What is Service Delivery Management?

"Service Delivery Management". Sounds a bit...esoteric, doesn't it? The name should be definable from the component words but its not that easy after you try. After working in a role titled for this over a few years, I can honestly say that what I do now has very little to do with managing delivery of services. Mostly, I'm a go-fer for those above me and the definition of service delivery isn't in what I do for the majority of my time.

However, there are times that I do actually fill parts of this role in Service Delivery.

So what is it? Service Delivery Management is managing delivery of services, and those services are defined either by a contract for external organizations or Documents of Understanding for internal organizations. Service Level Agreements are generally the measuring stick of how well you perform those services. The services could be anything, but they have to be "SMART" - specific, measurable, achievable, reasonable, and tangible. You can't deliver a service of couples falling in love, but you could deliver a service of finding good dating locations. Your services could be for hospitals, for manufacturing, shipping, information technology, government, anything hat can be defined and set for measuring an agreed service will need service delivery management.

Now, to be reasonable, everyone does it to some extent at their job. You make 15 phone calls an hour, cook 20 burgers a minute, write 7 insurance contract a day - or whatever your measurement is in your role. But the line managers are the ones who fill the role of managing the service delivery, not the doers. In reality, the actual role or services delivery manager cannot be a doer, it's mostly administrative. Why?

Service delivery managers have to track metrics for all services they own. They are responsible for interacting with the recipients of the service, for customer satisfaction, for working to find ways to improve the services. They are also responsible for tracking costs, helping with modifications to the service. In a way, service delivery management is very similar to project management with be key difference, the service delivery manager's "project" of day-to-day operations and service delivery never ends until the services are no longer required.

If the service delivery manager is also doing the work for the services, then they have to be a robot like Commander Data on Star Trek so they don't have to sleep or eat, because the only time they aren't doing the administrative function is where everyone else is asleep.

In reality, it should be a business role, but it easily tends to draw toward the technical, because the service delivery manager must also be able to answer requests and work on improvements, none of which you can do unless you have a good knowledge of what exactly you are providing as a service.