ITIL® Service Value Chain
By Rashmi S.
History of ITIL:
In early 1980’s one of the subsidiaries of British Govt. CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency) was asked to find better way of service delivery making it more effective, efficient. CCTA surveyed across the industries, academies, consultants and collected so called best practices that point in time. They were filtered and some common practices were identified by CCTA. These set of shortlisted practices was called GITMM. This was in around 1984. IT was found that these set of best practices was really proving to be beneficial. In 1989 with updated GITMM; it was decided to make it public and renamed as ITIL.
1999-2000 V2 was published with set of 7+1 books out of which service support and service delivery were most popular books. ITIL V2 was widely adopted across the globe and proved to be milestone in journey of ITIL Framework.
With continual improvement ITIL V3 was launched in 2007 with lifecycle approach. Five books with names of lifecycle stages were published named Service strategy/Service design/Service Transition/Service Operation/Continual Service Improvement. This was refreshed in 2011 with core structure same and referred as ITIL 2011.
In February 2019 ITIL 4 was released aligning with 4th industrial revolution. Qualification scheme was changed significantly. Recently ITIL4 Master designation also launched live.
One of significant changes in ITIL 4 is introduction of Service Value Chain which we will discuss briefly in this blog.
Service value chain activities are building blocks of service value streams.
SVC is heart of Service Value System. Service Value Chain is operating model of ITIL 4 and aligns with earlier concept of lifecycle model of ITIL V3 for easier understanding to the candidates who come from ITIL V3 background.
The central element of the SVS is the service value chain, an operating model which outlines the key activities required to respond to demand and facilitate value realization through the creation and management of products and services.
As shown in Figure, the ITIL service value chain includes six value chain activities which lead to the
creation of products and services and, in turn, value.
The six value chain activities are:
- Plan
- Improve
- Engage
- Design And Transition
- Obtain/Build
- Deliver And Support
These activities represent the steps an organization takes in the creation of value. Each activity transforms inputs into outputs. These inputs can be demand from outside the value chain or outputs of other activities. All the activities are interconnected, with each activity receiving and providing triggers for further action.
SVC Activities in Detail
- PLAN:
The purpose of the plan value chain activity is to ensure a shared understanding of the vision, current status, and improvement direction for all four dimensions and all products and services across the organization.
The key inputs to this activity are:
- Policies, requirements, and constraints provided by the organization’s governing body
- Consolidated demands and opportunities provided by engage
- Value chain performance information, improvement status reports, and improvement initiatives from improve
- Knowledge and information about new and changed products and services from design and transition and obtain/build
- Knowledge and information about third-party service components from engage.
The key outputs of this activity are:
- Strategic, tactical, and operational plans
- Portfolio decisions for design and transition
- Architectures and policies for design and transition
- Improvement opportunities for improve
- A product and service portfolio for engage
- Contract and agreement requirements for engage.
- Improve:
The purpose of the improve value chain activity is to ensure continual improvement of products, services and practices across all value chain activities and the four dimensions of service management.
The key inputs to this value chain activity are:
- Product and service performance information provided by deliver and support
- Stakeholders’ feedback provided by engage
- Performance information and improvement opportunities provided by all value chain activities
- Knowledge and information about new and changed products and services from design and transition and obtain/build
- Knowledge and information about third-party service components from engage.
The key outputs of this value chain activity are:
- Improvement initiatives for all value chain activities
- Value chain performance information for plan and the governing body
- Improvement status reports for all value chain activities
- Contract and agreement requirements for engage
- Service performance information for design and transition
- Engage:
The purpose of the engage value chain activity is to provide a good understanding of stakeholder needs, transparency, and continual engagement and good relationships with all stakeholders.
Some of the key inputs to this value chain activity are:
- A product and service portfolio provided by plan
- High-level demand for services and products provided by internal and external customers
- Detailed requirements for services and products provided by customers’ requests and feedback from customers
- Incidents, service requests, and feedback from users
- Information on the completion of user support tasks from deliver and support
Some of key outputs of this value chain activity are:
- Consolidated demands and opportunities for plan
- Product and service requirements for design and transition
- User support tasks for deliver and support
- Improvement opportunities and stakeholders’ feedback for improve
- Change or project initiation requests for obtain/build
- Design and transition:
The purpose of the design and transition value chain activity is to ensure that products and services continually meet stakeholder expectations for quality, costs, and time to market.
Some of the key inputs to this activity are:
- Portfolio decisions provided by plan
- Architectures and policies provided by plan
- Product and service requirements provided by engage
- Improvement initiatives provided by improve
- Improvement status reports from improve
Some of the key outputs of this activity are:
- Requirements and specifications for obtain/build
- Contract and agreement requirements for engage
- New and changed products and services for deliver and support
- Obtain/build:
The purpose of the obtain/build value chain activity is to ensure that service components are available when and where they are needed, and meet agreed specifications.
Some of the key inputs to this activity are:
- Architectures and policies provided by plan
- Contracts and agreements with external and internal suppliers and partners provided by engage
- Goods and services provided by external and internal suppliers and partners
- Requirements and specifications provided by design and transition
Some of the key outputs of this activity are:
- Service components for deliver and support
- Service components for design and transition
- Knowledge and information about new and changed service components to all value chain activities
- Contract and agreement requirements for engage
- Deliver and support:
The purpose of the deliver and support value chain activity is to ensure that services are delivered and supported according to agreed specifications and stakeholders’ expectations.
Some of the key inputs to this activity are:
- New and changed products and services provided by design and transition
- Service components provided by obtain/build
- Improvement initiatives provided by improve
- Improvement status reports from improve
Some of the key outputs of this activity are:
- Services delivered to customers and users
- Information on the completion of user support tasks for engage
- Product and service performance information for engage and improve
SVC is ITIL 4 operating model and instrumental in designing value streams.
About Author: Two Decades of extensive Industry Experience/ ITIL®V2 Managers certified(With Distinction score; one of the few globally)/ ITIL®Expert/ ITIL®4 Master certified (Part of first ITIL®4 Master batch globally)
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