To support a holistic approach to service management, ITIL® 4 defines four dimensions. These dimensions are critical to the effective and efficient facilitation of value for customers and other stakeholders in the form of products and services. The four dimensions must be considered for every service.

The four dimensions are relevant to all elements of the Service Value System (SVS). Failing to consider all of the four dimensions can lead to services that offer poor quality or efficiency or may even mean services aren’t delivered at all. The four dimensions can overlap and interact in unpredictable ways. The dimensions are:

·         Organizations and People

·         Information and Technology

·         Partners and Suppliers

·         Value streams and Processes.

Organizations and people

In the modern world the complexity of organizations is growing. It is important to ensure that the way an organization is structured and managed, as well as its roles, responsibilities, and systems of authority and communication, is well defined and supports its overall strategy and operating model.

Information and technology

The second dimension of service management is information and technology. Information and Technology applies both to service management and to the services which is being managed

When applied to the SVS, the information and technology dimension includes the knowledge and  information necessary for the management of services, as well as the technologies required.  It also incorporates the relationships between different components of the SVS, such as the inputs and outputs of activities and practices.

Partners and Suppliers

The third dimension of service management is partners and suppliers. Every organization and its service depends to some extent on services provided by other organizations.

The partners and suppliers dimension encompasses an organization’s relationships with other organizations that are involved in the design, development, deployment, delivery, support and/or continual improvement of services. This dimension also incorporates contracts and other agreements between the organization and its partners or suppliers.

Value streams and processes

The fourth dimension of service management is value streams and processes. Like the other dimensions, the value streams and processes dimension is applicable to both the SVS in general, and to specific products and services.

In both contexts it defines the activities, workflows, controls, and procedures needed to achieve agreed objectives. Applied to the organization and its SVS, the value streams and processes dimension is concerned with how the various parts of the organization work in an integrated and coordinated way to enable value creation through products and services.

The dimension focuses on what activities the organization undertakes and how they are organized, as well as how the organization ensures that it is enabling value creation for all stakeholders efficiently and effectively.

External factors

Service providers do not operate in isolation. They are affected by many external factors, and work in dynamic and complex environments that can exhibit high degrees of volatility and uncertainty and impose constraints on how the service provider can work.

To analyze these external factors, frameworks such as the PESTLE (or PESTEL) model are used. PESTLE is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.

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“A guiding principle is a recommendation that guides an organization in all circumstances.”

One of the most important components of the ITIL Service Value System is the ITIL Guiding Principles.

A guiding principle is nothing but a recommendation that provides universal and enduring guidance to an organization, and applies in all circumstances, regardless of changes in its goals, strategies, type of work, or management structure.

In every day operations many things change like Goals, Staff or Management structure but The principles remain constant, no matter what else changes.

The guiding principles should encourage and support continual improvement. They apply across the whole organization at all levels – ALL staff should be aware of them. In each situation, staff and organizations should consider their principles and what is applicable.

Not all principles are relevant in every situation, but they all are reviewed on each occasion to assess if they are appropriate.

The 7 ITIL Guiding Principles are as follows:

·         Focus on value

·         Start where you are

·         Progress iteratively with feedback

·         Collaborate and promote visibility

·         Think and work holistically

·         Keep it simple and practical

·         Optimize and automate

Let us understand the Guiding Principles in detail now:

Focus on value

Everything the organization does should link back, to value for itself, its customers, and other stakeholders. The focus on value principle encompasses many perspectives, including the experience of customers and users.

Start where you are

Do not start from scratch and build something new without considering what is already available for use. There is likely to be a great deal in the current services, processes, programmes, projects, and people that can be used to create the desired outcome.

The current state should be researched and observed directly to make sure it is fully understood.

Progress iteratively with feedback

Do not attempt to do everything at once.  Even huge initiatives must be accomplished iteratively.

By organizing work into smaller, manageable sections that can be executed and completed in a timely manner, it is easier to maintain a sharper focus on each effort.

Collaborate and promote visibility

Working together across boundaries produces results that have greater buy-in, more relevance to objectives, and increased likelihood of long-term success. Achieving objectives requires information, understanding, and trust.

Work and consequences should be made visible, hidden agendas avoided, and information shared to the greatest degree possible.

Think and work holistically

No service, or element used to provide a service, stands alone.

The outcomes achieved by the service provider and service consumer will suffer unless the organization works on the service as a whole, not just on its parts.

Results are delivered to internal and external customers through the effective and efficient management and dynamic integration of information, technology, organization, people, practices, partners, and agreements, which should all be coordinated to provide a defined value.

Keep it simple and practical

If a process, service, action or metric fails to provide value or produce a useful outcome, eliminate it. In a process or procedure, use the minimum number of steps necessary to accomplish the objective(s).

Optimize and automate

Optimization means to make something as effective and useful as it needs to be.

Before an activity can be effectively automated, it should be optimized to whatever degree is possible and reasonable. Organizations must maximize the value of the work carried out by their human and technical resources. Eliminate anything that is truly wasteful and use technology to achieve whatever it is capable of.

Human intervention should only happen where it really contributes value.

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