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Terminology

Service Management uses a variety of terms that are specific to the Information Technology Infrastructure Library ® (ITIL). The following table provides definitions of terms that are common to Service Management.

Term Definition
Asset Any resource or capability. The assets of a service provider include anything that could contribute to the delivery of a service. Assets can be one of the following types: management, organization, process, knowledge, people, information, applications, infrastructure, or financial capital.
Asset management A generic activity or process responsible for tracking and reporting the value and ownership of assets throughout their lifecycle.
Attribute A piece of information about a configuration item. Examples are name, location, version number, and cost. Attributes of CIs are recorded in a configuration management database (CMDB) and maintained as part of a configuration management system (CMS).
Business impact A measure of the effect of an incident, problem, or change on business processes. Impact is often based on how service levels will be affected. Business impact and urgency are used to assign priority.

The Service Management business impact values are as follows:

  • Enterprise
  • Site or department
  • Multiple users
  • Single user
Business service A service that is delivered to business customers by business units. For example, delivery of financial services to customers of a bank, or goods to the customers of a retail store. Successful delivery of business services often depends on one or more IT services. A business service may consist almost entirely of an IT service – for example, an online banking service or an external website where product orders can be placed by business customers.
Category A named group of items that have something in common. For example, cost types are used to group similar types of cost. Incident categories are used to group similar types of incident, while CI types are used to group similar types of configuration items.
Change The addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT services. The scope should include changes to all architectures, processes, tools, metrics, and documentation, as well as changes to IT services and other configuration items.
Change advisory board (CAB) A group of people that support the assessment, prioritization, authorization, and scheduling of changes. A change advisory board is usually made up of representatives from all areas within the IT service provider, the business, and third parties such as suppliers.
CI type A category that is used to classify configuration items. The CI type identifies the required attributes and relationships for a configuration record. Common CI types include hardware, document, or user.
Configuration item (CI) Any component or other service asset that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service. Information about each CI is recorded in a configuration record within the configuration management system and is maintained throughout its lifecycle by service asset and configuration management. CIs are under the control of change management. They typically include IT services, hardware, software, buildings, people, and formal documentation such as process documentation and service level agreements.
Device A general classification for both assets and configuration items.
Effectiveness A measure of whether the objectives of a process, service or activity have been achieved. An effective process or activity is one that achieves its agreed objectives. See also Key performance indicator.
Efficiency A measure of whether the right amount of resource has been used to deliver a process, service, or activity. An efficient process achieves its objectives with the minimum amount of time, money, people or other resources. See also Key performance indicator.
Emergency change A change that must be introduced as soon as possible – for example, to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch. The change management process normally has a specific procedure for handling emergency changes.
Escalation An activity that obtains additional resources when these are needed to meet service level targets or customer expectations. Escalation may be needed within any IT service management process, but is most commonly associated with incident management, problem management, and the management of customer complaints.
Incident An unplanned interruption to an IT service or reduction in the quality of an IT service. Failure of a configuration item that has not yet affected service is also an incident – for example, failure of one disk from a mirror set.
Key performance indicator (KPI) A metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan, project, or other activity. KPIs measure the achievement of critical success factors. Many metrics may be measured, but only the most important of these are defined as KPIs and used to actively manage and report on the process, IT service, or activity. They should be selected to ensure that efficiency, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness are all managed.
Known error A problem that has a documented root cause and a workaround. Known errors are created and managed throughout their lifecycle by problem management. Known errors may also be identified by development or suppliers.
Model A repeatable way of dealing with a particular type of change, incident, or problem. A model defines specific steps to be followed for a particular type of record. Some models may be very complex with many steps. Other models can be simple to expedite closure. For example, a complex change model might require multiple levels of authorization (such as a major software release). The simplest incident model has a quick resolution (such as a password reset).
Priority A categorization that identifies the relative importance of an incident, problem, or change. Priority is based on impact and urgency, and is used to identify required times for actions to be taken. For example, the service level agreement may state that High Priority incidents must be resolved within 12 hours.
Problem A cause of one or more incidents. The cause is not usually known at the time a problem record is created, and the problem management process is responsible for further investigation.
Request for change (RFC) A formal proposal for a change to be made. It includes details of the proposed change, and may be recorded on paper or electronically. The term is often misused to mean a change record, or the change itself.
Resource A generic term that includes IT infrastructure, people, money, or anything else that might help to deliver an IT service. Resources are considered to be assets of an organization.
Risk A possible event that could cause harm or loss, or affect the ability to achieve objectives. A risk is measured by the probability of a threat, the vulnerability of the asset to that threat, and the impact it would have if it occurred. Risk 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.
Role A set of responsibilities, activities, and authorities assigned to a person or team. A role is defined in a process or function. One person or team may have multiple roles – for example, the roles of configuration manager and change manager may be carried out by a single person. Role is also used to describe the purpose of something or what it is used for.
Root cause The underlying or original cause of an incident or problem.
Service A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. The term ‘service’ is sometimes used as a synonym for core service, IT service, or service package.
Service level target A commitment that is documented in a service level agreement. Service level targets are based on service level requirements, and are needed to ensure that the IT service is able to meet business objectives.
Urgency

A measure of the effect on the enterprise. For example, an enterprise-wide incident may have low urgency (no disruption) if it will not affect the business until the end of the financial year. Business impact and urgency are used to assign priority. The Service Management urgency values are as follows:

  • Total loss of service
  • Severe disruption
  • Slight disruption
  • No disruption

You can obtain a complete list of terms in the Glossary.

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