Service Catalogue Management
Definition
"The practice of providing a single source of consistent information on all services and service offerings, and ensuring that it is available to the relevant audience."
The practice requires organizations to:
- Ensure the service catalogue structure and scope align with organizational requirements
- Verify that catalogue information addresses both current and anticipated stakeholder needs
Key Terms
Resources: Personnel, material, finance, or other entities required for activity execution or objective achievement.
Product: Configuration of organizational resources designed to offer consumer value.
Service: Means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes customers want without managing specific costs and risks.
Service offering: Formal description of one or more services addressing target consumer group needs.
Service catalogue: "Structured information about all the services and service offerings of a service provider, relevant for a specific target audience."
Request catalogue: Service catalogue view providing service request details for existing and new services.
Processes
Defining and Maintaining Service Catalogue Data and Standard Views
- Analyze stakeholder requirements
- Define data structure
- Establish standard views for key stakeholder groups
- Communicate and implement views
- Collect and maintain data
- Review performance
Providing and Maintaining Updated Views
- Process catalogue view requests
- Validate requests
- Form and present requested view
- Gather user feedback
Key Metrics
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Completeness of service catalogue (missing services) | Coverage |
| Fulfilment of catalogue design requirements | Design quality |
| Missing/ineffective/manual integrations with information sources | Integration health |
| Stakeholder satisfaction with content | Content quality |
| Catalogue errors (incorrect/missing/outdated information) | Data accuracy |
| Stakeholder satisfaction with interface | Usability |
| Progress on content/interface improvements | Improvement velocity |
| Progress on design improvements | Design maturity |
Key Roles
- Service catalogue manager
Recommendations for Success
- Design the catalogue for stakeholders' needs
- Integrate service catalogues from multiple providers
- Manage service request catalogue as a service catalogue view
- Apply automation and optimize catalogue presentation
- Begin with customer-facing catalogues and existing services
- Conduct regular design and tailored view reviews
Software Tools
- Workflow and task management tools
- Enterprise architecture management tools
- Financial Management System
- Knowledge and document management tools
- Orchestration and integration platforms
- Service catalogue tools
- CMS tools
- Social media, CRM tools
- Analysis and reporting tools
- Collaboration and communication tools
- Supplier management tools