Overview
The purpose of this article is to familiarize service owners with the service catalogue model supporting the IT Services client portal. This includes the two roles (service owner and service offering manager) that collaborate on service delivery.
This article covers the following topics:
Service Taxonomy
The IT Services service catalogue houses all services (active and retired) using an IT service catalogue framework adapted from the EDUCAUSE paper The Higher Education IT Service Catalog: A Working Model for Comparison and Collaboration. This framework is a shared body of knowledge that leverages expertise, research and standards from the higher education IT sector to help institutions overcome common service catalogue challenges.
At a high level, a service catalogue is a collection of layers that provide a taxonomy for services to be represented, organized, maintained and resourced within the IT Services client portal.
What is a Service Category?
"A logical grouping of services that benefit from being managed together. These high-level groupings should be meaningful to the IT service provider to facilitate budgeting and governance of services. Some institutions might choose to make these groupings visible to end users, whereas some might not and might even have different groupings (see the discussion of "views" earlier in this document). These categories should reflect the strategic goals of the institution and align with the overall governance model. Governance of IT services, including deciding on major projects, developing strategy, and managing funding, is generally conducted by groups aligned with the service categories. Most service catalogs will consist of six to ten service categories. Examples of service categories might include communication and collaboration, infrastructure, and teaching and learning." - The Higher Education IT Service Catalogue Model (ECAR)
Service categories accomplish multiple goals. Firstly, they help IT Services (ITS) represent the work being done. For example, ITS may have 10 services dedicated to infrastructure or 20 services dedicated to learning technologies.
Secondly, they act as a logical grouping for services so they can be discovered through exploration. However, it's important to keep in mind that the vast majority of services are found through direct searching. To avoid category confusion and paralysis, ITS takes a best-fit approach for services that can span multiple categories.
What is a Service?
"An end-to-end IT service that delivers value to customers, typically not identified by specific product or application names. The service combines people, processes, and technology to provide outputs or results that enable business capabilities or an end user's work activities and desired outcomes." - The Higher Education IT Service Catalogue Model (ECAR)
In summary, a service is the management of people, process and technology to deliver something valuable to another group so they don’t have to take on the associated costs or risks.
For example, IT Services may manage a student application system by offering a service that takes care of the maintenance, updates, and security on behalf of Student Services. This provides something valuable without that group needing to take on additional resources.
What is a Service Owner (SO)?
"A service owner is accountable for the delivery of an IT service and the service offerings within. The purpose of this leadership role is to ensure that the service receives strategic attention and appropriate resources to support the mission and needs of the institution. The SO is responsible for the service as a whole through its entire life cycle and is accountable to the person in charge of overall IT service delivery. The SO’s accountability for a service is independent of where the underpinning technology components, processes, or professional capabilities needed to deliver the service and its offerings reside." - IT Service Ownership in Higher Education
As service owner also ensures the content for their service is up to date in the ITS service catalogue. In summary, a service owner is:
- A leadership role accountable for the delivery of an IT service and service offerings within.
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- This accountability is independent of where the underpinning technology components, processes, or professional capabilities needed to deliver the service and offerings reside.
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- This role ensures that the service receives strategic attention and appropriate resources to support its mission and needs within the institution.
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- This role is also responsible for the service through its entire life cycle.
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What is a Service Offering?
"The specific technology-focused activity or product used to deliver a service. These can be software bundles, custom application solutions, or other technology that enables a service offering. Multiple service offerings might exist for a single service." - The Higher Education IT Service Catalogue Model (ECAR)
For example, a service managing campus printers may offer a way to:
- Request repairs
- Assign a new printing key FOB
- Deploy a new printer to an office
What is a Service Offering Manager (SOM)?
"A service offering manager is a boots-on-the-ground role that is responsible for the delivery of an IT service offering. The purpose of this role is to ensure comprehensive, efficient, and transparent management of and communication about the IT service offering in accordance with the service strategy. This role is accountable to the SO for the design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance and support of the offering. As with the service owner, the SOM’s responsibility for a specific service offering is independent of where the underpinning technology components, processes, or professional capabilities reside." - IT Service Ownership in Higher Education
The service offering manager is also responsible for updating any service offerings in the ITS service catalogue. In summary, this role is:
- A tactical role responsible for the delivery of an IT service offering.
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- Accountable to the service owner for the design, implementation, ongoing maintenance, and support of the offering.
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- Ensures comprehensive, efficient, and transparent management and communication about the IT service offering in accordance with a service strategy.
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- This role can be independent of where the underpinning technology components, processes, or professional capabilities reside.
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