphasis is placed on
efficiency and transactions
Easy to measure and report
Difficult to develop a
trustworthy relationship
Building scale and operational
efficiencies into service
management practices
Standard customer
management approach
4.2.3
Little to no information sharing
Easy for the customer to exit
Customer is driven by price
Partnership
In a partnership, the service provider and the service consumer may
act as one organization coordinating activities across functions and
processes. As the level of interdependency and integration grows,
both parties may align on a strategic level by setting goals and
priorities together.
A high level of transparency creates opportunities to find the best
possible solutions. Both parties will wait for results more patiently
because they look at the relationship through a long-term lens.
30
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
4.2.4
Managing suppliers and partners
Every organization depends on services provided by other organizations.
Because the service provider acts as a service consumer in the
relationship with its suppliers, the service provider journey includes the
same steps as the customer journey:
● Explore Understanding needs and value of identifying potential
suppliers
● Engage Building relationships with suppliers
● Offer Shaping demand and specification of requirements
● Agree Negotiating and agreeing terms and conditions for products
and services
● Onboard Deciding whether products and services should be
acquired from the supplier and performing transition activities
● Co-create Consuming services and performing service interactions
with the supplier
● Realize Continually tracking, assessing, and evaluating value
realization, as well as improving the journey.
The service consumer and provider have different perspectives. One
aspect that often differs is service integration and orchestration. Service
integration is responsible for coordinating or orchestrating all suppliers
involved in the sourcing and provision of a product or service. There are
four main models for service integration:
● Retained organization as service integrator Where the retained
organization manages all vendors and coordinates the service
integration and management function itself.
● Single supplier The vendor provides all services as well as the
service integration and management function.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
● Service guardian A vendor provides the service integration and
management function and one or more delivery functions, in
addition to managing other vendors.
● Separate service integrator A vendor provides the service integration
and management function and manages all the other suppliers, even
though the vendor does not deliver any services to the organization.
If a service provider acts a service integrator, it is usually responsible for
building relationships and collaborating on behalf of the customer, as
shown in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4 Relationship management service integrator activities
Step
Service integrator activities
Creating environments
that allow relational
patterns to emerge
Search for new suppliers and partners that may enable
realization of the consumer strategy and objectives
Contact and negotiate with possible suppliers
Check the past performance and/or public ratings of
suppliers and manage due diligence
Building and sustaining
trust and relationships
The same as for a normal service relationship
Understanding service
provider capabilities
Define criteria for managing suppliers based on
relationship type, level of dependency, and risk
Identify, assess, and categorize existing suppliers and their
capabilities and focus on the most important suppliers
Understanding service
consumer needs
The same as for a normal service relationship
Assessing mutual
readiness and maturity
Track suppliers’ performance and compliance
32
Assess the larger supply chain and manage risk related to
the suppliers and their subcontractors
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
4.3 Customer relationships and engagement
The relationship management practice is applied to the customer
journey through a service relationship ladder, which covers the initial
phase of a relationship. The relationship ladder includes the steps
shown in Figure 4.2 and detailed in Table 4.5.
Assessing mutual readiness and maturity
Service provider
Readiness to collaborate (value co-creating)
Customer
Fostering service relationship
Readiness to change
Maturity benchmarking
Understanding service
provider capabilities
Understanding
customer needs
Building and sustaining trust and relationships
Creating environments that allow relational patterns to emerge
Figure 4.2 The service relationship ladder
4.3.1
Creating an environment that allows relational patterns
The service provider should create a comfortable environment that
allows relational patterns to develop. For this, consider the following:
● regular communication: schedule interactions and adhere to plans
● prompt responses
● management of conflicts
● risk management.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 4.5 The steps of the service relationship ladder
Step
Description
ITIL management
practices and tools
Creating
environments that
allow relational
patterns to emerge
Before any communication and
collaboration starts,
a service provider and a
customer need to have
an encounter
Relationship management
● Managing
communication channels
● Providing points of
contact
● Marketing activities
The service provider should
establish or take advantage
of existing meeting places
to bring the customer close
enough to engage with and
make mutual endeavours
possible
a
Service catalogue
management
● Using service catalogue
as an invitation for the
customer to begin
conversation
Building and
sustaining trust and
relationship
Building trust and relationship
as the foundation of further
value co-creation is crucial
Understanding
service provider
capabilities
(performed
simultaneously with
Step 4: Agree)
Ensure that the service
provider has a proper set of
capabilities available to fully
leverage the provider’s
capabilities
Understanding
customer needs
(performed as part
of Step 3: Offer)
The service provider should
leverage the relationship to
uncover and understand the
value that the customer wants
to create
Relationship management
● Understanding customer
needs activity
● Business analysis
Assessing mutual
readiness and
maturity
Are we capable of value
co-creation with the customer?
Do our resources and practices
match the needs?
Business provider maturity
modela
BRM Institute (2014).
34
Relationship management
(all activities and tools)
Maturity assessment and
audits
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
The service catalogue supports service provider activities in the initial
engagement with the service consumer and is a powerful tool for
ensuring:
● the customer’s awareness
● an initial invitation to begin conversation
● supporting discussions related to service offerings.
The service catalogue enables the current list of services to be
communicated through different views for different audiences (e.g.
sponsor, customer, user, IT-to-IT customer views). Another powerful
toolset used by service providers is customer relationship management
(CRM) systems, which store data about current and potential
customers, as well as the historical and current relationship statuses.
4.3.2
Building and sustaining trust and relationships
The service provider and the customer must work together to co-create
value. Therefore, they need to build and manage a relationship that
supports mutual trust and focuses on achieving the service outcomes
while optimizing costs and risks. To do this effectively, the actions are
usually referred to as disciplines: business relationship management (for
the internal service provider) and CRM (for the commercial service
provider). In ITIL, both disciplines are covered in the relationship
management practice guide.
Trust may emerge in various ways, including:
● Knowledge-based As time progresses, knowledge of the other
group can increase the level of trust.
● Calculus-based In a service relationship, trust can build rapidly. In
these situations, both groups can weigh potential opportunities
against risks.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Trustworthy characteristics are categorized into three dimensions
(Hacker et al., 1999):
● Capability The ability to produce results
● Commitment The concern for common goals and other people’s
success and welfare
● Consistency The ability to perform as expected in the same way.
To be trustworthy, both the service provider and the customer should
commit to embodying the three Cs model, as shown in Table 4.6.
Table 4.6 The three Cs model applied to a service relationship
Trust factor
Service provider
Customer
Capability
Adequate knowledge and
skills and sufficient capacity
for demand
Demonstrate agility/
adaptability
Demonstrate agility/
adaptability
Commitment
Consistency
Show concern for the
customer’s success or share
common/mutual goals
Show concern for the service
provider’s success or share
common/mutual goals
Be familiar with the service
consumer and its needs
Explain changes that impact
the service provider
Encourage/promote honest,
respectful, open, two-way
communication
Encourage/promote honest,
respectful, open, two-way
communication
Seek first to understand,
then to be understood
Seek first to understand, then
to be understood
Deliver expected
performance over time
Disclose adequate amount of
information
Respond in a timely manner
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Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
Numerous factors threaten trust and relationships, including:
● the natural tendency to separate the parties
● the service provider’s resources and practices constantly changing
● the service consumer’s risk profile and tolerance changing over time
● new employees in either party changing the nature of the
service relationship
● unavoidable customer complaints.
4.3.3
Understanding service provider capabilities
The most popular ways to understand and evaluate service provider
capabilities are through audits and maturity assessments.
Some information may be available publicly or gathered through
communication with the provider’s current and past customers.
However, capability assessment often focuses on processes and
procedures, such as documents and records. When considering a
service provider’s capability, all four dimensions of service management
should be considered.
4.3.4
Understanding customer needs
It is important to remember that customers do not buy services; they
buy the fulfilment of particular needs. They have jobs to be done
(Christensen et al., 2016). The service provider must understand these
jobs in order to identify the service consumer’s needs, preferences, and
desired outcomes and experience.
4.3.4.1 Value
A simple value driver framework can explain how the service consumer’s
needs and desired outcomes may be linked to the service provider’s
service offerings, as seen in Figure 4.3.
37
Service outcomes
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Service outputs
Boundaries depend
on the type of
service relationship
Service consumer purposes
Service consumer objectives
Service consumer performance and experience
Service performance (utility and warranty)
Resource/product performance
Figure 4.3 Example of a value driver framework
Two approaches to how outcomes may be linked to products and
services may be applied (BRM Institute, 2014):
● Value-based approach (top-down) The service provider discusses
the customer’s most pressing problems or objectives, then analyses
initiatives (how they can be solved or achieved), enablers (what
capabilities or resources are needed to implement initiatives), and
technology (how the capabilities and enablers will be delivered).
● Solution-based approach (bottom-up) The service provider
discusses its products and services and seeks to connect them with
a pressing consumer problem or objective, answering the same
questions as in a value-based approach in reverse order.
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Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
It is important not to confuse customer needs with customer
requirements. After the needs have been understood, the service
provider still has to understand the demand before the parties can
articulate the service consumer needs as tangible requirements (see
Step 3: Offer).
4.3.4.2 Risks and costs
Understanding the affected outcomes of a product and service, as well
as related risks and costs, should be part of discovering customer needs
and building a service relationship.
4.3.4.3 Experience and preferences
Preferences influence the service consumer’s service experience,
especially for mass-market services where the service consumer is an
individual. Once outcomes, experiences, and preferences have been
identified, the stakeholders can examine options for fulfilling the needs
of the service consumer.
4.3.5
Assessing mutual readiness and maturity
Mutual readiness is when both parties have completed appropriate
checks and due diligence, have built initial trust, and are ready to form
a working relationship in order to co-create value. Mutual readiness and
maturity should be assessed, as shown in Table 4.7.
4.3.5.1 Maturity assessment and benchmarking
Service relationships in which one stakeholder is more mature than the
other often fail because the variations lead to incompatibility. Therefore,
it is helpful to assess the maturity of the service provider and service
consumer across the four dimensions of service management.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
fe r
fe r
Of
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v
figure
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Of
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d
Organizations
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figure
con
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e
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figure
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an
d
Organization A
e
Attributes to
assess
Obtain
an
Table 4.7 Types of assessment in the engage step
fe r
o
Pr
Basic relationship
Cooperative
relationship
Partnership
Capabilities
maturity and
past performance
Crucial
Moderate
Minor
Readiness to
collaborate
N/A
Moderate
Crucial
Readiness to
change
N/A
Moderate
Crucial
4.3.5.2 Assessing readiness for collaboration
Stakeholders are interested in collaboration because constant
cooperation with other stakeholders makes it easier to achieve a goal.
Therefore, it can be useful to assess their cooperative readiness.
4.3.5.3 Assessing organizational readiness for change
Successful service delivery may require the transformation of
organizational practices and routines in order to obtain value from a
service. This requires organizational change management. ITIL
Foundation (AXELOS, 2019) defines the attributes of organizational
change management that provide a basis for assessment:
● clear and relevant objectives
● strong and committed leadership
● willing and prepared participants
● sustained improvement.
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Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
4.4 Relationship management practice
The relationship management practice focuses on ensuring successful
relationships within an organization, as well as between an organization
and external parties, including customers, users, partners, suppliers,
and others. To make this possible, the practice aims to establish a
common approach to relationships and relationship management that
can be adopted and followed across the organization.
4.4.1
Purpose
To establish and nurture the links between the organization and its
stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels. It includes the
identification, analysis, monitoring, and continual improvement of
relationships with and between stakeholders.
4.4.2
Practice success factors
The relationship management practice includes the following practice
success factors:
● Establishing and continually improving an effective approach
across the organization A shared approach to relationship
management is an important part of the organization’s culture. It is
based on a common set of values and principles adopted by
everyone within the organization.
● Ensuring effective and healthy relationships within the
organization Successful internal relationships are a prerequisite for
successful external relationships.
● Ensuring effective, sustainable and healthy relationships between
the organization and its external stakeholders Ensure that the
relationships with consumers, suppliers, partners, and all other
external stakeholders lead to the expected value co-creation.
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4.5 Supplier management practice
The supplier management practice enables organizations to:
● define strategies for the use of suppliers’ services
● evaluate and select suppliers, and to ensure that:
● consumed services meet or exceed agreed service levels
● the cost of the consumed services is optimal
● the associated risks are understood and controlled.
The supplier management practice helps to use third-party services
effectively by establishing a common approach to sourcing and
managing supplier relationships and by maintaining a single point of
control over contracts and services.
4.5.1
Purpose
To ensure that the organization’s suppliers and their performances are
managed appropriately to support the seamless provision of quality
products and services. This includes creating closer, more collaborative
relationships with key suppliers to uncover and realize new value and
reduce the risk of failure.
4.5.2
Practice success factors
The supplier management practice includes the following practice
success factors:
● Ensuring that the sourcing strategy and guidelines effectively
support the organization’s strategy Apart from the sourcing
principles and criteria, a sourcing strategy includes supplier
categorization, requirements for suppliers of each category, and
basic rules of supplier relationship management. Managing suppliers
42
Step 2: Engage – foster relationships
involves ensuring that contracts are cost-effective and provide value
for money.
● Ensuring that service relationships with all suppliers and partners
are managed effectively and in line with internal and external
regulations Service relationships with suppliers follow the same
journey as service relationships with the organization’s service
consumers. Each step of the journey should be supported with
procedures, skills and competencies, information, and tools.
● Ensuring the effective integration of third-party services into the
organization’s products and services The following is critical to
effectively manage external services in the organization’s context:
● understanding the external service’s scope, nature, terms of
provision, the dependencies, and the risks
● considering the dependencies and associated risks from the
early steps of product design and throughout the product and
service lifecycle.
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5
tep 3: Offer – shape demand and
S
service offerings
Step 3: Offer helps the customer to further shape and articulate its
needs and demands, and the service provider to design matching
service offerings. The guidance applies whether the services are from an
internal or an external service provider.
5.1 Managing demand and opportunities
For services, demand and capacity are interconnected. Services cannot be
stored for later use. Value can only be co-created when the service
provider’s supply meets the consumer’s demand. To optimize opportunities,
service providers should adjust capacity and influence demand.
5.1.1
Patterns of business activity
To understand how services are being used, it is useful to analyse the
patterns of business activity. Facts and charts are produced through
monitoring and logging, reflecting the service usage. This information
allows measures to be implemented to meet peaks in demand.
Definition: Pattern of business activity (PBA)
A workload profile of one or more business activities. PBAs are
used to help the service provider understand and support different
levels of service consumer activity.
The patterns detected can reflect different trends. Some patterns are
repetitive, other patterns show growth or decline. Further business
44
Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
analysis is required to understand the overall picture and make the right
decisions. Once the patterns are identified, different options will be
available for adjusting and managing capacity and shaping demand.
5.1.2
Optimizing capacity
Capacity and performance management practice
The capacity and performance management practice provides three
perspectives on capacity management:
● Business capacity management Plans for the capacity
demand triggered by the customer.
● Product and service capacity management Manages the
end-to-end capacity of a particular product or service.
● Component capacity management Monitors and tunes the
capacity of the components of a product or service. If one of
these components has no more capacity, the full service
will suffer.
Both demand and capacity must be considered in order to utilize
resources better. Managing demand is about understanding user profiles
and influencing their behaviour. Capacity and performance management
is about sizing the capacity to respond to the actual demand.
Demand can be fixed or variable. If demand is variable, the best course
of action may be to match it with variable capacity in order to help the
service consumer turn fixed costs into variable costs. Service providers
are often challenged by large variations in service demand and limited
capacity. Smoothing demand to match the service capacity is therefore
an important discipline.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Service providers may offer price incentives to influence consumer
behaviour. Differential charging charges different prices for the same
service based on the time of use, while yield management uses price
incentives to optimize capacity. The latter is a highly automated process
that uses historical and real-time data to estimate future demand and
adjust prices accordingly.
5.1.3
Building the customer’s business case
When needs and demand are understood and addressed, a business
case for meeting the demand through new or changed products and
services may be drafted.
Definition: Business case
A justification for the expenditure of organizational resources,
providing information about costs, benefits, options, risks,
and issues.
The core of a business case is a financial analysis evaluating an
expenditure for profitability and risk. This analysis should consider both
qualitative and quantitative aspects. A positive business case indicates
that the expected benefits exceed the expenditures and risks.
The main questions to be covered in a business case include:
● What is the purpose?
● How does the change support the organization’s strategic goals?
● What is the problem to be solved?
● What is the desired outcome?
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
● Who are the stakeholders and how will it affect them?
● What are the expected benefits and disadvantages?
● What resources and investments are needed?
● What is the budget and the expected cost?
● What are the risks?
● What is the timeline for the process?
● When do we need resources and investments?
● What will be the total cost of ownership (TCO)?
● What is the expected return on investment (ROI) or net present
value (NPV)?
● What organizational changes are needed?
5.1.4
Building the service provider’s business case
The service provider needs to build and maintain a profitable and viable
business case. When building the service provider’s business case, the
service provider should consider the customer’s business case.
When preparing a business case for a service, it is important to identify
how the service fits into the existing and future portfolio of services. The
portfolio management and financial management practices are key
resources in this work. The service provider needs to understand the
cost of providing the service, and to do this, it needs to have a cost
model that considers all the resources required in all four dimensions of
service management.
5.2 Specifying and managing customer requirements
The customer should involve the service provider in an open and
transparent requirement specification process. The business analysis
practice guide provides guidance on this topic.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Definition: Business analysis
The practice of analysing a business or some element of a
business, defining its needs and recommending solutions to
address these needs and/or solve a business problem, and create
value for stakeholders. Business analysis enables an organization
to communicate its needs in a meaningful way, express the
rationale for change, and design and describe solutions that enable
value creation in alignment with the organization’s objectives.
5.2.1
Roles and responsibilities
Clear roles and responsibilities are key to specifying and managing
requirements. In larger organizations, customers and users are
sometimes separate. As a result, expectations and requirements may
not be coordinated and aligned (see Figure 5.1).
Customer
User
Service consumer organization
Service provider organization
Service provider
Figure 5.1 The service delivery triangle: the roles involved in
transforming needs into requirements
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
A business analyst may help to articulate and prioritize requirements in
a way that a service provider can understand.
5.2.2
Managing requirements
Requirements should not only be specified, but also be managed and
tracked. The requirement owners are responsible for:
● identifying stakeholder groups and representatives
● educating representatives in articulating requirements on behalf of
their stakeholder groups
● collecting, documenting, managing, tracking, and communicating
requirements
● continually ensuring that requirements are interpreted and
understood in the correct way
● validating that products and services meet the requirements.
Requirements must be testable. In test-driven development,
requirements are defined by the tests they must pass in order to be
considered met.
Utility requirements ensure that a new or changed product or service is
fit for purpose; they cover data, information, and functionality
requirements. Non-functional or warranty requirements ensure that a
new or changed product or service is fit to use. Categories of nonfunctional requirements include but are not limited to:
● usability and accessibility
● availability and reliability
● capacity and performance
● information security
● compliance
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
● continuity
● maintainability
● operability
● measurability and reportability
● scalability.
5.2.3
Separating the problem from the solution
Requirements should be based on stakeholder needs. However, it may
be tempting to specify a solution instead of translating needs into
requirements. When articulating requirements, the problem must be
separated from the solution.
5.2.4
Minimum viable product
A minimum viable product (MVP) is a product with just enough features
to satisfy customers early on and to provide feedback for future product
development. The concept is widely used in Agile development: the
service provider envisages the MVP for a specific need and specifies the
requirements, then develops and delivers the product to the users to
gather feedback. The feedback is used to articulate future requirements
and, through an iterative approach, the product will be developed
according to needs and priorities.
5.2.5
User stories and story mapping
User story mapping is a method of articulating service requirements.
Based on personas, the designer gathers data about customer journeys
and needs, and articulates the corresponding requirements in small,
unambiguous user stories. A user story has a very specific and simple
form: the user may require something to enable a certain benefit. A user
story is easy to write, understand, prioritize, and check. Refinements
and demos can help solve a problem with little investment.
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
Epic
Epic
Enabler
Feature
Story
Feature
Feature
Story
Priorities
Time
Sprint 1 MVP
Story
Story
Sprint 2
Sprint 3
Backlog
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Story
Figure 5.2 An example of story mapping
A common way to map the requirements for a product or service is to
describe the product or service as an epic, and then break the epic
down into features (utility), enablers (warranty), and further down into
user stories, as shown in Figure 5.2.
The first sprint delivers an MVP that is released to the users to
co-create value and collect feedback before more stories are added to
the product or service.
The INVEST acronym provides a useful reminder that user stories
should be:
● independent
● negotiable
● valuable
● estimatable
● small
● testable.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Story mapping is often used in combination with Agile service design
methods, such as Scrum. In Scrum, the product owner is responsible
for prioritizing the user stories in each sprint. At the end of the sprint,
the product team will demonstrate the features for real users and
gather feedback.
5.2.6
The MoSCoW method
The MoSCoW method is a simple prioritization technique for managing
requirements. It allows stakeholders to explicitly agree on the different
priorities. The acronym stands for:
● Must The mandatory requirements covering the most important needs.
● Should The requirements that should be included if possible.
● Could The requirements that could be included if they do not affect
the ‘should’ or ‘must’ requirements.
● Won’t Requirements that will not be included.
5.2.7
Weighted shortest job first
An alternative is to use the weighted shortest job first (WSJF) method.
In this method, the cost of delay (weight) of a job is divided by the
duration or size. In traditional service management terms, cost of delay
can be considered a result of delay to service impact (service outcome),
urgency (time criticality), and risk (uncertainty). Each job or requirement
is scored and then prioritized according to its cost of delay divided by
its duration (CD3), as shown in Figure 5.3.
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
Urgency
Risk
Impact
Cost of delay
CD3 score =
Duration
Figure 5.3 Cost of delay divided by duration adapted to service
management terms
5.3 Designing digital services
Value-driven and data-driven service design implies an iterative
approach based on frequent feedback, continual experimentation, and
learning to ensure value co-creation at each step of the design process.
5.3.1
Lean thinking
Lean thinking is a process improvement philosophy that prioritizes flow
efficiency over resource efficiency. In Lean, flow refers to the way work
progresses through a system. A good flow means the work unit moves
steadily and predictably, whereas a bad flow describes a system with a
lot of queues where the work unit will have to stop and wait.
Lean defines five basic principles:
● Identify customer value
● Map the value stream
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
● Create flow
● Establish pull
● Seek perfection.
These principles may be applied to achieve an efficient and continuous
flow of designing products and services.
Value stream mapping is a Lean technique for illustrating and analysing
the logic of a value stream. A value stream map gives a graphical
overview of the flow of material and information and identifies areas for
improvement.
5.3.2
Agile product and service development
Agile methods for software development started with the Agile
Manifesto in 2001, encouraging developers to:
● prioritize individuals and interactions over workflows and tools
● working products over comprehensive documentation
● customer collaboration over contracts
● respond to changes over following a plan.
One aspect of the Agile philosophy is to apply Lean thinking. The work
unit in an Agile development process is either a feature (utility) or an
enabler (warranty).
Another aspect is iterative development. In Scrum, requirements are
captured in a backlog that is continually prioritized for the next sprint by
a product owner. The development team will develop as much as they
can in a sprint for a demonstration at the end of the sprint in order to
capture feedback from real users. The work will be evaluated at a
review meeting at the end of each sprint.
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
Continuous delivery/deployment is also encouraged. This means that
features and enablers are continuously integrated, tested, and deployed
so that they can be released as soon as the customer is ready to
use them.
5.3.3
User-centred design and service design thinking
User-centred design is an iterative design process which holds the user
at the centre of all design decisions throughout the project process.
User-centred design ensures that the product and the service focus on
what users need and experience.
Service design thinking is an effective way of tackling problem-solving.
Since the core of the method is to explore, prototype, and gather
feedback from real users, it is a good example of value-driven, datadriven, and user-centred service design. It encourages users to define
value and is a method that continuously gathers feedback on what is
and what is not working.
5.3.4
Service blueprinting
Blueprints are architectural drawings visualizing the service usage that
aims to optimize the user experience. In a service blueprint (Figure 5.4),
the key elements are separated with three horizontal lines:
● The line of interaction Pinpoints the direct service interactions
between the customer/user and the service provider.
● The line of visibility Separates the service activities that are visible
to the customer and users from those that are not visible.
● The line of internal interaction Separates the employees in contact
from those who do not directly support interactions with customers
and users.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Evidence
Website
content
Signed
content
Satisfaction
survey result
Customer
journey
Line of interaction
Frontstage
Employee actions
Technology
Line of visibility
Backstage
Line of internal interaction
Support
processes
Figure 5.4 Example of a service blueprint
For one service, there may be multiple blueprints if there are
different scenarios.
Service blueprints are useful in order to:
● link the customer journey to products and services
● highlight user touchpoints and service interactions
● discover weaknesses and identify opportunities for optimization
● bridge cross-department efforts and avoid doubling the workload.
5.3.5
Designing for onboarding
The onboarding approach for every product or service should be defined
as part of the service design. The documented onboarding approach is
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
used for subsequent planning of an onboarding initiative. Onboarding
approaches include scope, actions, stakeholders, timelines, and other
aspects of onboarding.
One extreme is a narrow band of visibility, whereas an opposite
extreme, such as a broad band of visibility, could be a comprehensive
transition programme (including the transfer of employees and
infrastructure), implementation of integrations between the involved
organizations, establishment of a joint governance structure, and
retirement of old products and services.
When defining the onboarding approach and planning onboarding
initiatives, organizations should consider all four dimensions of service
management. One way to structure the onboarding approach is to follow
the steps of the ITIL continual improvement model.
5.4 Selling and obtaining services
After the products, services, and service offerings have been designed,
they need to be sold. The sale activities vary depending on whether
customers are internal or external.
5.4.1
Pricing
Pricing requires a decision about how much the customer will be
charged. Many pricing options can be used to price a service, as shown
in Table 5.1.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 5.1 Pricing options
Pricing option
Description
When applicable
Cost
This option is based on a
break-even or cost
recovery model
For internal service
providers or non-profit
organizations
Cost plus
The mark-up (%) can
either be set to match
returns on other
investments or allocated
to meet strategic business
needs
The mark-up can be used
for encouraging the use of
new products and
services while
discouraging the use of
legacy products and
services
Market price/going rate
The price is comparable
with similar service
offerings on the market
Commodity and
out-of-the-box services
Fixed price
The service provider sets
a price based on
negotiation with the
customer, which covers a
set period and a predicted
consumption
Enables the parties to
lock the price regardless
of cost fluctuations
Differential charging
Setting different charges
for different usage of the
same or similar services
at different times
Enables an organization
to reward some usage
patterns over others, e.g.
discouraging service
usage during peak-time
periods
For commercial service providers, charging is tied less to the cost, and
more to the value of the perceived service and relative prices of similar
services provided by competitors.
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
5.4.2
Internal sales
Internal sales and promotions, combined with incentives and pricing
mechanisms, are important for managing demand. Some benefits of
selling to internal customers are:
● enhanced utilization of existing services
● better control of the service demand
● improved communication with customers and users
● feedback on how well services meet the needs.
One of the most important tools for the internal sales process is the
service catalogue. For the service provider, it helps define and make
products, services, and service levels visible.
For the service consumer it is important that services are being used. The
service desk has a key role to play in this and will often make ordering
forms and self-service systems available to the users, as well as providing
guidance and assistance on how to use the products and services.
5.4.3
External sales
External customer sales are more like traditional sales, such as
advertising and sales campaigns. The sales process depends on the
type of service relationship, the nature of the parties, and contextual
factors. These include the following:
● In highly regulated environments and in the public sector, acquiring
goods and services may be subject to regulation.
● Some service consumers require that purchasing is done by a
procurement team.
● Others may have defined formalized purchasing processes that include
formal request methods, such as requests for information, requests for
quotation, requests for proposal, proof of concept, demos, etc.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
5.5 Business analysis practice
The business analysis practice defines an organization’s needs, then
identifies and justifies the solution needed to fulfil those needs. The
practice includes assessing the requirements for people, technology,
products, and services. It also covers tasks from the tactical and
strategic analysis of business processes, with a relatively narrow focus
on information system analysis and the definition of the technical
requirements.
5.5.1
Purpose
Business analysis (of a part or the entirety of a business) enables an
organization to:
● communicate its needs in a meaningful way and express the
rationale for change
● design and describe solutions that enable value creation in
alignment with the organization’s objectives.
5.5.2
Practice success factors
The business analysis practice includes the following practice success
factors:
● Establishing and continually improving an organization-wide
approach to business analysis To ensure that the analysis is
conducted in a consistent and effective manner. An approach might
include several models to follow in different contexts such as: new
products and services, changing needs, products managed in an
Agile way or with a legacy, monolithic methods, etc.
● Ensuring that current and future needs of the organization and its
customers are understood, analysed, and supported Timely,
efficient, and effective solution proposals must accompany the
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Step 3: Offer – shape demand and service offerings
analyses, which should be accurate descriptions of the current and
proposed future states. The analyses should clearly communicate
how the steps that are needed will realize the proposals. Business
analysis provides input for two main parties: customers looking for
solutions that fulfil their needs, and service providers who design,
develop, and deliver these solutions. Apart from the requirements, it
is important to analyse and understand the emotional context.
61
6
tep 4: Agree – align expectations and
S
agree service
The purpose of Step 4: Agree is to align expectations and establish a
shared view of the target service scope and quality between the service
provider and the service consumer. Because targets can move over
time, this step may be revisited several times during the journey.
6.1 Plan for value co-creation
A shared understanding of how and when value is co-created, tracked,
assessed, and evaluated requires planning. One approach is to first
agree on the factors that drive value, and then to plan how and when to
measure, assess, report, and evaluate the value co-creation. Planning
should include risk, compliance, cost, and resource management.
6.1.1
Types of service value drivers
Fulfilment of service consumer purposes is enabled by achieving service
consumer objectives, which in turn is powered by the consumer’s
performance and the related experience. The consumer’s performance
is enabled by service performance (utility and warranty), and this is
driven by the performance of the combined and individual resources,
practices, and products, as shown in Figure 4.3.
A service offering typically includes three forms of service
performance drivers:
● goods transferred to the service consumer
● access to the service provider’s resources
● service actions.
Most service offerings combine several forms.
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Step 4: Agree – align expectations and agree service
6.1.2
Service interaction method
The service interaction method helps to define the service outcome
based on the performance of key service interactions during service
consumption. The method includes the following stages:
● identifying the service interactions, including service provider
actions, service consumer actions, and joint actions
● matching identified service interactions with the service provider’s
service catalogue
● agreeing on the target performance of a service interaction
● agreeing with customers and service provider teams on metrics and
measurements for the services.
6.1.3
Inherent and assigned characteristics of services
Organizations usually agree on an approach to define service quality.
Definitions
● Service quality The totality of a service’s characteristics that
are relevant to its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs.
● Service level One or more metrics that define expected or
achieved service quality.
Inherent characteristics of a service may include:
● utility, warranty, and experience
● architecture, interfaces, and compatibility
● costs.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Assigned characteristics of a service may include:
● price
● risks and compliance
● transparency of service delivery
● monitoring
● reporting
● flexibility
● social responsibility.
The inherent characteristics are based on the resources of the
respective product(s). The assigned characteristics are mostly defined
as a part of service design.
6.2 Negotiate and agree service levels
The approach to negotiation and agreeing a service may vary
significantly depending on the service relationship model. However, in
most cases, the scope includes:
● the services to be provided and consumed
● inherent service characteristics
● assigned service characteristics
● the approach to joint control and improvement of the service scope
and quality.
6.2.1
From needs to agreement
Depending on the service relationship model, the negotiation of service
quality between service provider and service consumer organizations
varies widely. Some factors that affect negotiations are:
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Step 4: Agree – align expectations and agree service
● internal or external relationship
● individual or corporate service consumer
● basic services or strategic partnership
● tailored or out-of-the-box services.
Negotiation aims to narrow down the scope of service quality
characteristics, as illustrated in Figure 6.1.
Consumer needs
and expectations
Customer
requirements
Shared view on
service quality
Agreed
service
level
Figure 6.1 Limitation of agreements: from service consumer needs to
agreement
Although service level agreements (SLAs) are insufficient for service
measurement, assessment, evaluation, and improvement, they are still
useful. The basic structure of an SLA is indicated by its name:
● Service Defines the scope of the agreement
● Level Defines the characteristics of the services and agreed metrics
and targets for each characteristic
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
● Agreement Covers the terms and conditions of the service provision
and consumption.
This structure may become more complicated if the agreement covers
multiple services or reflects a consumer organization’s complex structure.
6.2.2
Negotiating and agreeing service utility, warranty,
and experience
Definitions
● Utility The functionality offered by a product or service to
meet a particular need. Utility can be summarized as ‘what the
service does’ and can be used to determine whether a service
is ‘fit for purpose’. To have utility, a service must either support
the performance of the consumer or remove constraints from
the consumer. Many services do both.
● Warranty Assurance that a product or service will meet agreed
requirements. Warranty can be summarized as ‘how the service
performs’ and can be used to determine whether a service is
‘fit for use’. Warranty often relates to service levels aligned with
the needs of service consumers. This may be based on a
formal agreement, or it may be a marketing message or brand
image. Warranty typically addresses such areas as the
availability of the service, its capacity, levels of security, and
continuity. A service may be said to provide acceptable
assurance, or ‘warranty’, if all defined and agreed conditions
are met.
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Step 4: Agree – align expectations and agree service
The ‘level’ section of an SLA usually includes the agreed service level
targets for service utility and warranty.
Utility characteristics typically describe functions or actions performed by
people and other resources of the service provider, or service actions.
Warranty requirements typically provide a level of assurance for aspects
such as usability, accessibility, availability, reliability, capacity,
performance, information security, compliance, continuity,
maintainability, operability, measurability, reportability, and scalability.
Organizations are increasingly including user experience targets in the
agreements. Measurement of these can be integrated in digital services.
The idea is to measure the user experience directly and not simply to
ask users about it. The term experience level agreement, or XLA™, was
developed by Marco Gianotten (2017). The experience-based approach
to service definition and measurement is applicable to services where
service actions are an important part of the service. There are many
services with no or very few user interactions; for example,
infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or platform as a service (PaaS).
6.3 Service level management practice
The service level management practice helps to set and manage a
shared view of the quality of services between the service provider and
the service consumer; it is aimed at all key stakeholders on both sides,
with a flow of activities as shown in Figure 6.2. This shared view is
usually described in an agreement document, which may be written in
various levels of formality.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Negotiate
Understand
Report
Agreement
Agree
Monitor
Improve
Figure 6.2 Key activities of the service level management practice
6.3.1
Purpose
To set clear business-based targets for service levels, and to ensure that
delivery of services is properly assessed, monitored, and managed
against these targets.
6.3.2
Practice success factors
The service level management practice includes the following practice
success factors:
● Establishing a shared view of target service levels with customers
All agreed metrics should have a clear approach to measurement
and reporting.
● Overseeing how the organization meets the defined service levels
through the collection, analysis, storage, and reporting of the
relevant metrics for the identified services The service provider
should control the actual quality of the services from three main
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Step 4: Agree – align expectations and agree service
perspectives: achieved service level; user satisfaction with the
service; and customer satisfaction with the service.
● Performing service reviews to ensure that the current set of
services continues to meet the needs of the organization and its
customers There is a direct correlation between the quality of the
review and the resulting quality of the services and stakeholder
satisfaction.
● Capturing and reporting on improvement opportunities, including
performance against defined service levels and stakeholder
satisfaction Improvements may aim to correct service quality or to
improve user and customer satisfaction with the service.
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7
tep 5: Onboard – get on board or
S
leave the journey
Onboarding includes the activities necessary for a service consumer to
start using the service and a service provider to be ready to deliver the
service, as shown in Table 7.1. These could range from the service
being turned on, to contractual agreements, user awareness, training,
and sharing of resources..
Table 7.1 The purposes of onboarding and offboarding
Onboard and
offboard
For the service consumer
For the service provider
Facilitate
outcome and
experience
To ensure a better return on
investments through effective use
of services
To maximize value from
cooperation with new
service consumers/
customers/users
To improve user experience
To increase customer and
user loyalty and
engagement
Optimize risk
and compliance
Optimize
resources and
minimize cost
To decrease the probability of
issues related to new services
and users
To decrease the probability
of incidents in service
quality
To reduce transition times
To prevent/decrease user
resistance to new services
and/or service providers
To reduce the costs and losses
associated with the transition to
new services/providers
To reduce transition costs
To optimize the costs of user
training and support
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To reduce user support costs
To optimize onboarding
costs and overall resource
utilization
Step 5: Onboard – get on board or leave the journey
Onboarding includes:
● building awareness about the new service consumers among
stakeholders
● ensuring that all resources within the scope of the service are
prepared for the service provision
● ensuring that customers and users are ready for the service
consumption.
Successful onboarding involves both the service provider and the
service consumer.
When onboarding is defined as part of the service design, planning for a
specific initiative is easier, safer, and faster. For this reason, onboarding
approaches were defined as part of service design in Step 3: Offer
(Chapter 5). In this chapter, onboarding approaches are adapted to
plans for the specific onboarding initiatives.
7.1 Planning onboarding
Onboarding planning should consider the current status of the service
relationship, the scope of the onboarding initiative, the current
configuration of the resources, and the associated risks. The planning is
a joint activity.
7.1.1
Onboarding goals
Onboarding goals should be defined in the context of every onboarding
initiative. Onboarding success should be evaluated on the basis of the
agreed goals (outcomes), rather than just checking the progress and
completion of the planned onboarding actions (outputs).
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7.1.2
Onboarding scope
To define onboarding’s scope, the following questions should be considered:
● What are the consumer resources requiring onboarding?
● What are the service provider resources required for onboarding?
● When does onboarding start and end?
Possible scopes of the onboarding for the consumer resources in regard
to the four dimensions of service management are outlined in Table 7.2.
When creating an onboarding plan for an onboarding initiative, the
service provider should identify specific resources that require
onboarding and the required actions based on the onboarding approach.
To identify when an onboarding initiative begins and ends, consider the
following factors:
● new or existing service consumer
● new or existing customer
● new or existing user
● new or existing product/service/service offering
● commercial service provision, funded by the service provider, or
non-commercial, funded by the service consumer organization.
Onboarding may start during the following options:
● when the parties reach an agreement about service provision
● after the service contract is formally signed
● when services are deployed and ready for release
● when services are being deployed
● when users are formally employed with the service consumer
● when users have the employment provisionally agreed.
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Table 7.2 Examples of consumer resources to onboard
Service management
dimension
Examples of resources
Examples of the need
for onboarding
Organizations and people
Users (employees of the
consumer organization)
To enable effective use of
the service, users need
training in the use of the
services and the support
setup
Value streams and
processes
Consumer organization
procedures, actions, and
workflows
Procedures should be
adjusted to integrate
services, technologies,
and service provider
people
Information and
technology
Consumer organization
technology, data, and IT
services
Service provider
representatives should be
granted access to the
consumer organization’s
IT resources; IT resources
should be integrated with
those of the service
provider; data and
information should be
migrated and/or converted
Partners and suppliers
Users (employees of the
consumer organization’s
suppliers and partners
acting as new service
users)
Users (representing the
consumer organization’s
suppliers and partners)
require training in the use
of services and support
procedures
The end of the onboarding initiative may also vary. For example, some
onboarding initiatives may be considered as complete when the first
users are able to use the services, or after all of the users successfully
pass the test to confirm that they are familiar with the services. The
onboarding of a new service, customer, or user may include the
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offboarding of an old one; sometimes this is required in order to
complete the onboarding.
7.1.3
Onboarding actions
After agreeing the scope of the onboarding initiative, onboarding actions
should be planned. Examples of onboarding actions required, depending
on the scope, are shown in Table 7.3.
When services are provided to individual consumers, the customer and
user onboarding are often combined. When services are provided to
organizations where customer and user roles are split, the customers
and service provider plan the user onboarding actions together.
7.1.4
Onboarding control
When planning an onboarding initiative, the approach to onboarding
control should be agreed. Depending on the approach, a formal review
of the completed initiative may include the following:
● confirmation that all planned onboarding actions have been completed
● review of all relevant stakeholders’ satisfaction levels and experience
● review of outstanding actions and errors
● risk assessment
● registration of improvements.
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Table 7.3 Examples of onboarding actions
Service
consumer
resources to
be onboarded
Onboarding actions by
the service provider
Onboarding
actions by the
service
consumer
Onboarding
actions by the
service
consumer’s
partner/supplier
Service
consumer’s
organizations
and people
Training and training
materials are provided
Contact and support
interfaces are introduced
Access to the services is
granted to users
Terms and conditions are
communicated
Governance organization
is established
Users study
training material
Changes to
responsibilities for
use of the new
services
Change of roles
and/or teams
Organizational
change
management
Training and
training materials
are provided
Access to the
services is
reviewed and
changed where
needed
Service
consumer’s
information
and technology
Information systems are
integrated
Data is migrated and/or
converted, data exchange
is set up
Necessary configuration
and customization are
performed
Tools are deployed
Access to
information
resources is
granted
Information
systems are
integrated with
those of the
service provider
Redundant
information
systems are
decommissioned
Data exchange
protocols,
integrations, and
tools are set up
Changes to
services affected
by the onboarding
Any of the actions
that the service
consumer has
commissioned the
partner/supplier to
perform
Table continues
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 7.3 continued
Service
consumer
resources to
be onboarded
Onboarding actions by
the service provider
Onboarding
actions by the
service
consumer
Onboarding
actions by the
service
consumer’s
partner/supplier
Service
consumer’s
value streams
and processes
Service provider’s
participation in service
consumer’s processes is
agreed; roles and
responsibilities are
agreed, assigned, and
tested
Organizational
processes are
changed/
optimized for
service
consumption
Partner/supplier’s
participation in
service
consumer’s
processes is
reviewed; roles
and
responsibilities
are agreed,
assigned, and
tested where
needed
Process improvement
consulting is provided
where needed
Service
consumer’s
partners and
suppliers
Access to services is
granted
Assistance in
decommissioning/
migration is provided
Value streams are
optimized
Redundant
procedures are
removed or
updated
Contracts with
partners/suppliers
are updated to fit
the new processes
and value streams
Contracts for
redundant
services are
cancelled or
changed
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Process
improvement
consulting is
provided
Contracts are
reviewed and
updated, where
needed
Supplier’s
representatives
acting as users
study required
materials
Step 5: Onboard – get on board or leave the journey
7.2 Fostering user relationships
User onboarding influences user attitude towards the service and the
service provider. Even if customers do not pay enough attention to the
user experience, it is still important to create a positive user experience.
Service providers should foster a relationship with users regardless of
whether it is directly required by the customer.
7.2.1
Fostering relationships with corporate users
When the service consumer organization is larger than a few people, the
distinction between user and customer roles becomes important.
Customers become representatives of the organization and
communicate with service providers regarding new and changed
services. This may lead to situations where the first time that user
interaction occurs is during onboarding.
To prevent resistance to new services and enable good relationships,
service consumer and service provider organizations should work
together at every step of the customer journey. This can be done by:
● considering how user experience is impacted at each step of the
customer journey
● planning user onboarding as part of every new service
implementation
● practising organizational change management
● involving users in requirements articulation and testing of the
services and onboarding actions
● designing user-friendly interfaces
● providing a useful, convenient, and relevant service catalogue,
including a service request catalogue
● monitoring user satisfaction to improve service experience
● involving influential users in service promotion
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● fostering user communities and actively supporting their members
● performing service usage analytics for the profiling and proactive
use of real-time end-user computing data.
7.2.2
Fostering relationships with individual consumers
When service consumers are individuals, there are numerous factors
that affect how the service provider manages the service relationship
during the customer journey, some of which are listed in Table 7.4.
Table 7.4 Relationship management with individual service consumers
Step
Challenges
Examples of solutions applied
by service providers
1. Explore
Service consumers do not
explicitly express their needs
and expectations
Marketing and sociological surveys
Safe-to-fail experiments with
representative groups
Individual opinions are not
necessarily representative of a
larger consumer group
2. Engage
Individual face-to-face contacts
are often impossible or
inefficient due to a large number
of users and limited capacity
The opinions of communities,
influencers, and peers are
important for an initial
engagement decision
3. Offer
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Wide use of social media,
influencers, and user groups
Use of direct marketing and
peer-to-peer agents, and context
advertisement based on the
monitoring of user activity, search
engine optimization, etc.
Large number of service
consumers
Standard service catalogues,
contracts, and agreements
Need for simple and fast
contracting procedures and
interfaces
User-friendly plain language
descriptions in catalogues and
agreements
Step 5: Onboard – get on board or leave the journey
Step
Challenges
Examples of solutions applied
by service providers
4. Agree
High level of international,
national, and industry
regulation
Highly automated contracting,
wide use of digital documents and
signatures
Need for simple and
unambiguous language
Integration with electronic
payment systems
Large number of service
consumers with different skills
and backgrounds
Automated eligibility and
compatibility checks, introduction,
and initial training
Need for simple and fast
onboarding
Carefully tested instructions and
procedures for onboarding
Large number of service
consumers with different
skills, language, and
backgrounds
Interfaces optimized for users with
skills, background, and abilities
5. Onboard
6. Co-create
High exposure of user
experience and opinions via
social media
7. Realize
Inefficiency or impossibility of
direct service review with
every service consumer
Different expectations and
needs supported by the
services
Convenient support and
communication channels and
active communications, especially
in cases of major incidents
Social media monitoring and
active support in case of
complaints and other issues
Automated interfaces for service
quality monitoring and reporting
Independent survey of user
satisfaction and attitude and use
of user-loyalty metrics (e.g. net
promoter score)
7.3 User engagement and delivery channels
Users use channels such as walk-in, social media, chats, hotlines,
emails, mobile applications, and web portals to interact with service
providers. For example, a user may report an incident through a
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Browse
Ask community
Social
Browse
provider’s
website
Web
Engineer’s
visit
In person
Call
for support
Phone
Mobile app
Make
appointment
Check
FAQs
Survey
How did
we do?
Figure 7.1 Seamless user journey with omnichannel management
self-service portal, add more information to the case with an email, ask
for status by telephone, and respond to a question from the service
provider in an online chat. Managing the user experience across all
channels, touchpoints, and service interactions is called omnichannel
management. The purpose of omnichannel management is to provide a
seamless user journey, as shown in Figure 7.1.
As technologies develop, service providers test and adopt them for
service delivery and user support. These approaches are associated
with challenges that must be considered by service providers. Some
examples of these challenges are identified in Table 7.5.
Table 7.5 Examples of omnichannel challenges
Approach
Challenge examples
Solution examples
Shift-left, increase
of self-service
Users do not have sufficient
technology skills and/or
motivation to use the
self-service tools
Assess user skills and the
available range of support
actions before implementing
self-service
Mistakes made by users
during self-service may cause
more incidents
Test all self-service
instructions and tools
thoroughly with a
representative group of users
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Step 5: Onboard – get on board or leave the journey
Approach
Challenge examples
Solution examples
Social media
support
An emotional and difficult-tocontrol style of
communication
Train support agents in social
media communications
Viral effect, high exposure to
mistakes and conflicts
Multiple channels to monitor
and reply to
Automate the monitoring of
user testimonies using
hashtags and other mentions
of the service/service
provider
Integrate social media
channels with specialized
support systems. Keep
records and handle sensitive
information in those systems
Machine learning:
chatbots
Limited applicability
Difficulties of multi-language
support
Do not replace human
interfaces with those based
on machine learning until
level of success is high
enough; provide human
back-up
Continually increase the
quality of data in all
languages
Machine learning:
optimized delivery
channels
Insufficient and inadequate
data for machine learning
Human support
agents
High cost and limited
scalability
Changes in both user’s
behaviour and support
organization
Probability of mistakes
Emotional attitude
Optimize, then automate
Back up new technology
solutions with experienced
support agents
Support agents’ motivation,
retention, and professional
development
Consider peer-to-peer
support to increase
scalability and optimize costs
Table continues
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 7.5 continued
Approach
Challenge examples
Solution examples
Video diagnostic
Use of users’ devices may be
limited by technical, legal,
and regulatory constraints
Warn users about possible
risks and costs
Use of data for video may
incur extra costs to user
Enhanced
monitoring
Technology and privacy
constraints, especially when
services are provided using
service consumer’s
infrastructure
Implement controls to ensure
applicable regulations are
met and risks are managed
Discuss benefits, risks, and
costs with customers and
users
Implement controls to ensure
that applicable regulations
are met and risks are
managed
True omnichannel support, focused on the user, is only achieved when
these approaches are orchestrated into a seamless user support
experience by:
● uniquely identifying and recognizing users across all channels
● systematically collecting and analysing user data
● leveraging user data across all encounters
● monitoring and managing performance across all user journeys.
7.4 Enabling users for service
For many services, there are certain requirements. For users to be able
to use these services correctly, safely, and effectively, these
requirements should be met before the user can start using the service.
Some requirements may be defined by regulators; some are introduced
by service consumer and service provider organizations. These
requirements may entail the need for:
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● Due diligence Only people with a certain level of access may have
access to the service information and technology.
● User training and certification Only people with proven skills may
use certain services.
● Safety training and certification Only people with proven
knowledge of safety procedures are allowed to use certain services.
● Age control and identity check Only users of proven identity may
access certain services or service levels.
● Effective management of access to services, service catalogue,
and support interfaces Including the service request catalogue.
For the effective offering of user services, the user-facing service
catalogue should:
● be structured in a logical way, reflecting users’ needs and patterns
of activity
● be presented in language that is clear and familiar to the users
● include only services that are relevant for the users
● include services and associated service requests
● be up to date
● be actionable.
The service desk practice contributes to effective user onboarding,
which enables user engagement at all steps of the user journey. It
provides various user interfaces so that users are able to contact the
service provider in the most convenient way for all types of queries,
including consultations, incidents, service requests, complaints, and
compliments. The service desk should also use appropriate interfaces to
contact users for feedback, satisfaction surveys, etc.
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7.5 Elevating mutual capabilities
Service relationships are about value co-creation for all stakeholders.
Each service interaction is an opportunity to elevate the capabilities of
another party. To help users and customers improve, some techniques
service providers may consider are:
● offering targeted user training to specific user groups based on
personas
● promoting the responsible use of services
● involving users and customers in discussions of service changes at
earlier stages to collect feedback and ensure engagement
● inviting users and customers to suggest ways of improving the
service relationship
● establishing and supporting user communities
● involving super-users in helping others to adopt the new services.
To help their service providers improve, some techniques service
consumer organizations may consider are:
● inviting the service provider to observe the service consumer’s
business directly
● demonstrating how services are being used and how they affect the
service consumer’s business
● involving the service provider in discussions about relevant
changes in organization, processes, and technology at the earliest
possible stage
● providing feedback at all levels of the service relationship
● forming joint specialist teams with the service provider.
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7.6 Offboarding
Similar to onboarding, offboarding actions and responsibilities should be
predefined as part of product and service design and then adapted for
the context of a specific onboarding/offboarding initiative.
Important concerns of offboarding include information security and
asset management. When a service consumer leaves as a result of
dissatisfaction or a dispute, it is important to identify the reasons. In
these cases, it is even more important that offboarding has been agreed
and prepared properly.
7.6.1
Customer offboarding
Customer offboarding actions usually include:
● communicating about the planned service termination to relevant
stakeholders
● responding to any users requesting further information
● organizing and performing equipment hand-off
● removing any service provider resources that have been operating
on the service consumer’s premises (including licences)
● revoking access of either party to the other party’s resources,
wherever applicable
● archiving and retaining records
● calculating and processing exit payments, including outstanding
amounts on either side
● changing third-party contracts associated with the services being
terminated
● maintaining formal offboarding records
● performing relationship management actions relevant to the situation.
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A complex approach to offboarding is the cooperation between service
providers that includes mutual offboarding agreements. In these cases,
new service providers represent the service consumer to the old service
provider. Switching a service provider may involve third parties.
Offboarding actions in regard to switching providers are similar to
service termination actions; they should cover all four dimensions of
service management.
7.6.2
User offboarding
User offboarding may occur as part of an ongoing service relationship,
without service or contract termination. The common examples are
users resigning from the service consumer organization or changing
positions within the organization. User offboarding usually includes:
● communicating about the planned offboarding and associated
responsibilities of the user
● interacting with users requesting further information or any other
support
● organizing equipment hand-off
● changing or cancelling the user’s access
● securing records by archiving and retaining
● deleting information that is not archived
● maintaining formal offboarding records.
Offboarding should be comfortable for users. Service providers may
work on automating offboarding actions and minimizing their impact on
all parties involved.
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7.7 Service catalogue management practice
The service catalogue management practice ensures a single source of
service and service offering information for all relevant stakeholders.
It also helps to provide all stakeholders with relevant views on services
and service offerings, matching their needs and level of access. The
service catalogue management practice covers all services managed by
an organization, including internal, external, provided, and consumed.
7.7.1
Purpose
To provide a single source of consistent information on all services and
service offerings, and to ensure that it is available to the relevant
audience.
7.7.2
Practice success factors
The service catalogue management practice includes the following
practice success factors:
● Ensuring that the organization’s service catalogue’s structure and
scope meet organizational requirements The structure and scope
of the service catalogue should reflect the organization’s business
architecture, products, and services.
● Ensuring that the information in the service catalogue meets
stakeholders’ current and anticipated needs Providing,
maintaining, and updating the service catalogue should be
automated as much as possible. Ensure that all the different
stakeholder groups are considered, and tailored views are defined.
The most useful views are user view, customer view, and service
provider view. A single repository of service data should be used to
generate the agreed tailored views.
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7.8 Service desk practice
The term ‘service desk’ can refer to various types and groups of
resources. For instance, in many organizations the service desk is
recognized as a function or a team of people. As with any team, the
service desk team may be involved in the activities of several practices.
7.8.1
Purpose
To capture demand for incident resolution and service requests. The
service desk practice should also be the entry point and single point of
contact for the service provider for all users.
7.8.2
Terms and concepts
● Communication channels The service desk practice involves
establishing effective and convenient communication channels
between the users and the service provider. Usually, there are
multiple channels and a need for effective channel integration to
provide a seamless and convenient user experience. Convenience
includes characteristics such as accessibility, assurance, availability,
contextual intelligence, emotional alignment, familiarity, integration,
and usability.
● Service empathy Service empathy is an important factor of user
satisfaction and service provider success. It is usually fulfilled by
human interactions via channels such as chat, video, and voice
calls, and through face-to-face meetings.
● User satisfaction As a communication interface, the service desk
practice significantly influences user satisfaction, customer
satisfaction, and the overall success of service relationships. Key
user satisfaction factors include the effectiveness and convenience
of communication channels and interactions.
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7.8.3
Practice success factors
The service desk practice includes the following practice success factors:
● Enabling and continually improving effective, efficient, and
convenient communications between the service provider and its
users Convenience can be achieved by providing users and
customers with channels which meet their needs (accessibility,
assurance, availability, contextual intelligence, emotional alignment,
familiarity, integration, and usability). It is important to ensure
effective integration between the channels. In most cases, service
providers use multiple channels; however, the communications
should be omnichannel, not multichannel. In multichannel
communications, the user would start a new journey in every
channel, whereas in omnichannel communications, the journey
continues, switching between the channels as convenient.
● Enabling the effective integration of user communications into
value streams A key focus is to effectively capture, record, and
integrate communications into relevant value streams. When a user
query is triaged and the relevant value stream and practices are
identified, the query is processed according to the processes and
procedures of the appropriate practice.
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8
tep 6: Co-create – provide and
S
consume
The purpose of Step 6: Co-create is for those involved in the service
relationship to act together co-creating value based on agreed service
offerings. The scope of this step includes:
● service delivery and support
● service consumption
● service usage.
8.1 A service mindset
It is important that those involved in the service provision and
consumption act responsibly, consider the interests of others, and focus
on the agreed service outcomes. This is called ‘service empathy’.
Definition: Service empathy
The ability to recognize, understand, predict, and project the
interests, needs, intentions, and experiences of another party in
order to establish, maintain, and improve the service relationship.
Those involved in service management are not expected to share a
user’s frustration but are expected to recognize and understand it,
express sympathy, and adjust their support actions accordingly. Service
empathy is an element of the service mindset.
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Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
Definition: Service mindset
An important component of the organizational culture that defines
an organization’s behaviour in service relationships. A service
mindset includes the shared values and guiding principles adopted
and followed by an organization.
A service mindset implies the following values and principles:
● know your customer/user
● know the customer/user expectations
● focus on customer value
● take responsibility
● show empathy
● acknowledge and adapt to culture
● encourage collaboration
● show generosity
● show ingenuity, including intelligent disobedience
● never behave unethically.
8.1.1
‘Invisible’ users
Service relationships may involve service interactions between the
service provider and service consumer resources in various
combinations. People, technology, processes, and third parties may all
interact. In some cases, these service interactions do not involve users,
as the services are provided to the service consumer’s resources in
other dimensions.
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When there is little or no human contact between the service provider
and the users, it is important to monitor and measure key service
quality and experience indicators and analyse the trends and patterns
reflecting the users’ experience.
8.2 Provisioning user services
There are different approaches to provide services to users. The most
common options include the following:
● Pull or push Service actions may be initiated by users, as in pull.
This is the case when the user requests a service, downloads an
application, calls a service desk, etc. They may also be initiated by
the service provider, as in push. For example, the service provider
may update the software on the user’s device automatically when a
new version is available.
● Automated or manual Initiation and implementation of service
actions can be automated in different ways:
● Technology-free Technology is not involved in the service provision
● Technology-assisted Technology is used to support the service
provider in the service provision
● Technology-facilitated Both the service provider and the user have
access to the same technology as part of the service provision
● Technology-mediated Service is provided without the service
provider and the user being in physical proximity
● Technology-generated The service provider, the service
consumer, or both are represented entirely by technology.
● Tailored or out-of-the-box Interactions between users and service
providers can be standardized for all or for large groups of users or
adjusted to fit the requirements and preferences of individual users
or small groups.
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Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
● Direct or indirect Service providers can interact with users using
their own resources and employees, or through agents. The service
consumer can also provide the service on behalf of the service
provider.
Depending on the service architecture, service interactions may include:
● Joint activities Performing service actions agreed as part of the
service, either individually or together
● Service provision activities:
● providing access to agreed resources and using these resources
as part of the service
● supplying and consuming agreed goods
● maintaining resources involved in service provision at the agreed
level of availability, performance, and other quality
characteristics
● registering and handling service requests, incidents, complaints,
and compliments
● collecting and processing agreed data about service quality,
providing monitoring information to the stakeholders
● invoicing for the services provided.
● Service consumption activities:
● accessing and using the resources and goods provided as part
of the service
● performing service actions
● initiating service requests
● reporting service requests, incidents, complaints and compliments
● paying for the services provided.
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8.3 Requesting services
In many cases, fulfilling service requests is important for the success of
value co-creation.
Definition: Service request
A request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that
initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part
of service delivery.
Some service requests are designed to support the service consumer’s
business activities. These requests usually involve service actions
performed by the service provider, including requests for information,
access to resources, and goods transfer. Other service requests are part
of the user’s responsibility and should be initiated in order to keep the
service in line with the agreement. These usually include user-initiated
maintenance and support actions.
For all types of service requests, rules and conditions should be agreed
and communicated, including:
● channels and means of initiating a request
● available request options
● responsibilities
● procedures
● timeframes
● authorization (e.g. security, financial, and architectural/technological)
● costs and prices
● legal and regulatory requirements.
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Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
Service request management contributes to the success of service
usage. This provision may be enhanced by:
● user-friendly, interactive service request catalogues, tailored for the
user’s status and level of access request
● self-service interfaces for initiating and fulfilling service requests
● status updates and push notifications about ongoing requests
● proactive communications about service status, request availability,
and new options
● friendly and professional support agents fulfilling requests
● automated fulfilment and delivery, wherever possible and where
preferred by users
● collecting and processing feedback
● effective workflows for request fulfilment
● effective integration with other management practices.
8.4 Triaging requests
Users interact with service providers through the channels provided by
the service desk practice. The service desk should be closely integrated
with other practices within the service provision and support value
streams. This will ensure that tickets that are initiated by users are
processed effectively and promptly and that relevant information is
communicated to users.
There should be agreed rules for the triage and prioritization of queries.
Users should be aware of the agreed timeframes based on factors such as:
● type of query
● time and date of query
● channel of contact
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● service/resource
● level of service/user
● impact
● expected resolution time.
Users should be kept updated about the progress of their query and
changes in the estimated time of processing.
8.4.1
When things go wrong
Creating a perfect service experience can be difficult, if not impossible.
Service providers should be prepared for incidents and complaints;
every team operating within the band of visibility, even if not dealing
with users directly, should know how to address these situations.
Adopting the service mindset, including service empathy, is important
for turning issues into opportunities to improve services and users’
loyalty and trust.
8.4.2
Moments of truth
A moment of truth is a key touchpoint or service interaction between
the service provider and a user in which the user forms or changes his
or her impression of the service.
Definition: Moment of truth
Any episode in which the customer or user comes into contact with
an aspect of the organization and gets an impression of the quality
of its service. It is the basis for setting and fulfilling user
expectations and ultimately achieving user satisfaction.
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Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
Moments of truth may arise from positive and negative events. They are
the service interactions and touchpoints that make or break the service
experience for a specific user. Therefore, the service provider should be
aware of and prepare for potential moments of truth. Essentially, the
service provider should turn negative events into positive moments
of truth.
8.4.3
Intelligent disobedience
Intelligent disobedience is the act of breaking the rules to do the right
thing. There will always be unexpected issues to manage in which
existing rules are not helpful or sensible. In these cases, the service
experience depends on the staff who interact with customers and users,
correctly assessing whether the rules should be followed or suspended.
Service providers should:
● recognize that the rules in place will not always be appropriate to
the situation
● encourage and equip staff with the knowledge and skills to identify
legitimate customer requirements and to perceive and fulfil those
requirements
● create an environment where staff feel confident to act outside the
rules when circumstances dictate
● ensure that actions are documented to improve rules and future
understanding.
However, it is important to remember that a default response to any
given situation should be to follow the rules. When a situation requires
intelligent disobedience, the actions should be documented to allow
audit and control, but also so that the rules can be adapted in the future
if necessary.
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8.5 Customer and user feedback
An important task for service providers is gathering and processing
effective feedback. Table 8.1 provides some ideas for doing this.
Table 8.1 Examples of challenges for customer and user feedback
Stakeholders
providing
feedback
Challenge examples
Examples of solutions
applied by service providers
Users
Channels for feedback are not
convenient or available
Ensure and test that feedback
channels and interfaces are
convenient, secure, and
compliant with regulations, and
work as intended
People do not have time for
feedback provision
People assume somebody else
has provided the same opinion
earlier
Actively seek feedback and
reward participation with
meaningful benefits
Maintain and publish an
up-to-date log of the service
improvements initiated by user
feedback
Customers
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Customers expect service
providers to collect feedback
from users and consider it
sufficient
Provide information about
users’ feedback to customers.
Consider including it in SLA
reporting
Customers do not have time for
feedback
Have regular human-to-human
feedback sessions with
customers, especially after
important touchpoints and
moments of truth
Step 6: Co-create – provide and consume
8.6 User communities
Peer support, knowledge articles, discussions, and improvement initiatives
can help to decrease users’ demand for support from the service provider,
move support closer to the user (shift left), provide valuable insights and
improvement opportunities, and communicate news and status updates.
In many cases, user communities form naturally. They can also emerge
within organizations, particularly if users do not feel there is enough
support from the service provider. Either way, communities can become
a powerful means of communication and cooperation between users
and service providers.
Many communities and groups adopt a system of user ratings or
statuses based on how useful a member’s activity is in the group.
Individuals who provide more useful advice and comments receive some
form of recognition. Group feedback is used to assess how useful the
input is. These members are called super-users, gurus, or experts, and
may have more rights and authority in the community. Super-users may
be involved in support, communication, training, specification of user
stories and requirements, demos, and validating and testing to improve
the relationships between the service provider and the users.
If user groups are established as a service by service providers,
super-users may be appointed by the service provider and enrolled in
the service provider’s practices. If the groups are user-established or
established by the customer, then roles and responsibilities, workflows
and procedures, and tool support should ideally be agreed with the
service provider.
8.7 Service request management practice
Service requests are a type of user query and an important part of the
user experience. Typically, service requests include the following:
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● a request initiating a service action
● a request for information
● a request for access to a resource or service
● feedback, compliments, or complaints.
8.7.1
Purpose
To support the agreed quality of a service by handling all predefined,
user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.
8.7.2
Practice success factors
The service request management practice includes the following
practice success factors:
● Ensuring that the service request fulfilment procedures for all
services are optimized It is important to identify, document, and
test service request fulfilment procedures and assign responsibilities
for the activities. It is equally important to ensure that requests are
correctly described in a request catalogue and that the catalogue is
available to the users who need to initiate the requests. One way to
optimize the fulfilment procedures is to automate them wherever
reasonably possible. Service request fulfilment procedures should
be documented within service request models.
● Ensuring that all service requests are fulfilled according to the
agreed procedures and to user satisfaction Statistics on every type
of request can help to optimize resource planning and to ensure the
timely processing of all requests. Requests may require a review
after fulfilment; this can be limited to a satisfaction survey or a
detailed internal review.
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9
tep 7: Realize – capture value and
S
improve
The purpose of Step 7: Realize is to track, assess, and evaluate whether
the expected stakeholder value is realized throughout the journey and to
continually identify improvements to the journey and the services.
Key message
Service value can never be thoroughly defined by a sophisticated
set of metrics alone. Service value is always perceived value, which
makes it difficult to track and evaluate as it is based on individual
expectations and preferences. This is why tracking customer
experience and satisfaction is just as important as tracking outputs
and outcomes.
9.1 Realizing service value
The nature of the service relationship influences how value is tracked,
assessed, and evaluated, as shown in Table 9.1.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
fe r
fe r
v
fe r
o
Pr
v
figure
con
Of
fe r
o
Pr
v
e
e
Of
d
Organizations
A and B
Of
v
id
o
Pr
figure
con
Organization B
id
Of
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
id
o
Pr
id
e
v
id
Of
d
Organization A
Organization B
e
figure
con
Obtain
an
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
Organization A
e
d
Obtain
an
Relationship
Obtain
an
Table 9.1 Tracking, assessing, and evaluating value realization in
different types of service relationships
fe r
o
Pr
Basic relationship
Cooperative
relationship
Partnership
Service provider
Mostly external
External or internal
External or
internal
Services
Commercial
off-the-shelf services,
out-of-the-box
services, cloud, or
highly standardized
commodity services
or goods supply
Services that have
to be configured or
customized to fulfil
the needs of the
service consumer
Custom or
bespoke services
with unique value
propositions
Approach for
tracking and
realization of
value
Little interest in
outcomes for the
other party
The consumer
mostly relies on
evidence provided
by the trusted
service provider
The consumer
and the service
provider track
and validate value
together as
partners
102
fe r
fe r
v
fe r
o
Pr
v
figure
con
e
e
Of
d
Organizations
A and B
Of
fe r
o
Pr
v
Of
v
id
o
Pr
figure
con
Organization B
id
Of
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
id
o
Pr
id
e
Customer
activities
v
id
Of
d
Organization A
e
figure
con
Organization B
Obtain
an
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
Organization A
e
d
Obtain
an
Relationship
Obtain
an
Step 7: Realize – capture value and improve
fe r
o
Pr
Basic relationship
Cooperative
relationship
Partnership
If service costs are
comparatively low for
the customer,
evaluating value
realization is
unnecessary
Advanced VOCR
analysis based on
agreement and
promises agreed as
part of Step 4:
Agree
Same as in a
cooperative
relationship, but
fulfilled jointly
Joint service
review of
achievements
compared with
agreements and
promises
Continual tracking
and analysis of
the outcomes,
costs, and risks
Occasional joint
experimentation
(pilots, early
access, etc.)
Continual
experimentation
If costs are high for
the customer, basic
value, outcome, cost,
and risk (VOCR)
analysis are based
on:
● assumptions/
business case
● service provider
reports
Shared activities
Ad hoc service
review
Data sharing and
joint research
Table continues
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
fe r
fe r
v
fe r
o
Pr
v
figure
con
e
e
Of
d
Organizations
A and B
Of
fe r
o
Pr
v
Of
v
id
o
Pr
figure
con
Organization B
id
Of
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
id
o
Pr
id
e
Service provider
activities
v
id
Of
d
Organization A
e
figure
con
Organization B
Obtain
an
d
Obtain
an
figure
con
Organization A
e
d
Obtain
an
Relationship
Obtain
an
Table 9.1 continued
fe r
o
Pr
Basic relationship
Cooperative
relationship
Partnership
Customer-oriented
activities: reporting
on service outputs
Customer-oriented
activities:
Same as in a
cooperative
relationship, but
fulfilled jointly
Service provideroriented activities
(mass market):
● analysis of
profitability/
cost-effectiveness
● providing access
to reports/
analytics
Internal provider: risk
and cost controls
● providing
reports on
service level
and KPIs
● analysis of
customer’s
outcomes
Service provideroriented activities:
● analysis of
profitability/
costeffectiveness
● risk
assessment
● tracking and
forecasting
demand
9.2 Tracking service value
Indicators that track and measure service value are a prerequisite for
assessing and evaluating value realization. A service value indicator
shows the level of achievement of a specific objective, i.e. the desired or
agreed service value.
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Step 7: Realize – capture value and improve
Indicators are reinforced by one or more metrics. A metric is an
important characteristic of value that can be expressed in quantifiable
units based on data collected by a procedure or technical means.
Metrics can be defined for customer journeys, services, products,
practices, and resources of all four dimensions of service management.
The hierarchy from purpose to metrics is described in the ITIL planning
and evaluation model shown in Figure 9.1.
Purpose
Indicators
Evaluate
Define
Objectives
Metrics
Figure 9.1 ITIL planning and evaluation model
Tracking value realization includes the following activities:
● identifying the indicators of service value and the links between them
● defining and measuring the underpinning metrics
● capturing measurement data.
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9.2.1
Tracking performance, output, and outcome
It is often harder to identify direct outcome indicators than indirect
indicators, such as output and performance indicators. If clear links can
be established between direct outcome indicators and indirect output
and performance indicators, the latter can be used to indirectly track
service outcome.
One way of linking performance and output indicators to outcomes is to
use the value driver framework model as a basis, considering the lower
layers as value drivers for the higher layers. Figure 4.3 shows an example.
The performance of the combined and individual resources, practices,
and products drives service performance, service consumer
performance, and eventually achievement of the service consumer’s
objectives and purposes.
Another useful model for linking performance and output indicators to
service outcome is the service profit chain (Heskett et al., 1994).
According to this model, shown in Figure 9.2, profit and growth are
stimulated primarily by customer loyalty. Loyalty is a direct result of
customer satisfaction, which is largely influenced by the value of the
Employee
retention
Internal
service
quality
Revenue
growth
External
service
quality
Employee
satisfaction
Customer
satisfaction
Employee
productivity
•
•
•
•
•
Workplace design
Job design
Employee selection and development
Employee rewards and recognition
Tools for serving customers
Profitability
• Service concept:
results for customers
Figure 9.2 The service profit chain
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Customer
loyalty
• Retention
• Repeat business
• Referral
• Service designed and delivered to
meet targeted customers’ needs
Step 7: Realize – capture value and improve
services provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal, and
productive employees. Employee satisfaction results from internal
conditions that enable employees to deliver a good service.
There are many outcomes that cannot be measured quantitatively, but
which still impact value realization. Essentially, measurement reduces
uncertainty; and qualitative measurements may be just as useful for
reducing uncertainty as quantitative measurements.
9.2.2
Tracking experience and satisfaction
In order to understand customer and user experience, there are three
questions to consider:
● How does the service work? (Functional experience)
● How does the service feel? (Emotional experience)
● To what degree does the service fulfil my needs? (Satisfaction)
The service provider should consider using the following methods to
monitor customer experience:
● gathering instant feedback after service interactions
● monitoring social media
● creating periodic questionnaires and surveys
● gathering customer feedback from service review meetings
● obtaining feedback from post-implementation reviews
● conducting telephone perception surveys
● handing out satisfaction surveys
● analysing complaints and compliments
● A/B testing using focus groups.
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Service level metrics can be a great help for this analysis. The combined
set of experience and satisfaction metrics and service level and resource
performance metrics gives an opportunity for service providers to
investigate deviations and enable continual improvement.
9.2.3
Tracking service usage
Services are designed to enable customer activities, which in turn
enable the achievement of customer outcomes. Customer assets such
as people, processes, and applications all perform activities. Because of
the way these assets are organized or the tasks they are completing,
this activity will tend to be performed in patterns. These patterns of
business activity (PBA) represent the dynamics of the business and
include service interactions with customers, suppliers, partners, and
other stakeholders. The service provider must be able to anticipate the
business activity and ensure enough service capacity to cope with
changing demand.
Patterns of business activity also facilitate an understanding of the
differences in service usage by different user groups and can be used to
identify user profiles or personas. User profiles communicate
information on the roles, responsibilities, interactions, schedules, work
environments, and social contexts of related users that can be used to
tailor and improve the service and customer journey.
9.3 Assessing and reporting service value
Assessing and reporting value realization is about consolidating data
from various data sources, correlating the consolidated data, interpreting
and assessing the information, and presenting it in a form that is
appropriate for making decisions. As part of the assessment, the
captured experience, performance, and output data should be correlated
with the outcomes, risks, and costs, and the overall service contribution
to the customer objectives and purposes should be assessed.
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When the data has been consolidated, the results should be analysed,
and the following questions considered:
● Are targets being met?
● Are there any clear trends? Are the trends positive or negative?
● Are there any underlying structural problems?
● Are there unforeseen patterns or outcomes?
● Are any improvements required?
● Is there any new information about the products, services, customer
journey, or context?
If applicable, assessment techniques, such as post-implementation
reviews, audits, and cost–benefit analyses, should be used.
9.4 Evaluating service value
The evaluation of service value and the improvement of customer journeys
draw on Steps 6 and 7 of the ITIL continual improvement model.
Evaluating service value not only verifies that the individual services have
created the desired value, but also that the desired customer experience
has been achieved (single-loop learning). With double-loop learning,
evaluation involves checking that the original value proposition is still
valid, and that the service value system (SVS) remains fit for purpose.
9.4.1
Evaluation and verification
In simple standardized environments, the evaluation of service value
may be partly predefined. Automated service performance reports and
SLA score boards may indicate whether the value realization meets the
agreed targets.
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In more complicated environments, the evaluation process cannot be
completely formalized. Frequent service reviews may be a fruitful way to
evaluate the realization of value in this case.
Evaluation is a chance to challenge initial assumptions:
● Is there still a real problem that needs to be solved?
● Is a service still the best way to solve the problem?
● Is the service still fit for purpose and fit for use?
9.4.2
Continual improvement
Evaluation of service value provides vital input for the continual
improvement of products, services, and all components of the SVS.
Other sources for improvement are:
● service usage analytics
● incident, complaint, and problem analysis
● analysis of service request patterns
● analysis of self-service patterns and usage of knowledge articles
● change requests and improvement requests
● user feedback and feedback from user communities
● customer feedback and customer satisfaction surveys
● changes in service demand.
9.5 Realizing value for the service provider
An internal service provider is usually subject to the shared strategic
goals of its organization. First and foremost, the service provider exists
to facilitate value for the customers and users, not to pursue its own
business goals.
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An external service provider pursues its own business goals, although it
helps its customers to achieve their goals as a means to achieve its
own. These goals are not only financial but may also include brand
recognition, market share, capability elevation, and resource utilization.
Therefore, the service provider needs to track not only the realization of
customer value but also its own.
Key message
The methods and techniques introduced for tracking, assessing,
and evaluating service value are as valid for the service provider as
they are for the service consumer.
Part of the service provider’s value realization is profit, or at least cost
recovery. The amount customers will be charged for a service depends
on the charging policies. Several options exist:
● cost recovery or break-even
● recovery with an additional margin
● cross-subsidization
● profit.
The concept of a chargeable item is very helpful. Chargeable items are
the lowest level at which a charge is measured. Some examples of how
service usage can be measured to support charging are:
● processor utilization, memory utilization, file storage utilization
(cloud/infrastructure services)
● number of business transactions (application as a service)
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● number of application log-ons and concurrent users (application as
a service)
● number of requests processed in the case of differential charging
(such as the number of reports generated).
Although charging refers to the process of recovering money for services
from the customer, billing is the process of producing and presenting an
invoice for services and goods to a customer. The invoice is an
important touchpoint on the customer journey as it may over-influence
the customer experience because it is presented at the end of the
journey, when it may have a negative impact.
There are four main options for billing:
● no billing
● informational billing or show-back
● internal billing or chargeback
● billing and collection.
9.6 Portfolio management practice
Definition: Portfolio
A collection of assets into which an organization chooses to invest
its resources in order to receive the best return.
Portfolio management plays an important role in tracking and realizing
value for a service provider. It can encompass several portfolios, such
as a product and service portfolio, programme and project portfolio,
application portfolio, and customer portfolio.
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The key concepts behind portfolio management are the same,
regardless of the items being managed in the portfolio; it helps to
achieve optimal return on the investment from a system of assets, as
shown in Figure 9.3.
Set objectives for
Available
funds
Enable
and limit
Set objectives for
Available
resources
Enable
and limit
Enable
and limit
Set objectives for
Products and
services portfolio
Enable
and limit
Set objectives for
Customer
portfolio
Enable
and limit
Value to the
organization
Enable
and limit
Set objectives for
Set objectives for
Programme and
project portfolio
Return on investment
Figure 9.3 An organization’s portfolios enable return on investments
Portfolio management not only identifies the investments with the
highest payoff, but also analyses and tracks investments based on the
value of services. It also provides approaches and templates to oversee
and control the realization of service value. Formal assessment reports
of value realization may be produced and provide a snapshot of the
current state of investment for service stakeholders.
9.6.1
Purpose
To ensure that the organization has the right mix of programmes,
projects, products, and services to execute its strategy within the
funding and resource constraints.
9.6.2
Practice success factors
The portfolio management practice includes the following practice
success factors:
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● Ensuring sound investment decisions for programmes, projects,
products, and services within the organization’s resource
constraints The practice ensures that all internal and external
stakeholder perspectives are included and prioritized, and that
adequate resources are allocated to the most important initiatives
before any additional ones are addressed. Criteria and weights for
criteria should be transparent and applied consistently. Investment
decisions must be communicated to stakeholders.
● Ensuring the continual monitoring, review, and optimization of the
organization’s portfolios Investments should be monitored to
ensure that they are enabling their expected value. A set of criteria
(e.g. a value proposition, acceptance criteria, benefits realization
plan) needs to be defined to track, assess, and validate the value of
a portfolio item. Based on findings from ongoing reviews, new
initiatives and interventions should be recommended and prioritized
against the remaining portfolio items.
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10
Taking the DSV examination
10.1 Purpose of the ITIL 4 DSV qualification
The purpose of the ITIL 4 Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV) qualification is
to provide the candidate with an understanding of all types of
engagement and interaction between a service provider and its
customers, users, suppliers, and partners, including key CX, UX, and
journey mapping concepts.
The ITIL 4 DSV qualification is one of the prerequisites for the
designation of ITIL 4 Managing Professional which assesses the
candidate’s practical and technical knowledge about how to run
successful, modern IT-enabled services, teams, and workflows.
10.2 Examination overview
● Material allowed No additional materials are allowed in the
examination. This is a ‘closed book’ examination.
● Examination duration The examination is scheduled for
90 minutes. Candidates taking the examination in a language that is
not their native tongue or working language may be awarded 25%
extra time, i.e. 113 minutes in total. The training or examination
provider should be made aware of this when the course is booked.
● Prerequisites The candidate must have passed the ITIL 4
Foundation examination. In addition, the candidate must have
attended an accredited training course for this module (the
recommended duration for this training is 18 hours, including
the examination).
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● Scoring Number of questions: 40, each worth 1 mark (40 marks in
total). There is no negative marking.
● Provisional pass mark 70% or higher – a score of 28 marks or above.
● Level of thinking The examination conforms to a learning objective
tool called Bloom’s Taxonomy. The term ‘Bloom’s levels’ indicates
the type of thinking needed to answer the question. The
examination is constructed at Bloom’s Level 2 (15 questions) and
Bloom’s Level 3 (25 questions). Weightings by learning outcome are
as shown in Table 10.1.
Table 10.1 Examination weighting by learning outcome
Learning outcome
Number of
questions
Approx.
weighting (%)
Understand how customer journeys are designed
2
5
Know how to target markets and stakeholders
4
10
Know how to foster stakeholder relationships
5
12.5
Know how to shape demand and define service
offerings
7
17.5
Know how to align expectations and agree details
of services
4
10
Know how to onboard and offboard customers and
users
7
17.5
Know how to act together to ensure continual value
co-creation (service consumption/provisioning)
6
15
Know how to realize and validate service value
5
12.5
10.3 Question type examples
There are three main question types: standard, negative, and list.
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Taking the DSV examination
10.3.1
Standard
Which is a source of best practice?
(a)
P
(b)
Q
(c)
R
(d)
S
Study can be aided by trying to recall what the wrong answers are
referring to.
10.3.2
Negative
Which is NOT a defined area of value?
(a)
P
(b)
Q
(c)
R
(d)
S
‘Negative’ questions are a type of ‘standard’ question in which the stem
is negatively worded. These are traditionally the most difficult to answer,
because, under the pressure of an examination, it is easy for the
candidate to convince themselves that all options are true.
10.3.3
List
Which statement about service asset and configuration management is
CORRECT?
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1
It does P
2
It does Q
3
It does R
4
It does S
(a)
1 and 2
(b)
2 and 3
(c)
3 and 4
(d)
1 and 4
For a ‘list’ question, there is a list of four statements, and candidates
have to select two correct ones. List-style questions are never negative.*
Candidates should approach these questions by working out which
statements they are certain are correct or incorrect. Knowing just two of
the four will always lead to the correct answer.
10.4 Examination modalities
The examination can be taken as a paper-based exercise or in an online
digital format. More information on examination regulations and
technical requirements is available from the organizations providing
training or examinations.
10.4.1
Sample papers
Two official sample examination papers will be provided as part of an
accredited course.
* Negative questions are only used as an exception, where part of the learning
outcome is to know that something is not done or should not occur.
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Taking the DSV examination
These papers are written by the same examining teams as the live
papers, and follow the same algorithm regarding the numbers and
styles of questions. They also contain examiners’ rationales which
justify the correct answers.
Some training organizations will provide extra questions written by their
own people. Care should be taken with these questions, as they are not
always written to the same style and quality guidelines as those in the
official sample and live papers. Nevertheless, they can prove helpful to
aid a candidate’s learning.
10.4.2
Tips for taking the examination
● Read the question and highlight key words It is very easy to miss
a word in a question. For example, subconsciously removing ‘NOT’
from a question changes the focus completely. The human brain has
a prediction mechanism that allows us to anticipate words without
having to read them. Be careful to read the question fully and
highlight key words to avoid mis-reading.
● Be careful with time management, but don’t stress about it Forty
questions in 90 minutes is 2 minutes and 15 seconds per question.
Based on extensive experience, it is very unusual for time to be an
issue. This is the case even for candidates whose native language is not
English (who are given extra time). It is one less thing to worry about.
● Remember ‘What would ITIL recommend?’ The recommended
duration for this training is 18 hours, including the examination.
When answering questions, a candidate’s first thought will be from
short-term memory and faithful to what ITIL would say. Care should
be taken not to rationalize questions against a candidate’s
experience of their own organization. The candidate should bear in
mind that their organization will have adapted ITIL heavily, and its
ways of working may not match exactly what the ITIL 4 Managing
Professional Specialist titles say!
119
11
The ITIL 4 certification scheme
There are four levels within the ITIL 4 certification scheme, as shown in
Figure 11.1.
11.1 ITIL Foundation
The ITIL 4 Foundation certification is designed as an introduction to
ITIL 4 and enables candidates to look at IT service management
through an end-to-end operating model for the creation, delivery, and
continual improvement of IT-enabled products and services.
The target audience consists of:
● those who require a basic understanding of the ITIL framework
● those who want to understand how ITIL can be used to enhance IT
service management
ITIL
Specialist
ITIL
Specialist
Create,
Drive
Deliver and Stakeholder
Support
Value
ITIL
Specialist
ITIL
Strategist
ITIL
Strategist
ITIL
Leader
Highvelocity
IT
Direct,
Plan and
Improve
Direct,
Plan and
Improve
Digital
and IT
Strategy
Figure 11.1 The ITIL certification scheme
120
The ITIL 4 certification scheme
● IT professionals or others working within an organization that has
adopted ITIL.
11.2 ITIL Managing Professional stream
ITIL Managing Professional (ITIL MP) is a stream of four modules that
provides practical and technical knowledge about how to run successful
IT-enabled services, teams, and workflows.
All modules have ITIL 4 Foundation as a prerequisite.
The target audience consists of:
● IT practitioners working within technology
● digital teams across businesses.
To obtain the designation ITIL Managing Professional, the candidate
must complete all four modules in this stream, with ITIL Strategist –
Direct, Plan and Improve being a universal module for both streams.
The four modules are:
● ITIL Specialist – Create, Deliver and Support
● ITIL Specialist – Drive Stakeholder Value
● ITIL Specialist – High-velocity IT
● ITIL Strategist – Direct, Plan and Improve.
11.2.1
ITIL Specialist – Create, Deliver and Support
11.2.1.1 Coverage
This module covers:
● core service management activities
● creation of services
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
● integration of different value streams and activities to create, deliver,
and support IT-enabled products and services
● supporting practices, methods, and tools
● service performance
● understanding of service quality and improvement methods.
11.2.1.2 Target audience
Practitioners responsible for:
● managing the operation of IT-enabled and digital products and
services
● the end-to-end delivery of services.
11.2.1.3 Training
Accredited training for this module is mandatory.
11.2.2
ITIL Specialist – Drive Stakeholder Value
11.2.2.1 Coverage
This module covers:
● all types of engagement and interaction between a service provider
and its customers, users, suppliers, and partners
● conversion of demand into value via IT-enabled services
● key topics such as SLA design, multi-supplier management,
communication, relationship management, CX and UX design, and
customer journey mapping.
122
The ITIL 4 certification scheme
11.2.2.2 Target audience
Practitioners responsible for:
● managing and integrating stakeholders
● customer journey and experience
● fostering relationships with partners and suppliers.
11.2.2.3 Training
Accredited training for this module is mandatory.
11.2.3
ITIL Specialist – High-velocity IT
11.2.3.1 Coverage
This module covers:
● the ways in which digital organizations and digital operating models
function in high-velocity environments
● operating in a similar way to successful digitally native organizations
● use of working practices such as Agile and Lean, and technical
practices and technologies such as the cloud, automation, and
automatic testing, to enable rapid delivery of products and services.
11.2.3.2 Target audience
IT managers and practitioners involved in digital services or digital
transformation projects, working within or towards high-velocity
environments.
11.2.3.3 Training
Accredited training for this module is mandatory.
123
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
11.2.4
ITIL Strategist – Direct, Plan and Improve*
11.2.4.1 Coverage
This module covers:
● creating a ‘learning and improving’ IT organization, with a strong
and effective strategic direction
● influence and impact of Agile and Lean ways of working, and how
they can be leveraged to an organization’s advantage
● practical and strategic methods for planning and delivering continual
improvement.
11.2.4.2 Target audience
Managers at all levels involved in shaping direction and strategy or
developing a continually improving team.
11.2.4.3 Training
Accredited training for this module is mandatory.
11.3 ITIL Strategic Leader stream
ITIL Strategic Leader (ITIL SL) is a stream of two modules that
recognizes the value of ITIL, not just for IT operations, but for all
digitally enabled services. Becoming an ITIL Strategic Leader
demonstrates that the individual has a clear understanding of how IT
influences and directs business strategy.
* This is a universal module that is a key component of both the ITIL Managing
Professional and ITIL Strategic Leader streams.
124
The ITIL 4 certification scheme
To obtain the designation ITIL Strategic Leader, the candidate must
complete both modules in this stream, with ITIL Strategist – Direct,
Plan and Improve being a universal module for both streams. Both
modules have ITIL 4 Foundation as a prerequisite.
The two modules are:
● ITIL Strategist – Direct, Plan and Improve
● ITIL Leader – Digital and IT Strategy.
11.3.1
ITIL Strategist – Direct, Plan and Improve
As detailed in section 11.2.4.
11.3.2
ITIL Leader – Digital and IT Strategy
11.3.2.1 Coverage
This module covers:
● alignment of digital business strategy with IT strategy
● how disruption from new technologies is impacting organizations in
every industry, and how business leaders are responding
● building and implementing effective IT and digital strategy that can
tackle digital disruption and drive success.
11.3.2.2 Target audience
The target audience consists of IT and business leaders and aspiring
leaders.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
11.3.2.3 Training
Accredited training for this module is mandatory. In addition, those
undertaking the ITIL Strategic Leader modules would benefit from a
minimum of three years of IT managerial experience.
11.4 ITIL Master
The ITIL Master certification verifies a candidate’s ability to apply the
principles, methods, and techniques from ITIL in the workplace.
To achieve this certification, a candidate must be able to explain and
justify how they have personally selected and applied a range of
knowledge, principles, methods, and techniques from the ITIL
framework and supporting management techniques, to achieve desired
business outcomes in one or more practical assignments.
To be eligible for the ITIL Master certification, a candidate must have both:
● achieved the ITIL v3 Expert certificate or ITIL Managing Professional
and ITIL Strategic Leader designations
● worked in IT service management for at least five years in
leadership, managerial, or higher management advisory levels.
There is no formal training. PeopleCert, AXELOS’s licensed examination
institute (EI), provides documentation to support and guide candidates
who wish to prepare for the ITIL Master qualification.
11.5 ITIL and the T-shaped individual
The focus of the ITIL 4 advanced-level qualifications has shifted
somewhat from previous ITIL v3 education. The deep knowledge of the
ITIL processes alone has been enhanced to allow IT service
management professionals to gain a wider perspective of their role and
interactions with colleagues elsewhere. These modern IT service
126
The ITIL 4 certification scheme
management professionals are said to have a T-shaped skillset, as
shown in Figure 11.2.
Ability to work outside of core area
Broad
Deep
Functional area,
discipline,
or speciality
Figure 11.2 A T-shaped skillset
T-shaped skills describe specific attributes of desirable workers. The
vertical bar of the ‘T’ represents expert knowledge and experience in a
particular area, such as ITSM. The horizontal bar represents the ability
to collaborate with experts in other disciplines, and a willingness to use
the knowledge gained from this collaboration.
The T-shaped service manager might look as shown in Figure 11.3.
127
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Work/contribute outside of core area
Agile
DevOps Cloud Leader- Cyber ITSM
ship security tooling
ITIL
Figure 11.3 A T-shaped service manager
128
Discipline
or speciality
12
ITIL 4: Drive Stakeholder Value
syllabus
Table 12.1 gives a summary of the concepts that are tested in the
examination. It references where these are described, both in the main
parts of ITIL®4: Drive Stakeholder Value and the relevant sections of
this guide.
The verb for each assessment criterion indicates the Bloom’s level (BL):
● ‘Understand’ indicates Level 2 understanding/comprehension.
● ‘Know how to’ indicates Level 3 application.
Table 12.1 Concepts that are tested in the ITIL 4 Drive Stakeholder
Value examination
Learning
outcome
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
Bloom’s
level
Marks
1
Understand
how
customer
journeys are
designed
1.1
Understand the concept
of the customer journey
1.2.4, 2, 2.1,
2.2, Tab 2.1
2.1
BL2
1
1.2
Understand the ways of
designing and improving
customer journeys
2.3, 2.3.1–4,
2.4, 2.4.1–3,
2.5, 2.6
2.2
BL2
1
Know how to
target
markets and
stakeholders
2.1
Understand the
characteristics of markets
3, 3.3, 3.3.1,
3.3.1.1–2
3, 3.3
BL2
1
2.2
Understand marketing
activities and techniques
3.4, 3.4.1–7,
3.5
3.4
BL2
1
2.3
Know how to describe
customer needs and
internal and external
factors that affect these
3.1, 3.1.1–5
(including
subsections),
3.3.1.2,
3.3.2
3.1,
3.3
BL3
1
2.4
Know how to identify
service providers and
explain their value
propositions
3.2, 3.2.1
3.2
BL3
1
2
Table continues
129
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 12.1 continued
Learning
outcome
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
Bloom’s
level
Marks
3
3.1
Understand the concepts
of mutual readiness and
maturity
4.3, 4.3.5,
Tab 4.7,
Tab 4.14
4.3
BL2
1
3.2
Understand the different
supplier and partner
relationship types, and
how these are managed
4.2, 4.2.1–3,
4.4, Tab 4.3,
Tab 4.4
4.2
BL2
1
3.3
Know how to develop
customer relationships
4.3, 4.3.1–4
(including
subsections),
Tab 4.7, Tab
4.9, Tab 4.19
4.3
BL3
1
3.4
Know how to analyse
customer needs
4.1, 4.1.1–2,
4.3.4,
4.3.4.1–3
4.3
BL3
3.5
Know how to use
communication and
collaboration activities
and techniques
4, 4.1,
4.1.1–2,
Tab 4.2
4, 4.1
BL3
3.6
Know how the
relationship management
practice can be applied to
enable and contribute to
fostering relationships
Relationship
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
4.4
BL3
1
3.7
Know how the supplier
management practice can
be applied to enable and
contribute to supplier and
partner relationships
management
Supplier
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
4.5
BL3
1
Know how to
foster
stakeholder
relationships
130
ITIL 4: Drive Stakeholder Value syllabus
Learning
outcome
4
5
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
Bloom’s
level
Marks
Understand methods for
designing digital service
experiences based on
value-driven, data-driven,
and user-centred service
design
5.3, 5.3.1–6
5.3
BL2
1
4.2
Understand approaches
for selling and obtaining
service offerings
5.4, 5.4.1–3
5.4
BL2
1
4.3
Know how to capture,
influence, and manage
demand and
opportunities
5.1, 5.1.1–5
(including
subsections)
5.1
BL3
2
4.4
Know how to collect,
specify and prioritize
requirements from a
diverse range of
stakeholders
5.2, 5.2.1–7
5.2
BL3
2
4.5
Know how the business
analysis practice can be
applied to enable and
contribute to requirement
management and service
design
Business
analysis
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
5.5
BL3
1
5.1
Know how to plan for
value co-creation
6.1, 6.1.1–3
6.1
BL3
4
5.2
Know how to negotiate
and agree service utility,
warranty, and experience
6, 6.2.3,
6.2.4,
6.2.4.1–3
6, 6.2
BL3
5.3
Know how the service
level management
practice can be applied to
enable and contribute to
service expectation
management
Service level
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections
and Tab 2.3)
6.3
BL3
Know how to 4.1
shape
demand and
define service
offerings
Know how to
align
expectations
and agree
details of
services
Table continues
131
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 12.1 continued
Learning
outcome
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
6
6.1
Understand key
transition, onboarding,
and offboarding activities
5.3.6, 7, 7.6,
7.6.1–2,
Tab 7.1
5.3, 7, BL2
7.1,
7.6
6.2
Understand the ways of
relating with users and
fostering user
relationships
7.2, 7.2.1–2,
Tab 7.6
7.2
BL2
6.3
Understand how users
are authorized and
entitled to services
7.1.3, 7.4,
Tab 7.3
7.1,
7.4
BL2
6.4
Understand different
approaches to mutual
elevation of customer,
user, and service provider
capabilities
7.5
7.5
BL2
6.5
Know how to prepare
onboarding and
offboarding plans
5.3.4, 7.1,
7.1.1–4, 7.6,
7.6.1–2, 7.7,
Tab 7.2,
Tab 7.3
5.3,
7.1,
7.6
BL3
1
6.6
Know how to develop
user engagement and
delivery channels
7.3
7.3
BL3
1
6.7
Know how the service
catalogue management
practice can be applied to
enable and contribute to
offering user services
7.4, Tab 7.7,
service
catalogue
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
7.3,
7.4,
7.7
BL3
1
6.8
Know how the service
desk practice can be
applied to enable and
contribute to user
engagement
Service desk
practice 2.1,
2.2, 2.4
(including
subsections
and Tab 2.4)
7.3,
7.8
BL3
1
Know how to
onboard and
offboard
customers
and users
132
Bloom’s
level
Marks
3
ITIL 4: Drive Stakeholder Value syllabus
Learning
outcome
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
Bloom’s
level
Marks
7
7.1
Understand how users
can request services
8.2, 8.2.1–2,
8.2.4–5
8.2,
8.3,
8.4
BL2
2
7.2
Understand methods for
triaging of user requests
8.2, 8.2.2–5
8.2,
8.4
BL2
7.3
Understand the concept
of user communities
8.3, 8.3.1
8.6
BL2
7.4
Understand methods for
encouraging and
managing customer and
user feedback
8.2.6,
Tab 8.5
8.5
BL2
7.5
Know how to foster a
service mindset (attitude,
behaviour, and culture)
8, 8.1,
8.1.1–3
8, 8.1
BL3
7.6
Know how to use
different approaches to
provision of user services
8.2, 8.2.1
8.2,
8.3
BL3
7.7
Know how to seize and
deal with customer and
user ‘moments of truth’
8.2.4, 8.2.5
8.4
BL3
7.8
Know how the service
request management
practice can be applied to
enable and contribute to
service usage
8.2.1, service
request
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
8.3,
8.7
BL3
Know how to
act together
to ensure
continual
value
co-creation
(service
consumption/
provisioning)
4
Table continues
133
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Table 12.1 continued
Learning
outcome
Assessment criteria
ITIL 4: DSV
and practice
guide refs
DSV
Study
Guide
refs
Bloom’s
level
Marks
8
8.1
Understand methods for
measuring service usage
and customer and user
experience and
satisfaction
9.2.2, 9.2.3
9.2
BL2
2
8.2
Understand methods to
track and monitor service
value (outcome, risk,
cost, and resources)
9, 9.2,
9.2.1–3, 9.3
9, 9.2
BL2
8.3
Understand different
types of reporting of
service outcome and
performance
9.2.1, 9.3,
9.5.1
9.2,
9.3,
9.5
BL2
8.4
Understand charging
mechanisms
5.4.1, 9.5.4,
Tab 5.12
5.4,
9.5
BL2
8.5
Know how to validate
service value
9.1, Tab 9.2,
9.3, 9.4.1
9.1,
9.3,
9.4
BL3
8.6
Know how to prepare to
evaluate and improve the
customer journey
9.2.2, 9.4,
9.4.1–2
9.2,
9.4
BL3
8.7
Know how the portfolio
management practice can
be applied to enable and
contribute to service
value realization
9.5.5,
portfolio
management
practice 2.1,
2.4 (including
subsections)
9.6
BL3
Know how to
realize and
validate
service value
134
3
References
AXELOS (2019) ITIL® Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition. TSO, London.
BRM Institute (2014) Business Relationship Management: BRM
Professional. The BRMP® Guide to the BRM Body of Knowledge. BRM
Institute, Atlanta, GA.
Brundtland, G.H. (1987) Our Common Future. World Commission on
Environment and Development (WCED), United Nations.
Christensen, C.M., Hall, T., Dillon, K. and Duncan, D.S. (2016) Know
your customers’ ‘jobs to be done’. Harvard Business Review 94(9): 14.
Covey, S.R. (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful
Lessons in Personal Change. Free Press, New York.
Drucker, P. (1973) Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices.
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Elkington, J. (1994) Towards the sustainable corporation: win-win-win
business strategies for sustainable development. California Management
Review, 36(2): 90–100.
Gianotten, M. (2017) Digital Empathy: When Tech Meets Touch. Giarte,
Amsterdam.
Hacker, S.K., Israel, J.T. and Couturier, L. (1999) Building trust in key
customer–supplier relationships. https://www.researchgate.net/
publication/242763665_building_trust_in_key_customer_-_supplier_
relationships [accessed 28 April 2021].
Hamel, G. and Zanini, M. (2020) Humanocracy: Creating Organizations
as Amazing as the People inside them. Harvard Business Review Press.
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ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
Heskett, J.L., Jones, T.O., Loveman, G.W., Earl Sasser, W. and
Schlesinger, L.A. (1994) Putting the service-profit chain to work.
Harvard Business Review, 72(2): 164–174. March/April 1994.
Luft, J. (1969) Of Human Interaction. McGraw-Hill Inc.
Schneider, J. and Stickdorn, M. (2012) This is Service Design Thinking:
Basics, Tools, Cases. BIS Publishers, Amsterdam.
Sinek, S. (2009) Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone
To Take Action. Penguin, London.
136
Further information
Publications
The ITIL 4 product suite comprises a range of core and supplementary
guidance to support you on your IT service management journey. It
offers essential interactive digital resources to enhance your learning
experience and prepare you for the ITIL 4 High-velocity IT exam,
including an official revision app. For more information, visit the
AXELOS best-practice website at:
https://www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/itil
To buy printed copies or an online subscription to ITIL 4 guidance, visit:
https://www.tsoshop.co.uk/Business-and-Management/AXELOS-GlobalBest-Practice/ITIL-4/
Contact points
itSMF UK
itSMF is the only truly independent and internationally recognized forum
for IT service management professionals worldwide. This not-for-profit
organization is a prominent player in the ongoing development and
promotion of IT service management best practice, standards, and
qualifications, and has been since 1991, when the UK chapter
commenced as the foundation chapter.
There are more than 50 chapters worldwide. Each chapter is a separate
legal entity and is largely autonomous. itSMF International provides an
overall steering and support function to existing and emerging chapters.
It has its own website at www.itsmfi.org.
137
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
The UK chapter has more than 5000 members. It offers a flourishing
annual conference, online bookstore, annual awards, a professional
service management framework (PSMF) competency model, regular
member meet-ups, special interest groups, and numerous other
benefits. Members of itSMF UK can purchase ITIL®4: High-velocity IT
at tinyurl.com/itsmfitil4
Ground Floor South
Burford House
Leppington
Bracknell RG12 7WW
United Kingdom
Telephone: +44(0) 118 918 6500
Email: membership@itsmf.co.uk
www.itsmf.co.uk
AXELOS
AXELOS is a joint venture company co-owned by the UK Government’s
Cabinet Office and Capita plc. It is responsible for developing,
enhancing, and promoting a number of best-practice methodologies
used globally by professionals working primarily in project, programme,
and portfolio management, IT service management, and cyber
resilience. The methodologies, including ITIL, PRINCE2, PRINCE2
Agile, MSP, RESILIA, and its newest addition, AgileSHIFT, are adopted
in more than 150 countries to improve employees’ skills, knowledge,
and competence in order to make both individuals and organizations
work more effectively.
To take you to the next level in your ITIL journey, the ITIL 4 Managing
Professional (ITIL MP) suite is available to support the ITIL 4 higherlevel and transition exams. For more information, visit:
138
Further information
https://www.axelos.com/certifications/itil-certifications/itil-managingprofessional-itil-4
ITIL 4 practice guides are available through My ITIL:
https://www.axelos.com/my-axelos/my-itil
Full details on how to contact AXELOS can be found at
https://www.axelos.com.
TSO
TSO (The Stationery Office) is the official publisher for AXELOS,
producing official literature for the ITIL portfolio. TSO has a 200-year
heritage of secure, no-fail delivery as publisher to the UK Government
and Parliament and, more recently, as publisher for many commercial
organizations. As part of Williams Lea, a global leader in marketing and
communications services, TSO provides key resources for learning and
continual development in IT service management.
PO Box 29
Norwich NR3 1GN
United Kingdom
Telephone orders/general enquiries: 0333 202 5070
Textphone: 0333 202 5077
Fax orders: 0333 202 5080
Email: customer.services@tso.co.uk
139
Index
A
Agile methods 54–55
Agree step of customer journey
62–69
B
band of visibility 3, 57
basic service relationships 28, 29–30
behavioural psychology 12–13
billing 112
blueprints 10–14, 55–56
bottom line 24
brands 24
business analysis 48
business analysis practice 60–61
business cases 46–47
business goals 111
business relationship management 35
C
capability elevation 84
capacity and performance
management practice 45
capacity management 45–46
CD3 score 53
chargeable items 111–112
charging policies 111
Co-create step of customer journey
90–100
cognitive biases 12–13
collaboration 26–28, 40
communication 26–28
communication channels 88
140
continual improvement 110
continual improvement model 19
continuous delivery/deployment 55
cooperative service relationships
28–29
cost of delay 52
CRM (customer relationship
management) systems 35
culture 13–14
customer business cases 46–47
customer experience (CX) 4–5,
107–108
customer feedback 98
customer journeys 2–16
and behavioural psychology 12–13
and culture 13–14
design 10–14
design stages 7
improvement 14
maps 9–10
measurement 14
personas 8
scenarios 8
and stakeholder value 6–7
steps 15–16
Agree 62–69
Co-create 90–100
Engage 25–43
Explore 17–24
Offer 44–61
Onboard 70–89
Realize 101–114
Index
touchpoints 2–3
and value streams 4
customer needs 17–19, 37–39
solution-based approach 38
value-based approach 38
customer offboarding 85–86
customer relationship management
(CRM) systems 35
customer relationships and
engagement 33–40
customer requirements 47–53
customer requirements management
49–50
CX (customer experience) 4–5,
107–108
D
demand management 44–47
design thinking 11–12
Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV) see
ITIL 4, Drive Stakeholder Value
E
Engage step of customer journey
25–43
environmental factors 5
experience level agreements (XLAs)
67
Explore step of customer journey
17–24
external factors 18
external sales 59
F
feedback 98
I
intelligent disobedience 97
internal factors 18
internal sales 59
intuitive behaviour 12–13
INVEST 51
invisible users 91–92
iterative development 54
ITIL 4
certification scheme 120–128
ITIL Foundation 120–121
ITIL Leader – Digital and IT
Strategy 125–126
ITIL Managing Professional (ITIL
MP) stream 121–124
ITIL Master 126
ITIL MP (ITIL Managing
Professional) stream 121–124
ITIL SL (ITIL Strategic Leader)
stream 124–126
ITIL Specialist – Create, Deliver
and Support 121–122
ITIL Specialist – Drive Stakeholder
Value 122–123
ITIL Specialist – High-velocity IT
123
ITIL Strategic Leader (ITIL SL)
stream 124–126
ITIL Strategist – Direct, Plan and
Improve 124, 125
Drive Stakeholder Value (DSV)
examination 115–119
purpose of 1
qualification 115
syllabus 129–134
141
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
ITIL 4 continued
practices
business analysis 60–61
capacity and performance
management 45
portfolio management 112–114
relationship management 33, 41
service catalogue management
87
service desk 83, 88–89
service level management 67–69
service request management
99–100
supplier management 42–43
and T-shaped individuals 126–128
J
Johari window 10
L
Lean techniques 53–54
M
market analysis 21–22
market segmentation 21
marketing 22–24
marketing campaigns 23
marketplaces 23
marketspace 23
maturity assessment 39–40
mental models 13
minimum viable product (MVP)
50, 51
moments of truth 96–97
MoSCoW method of requirements
management 52
142
mutual capabilities 84
MVP (minimum viable product) 50,
51
O
objectives 19
offboarding 70, 85–86
Offer step of customer journey 44–61
omnichannel management 80–82
Onboard step of customer journey
70–89
onboarding 56–57, 71–74
opportunities 19
organizational purpose 17
organizational readiness for change
40
output/outcome tracking 106–107
P
partnerships 29–30
patterns of business activity (PBA)
44–45
performance management 45–46
performance tracking 106–107
personas for customer journeys 8
PESTLE analysis 18
portfolio management practice
112–114
portfolios 112
practices see ITIL 4, practices
predictive analytics 22
pricing 57–58
profiling 23
provisioning user services 92–93
Index
R
readiness for collaboration 40
Realize step of customer journey
101–114
relational patterns 33–35
relationship ladder 33, 34
relationship management 35
relationship management practice 33,
41
reporting service value 108–109
requirements see customer
requirements; service
requirements
risk assessment 19
S
sales 57–59
scenarios for customer journeys 8
service blueprints 10–14, 55–56
service catalogue management
practice 87
service catalogues 35, 83
service characteristics 63–64
service consumer needs 64–66
service design 53–57
service design thinking 55
service desk 83, 88
service desk practice 83, 88–89
service empathy 88, 90
service experience 39
service guardians 32
service integration 31–32
service interaction method 63
service interactions 2–3
service level agreements (SLAs)
65–66
service level management practice
67–69
service levels 63, 64
service mindset 90–92
service objectives 19
service profit chain 106–107
service provider portfolios 22
service providers
brands 5
business cases 47
business goals 111
capabilities 37
identification 19–20
value realization 110–112
service provision 92–93
service quality 63
service relationship ladder 33, 34
service relationships
basic 28, 29–30
co-creating value 24
cooperative 28–29
management 31–32
partnership 29, 30
three Cs model 36
service request management
practice 99–100
service requests 94–95
service requirements 82–83
service sales 57–59
service usage tracking 108
service utility 66–67
service value
assessment 108–109
evaluation 109–110
indicators 104–105
realization 101–114
143
ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value Reference and Study Guide
service value continued
reporting 108–109
and stakeholder needs 25
tracking 104–108
verification 109–110
service value drivers 62
service warranty 66–67
SLAs (service level agreements)
65–66
solution-based approach to customer
needs 38
stakeholder aspirations 5–7
stakeholder value 6–7
story mapping 50–52
supplier management 31–32, 42–43
supplier management practice 42–43
sustainability 24
SWOT analysis 18
T
three Cs model of service relationships
36
touchpoints (on customer journeys)
2–3
tracking service value 104–108
triaging requests 95–97
triple bottom line 24
trust 35–37
T-shaped individuals 126–128
U
user
user
user
user
user
144
communities 99
engagement 79–82
experience (UX) 4–5, 107–108
experience targets 67
feedback 98
user offboarding 86
user relationships 77–79
user satisfaction 88
user stories 50–52
user-centred design 55
utility 66–67
UX (user experience) 4–5, 107–108
V
value co-creation 62–64, 84
value driver frameworks 37–38
value propositions 20, 22
value streams 4, 54
value-based approach to customer
needs 38
W
warranty 66–67
weighted shortest job first (WSJF)
method of requirements
management 52
X
XLAs (experience level agreements)
67
ITIL®4: DSV Reference and Study Guide will help
all those preparing for the Managing Professional
ITIL 4 Drive Stakeholder Value qualification, and
also serve as a quick and easy reference for
those who want a high-level authoritative
overview of the AXELOS core guidance. With
information on the exam and assessment
criteria, this is an ideal study tool, authored by
the expert who led the DSV core guidance.
This title provides guidance on establishing,
maintaining, and developing effective service
relationships at appropriate levels. It leads
organizations on a service journey in their
service provider and consumer roles, supporting
effective interaction and communication. Key
topics include customer journeys, customer
needs and impacting factors, understanding
markets and stakeholders, engaging and
fostering relationships, specifying and managing
customer requirements, aligning expectations
and agreeing service levels, and onboarding.
‘‘The realization is slowly dawning on us that we
are all stakeholders, from customer to
community to planet. We must deliver to all
human values, rather than fixating on
shareholders’ return or customer delivery. It’s
about values over value. … When you read this
guide, please do so in the context of a better
world for all. We want to make work better:
better results, better lives, and better society.”
Rob England
This practical guide is perfect for quick and
easy learning.
in partnership with
HM Government
ISBN 978-0-11-331802-5
9 780113 318025