• Service strategy: IT operations management will have an in-depth
understanding of how current technology is used to deliver existing services. This understanding, together with an awareness of new and emerging
technologies, allows IT operations management to have a meaningful input to the strategy phase of the service management lifecycle. It is crucial that those responsible for strategy use the knowledge that is available about how services are actually delivered on a day-to-day basis.
• Service design: Carrying out the activities set out in the service design phase is the responsibility of IT operations management. Therefore, it is
important that IT operations management has the ability to input to this phase.
• Service transition: Testing is an area of service transition where you would expect IT operations management to be involved heavily. IT operations staff have the knowledge and understanding of the live environment, which allows them to ensure testing is correctly designed and executed. It may well be IT operations staff, under direction from service transition, who physically introduce releases to the live environment and monitor their progress.
• Service operation: This is the fundamental task of IT operations
management. They maintain and monitor the components (infrastructure and applications) that underpin the services and react in a timely fashion to events, incidents and problems identified.
• Continual service improvement: Staff from IT operations management will always be looking for ways to improve the services and boost efficiency and effectiveness.