In many organisations, project management and service management function as distinct disciplines, often working in silos. Project teams concentrate on delivering a product, while service management teams oversee its long-term operation and maintenance. This disconnect can create challenges in support and sustainability once a project concludes.
To bridge this gap and enhance the supportability of products in the live environment, it is recommended that project activities be integrated with Service Transition processes. The Extended Service Transition Model, illustrated in Figure 6, aims to strengthen the connection between product development and service management.
Within the Execution phase, the model emphasises the delivery of people, process, technology, and information components of service transition through the following activities:
- Analysis: Evaluate the project's needs against stakeholder expectations and environmental constraints, identifying challenges and opportunities.
- Requirements gathering: This process captures, defines, and prioritises stakeholder needs, driving the development of a product that meets its intended purpose.
- Design: Translates requirements into a design blueprint, confirming the solution's viability in the operational environment.
- Development: Constructs the solution based on design specifications, balancing technical precision, creativity, and compliance with requirements.
- Integration: Ensures the new product interacts effectively with existing technologies and processes.
- Implementation: Deploys the fully functional product of people, processes, technology, and information solutions in the live environment.
Although the model primarily focuses on direct activities within the Execution phase, it also includes these essential elements not shown in the diagram:
- Risk management: Identifies, assesses, and mitigates threats to ensure smooth progression towards project objectives.
- Stakeholder management: Keeps the project aligned with stakeholder expectations, incorporating feedback and addressing concerns.
- Documentation from initial plans to post-implementation review: Supports governance and compliance, providing valuable insights for future enhancements.
Extended Service Transition Model Explained
The diagram in Figure 7 shows the relationships between Execution activities and Service Transition processes in the Extended Service Transition Model. While this visual captures the basic interactions between processes, it does not depict the full complexity of the interactions.
Each numbered item corresponds to a step in the explanation, detailing the sequence and interaction between the project management phases, Execution activities and Service Transition processes.
- Initiation to Planning marks a strategic shift from defining project objectives to creating a detailed, actionable plan encompassing risk management strategies, resource allocations, and schedules.
- Planning to Execution activates the project management plans, transforming strategic plans into concrete outcomes.
- Execution to Monitoring and Controlling provides a feedback loop for continuously assessing project performance and making necessary adjustments.
- Monitoring and Controlling to Closing transitions the project from active management to formal completion, producing final performance reports and all necessary documentation. This signifies that all project objectives have been achieved and deliverables are ready for handover.
- Development within Execution to Release and Deployment Management deploys a version of IT code, system updates, network modifications, and configuration alterations for functional, non-functional, and user acceptance testing in a test environment.
- Integration within Execution to Release and Deployment Management deploys a version of IT code, system updates, network modifications, and configuration alterations for system integration testing in a test environment.
- Release and Deployment Management to Configuration and Asset Management updates the configuration management database with all changes, supporting effective asset management and facilitating informed decision-making for service and configuration changes.
- Implementation within Execution to Change Control assesses and authorises IT code changes, system updates, network modifications, and configuration alterations before deployment to the live environment.
- Change Control to Release and Deployment Management releases approved IT code changes, system updates, network modifications, and configuration alterations to the live environment for technical and post-verification testing.
- Release and Deployment Management to Service Testing and Validation completes the relevant testing in test and production environments.
- Service Testing and Validation to Execution establishes a feedback loop to address any requirements, design, coding, or integration defects.
- Change Control to Transition Planning and Support ensures the smooth transition of services into the live environment, maintaining service stability and continuity.
- Execution to Knowledge Management focuses on systematically capturing and sharing knowledge from project execution to enhance organisational learning and improvement.
- Knowledge Management to Transition Planning and Support uses the knowledgebase to support service management.
Commentary: Extended Service Transition Model and Agile Methodologies
The Extended Service Transition Model illustrates a seamless transition from product development to service delivery. This model progresses linearly in a Waterfall delivery model, as detailed in Figure 7. In contrast, the Agile approach cycles repeatedly through steps 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 for continuous delivery across multiple sprints or iterations.