ISO 20000 Certification Service Delivery Processes 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In ISO 20000, which of the following best describes a 'service level requirement' (SLR)?
- An internal IT performance target set without customer input
- A customer's documented needs that form the basis for SLA negotiation (Correct answer)
- A legally binding contract between provider and regulator
- A checklist used during incident resolution
Correct answer: A customer's documented needs that form the basis for SLA negotiation
An SLR captures the customer's documented service needs and expectations, which then form the basis for negotiating and drafting the SLA.
Question 2: Under ISO 20000, availability management must consider which of the following when calculating availability targets?
- Only planned maintenance windows
- Both planned and unplanned downtime across all service components (Correct answer)
- Only end-user-facing outages, not backend failures
- Financial cost of downtime exclusively
Correct answer: Both planned and unplanned downtime across all service components
Availability calculations must account for all downtime including both planned maintenance and unplanned failures across all components that support the service.
Question 3: What is the key difference between a recovery time objective (RTO) and a recovery point objective (RPO)?
- RTO applies to hardware; RPO applies to software
- RTO defines how quickly a service must be restored; RPO defines how much data loss is acceptable (Correct answer)
- RTO is set by the provider; RPO is set by regulators
- They are interchangeable terms in ISO 20000
Correct answer: RTO defines how quickly a service must be restored; RPO defines how much data loss is acceptable
RTO specifies the maximum tolerable time to restore a service after a disruption, while RPO specifies the maximum acceptable amount of data that may be lost.
Question 4: In ISO 20000, who is ultimately accountable for ensuring that service delivery processes meet agreed objectives?
- The configuration manager
- Senior management of the service provider organization (Correct answer)
- The customer's IT department
- External auditors
Correct answer: Senior management of the service provider organization
ISO 20000-1 places accountability for the SMS and its outcomes, including service delivery, with the top management of the service provider.
Question 5: Which ISO 20000 process ensures that underpinning contracts with third-party suppliers support the service levels agreed with customers?
- Service level management
- Supplier management (Correct answer)
- Service continuity management
- Change management
Correct answer: Supplier management
Supplier management ensures that contracts and relationships with third-party suppliers align with and support the service levels promised to customers.
Question 6: Under ISO 20000, what must happen if capacity monitoring reveals that a service is consistently approaching its performance limits?
- The SLA targets must be immediately lowered
- A capacity plan must be updated and corrective actions initiated (Correct answer)
- Incidents must be raised for each occurrence
- The service must be immediately suspended
Correct answer: A capacity plan must be updated and corrective actions initiated
When monitoring shows consistent near-capacity conditions, the capacity plan must be updated and proactive corrective actions taken before service degradation occurs.
Question 7: In ISO 20000, which of the following is a valid input to the availability management process?
- Customer complaints about billing errors
- Service level agreements specifying availability targets (Correct answer)
- Staff training records
- Marketing campaign schedules
Correct answer: Service level agreements specifying availability targets
SLAs containing agreed availability targets are a primary input to availability management, providing the benchmarks against which performance is measured.
ISO 20000 Certification Service Delivery Processes 4
In ISO 20000, which of the following best describes a 'service level requirement' (SLR)?