Service Management Policy
ISO20000 Toolkit: Version 10 ŠCertiKit
Service Management Policy
Implementation guidance The header page and this section, up to and including Disclaimer, must be removed from the final version of the document. For more details on replacing the logo, yellow highlighted text and certain generic terms, see the Completion Instructions document.
Purpose of this document The Service Management Policy is a required document which acts as the root “Quality Manual” of the Service Management System (SMS).
Areas of the standard addressed The following areas of the ISO/IEC 20000:2018 standard are addressed by this document: •
5. Leadership o 5.2 Policy ▪ 5.2.1 Establishing the service management policy ▪ 5.2.2 Communicating the service management policy
General guidance The service management policy must be approved by Top Management (defined as the “person or group of people who direct and control the service provider at the highest level”) as evidence of their commitment. Section 5.2.1 of the standard sets out some of what the policy must contain, and these areas are covered by the template document. We would therefore recommend that no section headings are removed. Prior to the certification audit you must ensure that the policy has been communicated to relevant staff, that they have understood it and that these facts are evidenced e.g. via meeting minutes. The inviting and answering of questions during such a meeting is likely to show evidence of understanding. We would also recommend that the document is made available via the intranet if you have one or any other appropriate means. The service management policy defines the scope of your SMS. This will be the same as the scope that will appear on your certificate once you have successfully completed the final external audit.
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Review frequency We would recommend that this document is reviewed as part of an annual exercise which also covers key documents such as the Service Level Agreement (SLA), Service Management Plan and Service Catalogue. This exercise should include significant business involvement to ensure that changed requirements are captured and customer feedback obtained.
Document fields This document may contain fields which need to be updated with your own information, including a field for Organization Name that is linked to the custom document property “Organization Name”. To update this field (and any others that may exist in this document): 1. Update the custom document property “Organization Name” by clicking File > Info > Properties > Advanced Properties > Custom > Organization Name. 2. Press Ctrl A on the keyboard to select all text in the document (or use Select, Select All via the Editing header on the Home tab). 3. Press F9 on the keyboard to update all fields. 4. When prompted, choose the option to just update TOC page numbers. If you wish to permanently convert the fields in this document to text, for instance, so that they are no longer updateable, you will need to click into each occurrence of the field and press Ctrl Shift F9. If you would like to make all fields in the document visible, go to File > Options > Advanced > Show document content > Field shading and set this to “Always”. This can be useful to check you have updated all fields correctly. Further detail on the above procedure can be found in the toolkit Completion Instructions. This document also contains guidance on working with the toolkit documents with an Apple Mac, and in Google Docs/Sheets.
Copyright notice Except for any specifically identified third-party works included, this document has been authored by CertiKit, and is ©CertiKit except as stated below. CertiKit is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 6432088.
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Licence terms This document is licensed on and subject to the standard licence terms of CertiKit, available on request, or by download from our website. All other rights are reserved. Unless you have purchased this product you only have an evaluation licence. If this product was purchased, a full licence is granted to the person identified as the licensee in the relevant purchase order. The standard licence terms include special terms relating to any third-party copyright included in this document.
Disclaimer Please Note: Your use of and reliance on this document template is at your sole risk. Document templates are intended to be used as a starting point only from which you will create your own document and to which you will apply all reasonable quality checks before use. Therefore, please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that the content of any document you create that is based on our templates is correct and appropriate for your needs and complies with relevant laws in your country. You should take all reasonable and proper legal and other professional advice before using this document. CertiKit makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of our document templates; assumes no duty of care to any person with respect its document templates or their contents; and expressly excludes and disclaims liability for any cost, expense, loss or damage suffered or incurred in reliance on our document templates, or in expectation of our document templates meeting your needs, including (without limitation) as a result of misstatements, errors and omissions in their contents.
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Revision history VERSION
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Contents 1
Introduction ............................................................................................................... 8
2
Service management policy ........................................................................................ 9 2.1
Scope of certification ................................................................................................... 9
2.2
Service requirements ................................................................................................... 9
2.3
Leadership and commitment ........................................................................................ 9
2.4
Conformity and reporting ........................................................................................... 10
2.5
Service management objectives ................................................................................. 10
2.6
Control of processes operated by other parties ........................................................... 10
2.7
Roles and responsibilities ........................................................................................... 11
2.8
Service improvement policy ....................................................................................... 11
2.9
Approach to managing risk ......................................................................................... 12
2.10
Human resources ....................................................................................................... 12
2.11
Auditing and review ................................................................................................... 13
2.12
Documentation structure and policy........................................................................... 13
Figures Figure 1: Service management system documentation structure (part one) ................................. 14 Figure 2: Service management system documentation structure (part two) ................................. 15
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1 Introduction This policy defines how the Service Management System (SMS) will be planned, established, implemented, operated, monitored, reviewed, maintained and improved within [Organization Name]. The international standard for IT service management, ISO/IEC 20000-1:2018 (referred to in this document as ISO/IEC 20000), is a development of an earlier British Standard, BS 15000 and has been refreshed a number of times since its first publication as an international standard in 2005. The processes and procedures required by ISO/IEC 20000 are heavily based on the best practice contained in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) which has expanded significantly from its early days as UK central government guidance into an internationally recognised best practice specification. [Organization Name] has previously started on the road to adoption of ITIL and has completed staff training to Foundation qualification level. As part of this process it has decided to pursue full certification to ISO/IEC 20000 in order that the effective adoption of ITIL may be validated by an external third party.
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2 Service management policy 2.1 Scope of certification For the purposes of certification within [Organization Name], the boundaries of the SMS are defined as follows: “The service management system of [Organization Name] that delivers [All] IT services to [all] business units and customers of [Organization Name] at [all] locations.� Further clarification of the SMS scope parameters may be found in the document SMS Context, Requirements and Scope. Details of the IT services provided can be found within the [Organization Name] Service Catalogue and a list of business units/stakeholders within the Business Relationship Management Plan.
2.2 Service requirements A clear definition of the service requirements will be agreed and maintained with the customers of the IT service(s) so that all IT service management activity is focussed on the fulfilment of those requirements. Statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements will also be documented and input to the planning process. It is a fundamental principle of [Organization Name] IT service management quality that the provision of IT services is driven by business needs and this will be regularly communicated to all staff through team meetings and briefing documents.
2.3 Leadership and commitment Commitment to the delivery of quality IT services extends to senior levels of the organization and will be demonstrated through this Service Management Policy and the provision of appropriate resources to provide and develop services. Top management will also ensure that a systematic review of performance of the programme is conducted on a regular basis to ensure that quality objectives are being met and quality issues are identified through the audit programme and management processes. Management review can take several forms including departmental and other management meetings.
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2.4 Conformity and reporting The Service Manager shall have overall authority and responsibility for the implementation and management of the service management system, specifically: • • • • •
The identification, documentation and fulfilment of service requirements Assigning authorities and responsibilities for the implementation, management and improvement of service management processes Integration of service management processes with the SMS Compliance with statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements in the management of assets used to deliver services Reporting to top management on performance and improvement of the SMS and services
2.5 Service management objectives An annual cycle will be used for the setting of service management objectives, to coincide with the budget planning cycle. This will ensure that adequate funding is obtained for the improvement activities identified. These objectives will be based upon a clear understanding of the business requirements, informed by the annual IT service management review with customers. Service management objectives will be documented in the Service Management Plan for the relevant financial year, together with details of how they will be achieved. The service management plan will be reviewed on a quarterly basis, at which time the objectives will also be reviewed to ensure that they remain valid. If amendments are required, these will be managed through the change management process.
2.6 Control of processes operated by other parties [Organization Name] makes use of various third parties, both internal and external, in the delivery of services to its customers. Where this involves the operation of a service management process, or a part of the process on behalf of [Organization Name], this is identified in the Service Management Plan. External suppliers will be managed through the Supplier Management Process and an associated underpinning contract. Internal providers will be managed through the Service Level Management Process using an Operational Level Agreement (OLA). In all cases, [Organization Name] will retain governance of the relevant processes by demonstrating: • •
Accountability for the process Control of the definition of and interface to the process
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Performance and compliance monitoring Control over process improvements
This will be evidenced by documents and records such as contracts, OLAs, meeting minutes and performance reports.
2.7 Roles and responsibilities Within the field of IT service management, there are a number of management roles that correspond to the areas defined within the scope of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard. In a larger organization, these roles will often be filled by an individual in each area e.g. there will be a separate member of staff responsible for each of incident management, change management, capacity management etc. In a smaller organization these roles and responsibilities must be allocated between the members of the team. Full details of the responsibilities associated with each of the roles and how they are allocated within [Organization Name] are given in a separate document entitled Service Management Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities. It is the responsibility of the Service Manager to ensure that staff understand the roles they are fulfilling and that they have appropriate skills and competence to do so.
2.8 Service improvement policy [Organization Name] policy with regard to service improvement is to: • • • • • • • • •
Continually improve the effectiveness of the service management system and services Enhance current processes to bring them into line with good practice as defined within ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL Achieve ISO/IEC 20000 certification and maintain it on an on-going basis Increase the level of proactivity (and the customer perception of proactivity) with regard to the on-going delivery of IT services Achieve an enhanced understanding of and relationship with the business units to which IT services are delivered Make the delivery of IT services more measurable in order to provide a sound basis for informed decisions Review service level metrics on an annual basis to assess whether it is appropriate to change them, based on collected historical data and customer feedback Obtain ideas for improvement via regular service meetings with customers and document them in a Service Improvement Plan Review the Service Improvement Plan at regular management meetings in order to prioritise and assess timescales and benefits
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Ideas for service improvements may be obtained from any source including customers, suppliers, IT staff, risk assessments and service reports. Once identified they will be added to the Service Improvement Plan and evaluated by the staff member responsible for continual service improvement. As part of the evaluation of proposed service improvements, the following criteria will be used: • • • • •
Cost Business Benefit Risk Implementation timescale Resource requirement
If accepted, the service improvement proposal will be prioritised in order to allow more effective planning. For more detail see Procedure for Continual Service Improvement.
2.9 Approach to managing risk A risk management strategy and process will be used which is in line with the requirements and recommendations of ISO 31000, the international standard for risk management. Risk management will take place at several levels within the service management system, including: • • • • •
Service management planning – risks to the achievement of objectives Information security risk assessment IT service continuity risk assessment Assessment of the risk of changes as part of the change management process At the project level as part of service design and transition
High level risk assessments will be reviewed on an annual basis, or upon significant change to the business or IT service provision. For more detail on the approach to risk assessment please review the following documents: • •
Risk Assessment and Treatment Process Risk Treatment Plan
2.10 Human resources [Organization Name] will ensure that all IT staff involved in service management are competent on the basis of appropriate education, training, skills and experience.
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The skills required to deliver quality services will be determined and reviewed on a regular basis together with an assessment of existing skill levels within [Organization Name]. Training needs will be identified, and a plan maintained to ensure that the necessary competencies are in place. Training, education, and other relevant records will be kept by the HR Department to document individual skill levels attained.
2.11 Auditing and review Once in place, it is vital that regular reviews take place of how well service management processes and procedures are being adhered to. This will happen at three levels: 1. Structured regular management review of conformity to policies and procedures within [Organization Name] 2. Internal audit reviews against the ISO/IEC 20000 standard by the [Organization Name] Quality Team 3. External audit against the standard in order to gain and maintain certification Details of how internal audits will be carried out can be found in the Procedure for Service Management Audits.
2.12 Documentation structure and policy All service management policies and plans that form part of the SMS must be documented. The way in which these documents and their supporting records are created and managed through their lifecycle is set out in Procedure for the Control of Documented Information. All documented information in the Service Management System is uniquely numbered and the current versions are tracked – see document Service Management System Documentation Log. The overall structure of the documented information in the SMS is represented in Figures 1 and 2.
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Figure 1: Service management system documentation structure (part one)
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Figure 2: Service management system documentation structure (part two)
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