4 Communication and training

The service level management process is all about communication and there are various forms of this that must take place for the process to be effective.

These are described below.

4.1 Customers and IT management

Communication should take place with the customers of the IT service with regard to SLAs and the management of IT concerning resource utilisation and allocation. Depending on the health of the process it may be appropriate to hold regular meetings with customers and IT management to discuss the performance and agree any actions to improve it.

4.2 Process performance

It is important that the performance of the service level management process is monitored and reported upon on a regular basis in order to assess whether SLAs are being met and whether the process is operating as expected. The content of performance reports is set out in section 6 of this document, but it is vital that the reports are not only produced but are also communicated to the appropriate audience.

4.3 Communication related to changes

Changes to the IT environment can have a significant impact on the delivery of an effective IT service and service level management must be aware of any changes that are due to take place prior to them happening. The service level management process manager must have visibility of the change management schedule as a minimum and ideally will be briefed on any changes with the potential to give rise to service outages. This may be a regular meeting or carried out on an ad-hoc basis according to the frequency of occurrence of such changes.

4.4 Training for service level management

In addition to a well-defined process and appropriate software tools it is essential that the people aspects of service level management are adequately addressed. The process requires that training be provided to all participants in order that it runs as smoothly as possible.

The main areas in which training will be required are as follows.

The service level management process itself, including the activities, roles and responsibilities involved Service level management tools such as the service desk system reporting, intranet and office productivity Soft skills such as customer service, dealing with difficult conversations and avoiding technical jargon The basics of the technology and how it is implemented within [Organization Name] The business, its structure, locations, priorities and people

In addition, training should be provided to customers regarding the purpose, objectives and activities of the service level management process.

This training may be provided via short workshops and supplemented by on demand resources such as blog articles, videos and user guides.