ISO 20000 Lead Implementer key terms

A management system that directs and controls service management activities, comprising policies, objectives, processes, resources and governance needed to deliver services and meet agreed requirements.

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 set of capabilities and processes used to direct and control the provision of services to customers under agreed conditions, covering planning, delivery, support and improvement.

A framework of interrelated policies, objectives and processes that an organization uses to achieve its intended outcomes in a defined discipline, such as quality, security or service management.

The documented boundary defining which services, locations, organizational units and interested parties are covered by the service management system, and which are excluded.

A documented declaration describing how the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1 apply within the defined scope, including justification for any requirement judged not applicable.

A controlled document listing the requirements of the standard and stating whether each applies, with justification where a requirement is excluded from the scope.

A person or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision or activity of the service management system.

The internal and external factors, including legal, technological, competitive and cultural issues, that are relevant to the organization's purpose and affect the SMS.

The person or group at the highest level of the organization who directs the SMS, provides leadership, ensures resources and takes accountability for its effectiveness.

A documented statement of top management's intentions and direction for service management, providing a framework for setting service management objectives.

Measurable results to be achieved in service management, consistent with the policy, set at relevant functions and levels and monitored for progress.

The effect of uncertainty on objectives, expressed as a combination of the likelihood of an event and its consequences for services or the SMS.

A favourable circumstance or possibility that can be exploited to improve services, processes or the performance of the service management system.

A structured record of identified risks and opportunities, their assessment, owners and treatment actions, maintained and reviewed as part of SMS planning.

Information that must be controlled and maintained by the organization, together with the medium on which it is contained, including records and procedures.

A document describing how the organization will implement, operate, monitor and improve its SMS, including roles, resources, timescales and key activities.

A time-bound programme of work defining phases, milestones, responsibilities and resources for establishing or extending the service management system.

A structured comparison of current service management practices against the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1, identifying shortfalls that the implementation must close.

A documented source of information about the services provided, including their description, intended users, service levels and dependencies, maintained under change control.

A documented agreement between a service provider and a customer that identifies services and the agreed service level targets and responsibilities of each party.

A measurable commitment stated in a service level agreement, such as availability percentage or response time, against which actual performance is compared.

An internal agreement between parts of the same organization that supports delivery of agreed service levels to customers by defining internal responsibilities and targets.

An external organization or part of the organization that provides products, services or processes contributing to the delivery of the provider's services.

The network of suppliers and internal parties whose products and services contribute to the delivery of services, requiring coordination and performance management.

An unplanned interruption to a service or reduction in the quality of a service that has affected or may affect users and requires restoration of normal service.

A cause, or potential cause, of one or more incidents that requires investigation to identify root causes and prevent recurrence.

A request from a user for information, advice, a standard change or access to a service that is handled through a predefined, often automated, fulfilment process.

The addition, modification or removal of anything that could affect services, including infrastructure, applications, documentation and processes, managed to control risk.

Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver a service, recorded with its attributes and relationships to other components.

A repository holding records of configuration items and their relationships, used to support incident resolution, change assessment and service continuity planning.

Documented arrangements describing how services will be restored to agreed levels within defined timeframes after a disruption, including roles and recovery priorities.

An analysis identifying critical services and the consequences of their disruption over time, used to set recovery priorities and continuity requirements.

The process of ensuring that service capacity and performance meet agreed current and future demand requirements in a cost-effective manner.

The ability of a service or component to perform its required function when requested, typically expressed as the proportion of agreed time it is operational.

A quantifiable measure selected to evaluate how effectively the SMS or a process achieves its objectives, monitored and reported to management.

The ongoing determination of the state of services, processes or components, using measurement and observation to detect deviations from expected performance.

The process of assigning values to attributes of services or processes through defined methods, providing data for analysis and decision-making.

An independent, systematic examination of the SMS against planned arrangements and the requirements of ISO/IEC 20000-1, conducted by the organization itself.

Arrangements for one or more audits, including frequency, methods, responsibilities and planning, established to cover the SMS over a defined cycle.

A periodic review by top management of the SMS's suitability, adequacy and effectiveness, using defined inputs and producing decisions on improvement and resources.

A failure to meet a requirement of ISO/IEC 20000-1 or of the organization's own service management arrangements, requiring correction and corrective action.

Action taken to eliminate the cause of a nonconformity so that it does not recur, including investigation of root cause and verification of effectiveness.

The recurring activity of enhancing the performance of the SMS, using monitoring results, audits and reviews to identify and implement beneficial changes.

A structured technique for identifying the underlying reason for an incident, problem or nonconformity so that effective corrective action can be defined.

An independent audit by a certification body to determine whether the organization's SMS conforms to ISO/IEC 20000-1 and is effectively implemented.

The initial certification audit phase assessing readiness, documentation and understanding of the standard, and identifying concerns to be addressed before stage 2.

The certification audit phase that evaluates implementation and effectiveness of the SMS through sampling of processes, records and interviews at the organization's sites.

Records, statements of fact or other verifiable information that demonstrate conformity with requirements and support conclusions reached during audits or reviews.