SMITS key terms

The overall structure that shows how an organization's components and activities work together to create value. It links guiding principles, governance, the service value chain, practices, and continual improvement into one coherent model.

Six connected activities - plan, improve, engage, design and transition, obtain and build, deliver and support - that transform demand into value. Each activity converts inputs into outputs and can be combined in many sequences.

Recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, such as focus on value, start where you are, progress iteratively with feedback, collaborate and promote visibility, think and work holistically, keep it simple and practical, and optimize and automate.

The means by which an organization is directed and controlled, covering evaluation, direction, and monitoring of performance and risk. It sets accountability and ensures that service management activities align with organizational objectives and obligations.

The specific combination of activities and practices an organization uses to create and deliver products and services to a particular consumer. Mapping a value stream exposes handoffs, delays, and waste that can be improved.

Utility is the functional fitness of a service - what it does to support the consumer's needs. Warranty is the assurance of fitness for use, covering availability, capacity, security, and continuity at agreed levels.

A description of one or more services, including their attributes, that is designed to address the needs of a defined consumer group. It may include goods, access to resources, and service actions.

A structured, published source of information about the services available to users, including descriptions, ordering options, and dependencies. It helps consumers understand what they can request and what commitments apply.

A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies required services and the expected level of service. It usually states measurable targets, responsibilities of both parties, and consequences of missing targets.

An internal agreement between parts of the same organization that supports delivery of services to customers. It defines internal responsibilities and targets that underpin the commitments made in customer-facing agreements.

A contract with an external supplier that defines the services and targets the supplier must meet to support the provider's service commitments. It should be consistent with, and traceable to, the relevant service level agreement.

A specific, measurable target for a service or component that supports achievement of an agreed service level. SLOs are often used for monitoring and alerting before a customer-facing commitment is breached.

The practice of setting clear business-based targets for service levels and ensuring delivery against them. It negotiates agreements, monitors performance, reports on achievement, and drives corrective action when targets are at risk.

The practice of ensuring that risks are properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing a change schedule. It balances the need to deliver improvements with the need to protect live services.

The person or group assigned the responsibility to authorize a particular type of change. Authority levels should match the risk and impact of the change, allowing low-risk changes to proceed quickly.

A group that supports change assessment and authorization by reviewing higher-risk changes, typically covering risk, impact, scheduling, and readiness. It advises the change authority rather than replacing clear accountability.

A low-risk, pre-authorized change that follows a defined procedure or template and does not need individual authorization each time. It is typically repeatable and well understood.

The practice of making new and changed services and features available for use. It plans, schedules, and controls the movement of releases through environments, coordinating with change enablement and deployment.

The practice of moving new or changed hardware, software, documentation, processes, or other components to live environments. It focuses on the technical transfer of components, which may or may not coincide with a release.

Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service. Each CI has attributes, relationships, and a recorded lifecycle state in the configuration management system.

A database that stores configuration records and the relationships between them throughout their lifecycle. It supports impact analysis, incident diagnosis, and asset-related decision making.

An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service. Incidents are logged, prioritized by impact and urgency, and managed to restore normal service as quickly as possible.

The practice of minimizing the negative impact of incidents by restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. It prioritizes speed of recovery over root-cause analysis, which is handled separately.

An incident with significant business impact that requires a coordinated response, often with a dedicated team and elevated communication. It typically triggers defined escalation, stakeholder updates, and post-incident review.

A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents. Identifying and managing problems reduces the likelihood and impact of future incidents by addressing underlying causes rather than symptoms.

A problem that has been analyzed and has a documented root cause and a workaround. Recording known errors lets support staff resolve matching incidents faster while a permanent fix is developed.

A temporary solution that reduces or eliminates the impact of an incident or problem for which a permanent fix is not yet available. Workarounds should be documented and validated before reuse.

The act of transferring an incident, request, or problem to a more appropriate level of authority or specialist group. Functional escalation adds expertise; hierarchical escalation engages management when impact or risk demands it.

The practice of supporting the agreed quality of a service by handling pre-defined, low-risk user-initiated requests. Examples include access requests, information requests, and standard service requests handled through a catalog.

The single point of contact between the service provider and users, handling incidents, service requests, and communication. It captures records, performs first-line diagnosis, and routes work to specialist teams.

The practice of aligning an organization's practices and services with changing business needs through ongoing identification and improvement of services, components, and practices. It uses a structured method to prioritize and execute improvements.

A structured record of improvement opportunities and their status, ownership, and priority. It makes improvement work visible and traceable, and supports review of progress against business objectives.

A measurable value that demonstrates how effectively an organization is achieving a key objective. Good KPIs are specific, relevant, and tied to outcomes rather than raw activity counts.

A small number of areas in which satisfactory results are essential to achieving intended outcomes. CSFs guide the selection of KPIs and help focus measurement on what matters most.

The practice of ensuring that services deliver agreed levels of availability to meet the needs of customers and users. It covers design for availability, monitoring, measurement, and removal of single points of failure.

The practice of ensuring that services achieve agreed and expected performance, satisfying current and future demand in a cost-effective way. It covers demand forecasting, resource sizing, tuning, and scaling decisions.

The practice of ensuring that service availability and performance are maintained at a sufficient level in the event of a disaster. It relies on business impact analysis, recovery objectives, and tested recovery plans.

The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, indicating how far back a restore may go after a disruption. It drives backup frequency and replication design.

The maximum acceptable time to restore a service or process after a disruption. It sets the urgency for recovery arrangements and is derived from business impact analysis.

A record of identified risks, including their likelihood, impact, owner, and mitigation status. It is reviewed regularly so that significant risks are visible, prioritized, and treated consistently.

The state of meeting obligations imposed by laws, regulations, contracts, or internal policies. In service management, compliance requirements shape controls, records, and audit evidence for services and data.

The practice of protecting an organization's information and its assets by ensuring confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It defines controls, policies, and incident handling for security events and weaknesses.

The practice of ensuring that an organization's suppliers and their performance are managed appropriately to support seamless provision of quality services. It covers contracts, performance monitoring, and relationship management.

Using tooling to execute defined service management steps automatically, such as routing tickets, triggering approvals, or provisioning standard requests. It reduces manual effort and improves consistency, but requires clear process design and monitoring.