Glossary

A
Availability
The ability of a service (or component) to perform its intended function ie. a kettle is considered available when it is plugged in and ready to boil.
B
Business Continuity Plan
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a predefined approach to recovery from potential disruptions to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to recovery and function in the event of a disaster.
C
Change
The addition, modification, or removal of any component that could have a direct or indirect effect on services. Changes are formally managed through the Change Management process.
Change Request
A Change Request is a formal proposal to modify a service, application or infrastructure.
D
Disaster Recovery Plan
A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a subset of the Business Continuity Plan. It focuses on ensuring that IT-related services and infrastructure is designed and deployed in such a way that it is resilient in the face of significant outages.
E
Event
A change of state of an IT Service or component. There are three types of events: Information, Warning and Exception.
Exception Event
An Exception Event is a recorded condition that indicates an error and may require diagnosis and repair.
I
Incident
An Incident is an unplanned disruption of service. Incidents are formally managed through the Incident Management process.
Incident Management
Incident Management is a Service Management best-practice which focuses on the full lifecycle of an incident.
Information Event
An Information Event is a recorded condition that indicates a change of state, but does not require any further action.
N
Non-Standard Change
A Non-Standard Change (ITIL refers to this as a Normal Change) is a type of one-time change where the dependencies and impact are not fully understood and is thus considered high risk.
Normal Change
See Non-Standard Change.
O
Organisational Change Management
Organisational Change Management (OCM) is a leadership competency to lead an organisation through a potentially disruptive change.
P
Priority
A quality of being more important, or taking precedence.
Privacy
Privacy is the state of being free from any intrusion into one’s personal life. It is also considered a human right.
S
Service
– A service is a supported facility (Unified Service Management)
– A means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating outcomes that customers want to achieve, without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks (ITIL Framework)
Service Provider
A Service Provider is an organisational unit which is made up of People, Processes and Technology, and is focused on delivering services to a customer.
Standard Change
A Standard Change is a repeatable type of Change where the effort and impact of the modification is understood, and is thus considered low risk. Examples include: upgrading a desktop computer, installing an approved application, or clearing the transaction log on a database.