Glossary

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

The table below provides a list of definitions for a number of terms and abbreviations used throughout the Piksel customised IT Service Management Process Model.

Asset

See CI.

Availability

The percentage of service hours during which the functionality of a service was accessible to its users over a period of time.

Application change

The following are considered application changes:

Back out

To restore the original environment after a change implementation has been found to be unsuccessful.

Bug

A bug is defined, within the context of service management, as an error or defect in software that causes service disruptions.

CAB

Change advisory board.
Group of people responsible for keeping the functionality and service levels of a specific service aligned with the ever-changing business needs of its customer(s).

A change advisory board is made up of the service owner and the representatives of customers with an active SLA for the service.

Catalog item

An entry in the service catalog of a service provider organization. A catalog item describes the functionality of the service, it contains a set of service level targets (SLTs), and it specifies the service charges. This tells customers what they can expect when they sign an SLA that is based on the catalog item.

CMDB

Configuration management database.
The database in which the information of all relevant infrastructure components are registered and linked together to provide an accurate and complete overview of how the infrastructure should currently be configured.

Change

The creation, addition, move, modification or removal of a CI.

A change must be coordinated by a change coordinator when its implementation will cause:

Within the Change Enablement process, there is an important distinction between the following changes:

There is a further distinction within Change Enablement between the following changes:

Change Enablement

In previous ITIL versions, this practice was known as both “change management” and “change control”. This terminology shift underscores ITIL 4’s embrace of flexible, less rigid environments.

Charge

The term "charge" is used within the process model to refer to an amount of money that a customer is asked to pay.

CI

Configuration item.
A hardware or software component of the IT infrastructure. Contracts and Software license certificates are also considered configuration items. A CI is also referred to as an "asset".

Complaint

Means an expression of disatisfaction whether written or oral made by a customer to Piksel to either:
(a) Piksel's provision of the services to that customer;
(b) The complaint handling itself, and where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected

Continuity manual

A document that dictates the order in which the continuity plans are to be executed. The continuity manual also provides all contact details and continuity site information relevant to the recovery of services.

Continuity plan

A document that provides detailed technical instructions on how a specific service infrastructure can be recovered at its continuity site to continue the delivery of the service from there. A continuity plan also provides technical instructions that can be followed after the successful recovery of the service infrastructure to return the delivery of the service from its continuity mode back to its normal production mode.

Continuity risk assessment scorecard

A form that can be filled out to help a customer organization determine the appropriate level of continuity coverage for a service infrastructure that it plans to start using. The continuity risk assessment scorecard can also be used when a customer organization wants to reassess its continuity risk for a service that it already has an active SLA for.

Continuity site

A facility from which one or more services can be delivered to avoid, or resolve, service outages. This facility may at the same time be the production site of one or more other services.

Continuity target

A period of time within which a service infrastructure needs to be recovered at its continuity site after the service that it provides has become unavailable due to a disaster.

Continuity test calendar

A timetable in which the service recovery tests are scheduled for the service infrastructures with active SLAs that stipulate a continuity target.

Cost

The term "cost" is the amount of money spent on a specific activity or resource.

Customer

A person who defines the requirements for a service and takes responsibility for outcomes of service consumption

DevOps

An organisational culture that aims to improve the flow of ,value to customers. DevOps focuses on culture, automation, lean,, measurement and sharing (CALMS)

Disaster

A disaster is defined, within the context of service management, as the inability to deliver services from a production site, for what is expected to be an extended period of time, due to:

DML

Definitive media library.
One or more secured locations that together contain the master copies of all supported versions of software CIs and software distribution packages with their related license certificates. Versions of software CIs and software distribution packages that are no longer supported, but need to remain available in case a backout is required, are also kept in the DML along with the related license certificates.

Emergency change

A type of change that has been implemented in accordance with the emergency Change Enablement procedures to resolve an incident.

An emergency change is also registered for every service infrastructure that has been recovered during a service recovery. This is done to assure the update of the CMDB and the Capacity Management information.

The opposite of an emergency change is a planned change.

Event

An Event is a change of state which has significance for the management of a Configuration Item or IT service. The term event is also used to mean an alert or notification created by any IT service, Configuration Item or monitoring tools. Events typically require IT operations personnel to take actions, and often lead to incidents being raised.

Firmware

Programming that is stored in programmable read-only memory. It is typically used to operate computer devices such as printers, modems, routers, etc. Because firmware is created, tested, versioned and distributed like software, the distinction between software and firmware is not made within the processes.

Functionality

The capabilities of a service. What a service does and/or allows its users to do.

Hardware

The physical aspects of computers and related devices.

Impact

The extent to which the performance or the functionality of a service is degraded.

The impact becomes greater as the functionality of the service becomes more degraded and/or more users are affected.

A complete loss of the service's functionality is called a service outage.

Incident

An Incident is an unplanned interruption to an IT service or a reduction in the quality of an IT service. Failure of a Configuration Item that has not yet impacted service is also an Incident. For example, failure of one disk from a mirror set.

Incident request

A request from a user for support from the service provider organization.

Infrastructure change

The following are considered infrastructure changes:

IT

Information technology.
Refers to all aspects related to the computerized processing of data.

Job

A job is defined, within the context of service management, as a set of instructions that can be executed automatically without user interaction.

Examples of different job types are:

Kanban

A method of visualising work, identifying potential blockages and resource conflicts and, managing work in progress

Known error

A problem for which the root cause is known and for which a structural solution has been proposed.

KPI

Key performance indicator.
A vital and measurable result to track the efficiency, effectiveness, and/or predictability of a process.

Lean

An approach that focuses on improving workflows by maximizing value through the elimination of waste

Non-standard change

A type of change that must be coordinated by a change coordinator and for which an approved change template is not available.

The opposite of a non-standard change is a standard change.

Operational readiness

Operational readiness is defined as the ability of the:

to accept a change.

Organisation

A tangible or intangible deliverable of an activity.

Outcome

A person or group of people that has its own functions with responsibilities, authorities, and relationshipd to achieve its objectives.

Output

A rsult for a stakeholder enabled by one or more outputs.

Performance

The speed with which a service executes transactions.

Performance is normally measured from the moment a user gives the command to execute the transaction (e.g. clicks on the Save button) until the user receives the response that the action has been completed (e.g. until he/she is able to submit the next transaction).

Pending

Progress has been halted, but further action is still required.

Planned change

A change for which an implementation plan was prepared by a change coordinator before it was implemented.

The opposite of a planned change is an emergency change.

Priority

The urgency with which an assignment is to be completed.

Problem

Recurring service disruption.

Note that a single incident can already lead to the identification of a problem when the service disruption is expected to recur. It is even possible to identify a problem before a single incident has occurred (e.g. when a service infrastructure is about to run out of capacity).

Product

A configuration of an organisations resources designed to offer value for a consumer

Production site

A facility that, under normal circumstances, is used for the delivery of one or more services. This facility may at the same time be the continuity site of one or more other services.

Recovery control room

The location from which service recovery tasks are assigned and coordinated. It is the reporting point for progress updates during a service recovery.

A recovery control room is situated in, or in close proximity to, each continuity site.

Recovery decision deadline

The point in time, after the first service has become unavailable due to a disaster, by which the recovery teams must be called out to start the service recovery.

Regression testing

The retesting of a new release to ensure that functionality, which worked in the previous version of the application, still works.

Release

A set of changes for the fulfillment of one or more requests for a non-standard change.
Also, a version of an application that is ready for transfer to its test or production environment.

Reliability

The number of times that the functionality of a service became unavailable to its users during service hours over a given period of time.

Risk

A possible event that could cause harm or loss, or make it more difficult to achieve objectives. It can also be defined as uncertainty of outcome, and can be used in the context of measuring the probability of positive outcomes as well as negative outcomes.

Root cause

The fundamental cause of a problem, which removal will prevent the recurrence of incidents resulting from the problem.

Root cause analysis

The identification of the fundamental cause of a problem and the proposal of a structural solution.

Service

A service is defined, within the context of service management, as a logical grouping of functionality that is made available through the combination and specific configuration of hard- and software CIs.

Services

A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks.

Service Asset and Configuration Management

The mission of the Service Asset and Configuration Management process is to make the relevant information about the infrastructure, including financials, available to the other service management processes in an accurate, complete, and timely fashion. In the Service Management Process Model, this term is abbreviated to "Configuration Management".

Service complaint

See complaint.

Service consumption

Activities performed by an organisationto to consume services. Service consumption includes:

Service consumption may also include the receiving (acquiring) of goods.

Service degradation

A service is degraded when some of the service's functionality is not functioning properly, or when the performance of the service is slow.

Service desk

A group of persons within a service provider organization that users can contact to obtain support for the services provided by the service provider organization.

Service disruption

See incident.

Service hours

The hours during which the service is to be available and supported.

Service infrastructure

The combination of CIs that provides a service for a specific purpose to a specific group of users.

Several service infrastructures may be set up for the same service. This may be necessary to allow the service to be used for different purposes (e.g. development, test and production) and/or to provide a dedicated infrastructure to different customers of the service (e.g. a Microsoft Exchange email server for the headquarters and a another Microsoft Exchange email server for the factory).

An SLA must be established for every customer that is using the service infrastructure.

Service offering

A formal description of one or more services, designed to address the needs of a target consumer group. A service offering may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.

Service outage

A service is down, or unavailable, when none of the service's functionality is available.

Service provision

Activities performed by an organisationto provide services. Service provision includes:

Service provision may also include the supply of goods.

Service relationship

A cooperation between a service provider and service consumer. Service relationship includes service provision, service concumption, and service relationship management.

Service relationship management

Joint activities performed by a service provider and a service consumer to ensure continual value co-creation based on agreed and available service offerings.

Situation assessment checklist

A form that helps the on-duty manager make the right decisions when he/she considers how an (impending) disaster should be dealt with. In particular, it ensures that the on-duty manager takes the following aspects into consideration:

SLA

Service level agreement.
The agreement between the service provider organization and the customer of the service.

One SLA must be established for every combination of a service infrastructure and a customer that uses the service infrastructure.

SLR

Service level requirement.
A minimum level of service required by a customer, as defined by a service level manager, based on the business requirements provided by the customer.

SLRs are translated into a proposed set of SLTs by the availability manager of the service. The proposed SLTs form the minimum levels of service that the service provider organization commits to provide to the customer. A proposed set of SLTs has a direct relationship with the amount that the customer will be charged for the service.

SLT

Service level target.
A minimum level of service defined in SLAs which the service provider organization has committed to provide to the customer of the SLA.

An SLT is meaningless if the actual level of service is not measured so that it can be compared with the SLT.

Sponsor

A person who authorises budget for service consumption.

Software

Programming used to operate computers and related devices.

Standard change

A type of change that must be coordinated by a change coordinator and for which a change template exists that has been approved by the service owner.

The change template includes a set of tasks that defines the workflow that needs to be followed for the implementation of this type of change.

The opposite of a standard change is a non-standard change.

Support

The activities performed to ensure that the functionality of the services are provided at a level that meets the SLTs specified in the SLAs between the service provider organization and its customers.

Supported change

A type of change that is defined in a catalog item. The service provider organization agrees to implement a supported change when a customer, with an active SLA based on a catalog item that includes it, submits a request for its implementation.

User

A person who, from time to time, uses one or more CIs and/or services provided by the service provider organization.

Utility

The functionality offered by a product or service to meet a particular need. Utility can be summarised 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.

Value

Within ITIL 4 service focus is on Value. Value is defined as the perceived benefits, usefulness and importance of something

Value co-creation

value co-creation is achieved through an active collaboration between providers, as well as other organizations that are part of the relevant service relationships.

Value Stream

A series of steps an organisation undertakes to create and deliver products and services to consumers.

Verification

The activity of determining whether or not a set of previously established requirements has been fulfilled.

Warranty

Assurance that a product or service will meet agreed requirements. Warranty can be summarised as 'how the service performs' and can be used to determine whether a servicee 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

Workaround

A temporary solution that bypasses or masks the incorrect functioning of a service. A workaround is implemented when it is the quickest way to allow affected users to return to their work.