Risk Management within the IT-Service Lifecycle

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 2,0, University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg (Fachbereich Wirtschaft), language: English, abstract: Risk Management for IT-Service Lifecycle Management is not always performed in a transparent, repeatable and consistent way. In consequence its potential to be used as a key element for successful decision taking is not fully utilized. This thesis considers applied standards, models and practices in the IT-Service Management to establish a methodology which enables improvement of Risk Management within the IT-Service Lifecycle. The developed methodology determines stages in the Lifecycle where risk assessments should be performed. It also defines the required information and their sources. Being based on already existing processes within a service providing organization, this methodology can easily be applied to improve the service quality. Motivation: Since one major business sector of Merck is the production of pharmaceutical products the organization is subject to very strict regulations for development and production of their life science products and the business supporting ITServices therefore underlie a strong IT-Governance. This IT-Governance as part of the corporate Governance is highly influential on how IT-Services are operated and carried out over their whole lifecycle. In addition, business processes and the management of risks are highly important factors. The provided IT-Services have to be on track with business needs of the respective customers. To ensure this alignment strategic decisions need to be based on relevant information. To improve this decision making process various types of information on IT-Services are needed. The author's professional background served as a foundation for addressing this corporate need of Merck. Having obtained basic knowledge on IT-Services, related organizations and processes, the author took this opportunity to pursue his growing interest within this field of research.