We are pleased to provide a glossary of definitions and roles for service management. This list is not comprehensive and will continue to grow.
Service lifecycle
Services have a defined lifecycle that involves five areas of activity. Each area represents a set of processes within the lifecycle where services are:
- Conceptualized in Service Strategy
- Defined and designed in Service Design
- Built, tested, and deployed in Service Transition
- Effectively and efficiently delivered in Service Operation
- Improved and enhanced in Continual Service Improvement (CSI)
- Service Hierarchy
Service hierarchy
The Service Hierarchy is the relationship between individual service offerings and a service area.
- Service category – A set of services that benefit from being managed together
- Service – A combination of people, processes, and technology that deliver something to the end user
- Service offering – A specific technology-focused activity, application, or product used to provide a service
Service roles
Service roles define responsibilities, governance, and accountability for the activities around a particular service.
Service roles within Rutgers Service Management (RSM) include Service Owner, Service Lead, and Technical Lead.
Service owner
The Service Owner is accountable for the strategy and success of a Service regardless of where the technology components live.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing and reviewing the service with critical stakeholders
- Identifying and creating management and technical teams to build and run the service
- Determining the metrics by which the service will be measured
- Reviewing the service support model for effectiveness
- Negotiating and reviewing service level expectations
Service lead
Typically, there is one Service Lead per service. The Service Lead is responsible for completing the related service activities and provides input into other lifecycle phases for that particular service.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing successful service request fulfillment
- Developing the service support model
- Coordinating efforts between support and technical teams
- Monitoring and reporting on service performance
- Ensuring that negotiated service levels are maintained
- Coordinating service transition activities
Technical lead
Typically, there is one Technical Lead per service. The Technical Lead is responsible for the completion of day-to-day technical activities and signs off on any functional changes.
Key responsibilities include:
- Administrating or architecting the technology components that enable the service
- Acting as the technical escalation point for a service offering
- Coordinating efforts, incidents, or resolving technical problems
- Tracking the component items that make up the service offering
- Escalating issues to a vendor if required
The Service Owner and Service Manager roles are sometimes fulfilled by a single staff member. This is especially common for smaller services and for services that are delivered through cloud vendors (Platform-as-a-Service [PaaS] or Software-as-a-Service [SaaS]). In UIT, the role of Service Owner is frequently a director of the organization that owns the service. The primary role of the Service Owner is
to create the service lifecycle roadmap so that it aligns with the vision created by the Business Owner. The roadmap defines the activities of the service from launch through service improvement and finally service sunset. This role is strategic; Service Owners are not involved in the day-to-day operation of the service.What does a Service Owner do?
What are the general responsibilities of a Service Owner?
What ServiceNow tasks is the Service Owner responsible for?
TaskWhy it matters You provide guidance to the Service Manager to ensure a well-formed and complete service offering (Configuration Item or CI) is established in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB).
Having your service offering name (CI) in the ServiceNow CMDB is foundational in order to receive incident tickets, ensure they are routed to the correct support groups, and manage change requests.
You approve the content, design, and presentation of the service request form in the ServiceNow Catalog.
A service catalog entry is necessary in order for your clients to order or request your service.
You review and approve service change requests at the level for which they are authorized.
Adhering to Change Management best practices minimizes the potential for service disruptions and outages.
You serve as the point of escalation (notification) for major (Priority 1) incidents.
The aim of the Major Incident Process is to quickly restore service with any means necessary, including workarounds.
Key terms
Additional resources