VeriSM Essentials key terms

A service management approach that helps organizations deliver value by combining management practices, emerging technology and a responsive operating model, rather than prescribing a single fixed set of processes.

The set of capabilities and activities used to plan, deliver, support and improve services so that they create value for customers and the organization.

A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes they want to achieve, without the customer owning the specific costs and risks involved.

The perceived benefit gained by a stakeholder from a product or service, judged by whether outcomes improve and costs or risks are acceptable.

The result or change in state that a customer or stakeholder experiences because of using a service, as distinct from the outputs the provider produces.

A cyclical model with the stages Define, Produce, Provide and Respond, used to structure how an organization turns demand into services and continually improves them.

The VeriSM stage in which the organization clarifies demand, market context, customer needs and desired outcomes before deciding what services or changes to produce.

The VeriSM stage where the organization designs, builds or assembles the service and its supporting capabilities, ensuring the required resources and practices are in place.

The VeriSM stage in which the service is made available to consumers and delivered reliably, with performance monitored against agreed expectations.

The VeriSM stage that handles feedback, incidents, changing demand and improvement opportunities, feeding lessons back into the next cycle of the model.

The flexible combination of management practices, emerging technologies, environment and resources that an organization selects and adapts to deliver a particular service.

A collection of organizational resources, such as processes, people, tools and knowledge, applied together to achieve a specific objective within service management.

The act of choosing which management practices to apply, and how much of each, based on the service context, risk and desired outcomes rather than applying every practice uniformly.

The shared values, beliefs and behaviours that shape how people in an organization treat customers, colleagues and service quality in daily work.

The observable actions of individuals and teams, which signal whether stated service values are genuinely practised or merely declared.

The ability to set direction, model desired behaviours and enable people to deliver value, distinct from the administrative authority of a management role.

The system of direction and control by which an organization sets objectives, assesses risk, allocates decision rights and holds people accountable for service outcomes.

The obligation of a named person or body to answer for outcomes and decisions, which cannot be fully delegated away even when work is performed by others.

The duty to carry out a task or activity, which can be assigned to individuals or teams and is distinct from ultimate accountability for the result.

The effect of uncertainty on objectives, expressed as the possibility of loss, harm or missed opportunity that governance must identify, evaluate and treat.

Conformity with laws, regulations, contracts, standards and internal policies that apply to the organization and its services.

The organizational change driven by adopting digital technology to reshape services, operating models and customer experience, not merely the installation of new tools.

A technology that is newly significant or rapidly developing, such as artificial intelligence or blockchain, and that may create new service options and new risks.

The delivery of computing resources such as storage, processing and software over a network on demand, with elasticity and usage-based charging.

Using technology to perform tasks or workflows with reduced human intervention, aiming to improve consistency, speed and cost while changing the skills required of staff.

The capability of computer systems to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as pattern recognition and decision support, raising governance and ethical questions.

The ongoing, systematic effort to make services and practices better through measurement, feedback, learning and controlled change.

Quantitative measures used to judge whether services and practices are performing as intended and to inform decisions about improvement.

A collaborative way of working that unites development and operations teams through shared goals, automation and fast feedback to improve delivery flow.

An approach based on iterative delivery, close customer collaboration and responsiveness to change, often applied to service development and improvement work.

A management approach focused on maximizing customer value while eliminating waste from processes and improving flow.

A widely used set of service management guidance describing practices and value streams; in VeriSM it is treated as one source of practices rather than a mandatory framework.

The organization or part of an organization that supplies services to consumers, whether internal colleagues or external paying customers.

The person or organization that uses or receives a service and judges its value through the outcomes achieved.

The enduring pattern of shared assumptions, norms and rewards that determines how an organization actually behaves, including how it treats service quality.

The process of introducing and embedding VeriSM principles and practices into an organization so that they become normal working practice rather than a separate initiative.

Tailoring VeriSM guidance to the organization's context, size, culture and existing frameworks, so it fits real needs instead of being copied unchanged.

The structured approach to preparing, supporting and helping people through organizational change so that new ways of working are accepted and sustained.

The sequence of activities and resources an organization uses to create and deliver value to a consumer, examined end to end to find waste and improvement opportunities.