INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICE MANAGEMENT
Course Syllabus
INSTRUCTOR'S NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION
LING Zong (凌棕), Ph. D.
Senior Engineer/Scientist, IBM Almaden Research Center/Software Group, San Jose, California, U.S.A.
Course-Email:
lingzongUSTC@gmail.com
Personal-Email :
IBM-Email:
lingzong@hotmail.com
zong@us.ibm.com
Web Page:
http://software.nju.edu.cn/lingzong
WORDS OF WELCOME
Welcome to the course of Information Technology Service Management !
First of all, I'd like to congratulate you on your decision to take this course! I've been affiliated with some Information Technology
(IT) related classes for years over the world to IBM professionals, business partners, and key customers. This is a good chance
for me to bring my industry experience to you -- the bright college students over China, with such a hot topic. I believe that you
have made a wise choice to explore this colorful world and I am excited about the opportunity I've been given to work with you
during the course period. Please use OUR valuable time together well through this course duration, and ask for more information
or for help when you need. My hope is that ALL of you will pass this course with flying colors!
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course is designed to introduce IT service systems in a variety of enterprise and service industry settings. The IT history and
basic IT service methods will be reviewed. The economics of service systems in the context of the firm, industry, US and world
economy will be discussed. Students will learn about the management of service systems from the basic IT infrastructures and
service principles, through the case study, towards the better preparation for IT service system design, operations, and
management. The reading materials and class room lectures will integrate IT system concepts, operational strategies, practical
experience, and organizational issues.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
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To study "breakthrough" services in order to understand the operations of successful IT service firms that can be
benchmarks for future management practice.
To develop an understanding of the "state of the art" of IT service management thinking including IT service systems and
the service system worldview in order to develop a service mindset.
To develop an awareness of the opportunities that information technology can have for enhancing service firms'
competitiveness.
To appreciate the organizational significance of managing the IT service encounter to achieve internal and external
customer satisfaction.
To understand new service development from both a product and process perspective.
To gain an appreciation of the complexities associated with implementing change during IT services.
To extend the knowledge scope from Technique to Management, and from Software Engineering to Service Science.
BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS
The marketplace is moving away from the traditional division of labor between technical and business specialists. Along with the
profit chains in IT industry, jobs that require only technical skills are being outsourced from USA where was the originality of IT
technology. The MBA graduates with general management training have become a commodity and the BSs with IT knowledge
have been the minimal job requirement in current enterprise.
As the foundation of the training sessions in IT service programs, this course will leverage the students into a much stronger
position in further job market because they will be trained to do more than pure technique, more complex, and higher-valued work.
The students will be prepared to provide solutions to the problems in a wide range of service activities, including customer service,
information technology, and project management. The students completed this course will be trained simultaneously from business
process analysis, career development and organizational behavior to develop IT service solutions. These should be highly
rewarding careers, in terms of both compensation and job satisfaction.
COURSE OUTLINE
IT Services, as an area of study, is multidisciplinary in nature drawing from the disciplines of management, information
technologies, engineering and science. The strong interest in developing this area is shared among major industry entities and
academia thereby giving it an applied focus. This course will take multiple perspectives on service science: design, management,
delivery, and evaluation.
The course describes in a readily understandable way on how IT Services should be managed. The course covers:
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IT Service Management Overview - scanning the research work in the fields of service science, management, and
engineering
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IT Infrastructure, RFID wireless network, and Data Storage Management - reviewing the concepts and histories of
computer platforms and operating systems, network, data storage, and applications, as well as the selective IT service topics:
RFID wireless network, and business continuity with IT services on storage management
IT service strategy, methods, and case study – demonstrating the practical and successful approaches for IT services
IT Project / Service Management overview – illustrating the IT project linkage between the physical world and the service
fields
IT Project / Service planning, estimating and resourcing - listing the techniques for planning, estimating, and resourcing on
how the cost and user resources are assigned to IT projects and services
IT Project / Service changes, quality, issue, and risk management - walking through the steps on how to control change
requests, maintain quality measurements, and take actions on cause analysis, and how to assess issues and mitigate risks
during IT service processes
IT Project / Service team building – introducing the mechanisms for building up an effective IT service team
Communication Management and Negotiation/Presentation Skills in IT Services – discussing the methods for
communicating inside and outside of the IT project/service teams, and the skills for effective negotiation and presentation for the
IT services
An introduction to IBM – exhibiting the structure and culture of IBM from the perspectives of IT Service Management
READING MATERIALS
For completing this course, the basic requirement of the reading materials is the set of lecture notes (PowerPoint and MS Word
files, about 110 MB) that are available through the course period.
Optional readings are as follows:
Service Management, Fourth Edition, J.A. Fitzsimmons and M.J. Fitzsimmons, McGraw Hill.
Services Marketing, Valerie Zeithaml, Mary Jo Bitner, and Dwayne Gremler, McGraw-Hill.
Introduction to Operations Research, Hillier and Lieberman
Service modeling, Principles and Applications. Vilho Råisånen, Wiley
Understanding Service Business, S.E. Sampson, Wiley.
Managing Services, Alan Nankervis, Cambridge Press.
Principles of Service Marketing and Management, Christopher Lovelock and Lauren Wright, Prentice Hall.
Blue Ocean Strategy, W. Chan Kim and R. Mauborgne, Harvard Business School Press.
Development as Freedom, A. Sen, Anchor Books .
ASSIGNMENTS and EXAMINATION
The daily assignments are listed in the Daily Objectives and Assignments section of this document. The deadlines are always
the End Of the Day (EOD) on your local time zone.
Please note, for each of the questions/topics in the assignment, your answers or discussions should be limited within 200 words,
unless you do have a convincible explanation for longer echoes. The assignment, which should be the extension of the lectures,
may be slightly beyond the scope of classroom lectures. Therefore, finding the answers through network search is encouraged.
Please respond to the questions of daily assignment to the COURSE-Emails of BOTH Instructor and TA. In the subject area of
your response, it is better to specify your student number, your full name, and the assignment index or whatever identifiable easily.
TA will be reporting grades to the daily assignments. Instructor may selectively send you a private note, addressing what you
have mastered and indicating in what areas you might still need to make improvement.
We will have an examination, which will take about 2 hours for you to answer 50 questions from multiple-choice (4) solutions. It
will be an exam in close-book.
COURSE GRADE PRINCIPLES
Activities
Requirement
Score
Self-Introduction & Final Report
Assignment
Examination
Submitting (10 = 5 x 2)
Submitting (40 = 5 x 8)
Answering Questions ( 50 = 1 x 50 )
10
40
50
Total
100
ACADEMIC HONESTY
Although this should not be an issue during this course session, I include this information as a way of emphasizing to you the
importance of academic honesty and the fact that you are expected to practice.
Academic honesty is highly valued just as it is. A student must always submit work that represents his or her original words or
ideas. If any words or ideas are used that do not represent the student's original words or ideas, the student must cite all relevant
sources. The student should also make clear the extent to which such sources were used. Words or ideas that require citations
include, but are not limited to, all hardcopy or electronic publications, whether copyrighted or not, and all verbal or visual
communication when the content of such communication clearly originates from an identifiable source. At this course, all
submissions to any public meeting or private mailbox fall within the scope of words and ideas that require citations if used by
someone other than the original author.
Academic dishonesty could involve:
1. Having someone else complete a portion of YOUR assignments;
2. Copying work submitted by others;
3. Using information from online information services without proper citation.
CONFIDENTIALITY
One of the cornerstones of the learning model in this course is the practical application of theoretical concepts and we may share
our personal and professional experiences as a means to integrate the knowledge through reflecting on its application. Also,
some of the practical case study may have the restriction for distributing the information. Therefore, it is important to note that we
all are bound by confidentiality in this class. In order to assure that we can have a free and open discussion in which we may
elect to discuss our experience and the policies and procedures as they apply to the course materials, I expect each person to
respect the confidentiality of what you have learned in this class and what we (me and your classmates) are willing to share
among us. While at the same time I ask that each of you exercise good judgment in what you choose to share, avoiding nonpublic or competitively sensitive information.
If you have questions about the information contained in this syllabus, or about other aspect of the course, please don’t hesitate to
ask!
Daily Objectives and Assignments
Unit 1: Course Introduction; Overview of Service Science, Management, Engineering
Objective:
 To provide an overview of this course
 To illustrate the basic concepts of Service Science, Management, and Engineering
Required reading
ITSM Course Syllabus.doc, ITSM Course Introduction.ppt
SSME Overview.ppt
Assignments for Unit 1
Please read this Course Syllabus.
This is the document you will refer to throughout this course so please be sure you read it and refer to it often.
Please prepare a brief autobiography and send it to Instructor’s COURSE-Email by EOD.
Write the autobiography in the first person (I) with an emphasis on your educational background, achievements or
professional experience, and further expectations, balanced with personal information that helps create the tone you desire
to impress others.
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1) What is ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) based on your online search results from baidu and
Google?
2) What is your understanding on Service Science?
3) Why the service management is important?
4) How could you effectively measure the benefits of an IT service from the service-profit triangle?
Unit 2: IT Infrastructure，RFID Applications, and Data Storage Management
Objectives:
 To review history, innovation, and concepts of Information Technology: operating systems, networks, data storages
 To discuss two hot topics of IT services: RFID for wireless network and data storage management
Required Reading
IT Infrastructures.ppt, Data Storage Management.ppt, RFID Introduction.ppt
Assignments for Unit 2
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1) From your experience or a user’s point of view, what are the major differences between UNIX and Windows?
2) From your personal experience or perspectives, what could be the major challenge for a data storage solution in IT
services?
3) What is incremental backup in Backup and Recovery management?
4) What are the limitations when applying RFID technology?
Unit 3: IT Service Strategy, Approach, and Practice
Objectives:
 To describe an IT service strategy: Architecture Thinking
 To exhibit an IT service approach: IBM e-business patterns for system design and implementation
Required Reading
IT Service Strategy.ppt, Patterns for e-Business Service.ppt, Applying Patterns.ppt
Assignments for Unit 3
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)
2)
3)
4)
Without architecture vision, what difficulty you may run into while designing e-Business systems as IT services?
What could be the job responsibility of an IT Architect?
What are the differences between application integration and process integration?
What are the usages of Model-View-Controller (MVC) model?
Unit 4: IT Infrastructure Library; e-Business Case Study
Objectives:
 To study a practical case: IT service report of IBM e-business at Ford Motor
 To examine the principle of IT service processes: IT infrastructure library (ITIL), along with the practices in IBM services
Required Reading
ITIL.ppt, IBM e-Business at Ford Motor.ppt
Assignments for Unit 4
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)
2)
3)
4)
What are the major differences between service support and service delivery in ITIL?
What is the relationship between process and innovation?
What are the key factors to enable IBM’s IT service success in Ford Motor?
When trying to improve IT customer satisfaction, what questions you may want to ask yourself?
Unit 5: IT Project/Service Management; Planning, Estimating, and Resourcing
Objectives:
 To bridge IT service management and IT project management
 To discuss the skills for planning, estimating, and resourcing for IT services
Required Reading
IT Project Management.ppt, Planning Estimating Resourcing.ppt
Assignments for Unit 5
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)
2)
3)
4)
How will you know if you could be succeeded on managing an IT project/service?
What is the relationship between IT project management and IT service management?
Do you prefer to use the Milestone-Focused planning approach? And why?
Which estimating approach may be more suitable for a software project in a start-up company? Why?
Unit 6: IT Project/Service Change, Quality, Issue, and Risk Management
Objectives:
 To manage the scope changes and the organizational changes in IT services
 To maintain quality, evaluate issue, and mitigate risk in IT service management
Required Reading
Change Management.ppt, Quality Issue Risk Management.ppt
Assignments for Unit 6
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1) During a service/project why things need to be changed?
2) How do you deal with people’s nervous state due to organizational change?
3) How do you practically assess the risks in an IT service/project?
4) How do you maintain the quality work in an IT service/project?
Unit 7: Communication Management and Team Building in IT Services
Objectives:
 To develop and implement communication plan in IT services
 To build up the effective IT service teams
Required Reading
Communication.ppt, Team Building.ppt, Build Your Confidence.ppt
Assignments for Unit 7
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)
2)
3)
4)
How much communication do you need to manage an IT service project in a start-up company?
How could you mitigate the anxiousness before a public speech?
How do you plan to build good team spirit in a smaller IT service organization?
What is your opinion on the "good guy" and "bad guy" roles of an IT project manager in a team?
Unit 8: Soft Skills in IT Service Management and Course Summary
Objectives:
 To learn the soft skills in IT services: presentation skills, negotiation skills, and job interview skills
 To wrap up the course contents
Required Reading
Presentation Strategies.ppt, Negotiation Skills.ppt, Job Interview Insights, Course Summary.ppt
Assignments for Unit 8
Comprehensively review the course materials in this course period and be ready for the examination.
Please respond to the following questions by EOD.
1)
2)
3)
4)
What makes an audience listen to your presentation?
What strategies you can utilize on negotiating the price of an IT service?
What strategies you may use during job-interview in a career service?
What are some things you can do to prepare for a job interview?
Unit 9: An introduction to IBM from the perspectives of IT Service Management
Objectives:
 To introduce the global organization, the corporate culture, and the service mechanism of IBM
Required Reading
Working@IBM.ppt
Please summarize (within 500 words) your (individual) final report on what you have experienced over this course by EOD.
Hints: You may review this course syllabus again and start to answer the questions from, but not be limited by, the follows,
1) Before and after this course period, what could be the difference to your understanding on the IT Service
Management, on the IT industry, and/or on the computing world?
2) What is the most impressive issue which brought your attention over this course period?
3) Through this course period, have you been inspired or discouraged to your further career development in IT field?
4) Is this course fairly similar to, or significantly different from, other courses you took before? And why?
NINE-DAY CALENDAR
Time \ Day Periods
Morning
1
2
3
4
5
1
2
Afternoon
Evening
4
Unit
4.2
Unit
1
5
6
7
Unit
5.1
8
9
Unit
8
Unit
6.2
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
3
Unit
4.1
Unit
2
Unit
5.2
Unit
6.1
Unit
9
Unit
7
Unit
3
Exam
December
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
Weekday
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun
Mon
Links of References
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cn
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/asr/SSME/
http://www.developer.ibm.com/us/en/university/scholars/skills/ssme/
http://researchweb.watson.ibm.com/ssme/oxfordworkshop.shtml
http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/ssme/
http://www.epmbook.com/
http://w3-3.ibm.com/transform/project/
http://www.pmi.org
http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/index.htm
http://www.gantthead.com/article.cfm?ID=94587
https://castlelearning.com/