Capture business service data

A business service is an activity, process, or solution offered by a service provider organization to meet the needs or requirements of the business by supporting a business capability. A business service is constituted by service items that deliver the business service via applications, deployments, or support services. Business services are consumed by end consumers, which are organizations such as partners and customers. Examples of business services are customer relationship management, payroll operations, or recruiting and talent acquisition.

Business services should be well defined, advertised in a service catalog, priced or costed, and measured for consumption. Each business service may have one SLA (service level agreement) assigned to it.

Users with the user profiles Portfolio Manager and Portfolio Admin can add and edit business services in Alfabet.

The license package Enterprise Architecture Management is required to work with business services. The use case Service Portfolio Management must be activated.

Go to Service Architecture > Business Services:

Create a new business service from scratch. Click New > Business Service. Specify the business service's attributes as well as the relationships that the business service has to other assets in the repository.

A guided data entry view is available to help you provide relevant data and ensure data quality for the business services in your repository. When you create a new business service in the editor, click the Close and Continue as Guided Editing button to open the data entry view. Or go to the business service's content area toolbar and click Analysis View > Data Entry View.

You will see a content area page with an additional panel listing content items like Basic Data, Lifecycle Data, Evaluation. Click the content item caption to navigate to the content item in the data entry view.

Symbols indicate where data quality issues exist. Click the data quality issue symbol to navigate your focus directly to the spot where you can fix the issue.

Edit the attributes and relationships for a business service. Click a business service to open the object inspection pane, or double-click to go to its content area > Overview page. Specify the business service's attributes as well as the relationships that the business service has to other assets in the repository.

Try to capture as much information as possible about the business service because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.

Once a business service is in the repository, you can define more details about the it in the  Business Services data workbench.

Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench via the Structure column. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.

Or you can select an individual business service in the data workbench and navigate to its content area and specify and analyze the business service in detail. In the data workbench, click the Navigate  Navigate button to open the business service's content area. Go to the Overview page.

Define the business service's basic data.

  • Name: (Mandatory) Enter a meaningful name for the business service that is known by the users in your enterprise.
  • Version: Enter a version number for the business service.
  • Status: This is an approval status and typically indicates the level of quality of the information about the business service. The release status determines whether a business service can or cannot be deleted. Possible values are:
    • Draft: The business service has only mandatory data defined.
    • Under Review: The business service is documented and being reviewed. A business service with this release status cannot be deleted.
    • Approved: The business service has been approved by the responsible stakeholders. A business service cannot be deleted when it has an approved release status. A business service with this release status cannot be deleted.
    • Data imported: The data regarding this business service has been imported from an external system. Additional changes may be required to improve the data quality. A business service with this release status can be deleted.
    • Trash: The business service is no longer valid and can be deleted.
  • Provider: The organization that provides the business service. Every business service should have a provider defined.
  • Authorized User: The user who creates the business service is the authorized user per default. This can be changed.
  • Authorized User Groups: Select one or more authorized user groups that shall have write permissions to the business service. All users in the authorized user group can edit the business service.

Define the lifecycle attributes. Go to the LIfecycle Data attribute section box and define the following:

  • Start Date and End Date: The start and end date captures the business service's planned start and end dates. These dates should be defined so that they begin before and end after the start/end dates of the applications, deployments, and support services that deliver the business services. Click the calendar icon to select the date or enter the date in the date format Month/Day/Year. For example: 4/30/2026
  • Object State: The object state describes the use of the business service in the real world. This can be understood as the operational status of the business service. Possible values are:
    • Plan: The business service is proposed to be used and still in the stages of planning and building.
    • Active: The business service is currently being used. The active period begins with the business service's start date and stops with the end date.
    • Retired: The business service is no longer used.
  • Strategic Service: Select the checkbox if the business service is strategic for the company.
  • Successor: The next business service that will follow this business service version.

An SLA (service level agreement) defines an agreement between the service providers and consumers about the standards that the business service is obligated to meet. Every business service should have a service level agreement.

  1. Go to the content area of the business service. Click the button SLA > Create Service Level Agreement.
  2. In the editor, specify a name for the service level agreement. Specify also the amount of time the business service should be available in the Service Uptime field as well as when it is available in the Service Validity field. Click OK to save the data and close the editor.
  3. In the Overview page, click the name of the SLA in the Service Level Agreement field to open its content area.
  4. In the Evaluation view, specify values for the following indicators:
    • Availability: The amount of time that the service is available for use by consumers during the defined uptime hours.
    • Backup Frequency: The frequency guaranteed by the service provider to back up the service data.
    • Responsiveness: The average time that it takes for an issue to be answered by the service desk of the service provider.
    • Security Breach Alert: The number of hours that the service provider has to alert its customers who consume the service of a security breach of the organization's data.

The business question Where do we have SLA violations? examines the service level agreements for business services and their support services and compares the indicators of the SLAs. The visualization highlights where support services do not provide enough support to the business service and where violations are occurring with service level agreements.

The Business Service Items - Lifecycle view shows the lifecycle of the business service as well as the lifecycles of the assets specified as the service items delivering the business service. You can edit the lifecycle of the business service and the assets delivering the business service.

  1. Go to the business service's content area > Overview > Business Service Items - Lifecycle view and open it.
  2. Click the triangle in the left column and expand the Gantt chart to display all service items delivering the business service.
  3. Click the business service or the asset delivering the business service to specify its lifecycle phases. Click EditSingle edit button to open the Lifecycle editor.
  4. Activate the slider for the lifecycle phases to include and specify their start and end dates. The following lifecycle phases may be displayed:
    • Plan: The business service has been identified and evaluated for possible use in company.
    • Implementation: Activities are underway to prepare the business service for production.
    • Production: The business service is being used in company.
    • Sunset: The business service is still available but is not intended to be used for daily work.
    • Read-Only: The business service is no longer used but is available for reasons of documentation and compliance.
    • Retired: The business service should no longer be used.

    You can also change the start and end dates of a lifecycle phase directly in the Gantt chart. Click on one of the ends of a lifecycle phase (colored bar) and drag the bar to define the start and end dates.

  5. Click Align Active Period to automatically align the start/end dates of the active period with the start/end dates of the lifecycle phases that are configured to begin and end the active period.

A role represents a functional responsibility that a user or organization has for the business service. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the business service. Assigning roles to users and organizations is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?

Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the business capability. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the business capability. To change data about the business capability, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of an authorized user group.

Multiple roles can be assigned to a business service in the Business Services data workbench or the business service content area via Overview > Responsibilities. A person or organization might have any of the following roles for the business service as well as custom roles added by your company:

  • Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the business service.
  • Business Owner: A person or organization that owns the business service and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
  • IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the business service and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
  • Service Owner: A person that is the subject matter expert for the business service from a functional or technical point of view.
  • Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the business service and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
  • Operations: An IT organization responsible for the operations of the business service.

To specify responsibilities for the business service:

  1. Click in the relevant role field to open the selector.
  2. Expand the ORGANIZATION or USER sections in the selector and select the person or organization fulfilling the role.
  3. Click OK to save the role definition and close the selector.

The license package IT Transformation - Enterprise is required to see and use the Request and Current columns and the Aggregate Cost Along Cost Hierarchy functionality.

Go to the business service's content area > Financials > Operational Expenses view and open it. The view shows the committed budget for the business service. You can capture the costs for all cost types over the specified period of time displayed in the view.

Set the start and end years of the view. Click the  Filter local button and change the First Year and Last Year fields.

Specify the requested budget for the business service by entering the costs directly in the Request column for the year and cost type. You can enter costs in any currency that your portfolio administrator has configured. The available currencies are listed in the drop-down available in the Currency column.

Specify the committed budget for the business service by entering the costs directly in the Budget column for the year and cost type. You can enter costs in any currency that your portfolio administrator has configured. The available currencies are listed in the drop-down available in the Currency column.

Specify the current budget allocated for the business service by entering the costs directly in the Current column for the year and cost type. You can enter costs in any currency that your portfolio administrator has configured. The available currencies are listed in the drop-down available in the Currency column.

Change the currency in the Total row. Click the  Filter local button and change the Total Sum Currency field. The sum in the the Total row will be calculated in the currency based on the currency exchange rate specified by your portfolio administrator.

Aggregate the values for the cost type hierarchy. If your administrative user has specified a hierarchy of cost types, you can display the cost information as an aggregation of the business service’s costs along the cost types. Click View > Aggregate Cost Along Cost Hierarchy. The costs will be displayed in the Total Sum Currency filter.

Business capabilities must already be in the repository in order to define the business capability that the business service provides.

Business services support the company to realize its business capabilities. For each business service, you should define the business capabilities that the business service provides in order to understand how the business may be at risk due to service failure. You can specify multiple business capabilities that the business service provides.

You can specify multiple business capabilities that the business service provides.

  1. Go to the business service's content area > Business Context > Relationships section > Business Capabilities field.
  2. Enter the name of the business capability that the business service provides, or click in the field to open the selector. Select each business capability that you want to assign the business service to. The Level ID indicates where the business capability is in the business capability hierarchy.
  3. Click outside of the selector to close it and update the Business Capabilities field.

Business service items can be defined for a business service to describe the application, deployment, or support service that delivers the business service. Multiple service items can be created for a business service. A business service item automatically inherits the authorized user definition of the business service that it is assigned to.

  1. Go to the content area of the support service > Service Context page.
  2. In the Business Service Items view, click the  New plus sign button.
  3. Specify name for the service item and select the application, deployment, or support service in the Providing Asset field. Click OK to save the providing asset definition and close the selector.
  4. Select the Guaranteed checkbox to specify that the definition of the business service item cannot be changed. If the service item definition needs to be changed, then a new version of the business service must be created.

To view the business service and the lifecycles of its service providers, go to Overview > Business Service Items - Lifecycle.

It may be that the application is specified to deliver business services . An application may deliver multiple business services via service items . To understand the application in the context of the service portfolio, go to the application's content area > Service Context page:

  1. The Delivered Business Services view shows all business services that the application delivers. Navigate to the content area of a business service to understand service level agreement, the business capability it supports, other assets providing the business service, and the organization consuming the business service.
  2. The Delivered Business Services - Lifecycles view shows the application lifecycle as well as the lifecycles of the all business services that the application delivers.
  3. The Delivered Business Services - Consumer view shows a network diagram of all business services that the application delivers, the organization that provides the business service, the business capability that the business service supports, and organizations consuming the business service.

The license package Enterprise Architecture Management is required to work with business services. The use case Service Portfolio Management must be activated.

It may be that the support service is specified to deliver business services . A support service may deliver multiple business services via service items . To understand the business services that the support service supports, go to the support service's content area > Service Context > Support Service Structure.

Business service items can be defined for a business service to describe the organization that consumes the business service. Multiple consuming organizations can be created for a business service. A business service item automatically inherits the authorized user definition of the business service that it is assigned to.

  1. Go to the content area of the business service > Service Context page.
  2. In the Consuming Organizations view, click the  New plus sign button > Add Consuming Organization.
  3. Select the organization using the business service in the Consuming Organizations checkbox and click OK to save your changes.

Service groups must already be in the repository in order to assign the business service to a service group. Click to find out how to capture service group data.

Service groups logically structure and bundle the business services and business services relevant for a service portfolio. You can assign the business service to multiple service groups in order to analyze your business services and their support services from various perspectives.

Click the navigate Navigate button of the business service to open the content area. Go to Overview > Asset Grouping. In the Service Groups field, enter the name of the service group you want to assign the business service to. Or click in the field to open the selector and select each service group that you want to assign the business services to. Click outside of the selector to close it and update the Asset Grouping field.

Go to the business service's content area > Data Quality > Data Quality Details view to check the data quality of the business service you are defining.

  1. Expand the table in order to review and correct all data quality issues showing Hint or Warning in the Severity column.
  2. Double-click the link in the Resolution column to navigate to the location where you can correct the data quality issue.
  3. When you navigate back to the content area > Data Quality > Data Quality Details view, the resolved issue will no longer be displayed and the Data Quality Completeness report will show the improvement in data quality.
  4. Correct all data quality issues to achieve a perfect data quality completeness score.

The following business questions are relevant for the analysis of business services: