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Service Validation

Service validation and testing ensures that new or changed services meet requirements and add agreed upon value. It has been introduced in ITIL V3 and expanded in ITIL 2011. Service validation and testing occurs during the service transition phase and involves testing service components that have been introduced or changed. A risk-based testing approach is adopted to reduce risks to services and customers. Roles and responsibilities include validating service requirements and identifying issues. Objectives may be unclear at times and shortage of resources can delay validation and impact other transitions.

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hussainfawad1313
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14 views

Service Validation

Service validation and testing ensures that new or changed services meet requirements and add agreed upon value. It has been introduced in ITIL V3 and expanded in ITIL 2011. Service validation and testing occurs during the service transition phase and involves testing service components that have been introduced or changed. A risk-based testing approach is adopted to reduce risks to services and customers. Roles and responsibilities include validating service requirements and identifying issues. Objectives may be unclear at times and shortage of resources can delay validation and impact other transitions.

Uploaded by

hussainfawad1313
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SERVICE VALIDATION AND TESTING PROCESS

1. INTRODUCTION

Service Validation and Testing has been introduced as a new process in ITIL V3. Major additions are
details on the various testing stages during Service Transition and descriptions of commonly used
testing approaches.

In ITIL 2011, additional interfaces between Service Validation and Project Management have been
added to make sure that Project Management is constantly provided with current planning
information.

2. DEFINITION
Service Validation and Testing defines the testing of services during the Service Transition phase.
This will ensure that new or changed services are fit for purpose (this is known as utility) and fit
for use (this is known as warranty).

Service Validation and Testing's goal is to make sure the delivery of activities adds value that is
agreed and expected. If testing hasn't been carried out properly, additional Incidents and Problems
will arise.

3. SCOPE

Service validation and testing has a wide scope in the industry.

Service validation and testing can be applied throughout the service lifecycle in order to provide
assurance about the quality of any aspect of a service.

It also provides an assurance of the service provider’s capability, resources and capacity to deliver or
release a service successfully.

Service testing can also be applied to services, hardware or knowledge-based services developed in-
house.

It involves testing of the service components which have been newly introduced or changed and
examines their behavior in a business unit, service unit or deployment group.

4. STATEMENT OF POLICY

The typical policy statements of service validation and testing include the following.

All the tests for service validation must be designed and carried out by the people who haven’t been
involved in the design and development activities for the service.

The criteria for passing/failing of the test should be documented in an SDP in advance before the start of
any testing.

Each test environment should be restored to an earlier known state before starting the test.

Service validation and testing need to create, catalog and maintain a library of test models, test cases,
test data and test scripts which can be re-used.
A risk-based testing approach should be adopted to reduce the risk to the service and customer’s
business.

5. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

It provides confidence that a release will result in the creation of a new service or change the existing
service, which in turn delivers the outcomes as expected.

It also delivers optimum value for the customers within the projected costs and the capacity and
constraints available at that time.

The process validates that a service is ‘fit’ for its purpose and that it will deliver the necessary utility.

It provides a guarantee that a particular service is ‘fit for use’ and that it will deliver as per the warranty
which has been agreed upon.

It provides a confirmation that the requirements of the customer and stakeholder are correctly
identified and defined.

The process also helps to identify, analyze and solve the issues, problems, and risks which occur
throughout the service transition process.

6. IMPLICATIONS

The following implications are faced in service validation and testing process:

Objectives and expectations can be unclear at times

There can be a lack of understanding of the risks involved, which results in testing that is not targeted at
critical elements.

Shortage of resources can introduce delays and have an impact on other service transitions.

7. FURTHER INFORMATION

Senior leadership will define the meaning of service quality. Service Strategy discusses the quality
perspectives that a service provider needs to consider.

In addition to service level metrics, service quality takes into account the positive impact of the service
(utility) and the certainty of impact warranty.

The Service Strategy publication outlines four quality perspectives:

Level of excellence Value for money Conformance to specification Meeting or exceeding expectations

One or more, if not all four, perspectives are usually required to guide the measurement and control of
Service Management processes. The dominant perspective will influence how services are measured
and controlled, which in turn will influence how services are designed and operated. Understanding the
quality perspective will influence the Service Design and the approach to validation and testing.

Risk policy
Different customer segments, organizations, business units and service units have different attitudes to
risk. Where an organization is an enthusiastic taker of business risk, testing will be looking to establish a
lower degree of confidence than a safety critical or regulated organization might seek.

The risk policy will influence control required through Service Transition including the degree and level
of validation and testing of service level requirements, utility and warranty, i.e., availability risks, security
risks, continuity risks and capacity risks.

Service Transition policy

A policy defined, documented and approved by the management team, who ensure ¡t ¡s communicated
across the organization, to relevant suppliers/ partners

Release policy

The type and frequency of releases will influence the testing approach. Frequent releases such as once-
a-day drive requirements for re-usable test models and automated testing.

Change Management policy

The use of change windows can influence the testing that needs to be considered. For example, if there
is a policy of ‘substituting’ a release package late in the change schedule or if the scheduled release
package is delayed then additional testing may be required to test this combination if there are
dependencies.

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