| A,B |
|
| Absorbed Overhead |
Overhead which, by means of absorption rates, is included in the costs of specific products or salable services, in a given period of time. Under or over-absorbed overhead the difference between the overhead cost incurred and the overhead cost absorbed: it may be split into its two constituent parts for control purposes |
| Alert |
A warning that an incident has occurred |
| Attribute |
Characteristic of a CI held in the CMDB |
| Base Line |
A snapshot of the state of a CI and any component CIs frozen at a point in time, for a particular purpose |
| Baseline |
Snapshot of the state of a CI and related CIs at a point in time |
| BQF |
British Quality Foundation a formalized approach to Total Quality Management (Best practice in processes) |
| C |
|
| CAB |
Change Advisory Board made up of the customers and IT to assess all changes to the IT infrastructure/service for resource requirements and impact analysis |
| CAB/EC |
Executive Committee, an emergency meeting of the CAB, with reduced numbers of members to consider urgent changes |
| Capacity Planning |
Process to provide plans and reports to meet current and future business workloads |
| Capital Cost |
Fixed asset, can be buildings, hardware or software; value depreciates over time. Usually a fixed cost |
| CCTA |
Central Computers and Telecommunications Agency responsible for producing and maintaining ITIL |
| CFIA |
Component Failure Impact Analysis |
| Change Management |
Process of controlling changes to the infrastructure or services with minimum disruption |
| Change Record |
Record containing details of changes to affected Cis |
| Charging |
The process of establishing charges and raising invoices for recovery of costs |
| CMDB |
Configuration Management Database contains all relevant details of each CI and relationships between them |
| Cold Start Fixed Center |
An empty computer room on a fixed site, with power, environmental controls and telecommunications, but no IT equipment for use in an emergency |
| Cold Start Portable Center |
An empty computer in portable accommodation, with power, environmental controls and telecommunications, but no IT equipment for use in an emergency |
| CI - Configuration Items |
CI a component of the infrastructure that may be categorized as hardware, software, documentation, people, environment, services or data files |
| Configuration Management |
The process of identifying, defining, recording and verifying CIs within a system and reporting their status and requests for change of Cis |
| Contingency Plan |
Plan detailing actions and procedures to be followed in the event of a disaster |
| Contract |
Document between two bodies (for example, with external suppliers) with separate legal existence |
| Cost |
Amount of expenditure (actual or notional) to a specific activity or unit |
| Cost Center |
IT is budgeted and there is soft charging for specific services; it is concerned with input and output costs |
| Cost Management |
Process of costing and charging for IT services |
| Cost Unit |
Functional cost unit, generally equipment, software, organization, accommodation or transfer costs |
| Costing |
The process of identifying the costs of the business and relating the to business units or activities |
| CRAMM |
CCTA Risk Analysis Management Methodology |
| D,F,H |
|
| DBMS |
Data Base Management System |
| Delta Release |
Release of software including only those CIs that have changed since the last version |
| Direct Cost |
A cost which can be traced in full to a product, service, cost center or department |
| DSL |
Definitive Software Library a secure library where versions of software Cis are controlled |
| Fortress Approach |
IT site is made as disaster-proof as possible contingency planning |
| FTA |
Fault Tree Analysis |
| Full Absorption Costing |
A principle where fixed and variable costs are allocated to cost units and overhead costs are absorbed according to activity levels |
| Full Release |
A release replacing all components of a release unit regardless of whether all CIS have changed since last release |
| Help Desk |
Single point of contact for customers, interface with IT department |
| Hot Start -- Internal |
A computer hall preferably away from home site with full hardware configuration compatible with normal use for emergency use |
| Hot Start External |
Computer hall away from home site for an emergency with full hardware configuration compatible with normal use, provided by commercial company |
| I |
|
| Impact |
A measure of the scale of an incident or problem |
| Incident |
An event which is not part of standard operation and may cause disruption to, or a reduction of, service or customer productivity |
| Indirect Cost |
A cost incurred which cannot be directly attributed in full to a single product, service or department; incurred for a number of cost units or cost centers |
| ISEB |
Information Systems Examination Board for the UK which administers and awards IT qualifications including foundation certification in IT Service Management |
| ISO 9000 |
Guidelines and assurance of processes and procedure standards for quality assurance systems |
| ITEC |
IT Executive Committee similar to the Senate or a Steering Committee |
| ITIL |
IT Infrastructure Library |
| ITSM |
IT Service Management (collection of operational and tactical ITIL processes) |
| itSMF |
IT Service Management Forum ITIL User Group |
| K, L, M |
|
| Known Error |
A condition identified by successful diagnosis of the root cause of a problem when a CI is at fault |
| Live Build Environment |
Part of the computer system used to build software releases for live use test lab |
| Live Environment |
Part of the computer system used to run software in live use pilot |
| Maintainability |
Ability of component or service to return to a state in which the desired functionality will be provided again |
| Metrics |
Measurements facts gathered from objective measurement, usually numerical, to improve the management and quality of a process |
| Mobile Hot Start |
Trailer containing computer room fitted with environment services that can be called upon in an emergency, provided by commercial company |
| MTBF |
Mean Time Between Failures average time between restoration of service following an incident and another incident occurring |
| MTBSI |
Mean Time Between System Incidents average time between incident occurrences |
| MTTR |
Mean Time to Repair average down time between an incident occurring and restoration of service/the system |
| O,P |
|
| OLA |
Operational Level Agreement internal agreement concerned with the delivery of IT services with IT support |
| Package Release |
A release of a number of software CIs released together |
| Performance Management |
Ensuring that technical resources in the infrastructure provide the best possible value for money |
| PRINCE |
Project IN Controlled Environments (used as a project methodology for implementing ITIL) |
| Priority |
The "score" given to an incident or problem to indicate importance and time frame based upon impact + urgency |
| Problem |
A condition caused by multiple common incidents or a single significant incident for which the cause in unknown |
| Profit Center |
IT is run as a business with profit objectives |
| R |
|
| Reciprocal Arrangement |
2 organizations running on compatible infrastructure provide each other with IT resources in an emergency contingency planning |
| Release Numbering |
Each release is allocated a release number |
| Release Unit |
The level at which software of a given type is normally released |
| Reliability |
Ability of component to deliver desired functionality for a given period of time and under certain conditions |
| Resilience |
Ability of service to keep running where one or more components have failed |
| Resource Management |
Ensuring that adequate resources are available and functional at the required time |
| Revenue Cost |
Also called running cost, value diminished with usage, such as paper or salaried. Usually a variable cost |
| RFC |
Request for Change form or screen to record details of a request for change to a CI/CI's associated with the infrastructure or service |
| Risk Analysis |
The management of risks to assets: the selection and use of countermeasures |
| S |
|
| SC&D |
Software Control and Distribution |
| Security (Availability) |
Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of CS |
| Service Catalogue |
Written statement of services |
| Service Center |
Full recovery of costs is obtained |
| Service Hours |
Hours in which the service is available |
| Service Management |
Managing services to meet customer s requirements |
| Serviceability |
Contractual term used to define the support received from an external supplier |
| Severity Code |
A simple code assigned to problems and known errors, indicating the seriousness of their effect on the quality of IT service. It is the major means of assigning priority for resolution |
| SLA |
Service Level Agreement written agreement between a service provider and customers which documents agreed to service levels for a service |
| SLM |
Service Level Management process of defining, agreeing, documenting and managing levels of customer service that are required and cost justified |
| SLR |
Service Level Requirements expressed by the customer, inputs into negotiations towards SLA |
| SSADM |
Structured Systems Analysis & Design Methodology |
| Status Accounting |
Records the state of CIS at a given time |
| Support Center |
IT is seen as an overhead and no charges are levied; it is concerned with input costs |
| Support Hours |
Hours/times for which support is available (for example, Help Desk availability times) |
| T,U,V,W |
|
| TAB |
Technical Advisory Board reviews solution prior to going thorough CAB (not an ITIL term) |
| Test Build Environment |
Part of the computer system used to build software releases for operational acceptance testing (Crash and Burn Lab) |
| Urgency |
A measure of business criticality of an incident or problem where there is an effect upon business deadlines |
| Variant |
CI with the same functionality as another CI but different in some small way |
| Verification |
Configuration Mgmt. ensuring the CMDB and physical CIs are synchronized |
| Workload Management |
Determining resource profiles needed to process current and future business workloads |
| Workloads |
Workloads in the context of capacity management modeling are a set of forecasts which detail the estimated resource usage over agreed planning horizons. Workloads generally represent discrete business applications and can be further subdivided into types of work: interactive, timesharing, batch |
