ITIL Roles

ITIL Roles

ITIL Roles are employed in order to define responsibilities. In particular, they are used to assign Process Owners to the various ITIL V3 processes, and to illustrate responsibilities for the single activities within the detailed process descriptions.

The definitions found here (in alphabetical order) are meant to be short, summing up the main characteristics of a specific ITIL V3 role. When in-depth information on a role's tasks and responsibilities is required this can, in our view, best be obtained from the ITIL process flows.

ITIL V3 roles within Service Strategy

IT Steering Group (ISG)

• The IT Steering Group (ISG) sets the direction and strategy for IT Services. It includes members of senior management from business and IT.
• The ISG reviews the business and IT strategies in order to make sure that they are aligned.
• It also sets priorities of service development programs/ projects.

Financial Manager

• The Financial Manager is responsible for managing an IT service provider's budgeting, accounting and charging requirements.

Service Portfolio Manager

• The Service Portfolio Manager decides on a strategy to serve customers in cooperation with the IT Steering Group, and develops the service provider's offerings and capabilities.

ITIL V3 roles within Service Design

Service Catalogue Manager

• The Service Catalogue Manager is responsible for maintaining the Service Catalogue, ensuring that all information within the Service Catalogue is accurate and up-to-date.

Service Level Manager

• The Service Level Manager is responsible for negotiating Service Level Agreements and ensuring that these are met.
• He makes sure that all IT Service Management processes, Operational Level Agreements and Underpinning Contracts are appropriate for the agreed service level targets.
• The Service Level Manager also monitors and reports on service levels.

Service Owner

• The Service Owner is responsible for delivering a particular service within the agreed service levels.
• Typically, he acts as the counterpart of the Service Level Manager when negotiating Operational Level Agreements (OLAs).
• Often, the Service Owner will lead a team of technical specialists or an internal support unit.

Service Design Manager

• The Service Design Manager is responsible for producing quality, secure and resilient designs for new or improved services.
• This includes producing and maintaining all design documentation.

Applications Analyst/ Architect

• The Applications Analyst/ Architect is responsible for designing applications required to provide a service.
• This includes the specification of technologies, application architectures and data structures as a basis for application development or customization.

Technical Analyst/ Architect

• The Technical Analyst/ Architect is responsible for designing infrastructure components and systems required to provide a service.
• This includes the specification of technologies and products as a basis for their procurement and customization.

Risk Manager

• The Risk Manager is responsible for identifying, assessing and controlling risks.
• This includes analysing the value of assets to the business, identifying threats to those assets, and evaluating how vulnerable each asset is to those threats.

Capacity Manager

• The Capacity Manager is responsible for ensuring that services and infrastructure are able to deliver the agreed capacity and performance targets in a cost effective and timely manner.
• He considers all resources required to deliver the service, and plans for short, medium and long term business requirements.

Availability Manager

• The Availability Manager is responsible for defining, analysing, planning, measuring and improving all aspects of the availability of IT services.
• He is responsible for ensuring that all IT infrastructure, processes, tools, roles etc are appropriate for the agreed service level targets for availability.

IT Service Continuity Manager

• The IT Service Continuity Manager is responsible for managing risks that could seriously impact IT services.
• He ensures that the IT service provider can provide minimum agreed service levels in cases of disaster, by reducing the risk to an acceptable level and planning for the recovery of IT services.

IT Security Manager

• The IT Security Manager is responsible for ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of an organization’s assets, information, data and IT services.
• He is usually involved in an organizational approach to Security Management which has a wider scope than the IT service provider, and includes handling of paper, building access, phone calls etc., for the entire organization.

Compliance Manager

• The Compliance Manager's responsibility is to ensure that standards and guidelines is followed, or that proper, consistent accounting or other practices are being employed.
• This includes to make sure that external legal requirements are fulfilled.

IT Architect

• The IT Architect defines a blueprint for the future development of the technological landscape, taking into account the service strategy and newly available technologies.

Supplier Manager

• The Supplier Manager is responsible for ensuring that value for money is obtained from all suppliers.
• He makes sure that contracts with suppliers support the needs of the business, and that all suppliers meet their contractual commitments.

ITIL V3 roles and boards within Service Transition

Change Manager

• The Change Manager authorises and documents all changes in the IT Infrastructure and its components (Configuration Items), in order to maintain a minimum amount of interruptive effects upon the running operation.
• In the case of further-reaching changes, he involves the Change Advisory Board (CAB).

Change Advisory Board (CAB)

• A group of people that advises the Change Manager in the Assessment, prioritisation and scheduling of Changes.
• This board is usually made up of representatives from all areas within the IT Service Provider, the Business, and Third Parties such as Suppliers.

Change Owner

• The person backing a Change and holding a budget for its implementation.
• In most cases the Change Owner is identical with the RFC initiator.
• Typically Changes are owned by Service Management roles (e.g. the Problem or Capacity Manager) or members of IT management.

Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB)

• A sub-set of the Change Advisory Board who make decisions about high impact Emergency Changes.
• Membership of the ECAB may be decided at the time a meeting is called, and depends on the nature of the Emergency Change.

Project Manager

• The Project Manager is responsible for planning and coordinating the resources to deploy a major Release within the predicted cost, time and quality estimates.

Application Developer

• The Application Developer is responsible for making available applications and systems which provide the required functionality for IT services.
• This includes the development and maintenance of custom applications as well as the customization of products from software vendors.

Release Manager

• The Release Manager is responsible for planning, scheduling and controlling the movement of Releases to test and live environments. His primary objective is to ensure that the integrity of the live environment is protected and that the correct components are released.

Configuration Manager

• The Configuration Manager is responsible for maintaining information about Configuration Items required to deliver IT services.
• To this end he maintains a logical model, containing the components of the IT infrastructure (CIs) and their associations.

Knowledge Manager

• The Knowledge Manager ensures that the IT organization is able to gather, analyze, store and share knowledge and information.
• His primary goal is to improve efficiency by reducing the need to rediscover knowledge.

Test Manager

• The Test Manager ensures that deployed Releases and the resulting services meet customer expectations, and verifies that IT operations is able to support the new service.

ITIL V3 roles and boards within Service Operation

1st Level Support

• The responsibility of 1st Level Support is to register and classify received Incidents and to undertake an immediate effort in order to restore a failed IT Service as quickly as possible.
• If no ad-hoc solution can be achieved, 1st Level Support will transfer the Incident to expert Technical Support Groups (2nd Level Support).
• 1st Level Support also processes Service Requests and keeps users informed about their Incidents' status at agreed intervals.

2nd Level Support

• 2nd Level Support takes over Incidents which cannot be solved immediately with the means of 1st Level Support.
• If necessary, it will request external support, e.g. from software or hardware manufacturers.
• The aim is to restore a failed IT Service as quickly as possible.
• If no solution can be found, the 2nd Level Support passes on the Incident to Problem Management.

3rd Level Support

• 3rd Level Support is typically located at hardware or software manufacturers.
• Its services are requested by 2nd Level Support if required for solving an Incident.
• The aim is to restore a failed IT Service as quickly as possible.

Major Incident Team

• A dynamically established team of IT managers and technical experts, usually under the leadership of the Incident Manager, formulated to concentrate on the resolution of a Major Incident.

Incident Manager

• The Incident Manager is responsible for the effective implementation of the process "Incident Management" and carries out the respective reporting procedure.
• He represents the first stage of escalation for Incidents, should these not be resolvable within the agreed Service Levels.

Problem Manager

• The Problem Manager is responsible for managing the lifecycle of all Problems.
• His primary objectives are to prevent Incidents from happening, and to minimise the impact of Incidents that cannot be prevented.
• To this purpose he maintains information about Known Errors and Workarounds.

Service Request Fulfilment Group

• Service Request Fulfilment Groups specialize on the fulfilment of certain types of Service Requests.
• Typically, 1st Level Support will process simpler requests, while others are forwarded to the specialized Fulfilment Groups.

Access Manager

• The Access Manager grants authorized users the right to use a service, while preventing access to non-authorized users.
• The Access Manager essentially executes policies defined in IT Security Management.

IT Operations Manager

• An IT Operations Manager will be needed to take overall responsibility for all of the IT Operations Management activities, which include Operations Control and Facilities Management.

IT Operator

• IT Operators are the staff who perform the day-to-day operational activities.
• Typical responsibilities include: Performing backups, ensuring that scheduled jobs are performed, installing standard equipment in the data center.

IT Facilities Manager

• The IT Facilities Manager is responsible for managing the physical environment where the IT infrastructure is located.
• This includes all aspects of managing the physical environment, for example power and cooling, building access management, and environmental monitoring.

ITIL V3 roles within Continual Service Improvement

CSI Manager

• The Continual Service Improvement (CSI) Manager is responsible for managing improvements to IT Service Management processes and IT services.
• He will continually measure the performance of the service provider and design improvements to processes, services and infrastructure in order to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and cost effectiveness.

Process Manager

• The Process Manager is responsible for planning and coordinating all Process Management activities.
• He supports all parties involved in managing and improving processes, in particular the Process Owners.
• This role will also coordinate all Changes to processes, thereby making sure that all processes cooperate in a seamless way.

Process Owner

• A role responsible for ensuring that a process is fit for purpose. The Process Owner’s responsibilities include sponsorship, design, and continual improvement of the process and its metrics.
• This role is often assigned to staff holding one of the major Service Management roles (e.g. the Incident Manager is the Process Owner of the Incident Management process).

ITIL V3 roles outside the IT organization

User

• The user of an IT service on the business side.

Customer

• Someone who buys goods or services.
• The Customer of an IT Service Provider is the person or group who defines and agrees the service level targets.

Roles and boards according to ITIL Version 2

Link to the descriptions of the roles within ITIL Version 2.