INTRODUCTION
Once an organisation has determined the IT strategy it wishes to pursue, it uses the service design phase of the lifecycle to create new services which service transition then introduces into the live environment. In so doing, service design aims to take the necessary steps to ensure that the new service will perform as planned and deliver the functionality and benefits intended by the business. This principle is at the heart of the ITIL approach and is why the majority of the service design processes are focused on operational control:
• Service catalogue management;
• Service level management;
• Capacity management;
• Design coordination;
• Availability management;
• IT service continuity management;
• Information security management;
• Supplier management.
The contribution that the service design phase of the lifecycle makes can therefore be summarised as ensuring the creation of cost-effective services that provide
the level of quality required to satisfy customers and stakeholders throughout the life of the service.
However, the fact that business requirements change over time and generate the need or opportunity for further improvement, means that even an organisation with mature service design processes will need to make changes to services throughout their life. Service design therefore has an important role to play in supporting continual service improvement and is as important for managing changes to existing services as it is in designing new services. In this respect, service design must also consider the impact of its activities on the overall services, systems, architecture, tools and measurements in order to minimise the potential for disruption when a new or changed service is introduced into the live environment.