Service management in the air

In preparation for my ‘Around ITIL in 30 Analogies’ for the LeadIT itSMF-A conference in August, and as I was travelling around the country recently, I decided to work out an analogy for service management, using an airline.

An airline is a popular analogy. I use it to explain the main reason for process documentation (process manual, procedures, work instructions, etc.): You wouldn’t want your pilot to just ‘wing’ the landing, but rather that he follows a predefined and well-trained procedure that will be audited by the co-pilot. Like-so Customers don’t want us to ‘wing it’ in IT but follow well-defined and documented (ITIL) processes.

So, to start with Service Strategy, an airline company will need to have an idea of the market they operate in (local, regional, global) and the offering they provide (freight, short-haul, cut-price, business). When it comes to adding a new service (or route or type of plane) into the Portfolio\pipeline, they need to know the Demand (A380 or Cessna), costs & projected revenue (budget\Financial) and (business) relationships with suppliers (airline manufacturers, airports, …) and major customers (and for a type 3 or commercial provider this could include things like market research). All this will lead to a Business Case (Service Package) and the go\no-go decision.

But, let’s make it a go so we can progress with Service Design. We need to look at capacity (how many flights, type of plane, gates at departure and arrival airports; for instance how many business class seats), availability (the reliability, maintainability -or serviceability- of the planes, gates, maintenance …; for instance how many flights a day/week), continuity (DR plans, safety procedures) and security (locked cockpit doors etc.). Detailed design would go into the entertainment on board, catering (options), cleaning, maintenance, crew-rotation, …

The underpinning contracts and operational level agreements (the latter implied or formal) need to be drafted. As this example\analogy is not a business-2-business service there isn’t really an service level agreement (SLA) but the correct information of the flights (dates, times, …) needs to be communicated either through the Service Catalogue (website, marketing material) or the ‘SLA’ (the ticket purchased by ‘the Customer’).

Once the Service Design (Package) is completed, we can commence with the Service Transition. This implementation project needs to be planned well. All components need to be tested (material, boarding procedure, check-in, …), perhaps even piloted. Training needs to take place as well as communication to make sure all stakeholders are prepared for what’s coming. The (asset) records need to be updated and any knowledge from the design\test teams needs to be transferred to the operational staff (and procedures). And finally Early Life Support will monitor the ‘go-live’ and make minor adjustment to ‘smooth’ the transition into Service Operation (read for a good ‘bad’ example about Heathrow’s Terminal 5 or the Boeing Dreamliner issues).

Service Operations is Business-As-Usual (BAU), routine day-to-day running of the services, in our case the new flights, plane etc. Event management will monitor the situation (through the Operations management function) and detect changes of state that have significance. Some of these are normal (a plane arrival triggers cleaning, refuelling etc.), some indicate an exception (plane delayed).

If an Incident happens (being an unplanned interruption) passengers can contact a Service Desk. Through categorisation and prioritisation action will be taken to find a short-term solution (for instance passengers who missed their flight can be booked on the next available one). For persistent, reoccurring or major incidents, root cause analysis will be performed to find the Known Error and a permanent solution (-all- the iPads on board cannot use a certain app, which needs to be upgraded). This will require a change (back to design & transition).

Passengers can also contact the Service Desk (or a Self Help portal) to make requests, such as special meals, preferred seating (perhaps with an additional payment) etc.

And finally the company needs to continuously strive to do everything better, higher, faster, stronger, cheaper (CSI).

You see, it is not hard to come up with ‘real world’ analogies that show the universal application of the ITIL service management principles. I am a big fan of using these kinds of analogies as it makes the dry and sometimes theoretic content of the ITIL publications much more tangible for students and staff. Try it yourself, and before you know you’ll be ‘up, up and away’!

the ITIL Zealot
June 2013