IS0 20000 Availability Management Process

ISO 20000 provides standards for IT services and the Availability Management Process - ISO 20000 presents a framework to execute the established guidelines. The foundation of every IT-related business is well-structured IT services. IT services that run smoothly boost the business and enhance quality services. However, the lack of a proper IT structure leads to users facing issues such as IT problems, errors, and service disruptions. Incident management controls and prevents ‘incidents’ such as unplanned outages, and availability management ensures all IT service components — processes, resources, and structure — are available.

Key Objectives of the Incident Management Process

Incidents are common in IT services if the IT structure is poorly organized. IT users require proper support from IT resources and processes to manage the incidents and improve their services. As a part of ISO 20000 Service Operation, incident management supports IT organizations in the short and long run. The primary purpose of incident management involves restoring the normal service point that was affected by an incident, and its objectives are:

• Record every incident and essential data.
• Run incidents through a standard and organized protocol, and ensure the procedure is effective and quick.
• Categorize and prioritize incidents according to their level and urgency (critical, severe, moderate, and low) and plan a schedule accordingly.
• Investigate each incident thoroughly and run them by qualified staff members and experts to generate internal and external reports.
• Prepare a reliable and cost-efficient strategy to identify, assess, and eliminate ways in a time-saving and convenient way.
  

What Does It Do and Who Is It For?

IT organizations, individuals, and service desk teams use incident management to contact users, take down their requests and forward their issues to the IT management department. In addition to objectives, the incident management process sets goals to achieve the desired results that improve IT services and fix challenges.

• Reduce Downtime- Incident management aims to find solutions and resolve incidents as quickly as possible to resume seamless IT services. An incident elimination plan, be it a permanent or a temporary solution, assigns the incident a unique serial number to identify it. After the identification step, the suitable hardware and software applications determine and categorize the incident based on its urgency. Finally, the incident is handed over to the person or team in charge who implement their tools and knowledge to fix and close the incident. A closed incident indicates a successful procedure and reduces IT service downtime.
• Work on the Service Quality- IT departments use incident management to enhance the quality of their IT services. The concerned teams identify common incidents reported by multiple users and use the assigned serial number to investigate their sources. Incident recurrence patterns are noted and observed using availability management to change or modify incident elimination strategies to improve high-quality IT services.
• Assessing IT Services and Incidents- The incident management framework helps an organization’s IT department monitor an incident to understand its root cause, pattern, impact, and urgency. Based on the assessment, the consulting team uses the available tools and resources to document their results, allowing the problem management team to eliminate rare or unpredictable incidents.
• Clear and Direct Communication- It is essential to keep higher management, such as shareholders, directors, and investors, in the loop regarding major or recurring incidents. The incident management process sends regular and scheduled updates to the higher management that document the incident, its category, timeline, affected services, user reports, the incident management team in charge, incident strategies, and the estimated time to resolve it.
• Prevent Service Level Agreement Leaks- A service level agreement (SLA) ensures the tickets remain confidential and customers can track their respective requests. However, third-party interference, breach, poor organization, and security negligence can lead to an SLA leak, hindering the services. The incident management team ensures no external or internal factor compromises the incident solution strategy.
• Monitor the Status of IT Services and Operations- Incident management monitors the status of incidents across multiple platforms using hardware, software, and key performance indicators, such as the total number of incidents, recurring incidents, urgent incidents, resolution time for rare, critical, and frequent incidents, and affected tickets.

What are the Processes of Availability Management (ISO 20000)?

The Availability Management Process - ISO 20000 is a vital cog in planning and monitoring the availability of IT tools, resources, and infrastructure required to improve ITSM, IT services, and customer satisfaction. Availability management comprises three main sub-processes that ensure IT services are adequately available.

• Available Design Services- This process creates plans and maps for technical components of IT service required to meet the prescribed resource availability standards set by the International Organization for Standardization.
• Available Testing- The available testing sub-process ensures that all IT structures undergo regular testing to check their availability, strength, and restoration time. Scheduled tests validate availability management plans for automation, reliability, and recovery.
• Available Assessment and Documentation- Through this process, the availability management team provides IT and Service management departments with accurate and relevant information regarding service and resource compatibility and availability. Observing and documenting the gap between the current availability status and established availability guidelines allows organizations to identify areas of improvement and potential growth.

Benefits of the Availability Management Process Template

Whether you work in architecture, software development, service desk, or IT enterprises, availability management is an essential tool to implement. Availability management is compatible with multiple frameworks, such as problem management, capacity management, IT security, administration, and strategy planning, which enhance your IT services.

• Cost-Efficient Process- Implementing availability management allows you to meet your business goals without exhausting extra resources and increasing unnecessary expenditures. With availability management, organizations can prevent investing in various applications to maintain their IT services. Instead, the availability management process reduces high operation costs and ensures a stable IT infrastructure.
• Customer Satisfaction- Availability management reduces service outages by identifying and eliminating vulnerabilities in the early stages, allowing customers to conduct their operations without interruptions. Furthermore, predicting and preventing outages gives users the assurance that they can work without worrying about timeouts or slow networks, making companies look reliable and trustworthy.
• Improve Service Quality- Availability management improves the quality of IT services and ensures their availability. Available resources and services help organizations stay ahead of their competitors.

Wrapping Up :

Well-maintained IT services are essential for every organization, regardless of size or industry. The Availability Management Process - ISO 20000 ensures the required tools for IT services, such as infrastructure and resources, are readily available for uninterrupted and improved quality of services.