The primary goal of incident management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible. The first step is always to log the incident to ensure it is tracked, prioritized, and managed formally. Checking the KEDB or escalating are potential subsequent steps, but logging is the foundational, immediate action.

The ‘Obtain/Build’ activity in the service value chain is focused on ensuring that service components are available when and where they are needed. Its core purpose is to translate the requirements and designs (from the ‘Design & Transition’ activity) into actual, usable components that make up a service, thereby enabling new or changed products and services.

The ‘Improve’ practice is about continual improvement at all levels. Mandating a problem review for all major incidents institutionalizes learning from failures. It embeds improvement directly into the operational process (incident management), ensuring that each major incident triggers an analysis to improve future performance, rather than being a one-off review or just a communication exercise.

The ‘Organizations and People’ dimension is about the roles, responsibilities, systems, and culture needed to create value. While structure is part of it, the most critical aspect is the human element: having the right competencies, fostering a culture that supports service management objectives, and ensuring effective communication and collaboration across teams and stakeholders.

A core objective of the ‘Design and Transition’ activity is to ensure that new or changed services meet stakeholder expectations and are deliverable and supportable. A smooth transition requires that the support organization (e.g., service desk, IT operations) is prepared with the necessary knowledge, skills, and documentation to support the new service effectively from the moment it goes live.

The ‘Engage’ activity is all about interacting with stakeholders, particularly users and customers. This includes capturing their needs, requests, and feedback. A request for a new software license is a clear example of a user request (often handled through a request fulfillment practice) that is initiated and tracked through the ‘Engage’ activity to maintain good stakeholder relationships.

Organizations engage with partners and suppliers to strategically supplement their own capabilities. Outsourcing the service desk is typically done to leverage the supplier’s core expertise, benefit from their scale (which can reduce costs), and potentially access newer technologies or methods (innovation) that would be more difficult or expensive to develop internally.

‘Deliver and Support’ encompasses the day-to-day activities of delivering services and supporting users. Resolving a password reset is a classic example of support work within this activity. It involves executing standard procedures, utilizing knowledge, and interacting directly with the user to restore their access, thereby delivering the agreed service.

Value is co-created through the interaction of the service provider and the consumer. The guiding principle ‘Focus on Value’ stresses that value is defined by the customer and other stakeholders (like users) in terms of what helps them achieve their outcomes. The provider’s role is to understand this perspective and shape services accordingly.

The primary goal of incident management is to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible. The first step is always to log the incident to ensure it is tracked, prioritized, and managed formally. Checking the KEDB or escalating are potential subsequent steps, but logging is the foundational, immediate action.0