Management of services is commonly treated as an entirely separate subject from topics such as business improvement, business process redesign, software architecture, and software development. Worse still, both the management of run-time software and the management of SLAs, are traditionally dealt with as separate IT concerns that have little to do with each other.

In part 4 we examine the imperative for this situation to change and introduce a new discipline, SOM, to bring together the areas of SEM, SLAs, and SLM in a cohesive fashion. We show how this approach integrates with both SOA and BA to round off an effective execution strategy for service orientation.

Chapter 11 paints the “big picture” of SOM. We explore the major gear shifts that are required to move from traditional management of software operations to execution management of software services. In particular, we explore the connection points between the various disciplines and examine their relationship to ITIL.

Chapter 12 describes a streamlined yet rigorous approach to the key topic of SLAs that is in tune with the ITIL guidelines on service support and delivery. We set out an approach that is integrated with both BA and SOA, and that is designed to cater as easily as possible for the migration of business processes toward composition from services.