Key Terms

This appendix contains the following topics:

Key Terms

The following are some key terms to be familiar with when using Service Designer.

Table 1 Key Terms Table

Term

Definition

Active Form Components

Reusable forms that are built from one or more dictionaries and configured for use in one or more service forms. Active form components are the building blocks of a service form, and dictionaries, along with active form rules, are the building blocks of a form component.

Authorization

A task during which the performer reviews, approves, or rejects the service requested.

Permission

A Permission grants rights to act upon an object. For example: Order for Others (of a person or OU).

Search Facets

Search Facets allows the service designer to specify one or more facets, which each service can assign a value to. For example, for a “Available Location” facet, a service may have the values, Europe and Americas, while another service has the value Japan. An end user can narrow down the list of available services in their view but select the facet value they want.

Customer

The individual to whom a service is being delivered. The customer and the initiator are typically the same person, except in cases when an initiator orders a service for other people, such as an executive assistant ordering a service for the executive.

Dictionary

Reusable groups of fields created for use on a form component that may, in turn, be used in multiple service forms. A dictionary defines the individual data items that are used in a service request.

Email Template

A standard email that can be sent upon the initiation, completion or other milestone associated with of a particular task. Email templates can be associated with particular services.

Escalation

Notifications triggered at specified intervals after a task is not completed by its due date.

Initiator

The requestor of, or person who orders, a service from the service catalog. The customer and initiator can be the same person.

Interactive Service Forms (ISF)

A JavaScript API that allows designers to customize the behavior of a service form using JavaScript. ISF coding supplements the use of active form rules to add further interactivity and a richer user interface to the service form.

Moments

Service Catalog manages the events from ordering through service completion as a sequence of discrete system moments or phases. The completion of one moment is the prerequisite for the beginning of the next moment in the sequence.

System Moment

Tracks what point of the requisition life cycle the requisition is in. The system moment evolves from ordering state to finally service completed state, as shown below:

Ordering > Pricing > Authorizations > Service Delivery > Service Completed

Service

A process packaged and presented as a product the end user can order/request.

Service Link

The module that defines integrations with external systems; such integrations can be used within a delivery plan as external tasks, reviews, or authorizations.

Service Group

A folder that contains a group of similar services. Services are organized into service groups as a way to facilitate the service design process.

Service Item

A product or intangible asset that can be provisioned via a service request and whose history can be tracked in the My Services and Service Item Manager modules.

Service Team

The individuals (or groups of individuals) who perform the steps to deliver the service.

Service teams are organizational units created and managed in the Organization Designer module.

It is critical to specify the appropriate service team for a service group. “Service Team” is listed as a default participant when configuring dictionary Access Control. This allows members of the service team to view or edit dictionaries in the service delivery moment of service fulfillment. All members of the service team are automatically able to perform work on all tasks defined in services in their service group. Other service teams need to be listed as “Additional Participants” in the Access Control subtab for the form components used in the service in order to perform tasks in the service.

Functional Position

Functional positions are associated with service groups and their member of the specified service team who is currently assigned to that position.

A functional position is a job description associated with one of the following:

  • Organizational Unit
  • Service
  • Service Group

In Service Designer module, you may assign functional positions to be performers of activities in the authorization, review, and delivery processes to avoid referring directly to people or queues. You may also use functional positions to identify the recipients of escalation notifications.

For example, an email may be directed to the “Escalation Manager” for a particular organization or service group, rather than being routed to a specific person or queue. Or you may simply use some of the functional positions to document the person or other entity responsible for a particular service group or service.