IRM4720/102/3/2021

Tutorial Letter 102/3/2021

Principle Concepts of IT Service Management

IRM4720

Assignment 2 Questions

School of Computing

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Please register on myUnisa, activate your myLife e-mail address and

make sure that you have regular access to the myUnisa module
website, IRM4720-21-S1/S2, as well as your group website where
applicable.

BARCODE
 Due Date 09 July 2021

Submission procedure Electronically via myUnisa

Study material Chapters 1-31 (prescribed textbook)

Number of questions 28

Total Marks 120

Contribution to year mark 80%

Unique assignment number 703969

Question 1 [4]
Service management put more emphasis on the delivery of ‘IT service’ over the traditional
thinking of ‘IT product’. Define the following terms: service, service management, IT service, and
IT product.

Question 3 [5]
ISO/IEC 20000 is the formal standard for IT service management (ITSM) that defines the ITIL
framework requirements. Discuss any FIVE other frameworks or approaches that can
complement ITIL framework in an organization.

Question 4 [2]
Discuss how value is created through utility and warranty.

Question 5 [2]
Discuss the two types of service assets and highlight the differences between the two types.

Question 6 [3]
Discuss the term ‘service model’ with regard to structure and dynamics.

Question 7 [3]
Discuss with the aid of examples the THREE types of IT service providers.

Question 8 [2]
What the FOUR Ps of service strategy?

Question 9 [5]
Discuss FIVE areas where automation can improve the process capability.

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Question 10 [2]
Explain the challenges that arise in establishing an effective service transition.

Question 11 [8]
Service operation is essentially a balancing act. Discuss the FOUR balances of service
operation.

Question 12 [4]
Explain the FOUR ways value of IT can be realized and measured.

Question 13 [6]
With the aid of a diagram, explain the SIX steps of CSI approach.

Question 14 [5]
Explain how each of the following processes interacts with financial management for IT
services.

Question 15 [2]
Discuss the two main reasons why demand management is important.

Question 16 [4]
With the aid of diagrams, discuss the relationship between service portfolio and the
configuration management system (CMS).

Question 17 [4]
Explain the FOUR (4) steps of the service portfolio management cycle.

Question 18 [2]
Discuss the challenges experience in design coordination.

Question 19 [4]
Discuss the two elements of service catalogue management.

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Question 20 [2]
Differentiate service catalogue from service portfolio.

Question 21 [4]
Discuss how the Plan–Do–Check–Act cycle integrates with the seven-step improvement
process. Illustrate the relationship.

Question 22 [5]
Give an example of an incident that resulted in a request for change (RFC). In your example,
discuss the chain of events leading up to and including the approval of the RFC by the change
advisory board (CAB) and the implementation of the RFC by the responsible process manager.
Your discussion should focus on the processes and the process owners involved in every step.

Question 23 [5]
Briefly discuss five security objectives of information security management and provide an
example on how each is ensured in an organisation.

Question 24 [4]
Using a multi-level service level management (SLA) approach, give an example on how that
can be applied in an organisation. In addition, provide a brief explanation for each level of SLA
in the multi-level structure.

Question 25 [5]
Application management is mainly a service operation function. In your own words, discuss how
application management is involved in each of the five phases of IT service management
lifecycle.

Question 26 [4]
Given the four (4) service desk (SD) structures, use diagrams to illustrate each of the four
structures including organisation examples for each structure.

Question 27 [6]
27.1 Consider the following scenario. A login server had a downtime of 23 hours in a period of
four-week period. Calculate the webserver availability. (2)

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27.2 Given that a database server had a down time of 4.5% in two weeks, calculate the
available time in minutes. (2)
27.3 Given that a service has an availability of 89.8% in a leap year, calculate the total
downtime in hours. (2)

Question 28 [20]
ITIL implementation inevitably requires some changes to organisations’ business processes.
This question is based on the research article the investigated EIGHT case studies through
organisational change for successful ITIL implementation. Use the Unisa Library eResources to
download the article and answer the following questions after reading it in its entirety.
NB: You can use other sources to answer the questions, provided you reference the additional
sources.

RESEARCH ARTICLE: Blumberg, M., Cater-Steel, A., Rajaeian, M.M. and Soar, J., 2019.
Effective organisational change to achieve successful ITIL implementation. Journal of
Enterprise Information Management.

28.1 Discuss the relationship between Information Technology Service Management (ITSM)
and ITIL. Highlighting the following aspects: definition, similarities and differences in
implementation approaches. (2)
28.2 Discuss the term ‘organisational change’ (OC) with emphasis on different types and
strategies of OC. (2)
28.3 What is you understanding of the term ‘socio-technical system’ (STS) in relation to ITSM?
Provide a diagram to illustrate STS. (4)
28.4 The eight case studies in this research implemented these FOUR processes and
functions (except problem management with 7/8 implementations): service desk, incident
management, change management, and problem management. Discuss why EACH of
these processes/functions are most likely candidates for initial ITIL implementation in
organisations. (8)
28.5 Identify and summarise the different types and strategies of organisational change for
ITIL implementation. (2)
28.6 Identify and discuss the main factors that contributed to the successful implementation of
ITIL across all the case studies in the research. (2)
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