Service Transition Management

Service Transition builds and deploys new or modified services.

Fig. 1: ITIL Service

Transition
The ITIL service lifecycle stage of Service Transition (see fig. 1) includes the
following main processes:

Change Management
Process Objective: To control the lifecycle of all Changes. The primary
objective of Change Management is to enable beneficial Changes to be
made, with minimum disruption to IT services.

Change Evaluation
Process Objective: To assess major Changes, like the introduction of a
new service or a substantial change to an existing service, before those
Changes are allowed to proceed to the next phase in their lifecycle.

Project Management (Transition Planning and Support)

Process Objective: To plan and coordinate the resources to deploy a major
Release within the predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

Application Development
Process Objective: To make available applications and systems which
provide the required functionality for IT services. This process includes the
development and maintenance of custom applications as well as the
customization of products from software vendors.

Release and Deployment Management

Process Objective: To plan, schedule and control the movement of
releases to test and live environments. The primary goal of Release
Management is to ensure that the integrity of the live environment is
protected and that the correct components are released.

Service Validation and Testing

Process Objective: To ensure that deployed Releases and the resulting
services meet customer expectations, and to verify that IT operations is
able to support the new service.

Service Asset and Configuration Management

Process Objective: To maintain information about Configuration Items
required to deliver an IT service, including their relationships.

Knowledge Management
Process Objective: To gather, analyze, store and share knowledge and
information within an organization. The primary purpose of Knowledge
Management is to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover
knowledge.

Service management practices

The service management practices in ITIL 4 include:
 Business analysis
 Service catalogue management
 Service design
 Service level management
 Availability management
 Capacity and performance management
 Service continuity management
 Monitoring and event management
 Service desk
 Incident management
 Service request management
 Problem management
 Release management
 Change enablement
 Service validation and testing
 Service configuration management
 IT asset management
ITIL Service transition is the third stage of the service lifecycle. It involves
transitioning the services that were created and developed in strategy and design –
first and second stage of the cycle – into the production environment effectively,
efficiently, and safely.

This stage deals with everything from preparing for change to documenting the
components of the asset that make up the service to creating knowledge articles for
support teams and end users.

Here, we will examine how ITIL defines service transition, the benefits of managing this
process effectively, the eight service transition processes, and, finally, how to carry out
the practicalities with some real-life examples.

Ready to learn more about service transition? Let's get started.

ITIL service transition definition

Service transition is the lifecycle stage that deals with transformation and change. Its
primary role is to transition services into the live environment, move or change existing
services and retire legacy services effectively, efficiently, and safely.

The scope of this phase is developing and improving capabilities for transitioning new
and modified services into the appropriate environment and retiring legacy services
from the live environment. Change, Release, Configuration, and Knowledge
Management are key ITIL processes for service transition.

ITIL v3 service transition

ITIL v3 defines and positions service transition as the third stage in the service lifecycle.
Its mission is to take the services defined in the strategy and design phases and
transition them into service.

ITIL 4 service transition

ITIL 4 has expanded the service lifecycle to the service value system, or SVS. Service
transition sits in the SVS within the Service Management practices.

8 benefits of ITIL service transition

Effective service transition has the following benefits:
 1. More effective Change Management leads to overall increased rates of
successful change activity.
2. Less delays caused by scheduling clashes and incomplete
dependencies due to Release and Configuration Management.
3. Reduced effort involved in managing test and pilot environments. This is
due to the service validation and testing practice.
4. Increased confidence that a new or modified service will be delivered
according to the specifications agreed with business stakeholders in the
previous stages of the lifecycle.
5. Assurance that the services which have been newly introduced or
modified are easy to maintain and cost-effective in the long term.
6. Improved control of the different service assets and configurations
through the Configuration Management Database (CMDB), making it
easier to troubleshoot incidents and assess the impact of change
activities.
7. More effective knowledge sharing across support teams.

ITIL service transition principles

The fundamental principles in the service transition stage of the lifecycle are:

 Defining a clear transition policy so that every transition activity is clearly

defined and follows organizational standards and governance.
 Ensuring services are transitioned with the appropriate utility and
warranty requirements in place.
 Adhering to the standardized approach so that all transition activities are
carried out consistently with the help of models and templates.
 Improving and optimizing processes and systems.
  Release planning to deploy the tested service in production.
 Monitoring and proactively taking measures to improve the service
during the release cycle.
 Capturing knowledge accurately and ensuring that it is easy to access
and use.

The 8 ITIL service transition processes

Service transition has eight processes spanning change and release activity, Asset
Management and Configuration Management, and sharing knowledge for effective
support models.

The service transition processes are:

1. Change Enablement/Management
2. Change Evaluation
3. Project Management (Transition Planning and Support)
4. Application Development
5. Release and Deployment Management
6. Service Validation and Testing
7. Service Asset and Configuration Management
8. Knowledge Management

Let's take a look at each process in a little more detail.

1. Change Enablement/Management
Change Enablement or Management (depending on which flavor of ITIL you're
currently working with) is the process that controls all change activity. The primary
objective of this process is to enable changes to be made with minimum impact and
disruption to IT services. In other words, it is deploying changes successfully and safely
and working with all stakeholders to prevent or reduce the likelihood of incidents caused
by change.
KPIs associated with the Change Management practice include several successful
changes, the number of changes that have caused incidents, and the number of
emergency changes.

2. Change Evaluation
This practice is in place to assess significant changes, aka the serious stuff that maybe
only happens once or twice a quarter. Examples of this would be introducing a key
business service or a significant change to an existing critical service. This process acts
as a business case assessing the details of the proposed change and ensuring that the
benefits are worth the risk before the change is allowed to progress to the next phase in
its lifecycle.

KPIs associated with Change Evaluation include the number of changes evaluated
and progressed to the next stage.

3. Project Management (Transition Planning and

Support)
Project Management aims to coordinate and plan the resources required to deploy a
major release within the agreed time, cost, and quality estimates.

KPIs for this process include the number of releases that need this level of coordination
and their outcome.

4. Application Development
Application Development aims to create applications and systems that provide the
necessary functionality for IT services. This includes the maintenance and development
of custom applications and the customization of products from software vendors.

KPIs for application development include the number of applications managed under
the process.

5. Release and Deployment Management

The primary purpose of Release and Deployment Management is to plan, schedule,
and control the releases to test and live environments. The process goal is to ensure
that the live environment is protected, and additionally that the correct components are
released (preferably from a definitive media library or DML) per the release policy.

Release Management KPIs include the number of releases, successful deployments,

and releases that used the DML.
6. Service Validation and Testing
The goal of this process is to ensure that deployed releases and the associated
services meet customer expectations and verify that IT operations can support the new
service. To this end, test activities are carried out in a V model and include prerelease
testing as well as post-implementation verification to ensure all agreed outcomes are
met, and everything works as it should from a technical and a customer experience
standpoint.

7. Service Asset and Configuration Management

This process is needed to maintain information about Configuration Items (CIs) required
to deliver an IT service, including their relationships and dependencies. This information
is stored in a CMDB or System (CMS).

KPIs associated with the Configuration Management process include the number of
CIs under the control of Configuration Management and the number of CIs with
accurate information.

8. Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management is the practice or process of gathering, analyzing, sharing,
and storing knowledge and information within an organization. The goal of this practice
is to improve efficiency by reducing the requirement to rediscover knowledge. It is the
process that owns and is responsible for updating the Service Knowledge Management
System (SKMS).

KPIs associated with this process include the number of knowledge articles checked
and verified for accuracy.

ITIL service transition plan

Implementing the transition activities will look different in every organization. Every
business is unique and has different environments, requirements, and people involved.
But no matter what the situation, here is an implementation example with some
common tasks that can help out in different situations.

Service transition example

Say you're building a new HR system to manage annual leave bookings. Annual leave
affects everyone in the business, from the CEO to the intern, so it's important to get it
right.
Some transition activities that would be beneficial would include the following:

 Creating knowledge articles for both technical teams and end-users so

that they can use and support the new system accordingly.
 Validating and testing to ensure that the service has been thoroughly
tested.
 Making use of Change Management practices to ensure that the
implementation has been assessed and scheduled appropriately.
 Implementing Release Management to ensure the deployment into the
live environment goes smoothly.
 Assuring Service Asset and Configuration Management to capture the
building blocks of the new service and identify any dependencies to
make ongoing support easier.

Service transition roles and responsibilities

The roles involved in this stage are:

Role Responsibilities

Manages the change process and chairs all CAB and ECAB
Change Manager
meetings.

Change Advisory Board (CAB) Assesses and authorizes changes that need CAB-level approval.
 Assesses and authorizes changes that need emergency or
Emergency Change Advisory Board ECAB-level approval. ECABS are usually convened at short
(ECAB) notice as part of the incident or major incident resolution
activities and will work against a shortened process and timings.

Is responsible for all aspects of the Release Management

Release Manager
process.

Ensures all appropriate testing during change and release

Test Manager
activity.

Is responsible for the entire Configuration Management process

Configuration Manager
and updating the CMDB.

Is responsible for the Knowledge Management process and

Knowledge Manager
ensuring that the SKMS remains accurate and current.

Is responsible for all Project Management and coordination

Project Manager
activities.

Is responsible for the Application Development process and

Application Developer ensuring that the appropriate teams from operational support are
engaged as part of the build and transition process.

Service transition certification

The most relevant service transition qualification is the AXELOS certification. The
Service Transition (ST) module is one of the certifications within the ITIL® v3 Service
Lifecycle workstream. It focuses on the transition of IT services and covers the models,
processes, policies, and documentation that will enable delegates to transition services
into the support model.

Ideal candidates for this include roles that work in the transition stage of the lifecycle, for
example, change, release, or configuration managers.

The bottom line

Service transition is the third stage in the ITIL service lifecycle. ITIL defines its primary
purpose as ensuring “that new, modified, or retired services meet the expectations of
the business as documented in the strategy and design stages of the lifecycle.”
Basically, it starts putting everything into action.

Key processes of the service transition stage include Change Enablement and
Management, Release Management, Asset and Configuration Management, and
Knowledge Management. It’s important to pay special attention to each stage and to
make sure that everything is taken care of before moving on to the next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between IT service transition
and transformation?
IT service transition is about introducing new services, changing or updating existing
services, or restoring legacy services effectively, efficiently, and safely. Transformation
is the outcome - the new and improved project. In real terms, you could say that
transition is the journey (all the hard work carried out by your organization to introduce
new or changed services and retire old ones); transformation is the end result, the "ta-
da!" moment, the actual outcome.

What is the next stage in the service lifecycle?

The next stage is service operation, which is all about IT services' day-to-day
management and support.

Source: https://blog.invgate.com/itil-service-transition