{"id":5846,"date":"2016-04-12T19:19:56","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T19:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiacademstg.wpengine.com\/20000academy\/?p=5846"},"modified":"2025-07-07T09:58:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T09:58:32","slug":"what-is-the-relationship-between-service-level-management-and-the-service-catalogue-in-iso-20000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2016\/04\/12\/what-is-the-relationship-between-service-level-management-and-the-service-catalogue-in-iso-20000\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the relationship between Service Level Management and the Service Catalogue in ISO 20000?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Since <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ISO 20000<\/a>\u00a0is not (directly) organized in the service lifecycle, like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-itil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL<\/a>, Service Level Management (SLM) is where \u201cthe story\u201d about delivering IT services begins. That gives the service provider an opportunity to make official which and what kind of services they deliver. When put in written form \u2013 that\u2019s the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-portfolio-processes&amp;doc=service-catalog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Service Catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>ISO 20000 has a different approach to the Service Catalogue. But first, let\u2019s review some details about ISO 20000. There are several parts of the standard. Two are the most important ones:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ISO 20000-1 \u2013 these are the requirements; i.e., if an organization wants to gain ISO 20000 certification, this is what they have to fulfill. Don\u2019t expect many details in this document \u2013 just listed requirements.<\/li>\n<li>ISO 20000-2 \u2013 guidance, i.e., code of practice. This document explains what the first part requires, and gives you a few hints as to how to fulfill those requirements. But, from my experience, IT Service Management \/ ITIL experience will be your \u201cstrongest weapon\u201d for the implementation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s see the ISO 20000 approach to the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-portfolio-processes&amp;doc=service-catalog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Service Catalogue<\/a>.<br \/>\n<div id=\"middle-banner\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><script>loadMiddleBanner();<\/script><br \/>\n<div id=\"side-banner-trigger\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2><strong>ISO 20000, Service Catalogue and the content<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Well, ISO 20000-1 does not explicitly define the content of the Service Catalogue. The standard just says that the Service Catalogue shall (in the ISO world, \u201cshall\u201d means it\u2019s a requirement) be agreed upon with the customer and that its content shall include dependencies between services and service components. Not very specific, is it?<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, there is ISO 20000-2, which gives more details about the Service Catalogue and its content. Before I explain the recommendations, let me highlight one more option \u2013 ITIL explains the Service Catalogue in much, much more detail (read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2013\/03\/19\/service-catalogue-window-world\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Service Catalogue \u2013 a window to the world<\/a>\u00a0to find out ITIL\u2019s view on the Service Catalogue) and could be your powerful tool to implement the catalogue.<\/p>\n<p>So, let\u2019s get back to ISO 20000 and the code of practice. You will find a lot of details that should give you an idea of how to approach the creation of the Service Catalogue. So, ISO 20000-2 suggest that the Service Catalogue should contain:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a description of the service (of course, including name of the service) \u2013 be careful with this because it has to be understandable by the customer<\/li>\n<li>service targets \u2013 how fast you need to resolve, e.g., incidents of different priority levels or how fast you have to fulfill a service request, e.g., provide a user with access to a certain network resource (like a project folder on a local network)<\/li>\n<li>contact points<\/li>\n<li>support, i.e., service hours, including exceptions<\/li>\n<li>any security issue \/ requirement \/ arrangement<\/li>\n<li>dependencies on other services \/ components, like when a desktop service contains WAN (Wide Area Network\/Internet) service<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That\u2019s on track with what ITIL describes as the content of the Service Catalogue. The ISO 20000 approach to the process of creating the Service Catalogue is different.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Different or same?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Reading the standard\u2019s requirements can be surprising for ITIL people (someone deeply involved in IT Service Management according to ITIL). There is no Service Catalogue process! Well, the Service Catalogue is a pretty important element when delivering IT services, and many people find it strange that the standard only mentions it in just a few sentences within the scope of the Service Level Management process.<\/p>\n<p>Since ISO 20000 is narrower in scope than ITIL, it\u2019s logical that some of the processes are bound together (e.g., ITIL\u2019s Incident Management and Request Fulfillment processes are Incident and Service Request Management in ISO 20000). So is the Service Catalogue \u2013 it\u2019s part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=relationship-and-agreement-processes&amp;doc=service-level-management-process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Service Level Management process<\/a>. Is that good or bad?<\/p>\n<p>There are some pros and some cons. Here are few of them:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pros<\/strong> \u2013 SLM is the central \u201cpoint\u201d for all service-related issues and their <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=relationship-and-agreement-processes&amp;doc=customer-agreement-portfolio\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">customers<\/a>. In such way, SLM has the best overview of the customer\u2019s requirements and their level of understanding of services that are provided. Namely, the Service Catalogue should ensure that the service provider and the customer have the same understanding of what the service does (and how). Additionally, SLM is in charge of coordinating external partners (suppliers) and components of the service they provide.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cons<\/strong> \u2013 I noticed that organizations that don\u2019t have a clear customer-service relationship get in trouble with the Service Catalogue. That could be avoided in several ways, like having one of the Service Level Managers responsible for a particular service or splitting a catalogue into a common section (for all customers) and a customer-specific section. Additionally, the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-portfolio-processes&amp;doc=service-catalog-management-process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Service Catalogue Management process<\/a> according to ITIL is included in activities that are part of service design (e.g., definition of services and service packages), which means a bigger impact on services right from the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>SLM is in direct contact with the customers and knows a lot about them and how they perceive your services. Having strong relationships with Supplier Management and Business Relationship Management makes SLM a hub inside the organization for all issues related to customers and services. And, the <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-portfolio-processes&amp;doc=service-catalog\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Service Catalogue<\/a> is a document that provides written obligation for all involved parties with a common target \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=relationship-and-agreement-processes&amp;doc=customer-satisfaction-survey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">customer satisfaction<\/a>. On one side, that makes the Service Catalogue important, but on the other side it provides the service provider with a tool to clarify the \u201crules of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>To implement ISO 20000 easily and efficiently, use our<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ISO 20000 Documentation Toolkit<\/a> <em>that provides step-by-step guidance for full ISO 20000 compliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since ISO 20000\u00a0is not (directly) organized in the service lifecycle, like\u00a0ITIL, Service Level Management (SLM) is where \u201cthe story\u201d about delivering IT services begins. That gives the service provider an opportunity to make official which and what kind of services they deliver. When put in written form \u2013 that\u2019s the Service Catalogue. ISO 20000 has &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[528,366,344,204,363,378,500],"class_list":["post-5846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-business-relationship-management","tag-iso-20000","tag-itil","tag-service","tag-service-catalogue","tag-service-level-management","tag-supplier-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5846"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18571,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5846\/revisions\/18571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}