ISO 20000 Certification Relationship and Resolution Processes 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In ISO 20000, what is the recommended approach when a new supplier is engaged to support service delivery?
- Allow the supplier to begin work immediately without documentation
- Establish a formal contract or agreement defining roles, responsibilities, and performance targets (Correct answer)
- Rely on verbal agreements to maintain flexibility
- Let the customer manage the supplier relationship directly
Correct answer: Establish a formal contract or agreement defining roles, responsibilities, and performance targets
ISO 20000 requires formal contracts or agreements with suppliers that clearly define roles, responsibilities, and measurable performance targets.
Question 2: Which process in ISO 20000 is responsible for ensuring that services delivered by suppliers align with the overall service delivery commitments made to the customer?
- Incident Management
- Supplier Management (Correct answer)
- Availability Management
- Release and Deployment Management
Correct answer: Supplier Management
Supplier Management ensures that supplier contributions align with the service provider's obligations and that supplier performance supports customer commitments.
Question 3: A customer submits a formal complaint about repeated billing errors. Which action best aligns with ISO 20000 complaint management requirements?
- Log the complaint, acknowledge receipt, investigate root cause, and communicate resolution to the customer (Correct answer)
- Forward the complaint to finance and close the complaint record
- Ask the customer to resubmit the complaint as an incident
- Escalate directly to senior management without logging
Correct answer: Log the complaint, acknowledge receipt, investigate root cause, and communicate resolution to the customer
ISO 20000 requires complaints to be logged, acknowledged, investigated, resolved, and communicated back to the customer in a structured manner.
Question 4: How does ISO 20000 define the relationship between complaint management and continual service improvement?
- Complaints are isolated events with no link to improvement activities
- Complaint trends and root causes should feed into continual improvement plans (Correct answer)
- Continual improvement replaces the need for a complaint process
- Only unresolved complaints trigger improvement activities
Correct answer: Complaint trends and root causes should feed into continual improvement plans
Trends identified through complaint management should inform continual improvement activities to prevent recurrence and enhance service quality.
Question 5: What is the purpose of regular service review meetings as part of the business relationship management process in ISO 20000?
- To renegotiate financial terms of the SLA
- To monitor service performance, address concerns, and strengthen the customer relationship (Correct answer)
- To replace formal SLA reviews
- To audit internal staff performance
Correct answer: To monitor service performance, address concerns, and strengthen the customer relationship
Regular service review meetings allow the provider and customer to monitor performance, address concerns, and maintain a collaborative relationship.
Question 6: Under ISO 20000, who is responsible for ensuring that all parties in the supply chain are aware of service requirements?
- The customer's procurement team
- The service provider (Correct answer)
- Individual suppliers themselves
- An independent auditor
Correct answer: The service provider
The service provider is responsible for communicating service requirements to all parties in the supply chain, ensuring alignment with customer commitments.
Question 7: Which of the following scenarios best illustrates a breakdown in business relationship management under ISO 20000?
- A service review meeting identifies a minor SLA breach that is immediately corrected
- Customer service expectations change but are never formally communicated or documented with the provider (Correct answer)
- A new service is added to the catalog after customer consultation
- A complaint is logged and resolved within agreed timeframes
Correct answer: Customer service expectations change but are never formally communicated or documented with the provider
Business relationship management requires that changes in customer expectations are formally captured and documented; failure to do so represents a process breakdown.
ISO 20000 Certification Relationship and Resolution Processes 3
In ISO 20000, what is the recommended approach when a new supplier is engaged to support service delivery?