IT Service Design and Implementation

• 22 hrs lectures
• 4 hrs exercises
• 13 hrs projects

• 40 pts mid-term test (written part)
• 60 pts projects

Students will understand the life-cycle of IT services and processes for support and documentation of the the life-cycle. They will learn how to make a service portfolio and a basic financial analysis of services in the portfolio, to draft contracts for providing services in terms of a customer (consuming the services from internal or external suppliers) and in terms of a service provider, to design services and prepare documentation for their deployment, to evaluate deployed services, to prepare a plan for continual service improvement and to propose service modifications according to the plan. Students will be able to acquire and apply knowledge and skills in design and implementation of IT services in the appropriate context.
Students will be able to actively participate in the design and implementation of IT services in an organization and will have a basic knowledge of IT services according ITILv3.

The goal of this course is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the issues of design and implementation of IT services, to make them familiar with the processes and resources for support and documentation of all phases of IT services' life cycle, and to provide practical knowledge on design and implementation of IT services.

Knowledge of ITIL is important for understanding the keywords of IT support such as an incident, problem, requirement, configuration, back-out strategy, etc. and activities related to these words. This is essential for all IT staff (IT support of all levels, developers implementing requirements/bug-fixes, team leaders, customer IT department members consuming system/services, etc.). Understanding ITIL is also a frequent demand for IT employers.

The subject assumes a basic knowledge of software engineering within the scope of course Introduction to Software Engineering (IUS), especially the knowledge of information systems operation and service management and management of software projects.

1. Introduction: Structure and objectives of the course, organization of projects. IT Service and its life cycle in ITILv3: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement.
2. Service Strategy: The process of a new service development (demand and supply), value of a service, service types, scalability and dependencies of services, a service portfolio, a pipeline and a service catalog; specification of the first part of the project.
3. Service Strategy: Detailed requirements analysis, types of service providers, evaluation of resources, cost and pricing of services (financial analysis), the strategic process; specification of the second part of the project.
4. Service Design: Sustainability of services, risk analysis; presentations of the first part of the project.
5. Service Design: Business and technical service catalog, service metrics and measures, capacity, availability and security of services, service levels.
6. Service Design: Management of suppliers and operational level agreement/underpinning contract), preparation of a service level agreement; presentations of the second part of the project and specification of the third part of the project.
7. Service Transition: Asset management and configuration services (a configuration item), testing of services (testing strategy and V-model), a proposal to a service change and its implementation.
8. Service Transition: Deploying of services and usage of a service design package, knowledge management; presentations of the third part of the project and specification of the fourth part of the project.
9. Service Operation: management and monitoring of services, requirements management, incidents and problems, formation and flow of events associated with the services.
10. Continual Service Improvement: Reasons for continual improvement of services and benefits assessment (return and value on investment), identifying opportunities for improving services (the FOCUS method); presentations of the fourth part of the project and specification of the fifth part of the project.
11. Continual Service Improvement: Methods of evaluation of services (critical success factors, key performance indicators, metrics and measurements), a model of continual service improvement process, the Deming's cycle and processes for service improvement, a service improvement plan.
12. ITIL process implementation; presentations of the fifth part of the project.
13. A final test.

A group project aimed at design of IT services according to a given specification. The project consists of five parts (each part takes approximately 2 hours for a team member):

1. Service Portfolio.
2. Financial Analysis.
3. Operational Level Agreements/Underpinning Contract + Service Level Agreement.
4. Service Design Package.
5. Service Evaluation Report + Service Improvement Plan + Request for Change.

A selected part of the project of your choice will be presented by a team within the selected lectures.

• A group project composed of five parts (each of 10 points, 50 points in total).
• A presentation of selected parts of the project at the lecture (10 points).
• A final test (40 points).

Exam prerequisites:
To pass this course and to get credits a student must gain at least 50 points (of 100 points).

• Submission of a group project's results (a design documentation of IT services according to a given specification).
• A presentation of selected parts of the project at the lecture.
• A written test taken individually.

To pass this course and to get credits a student must gain at least 50 points (of 100 points).