An IT Service Engineering and Management Framework (ITS-EMF)

Abstract

There is a rich amount of literature on services from Information Technology (IT) (Management view) and IT System Engineering (ITSE) (Engineering view) domains. However, such a variety has produced disparate views. Furthermore, given that IT and ITSE service-based systems must be linked to business services (the User view), conceptual interrelationships are increased, causing yet more diversity. This paper identifies that this generates a lack of theoretical conceptual cohesion and leads to multiple practical confusions. To address these issues and to reduce such conceptual gaps, an IT Service Engineering and Management Framework (ITS-EMF) is proposed. ITS-EMF is generated by careful review and examination of the main conceptualizations on IT, ITSE and business services. The paper claims that ITS-EMF is useful for: (1) mapping services concepts from disparate IT literature, (2) reducing service conceptual confusion from the multiple available sources, and (3) providing conceptual links between service constructs used in business services and IT and ITSE services layers. It concludes with the implications, both academic and practical, for engineering and managing IT services in business organizations.