What does an IT Service Manager do?

IT Service Managers are responsible for the design, creation and maintenance of IT services within an organisation or for external customers. In most cases it is highly unlikely that a single individual will be able to fill even one of these functions. IT Service Management is therefore more concerned with organising and monitoring the activities of others than with personally carrying out every task.

Key Tasks

The central responsibility of an IT Service Manager is the provision of appropriate and reliable IT services. Specific tasks might include:

1. Building customer relationships and establishing customer need
2. Identifying appropriate solutions to customer need (ongoing)
3. Planning new and changed IT services, including cost/schedule-estimation and risk analysis
4. Monitoring service delivery and customer satisfaction to maintain high standard services
5. Resolving issues that may arise within the team or between the team and any external party (e.g. the customer)
6. Leading IT services team

Knowledge and Skills

The ‘service’ part of Service Management entails a strong degree of customer-focus, so the IT Service Manager must be able and willing to understand the needs of the customer (internal or external), and to give these needs appropriate consideration when identifying and planning services, monitoring service implementation and making decisions on any issues that may arise.

Like project and programme managers, the IT Service Manager must be able to analyse and evaluate situations in order to provide satisfactory, comprehensive and realistic solutions. Bracketed with this are ‘information acquisition’ skills: the ability to identify the knowledge necessary to situation-analysis, and to remedy any shortfall through effective communication and directed research.

The ‘IT’ part of IT Service Management demands familiarity with at least some relevant aspects of the services that an IT department or organisation can provide. Whilst IT Service Managers might not directly design, build or even maintain the IT services for which they are responsible, they must have a thorough understanding of the processes necessary and the potential pitfalls and opportunities in order to effectively plan, estimate and manage the creation and delivery of IT solutions.

Where do IT Service Managers Come From?

Most IT Service Managers have previous experience working in customer-related IT roles, for example, on an IT service desk. Some team-leading experience is also a common feature of job descriptions.

Besides the technical- and people-orientated aspects of the job, there is also the management of the service itself, which must be conducted according to international industry standards. Most IT Service Managers have a professional qualification in ITIL® (IT Infrastructure Library), a series of certificates based on courses and textbooks explaining the ITIL Service Management methodology and best practices. At junior levels, a Foundation or Intermediate ITIL certificate will suffice, but senior IT Service Managers can reach the ITIL Expert level and, based on peer review and extended assessment, ITIL Master.

ITIL® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries