For test purposes, it is really important that we understand the value that partners and suppliers provide to managing our IT services, and actually around having a partner strategy. We need to make sure that we understand that partners and suppliers help us to integrate our IT services that we are ultimately supporting. The relationships with other businesses that are involved with the design, deployment, and delivery, and support of IT services needs to be managed like any other relationship. Some of our partners actually share our common organizational strategy, but then some of our partners and suppliers will have separation of duties. Our partners and suppliers need to be managed because we have relationships with them and they play a part in service integration. Some of our partners and suppliers we may manage by having contracts and service-level agreements. We need to oversee the work that they provide. Some partners and suppliers only do development work, some do repairs, and some do support. Some may even be subject matter experts that we use to integrate some of our IT services. It's really important that we know where the lines are, and what's done in-house, and what's been contracted out. When we talk about supplier management, that is the true oversight of what our vendors and third parties are doing for us. They actually need to be aware of our strategic focus, and our culture, and our business environment. But we do need to have some type of reporting capabilities, some type of regular meetings, some forums where the suppliers and the partners can check in with us on the status of the work they are providing. Remember, we are paying our vendors money for the work that they do for us. So yes, we need to have management and oversight over the performance of the work that they are delivering so that we can make sure they're meeting their original goals and objectives as outlined in contracts. Value streams and processes are actually steps and activities or workflows for the day-to-day work that we follow in an organization and that works within the service value chain. It's how parts of the organization work together in an integrated and coordinated way to enable value creation through the delivery of products and services. What is actually a value stream? A value stream is how we work within the organization versus the value chain that is applied to the entire organization. How we work is documenting steps and activities to deliver products and services. For example, the HR department, they're involved in onboarding and some of those activities look like a checklist of sorts. A new person starts, they get access to email and to their computer, they get their phone and their desktop installed, they have a walk through with their manager, and then they start working. Those steps and activities need to be coordinated. They need to be documented so that when additional new people start, we follow these workflows, their patterns, their steps, their activities and procedures that we need to follow on a day-to-day basis. There are objectives that need to be achieved and fulfilled. So the steps need to be documented, and those steps will actually be documented. Even after the person resigns, or moves on, or is promoted, we will revisit those steps for new hires afterwards and for training purposes as well. There could be many value streams that exist within an organization that can all be carried out for different reasons, for different triggers. For example, within a restaurant, you could probably have drive through, you could have delivery, you could have eat in, you could have takeout. All of those are different value streams. They have triggers that kick them off, and they have specific tasks and which they need to fulfill. These workflows are needed to achieve objectives, and those workflows need to be mapped. We can use the workflows for various activities. They can be used across the whole organization. They can be optimized and eventually those workflows can even be automated. Now let's look at the definition of a process. We know that value streams are workflows, but a process is actually using resources, taking inputs, and creating some type of output, this defined sequence of actions and dependencies. For example, in a grocery store, you have automated lanes, and you have manual lanes. Some of the automation includes scanning groceries. If the barcode isn't displayed on the item, then a light goes off and a manager has to come over. Some of those activities need to be outlined as far as the dependencies and the sequence of actions upon one another and those interrelated steps to achieve a specific objective. Just like value streams, they can also be optimized and automated as well. But there can be more underpinning, detailed procedures and work instructions that are written down to make sure that those activities are fulfilled as well. Processes can also improve production for the delivery of services. Each of these can be applied to value streams as well. In review, all four dimensions are important in delivering services and working within a service management system. They're also affected by external factors: social factors, technological factors, political factors, legal factors. But for test purposes, you will not be tested on what those external factors are. Just know that external factors exist. The four perspectives, again, are relevant to having balance and managing a service management organization. There are no sharp boundaries and the dimensions can overlap. Not addressing all four dimensions effectively may impact how products and services are delivered.
