scope:

General

This part of ISO/IEC 20000 is a service management system (SMS) standard. It specifies requirements for the service provider to plan, establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve an SMS. The requirements include the design, transition, delivery and improvement of services to fulfil service requirements. This part of ISO/IEC 20000 can be used by:

a) an organization seeking services from service providers and requiring assurance that their service requirements will be fulfilled;

b) an organization that requires a consistent approach by all its service providers, including those in a supply chain;

c) a service provider that intends to demonstrate its capability for the design, transition, delivery and improvement of services that fulfil service requirements;

d) a service provider to monitor, measure and review its service management processes and services;

e) a service provider to improve the design, transition and delivery of services through effective implementation and operation of an SMS;

f) an assessor or auditor as the criteria for a conformity assessment of a service provider's SMS to the requirements in this part of ISO/IEC 20000.

Figure 2 illustrates an SMS, including the service management processes. The service management processes and the relationships between the processes can be implemented in different ways by different service providers. The nature of the relationship between a service provider and the customer will influence how the service management processes are implemented.

Application

All requirements in this part of ISO/IEC 20000 are generic and are intended to be applicable to all service providers, regardless of type, size and the nature of the services delivered. Exclusion of any of the requirements in Clauses 4 to 9 is not acceptable when a service provider claims conformity to this part of ISO/IEC 20000, irrespective of the nature of the service provider's organization.

Conformity to the requirements in Clause 4 can only be demonstrated by a service provider showing evidence of fulfilling all of the requirements in Clause 4. A service provider cannot rely on evidence of the governance of processes operated by other parties for the requirements in Clause 4.

Conformity to the requirements in Clauses 5 to 9 can be demonstrated by the service provider showing evidence of fulfilling all requirements. Alternatively, the service provider can show evidence of fulfilling the majority of the requirements themselves and evidence of the governance of processes operated by other parties for those processes, or parts of processes, that the service provider does not operate directly.

The scope of this part of ISO/IEC 20000 excludes the specification for a product or tool. However, organizations can use this part of ISO/IEC 20000 to help them develop products or tools that support the operation of an SMS.

NOTE ISO/IEC TR 20000-3 provides guidance on scope definition and applicability of this part of ISO/IEC 20000. This includes further explanation about the governance of processes operated by other parties.