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| Term |
Description |
| Pain Value Analysis |
(Service Operation) A technique used to help identify the Business Impact of one or more Problems. A formula is used to calculate Pain Value based on the number of Users affected, the duration of the Downtime, the Impact on each User, and the cost to the Business (if known). |
| Pareto Principle |
(Service Operation) A technique used to prioritise Activities. The Pareto Principle says that 80% of the value of any Activity is created with 20% of the effort. Pareto Analysis is also used in Problem Management to prioritise possible Problem causes for investigation. |
| Partnership |
A relationship between two Organisations which involves working closely together for common goals or mutual benefit. The IT Service Provider should have a Partnership with the Business, and with Third Parties who are critical to the delivery of IT Services.
See Value Network. |
| Passive Monitoring |
(Service Operation) Monitoring of a Configuration Item, an IT Service or a Process that relies on an Alert or notification to discover the current status. See Active Monitoring. |
| Pattern of Business Activity |
(Service Strategy) A Workload profile of one or more Business Activities. Patterns of Business Activity are used to help the IT Service Provider understand and plan for different levels of Business Activity. |
| Percentage utilisation |
(Service Design) The amount of time that a Component is busy over a given period of time. For example, if a CPU is busy for 1800 seconds in a one hour period, its utilisation is 50% |
| Performance |
A measure of what is achieved or delivered by a System, person, team, Process, or IT Service. |
| Performance Anatomy |
(Service Strategy) An approach to Organisational Culture that integrates, and actively manages, leadership and strategy, people development, technology enablement, performance management and innovation. |
| Performance Management |
(Continual Service Improvement) The Process responsible for day-to-day Capacity Management Activities. These include Monitoring, Threshold detection, Performance analysis and Tuning, and implementing Changes related to Performance and Capacity. |
| Pilot |
(Service Transition) A limited Deployment of an IT Service, a Release or a Process to the Live Environment. A Pilot is used to reduce Risk and to gain User feedback and Acceptance.
See Test, Evaluation. |
| Plan |
A detailed proposal which describes the Activities and Resources needed to achieve an Objective. For example a Plan to implement a new IT Service or Process. ISO/IEC 20000 requires a Plan for the management of each IT Service Management Process. |
| Plan-Do-Check-Act |
(Continual Service Improvement) A four stage cycle for Process management, attributed to Edward Deming. Plan-Do-Check-Act is also called the Deming Cycle.
PLAN: Design or revise Processes that support the IT Services.
DO: Implement the Plan and manage the Processes.
CHECK: Measure the Processes and IT Services, compare with Objectives and produce reports
ACT: Plan and implement Changes to improve the Processes. |
| Planned Downtime |
(Service Design) Agreed time when an IT Service will not be available. Planned Downtime is often used for maintenance, upgrades and testing.
See Change Window, Downtime. |
| Planning |
An Activity responsible for creating one or more Plans. For example, Capacity Planning. |
| PMBOK |
A Project management Standard maintained and published by the Project Management Institute. PMBOK stands for Project Management Body of Knowledge. See http://www.pmi.org/ for more information.
See PRINCE2. |
| Policy |
Formally documented management expectations and intentions. Policies are used to direct decisions, and to ensure consistent and appropriate development and implementation of Processes, Standards, Roles, Activities, IT Infrastructure etc. |
| Portable Facility |
(Service Design) A prefabricated building, or a large vehicle, provided by a Third Party and moved to a site when needed by an IT Service Continuity Plan.
See Recovery Option, Fixed Facility. |
| Post Implementation Review |
A Review that takes place after a Change or a Project has been implemented. A PIR determines if the Change or Project was successful, and identifies opportunities for improvement. |
| Practice |
A way of working, or a way in which work must be done. Practices can include Activities, Processes, Functions, Standards and Guidelines.
See Best Practice. |
| Prerequisite for Success |
PFS, An Activity that needs to be completed, or a condition that needs to be met, to enable successful implementation of a Plan or Process. A PFS is often an output from one Process that is a required input to another Process. |
| Pricing |
(Service Strategy) The Activity for establishing how much Customers will be Charged. |
| PRINCE2 |
The standard UK government methodology for Project management. See http://www.prince2.ch or www.prince2.ch for more information. |
| Priority |
(Service Transition) (Service Operation) A Category used to identify the relative importance of an Incident, Problem or Change. Priority is based on Impact and Urgency, and is used to identify required times for actions to be taken. For example the SLA may state that Priority2 Incidents must be resolved within 12 hours. |
| pro-forma |
A template, or example Document containing example data that will be replaced with the real values when these are available. |
| Proactive Monitoring |
(Service Operation) Monitoring that looks for patterns of Events to predict possible future Failures. |
| Proactive Problem Management |
(Service Operation) Part of the Problem Management Process. The Objective of Proactive Problem Management is to identify Problems that might otherwise be missed. Proactive Problem Management analyses Incident Records, and uses data collected by other IT Service Management Processes to identify trends or significant Problems. |
| Problem |
(Service Operation) A cause of one or more Incidents. The cause is not usually known at the time a Problem Record is created, and the Problem Management Process is responsible for further investigation. |
| Problem Management |
(Service Operation) The Process responsible for managing the Lifecycle of all Problems. The primary Objectives of Problem Management are to prevent Incidents from happening, and to minimise the Impact of Incidents that cannot be prevented. |
| Problem Record |
(Service Operation) A Record containing the details of a Problem. Each Problem Record documents the Lifecycle of a single Problem. |
| Procedure |
A Document containing steps that specify how to achieve an Activity. Procedures are defined as part of Processes.
See Work Instruction. |
| Process |
A structured set of Activities designed to accomplish a specific Objective. A Process takes one or more defined inputs and turns them into defined outputs. A Process may include any of the Roles, responsibilities, tools and management Controls required to reliably deliver the outputs. A Process may define Policies, Standards, Guidelines, Activities, and Work Instructions if they are needed. |
| Process Control |
The Activity of planning and regulating a Process, with the Objective of performing the Process in an Effective, Efficient, and consistent manner. |
| Process Manager |
A Role responsible for Operational management of a Process. The Process Manager's responsibilities include Planning and co-ordination of all Activities required to carry out, monitor and report on the Process. There may be several Process Managers for one Process, for example regional Change Managers or IT Service Continuity Managers for each data centre. The Process Manager Role is often assigned to the person who carries out the Process Owner Role, but the two Roles may be separate in larger Organisations. |
| Process Owner |
A Role responsible for ensuring that a Process is Fit for Purpose. The Process Owner’s responsibilities include sponsorship, Design, Change Management and continual improvement of the Process and its Metrics. This Role is often assigned to the same person who carries out the Process Manager Role, but the two Roles may be separate in larger Organisations. |
| Production Environment |
Synonym for Live environment |
| Profit Centre |
(Service Strategy) A Business Unit which charges for Services provided. A Profit Centre can be created with the objective of making a profit, recovering Costs, or running at a loss. An IT Service Provider can be run as a Cost Centre or a Profit Centre. |
| Programme |
A number of Projects and Activities that are planned and managed together to achieve an overall set of related Objectives and other Outcomes. |
| Project |
A temporary Organisation, with people and other Assets required to achieve an Objective or other Outcome. Each Project has a Lifecycle that typically includes initiation, Planning, execution, Closure etc. Projects are usually managed using a formal methodology such as PRINCE2. |
| Projected Service Outage |
(Service Transition) A Document that identifies the effect of planned Changes, maintenance Activities and Test Plans on agreed Service Levels. |
| PRojects IN Controlled Environments |
See PRINCE2 |
