Managing Service Items: How results are delivered

Service items, similar to work items in Agile methodology, are the pieces of work or deliverables that you intend to create for the customers as part of a larger project or service delivery. It is a hierarchical decomposition of the scope of work to be carried out by the delivery team to accomplish the service objectives and create the required deliverables. They can range from setting up a brand strategy, creating a project plan, developing new features, conducting an analysis, or providing support. These service items help in breaking down complex projects into manageable tasks, promoting accountability, and providing a sense of progress.

Why create service items?

Complex projects are hard to plan, organize, manage, track, and deliver. By breaking them down into smaller, manageable items, the team can deliver the results incrementally and iteratively. It provides a clearer understanding of the project’s structure and the sequence of tasks, which is essential for smooth execution. Here are a few ways you can effectively use the service items:

Service items help you manage scope efficiently. The service item helps you break down larger services into smaller, manageable parts. It helps prevent scope creep by clearly defining the service deliverables. This helps you to clearly articulate the scope and deliverables of your service.

Service items make planning and estimation easier. By using service items, service delivery managers can plan and organize work more accurately. Each task is clearly defined, with its own individual requirements and objectives, allowing for more precise estimations of time, cost, and resource allocation. This leads to more efficient and successful service delivery.

Risk Management: By breaking down the service into smaller components, the service item can help identify potential risks at an early stage. Each task can be evaluated for potential risks, and preventive measures or contingency plans can be put in place. This proactive risk management increases the chances of project success.

Efficient Work Management: With service items, each task or deliverable is assigned to a specific team member or group. This clear assignment of responsibility fosters accountability, as each team member knows exactly what they are responsible for and what is expected of them.

Service items facilitate progress tracking and reporting. The automated workflows make it easy for the service delivery team and clients to easily track whether the deliverables are complete, in progress, or yet to be started. This makes it easy to report progress internally and to the client.

How to define a Service Items

The defining characteristic of a service item is that it is user-centric. A service item is defined not just by the technical specifications but also by the benefit it brings to the user. It answers the questions – what deliverables will be created as part of the service item and how it will benefit the customer.

Description: Include a detailed description highlighting what problem is it solving, why it is important, and how it is delivered.

Estimation: Every service item should include time and cost estimates. The system automatically estimates as you build the service items.

Deliverable: Every service item comes with an acceptance criteria or deliverable, which are conditions that must be met for the service item to be considered ‘done’ and client sign off. These criteria help define the boundaries of the item, and provide a means for validating that a service item has been completed appropriately as specified by you.

Priority: You can use the priority to define the strategic importance, or value of the service item for the user. The priority also helps you package the service appropriately.

Creating a Service Item

Before starting, ensure that you have the necessary permissions to create and manage service items. If you lack permissions, contact the team leader to add you to the service delivery team.

Login to your Minutly account. Enter your username and password in the corresponding fields and click on ‘Sign In’.
Navigate to the service. After logging in, click on the ‘Services’ menu to view all the services.
Create a new service item. Click on the ‘Create Service Item’ button, which you’ll typically find towards the top-right corner of the service screen. You can also navigate to the service item from the service dashboard.
Fill in the necessary details – The system will guide you step by step collecting the necessary information.
Save the service item. After filling out the details, click on the ‘Save’ or ‘Finish’ button to save the service item.

Managing Service Items

Login to your Minutly account. Enter your username and password in the corresponding fields and click on ‘Sign In’.
Navigate to the service. After logging in, click on the ‘Services’ menu to view all the services.
Navigate to the service item. Use the edit option to update service item details.
Update the service item. Click ‘Save’ to record changes.
Delete a service item. If a service item is no longer needed, select the ‘Delete’ option. Be careful with this action, as it cannot be undone.