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Overview
Within the Educause Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) Service Catalog Model, there are three tiers in the hierarchy for a service catalog: Service Category, Service, and Service Offering. For the MSU Service Catalog utilizing TDX, we have adjusted these tiers to ECAR Category, Service Category, and Service.
MSU IT Service Portfolio vs. TDX Service Catalog vs. ECAR Model Hierarchy Crosswalk
| Tier |
MSU IT Terms |
TDX Terms |
ECAR Terms |
Effort Terms |
| 1 |
ECAR Category |
Category |
Category |
ECAR Category |
| 2 |
Service Category |
Sub-Category |
Service |
Service Category |
| 3 |
Service |
Service |
Service Offering |
Time Type |
| 4 |
Request |
Service Offering |
N/A |
N/A |
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Glossary of Terms
Activity/Action
Discrete undertakings that may be managed in the system of record. Actions refer to Tickets (all types) and Projects (Enterprise and Department) that can be used for reporting and monitoring. Actions are associated with effort, resources, and service and we expect utilize these associations for our effort reporting dashboard.
Asset
Any financially valuable component that can contribute to the delivery of an IT product or service. An IT asset is an item that has sufficient significance, value, or risk associated with it that it must be managed.
Business Owner
A strategic role, not engaged in the day-to-day activities of managing the service. Rather, they focus on the big picture. They define the vision and roadmap. They have the knowledge and authority to make strategic decisions and clear the path of political and financial obstacles. They communicate with key stakeholders and work closely with the Service Owner, who is responsible for developing a roadmap that aligns with the vision. In Enterprise Technology, the Business Owner for enterprise services is frequently a senior level staff not in IT. In the remainder of the IT business units, the Business Owner is typically an Executive Director, Associate Vice President or Chief Technology Officer. Note that there are exceptions to these rules. (5)
Configuration Item
Any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an IT service.
Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
The database in that holds information about the service including service name (CI), description, service role assignments, incident assignment tiers, and change approvers.
Customer
The user of a service. In some situations where the customer is not a single person or small group, a representative group may be identified to play the customer role. The customer gives feedback on service performance and partners in development and maintenance of a Service Level Agreement.
ECAR Category
The ECAR Category is a logical grouping of services that benefit from being managed together. ECAR Category is the highest tier in the hierarchy that aligns with the ECAR term Category. The ECAR Categories are shown as Categories in the TDX Service Catalog (link).
Effort
The time a resource spends working on a service (operations) or action/activity (Department Project, Enterprise Project or Ticket). These are usually grouped in 15 minute increments. Effort information is utilized for dashboard reports and expected effort will be utilized to perform Capacity Management in the future.
Effort Management
Process, policy, and procedure around managing effort applied to actions and services. This includes the review of reporting to make decisions on more effective use of effort by resources.
Effort Reporting
The time reported to Activities and Actions. Resources will be required to report effort as defined by leadership to facilitate effort reporting, analysis, and decision-making.
Product
A configuration of an organization’s resources designed to offer value for a consumer.
Service
Service is the third tier in the hierarchy that aligns with the ECAR term Service Offering. The Service is the specific technology-focused activity, typically not identified by specific product or application names, used to deliver a service. These can be custom application solutions, or other technology that enables a service offering. Multiple service offerings might exist for a single service.
Service Offering
A TDX term that allows us to capture details of a particular service to further specify what is offered by the service.
Service Attributes
Key information about individual services. Different views of a catalog might contain different attributes focused on the catalog’s audience. Some examples include service name, service description, audience, benefits, service charges, and requirements.
Service Catalog
Structured information about all the active services and service offerings of a service provider, relevant for a specific target audience. The only part of the ITIL Service Portfolio published to customers, and used to support the sale and delivery of IT Services. The Service Catalog may include information about deliverables, prices, contact points, ordering, and request processes.
Service Category
Category is a tier in the Service Portfolio hierarchy that allow us to group lower tiers logically for dashboard reporting. While there are various types of category based on what model we are using, category organizes our services.
Service Manager
Responsible for the day-to-day management of activities associated with the lifecycle of the service.
These include:
- Service launch activities, including completion of all required deliverables for production readiness
- Service improvement activities, such as evaluating and streamlining operational support procedures and optimizing and automating service delivery processes
- Service sunset activities, which include the planned and orderly transition of clients to another service, shutdown of all billing processes and, where applicable, the removal of service-related equipment from data centers
The Service Owner and Service Manager roles are sometimes fulfilled by a single staff member. This is common for smaller services and for services that are delivered through cloud vendors (Platform-as-a-Service [PaaS] or Software-as-a-Service [SaaS]). In IT, the role of Service Manager is frequently a manager in the organization that owns the service.
Service Level Agreement
Agreement between the Service Owner and Customer that lays out the terms of service and expectations. Reviewed regularly and updated as service needs change.
Service Owner
The service owner holds responsibility for delivering a particular service. In the case of a customer-facing business service, the service owner is responsible for delivering the service, monitoring the health of the service, setting direction of the service, and meeting the expectations of the Service Level Agreement. The service owner will often lead a team of technical specialists or an internal support unit.
Service Portfolio
A complete set of products and services that are managed throughout their lifecycles by an organization. (3) The portfolio contains all items regardless of lifecycle stage, proposed, under development, operational or retired.
Service Provider
A role performed by an organization in a service relationship to provide services to consumers.
Time Type
This is the term for Service in the configuration of TDX Effort Reporting.
Workspace
This is the term for the team supporting a service in the configuration of TDX Effort Reporting.
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Additional Info
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