ITIL Service Transition – 14 Policies and their Fundamental ITSM Principles

Service Transition is a pivotal aspect of ITIL Version 3, as it enables the execution of the vision mandated in ITIL Service Design to turn into a reality.

The task would be impossible to achieve without specific policies and principles. So, in order for ITIL service transition to work efficiently and effectively you should be fully aware of the following fourteen CSI policies: -

Implementing a formal policy

To prevent any miscommunication and disappointing results, it is imperative that a formal policy for ITIL service transition is discussed and agreed on by all parties involved.


Implementing all changes to services through service transition

Changes concerning the service catalogue or service portfolio are implemented by Change Management, which are managed directly by the ITIL service transition process.


Adopt a similar framework and standards

To avoid any risk of confusion – or even complications in the service transition process, it is best to make use of both a common framework and ITSM standards that can easily be used by all operations and service owners.


Maximising the usage of established processes and systems

Service transition aims to find processes that can be useful for more than one service process or purpose. As these processes are made with the business operations in mind, ongoing operational efficiency is usually a key target - as changes are made across the service transition process.


Aligning ITIL service transition plans with the business needs

In order to satisfy the customer's service demands and maximize the value of any changes, it should be noted that the service transition’s plans are synchronized with the business organization's requirements.


Establishing and maintaining relationships with stakeholders

Try to connect and establish a working relationship with customers, users, suppliers and customer representatives to maintain a clear view of the changes and how they will impact and affect the company overall.


Establishing effective controls and disciplines

To ensure a seamless transition of service changes and deployments, it is best to find the most effective controls and disciplines for the whole service lifecycle.


Providing systems for knowledge transfer and decision support

The ITIL service transition process aims to develop systems and processes that would make it easier to control future processes and minimize any service errors. Through detailed documentation and quality data collection, service operations will run better and more efficiently.


Plan release and deployment packages

Service transition offers - in advance – many specific techniques to handle a release, or a deployment of a service change in which efforts are put into finding the most cost effective and efficient way to progress.


Anticipating and managing course corrections

Anticipate the inevitable occurrence of changes and certain alterations across the service lifecycle, and also have a team trained that can manage and make instant course corrections that limits any deviation from the original service design framework.


Proactively manage resources across service transition

Service transition aims to provide the shared services of skilled and specialist resources that would help fix problems easier to avoid longer disruptions in the service lifecycle.


Ensuring early involvement in the service lifecycle

Start participating in the earliest stages of service design, so as to provide insight and detect possible flaws for the service. This also helps to ensure that the various service processes will encounter fewer complications once delivered to service operations.


Assure the quality of the new or changed service

ITIL's service transition process aims to make sure that the quality and efficiency of the prescribed changes are in agreement with the service design requirements.


Proactively improve quality during service transition

To be aware of the needs of the service operation and pro-actively check for flaws in any of the changed services - as progress occurs through service transition.

By doing this, it is more cost efficient for the business to fix issues and problems as early as possible – rather than within Service Operations which impacts real users, customers and presents a big risk to any SLA.
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