ITIL Series #22 | ATL004:22

The ITIL 4 Operating Model

by Mark Smalley

How does ITIL 4 help you analyse ITIL Service Value Chain
and improve your operating model
for IT service management? What is the ITIL service value chain? It is a
set of six high-level activities: plan, improve,
ITIL 4 defines the ITIL service value chain as engage, design and transition, obtain/build,
an operating model for service providers that and deliver and support. Together, they cover
covers all the key activities to flexibly manage the activities needed to fulfil the primary
products and services. While I’m happy process of delivering IT services. In order to
with placing the value chain at the heart of execute these activities, you need resources.
an operating model, I think that it’s worth You come across these in ITIL’s service value
exploring how other parts of ITIL contribute. system, that surrounds the service value
chain with governance and management
Download hundreds of FREE IT
constructs, and resources, which together
Service Management resources
drive and support the primary activities.
at Good e-Learning today!
ITIL describes resources in the 34 ITIL
www.goodelearning.com/downloads management practices. These practices
represent the capabilities that are needed
to do things in the value streams where
the value is (co)created. ITIL breaks
down a practice into the so-called four
dimensions of service management, namely
organizations and people, information
and technology, partners and suppliers,
and value streams and processes.

Fourth Dimension
The first three of these four pairs are
definitely resources. The fourth dimension,
value streams and processes, is where the
resources are used. Value streams are what
actually happens in an organization. They

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by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Such requests for permission or any
other comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to: marketing@goodelearning.com. Good e-Learning is a trading name used by
Educational Systems Ltd.
are the concrete steps that people (and Model Canvas, then the processes (P) are
things) take in order to create and deliver described in ITIL’s service value chain, and
products and services. A value stream the organization, locations and assets,
describes what happens in a particular information and information solutions,
organization. It is unique to that organization. and suppliers (OLIS) are described in the
practices in the service value system,
In contrast, value chains are abstractions. and much of the underlying management
They describe in generic terms what an system (M) is to be found in governance
organization does. You can observe what and continual improvement in the service
happens in a value stream. You can’t value system, and in the plan and improve
do that with a value chain. You can map service value chain activities. ITIL 4 ticks all
a value stream step to part of a value of the boxes, and uses similar terminology.
chain in order to understand where it
fits in the bigger picture, but this is more
about management than execution. Summary
An IT service-oriented operating model can
Operating Models be based on ITIL 4’s service value chain in
combination with the service value system
Operating models are also about execution. that describes the necessary resources and
Just like value streams, they are unique management system. As such, these two
to an organization. They describe how a major parts of ITIL 4 offer a useful reference
specific organization uses its resources operating model that helps organizations
to do what it does. It is the organization’s analyze and improve their specific operating
way of delivering its products and services, model for IT service management.
and running itself. Strictly speaking, an
operating model as described by ITIL, is a Download hundreds of FREE IT
reference operating model. These are very Service Management resources
useful as input for the process of creating an at Good e-Learning today!
operating model for a specific organization.
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Operating models are the ‘back end’ of the
business model that defines products and
services that the operating model delivers.
The Operating Model Canvas describes an
operating model in terms of six elements:
processes, organization, locations and
assets, information and information solutions,
suppliers, and an underlying management
system (abbreviated as POLISM).

ITIL Operating Model

If we describe an operating model according
to the six POLISM elements of the Operating

© Copyright 2018 Good e-Learning. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, resold, stored in a retrieval system, or distributed in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Such requests for permission or any
other comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to: marketing@goodelearning.com. Good e-Learning is a trading name used by
Educational Systems Ltd.