Within the ITIL Service Design book you will find the Service Portfolio. The ITIL Service Portfolio contains the status of all services that IS currently offers, have offered in the past and also those that maybe simply 'pipe dreams', 'nice to have' or ideas for the future. The Portfolio is comprised of three sections:
Service Pipeline
Service Catalogue
Retired Services
As a service progresses through the Service Lifecycle it is allocated a relevant status. The statuses are described below:
Requirements - set of outline requirements received from the business / IT for a new or changed service
Defined - set of requirements for a new service are being assessed, defined and documented and the Service Level Requirements (SLRs) being produced
Analyzed - set of requirements for a new service are being analyzed / prioritized
Approved - set of requirements for a new service being finalized / authorized
Chartered - new service requirements are being communicated, resources and budget allocated
Designed - the new service and its constituent components are being designed and procured as required
Developed - the service and its constituent components are being developed or harvested as required
Built - the service and its constituent components are being built
Test - the service and its constituent components are being tested
Released - the service and its constituent components are being released
Operational - the service and its constituent components are operational within the live environment
Retired - the service and its constituent components are being retired
A service at any time can be 'retired', especially when it is progressing as a 'project' in the pipeline phase. During the 'Credit Crunch' it has been necessary for many organizations to review their current Service Portfolio and in some cases 'shelve', 'moth-ball' or in other words 'retire' a service(s). In the future these services may well be re-initiated and follow the Service Lifecycle again.
Regarding the capturing of 'requirements' the Request for Change (RFC) element of Change Management would be ideally positioned.
From the 'defined' through to the 'test' service statuses a Project Management methodology (for example Prince2) could be utilized. In organizations where the number of services is considerable, the introduction of a Project Office facility may be beneficial to ensure the Service Portfolio is kept up to date.
The figure below illustrates where the various Service Status items fit in the Service Lifecycle.