Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
Glossary of terms [R]
TERM
DEFINITION
Record
A Document containing the results or other output from a Process or Activity. Records are evidence of the fact that an activity took place and may be paper or electronic. For example, an Audit report, an Incident Record, or the minutes of a meeting.
Recovery
(Incident Management) Returning a Configuration Item or an IT Service to a working state. Recovery of an IT Service often includes recovering data to a known consistent state. After Recovery, further steps may be needed before the IT Service can be made available to the Users.
Redundancy
Synonym for Fault Tolerance. The term Redundant also has a generic meaning of obsolete, or no longer needed.
Registered Certification Body (RCB)
An Organisation that has been Accredited to perform Certification against a published Standard such as ISO/IEC 17799 or ISO/IEC 20000.
A connection or interaction between two people or things. In Business Relationship Management it is the interaction between the IT Service Provider and the Business. In Configuration Management it is a link between two Configuration Items that identifies a dependency or connection between them. For example Applications may be linked to the Servers they run on, IT Services have many links to all the CIs that contribute to that IT Service.
Relationship Processes
The ISO/IEC 20000 Process group that includes Business Relationship Management and Supplier Management.
Release
(Release Management) A collection of hardware, software, documentation, Processes or other Components required to implement one or more approved Changes to IT Services. The contents of each Release are managed, tested, and deployed as a single entity. See Full Release, Delta Release, Package Release, Release Identification.
Release Acceptance
(ReleasManagement) The Activity responsible for testing a Release, and its implementation and Back-out Plans, to ensure they meet the agreed Business and IT Operations Requirements.
Release Identification
(Release Management) A naming convention used to uniquely identify a Release. The Release Identification typically includes a reference to the Configuration Item and a version number. For example Microsoft Office 2003 SR2.
Release Management
(Release Management) The Process responsible for Planning, scheduling and controlling the movement of Releases to Test and Live Environments. The primary objective of Release Management is to ensure that the integrity of the Live Environment is protected and that the correct Components are released. Release Management works closely with Configuration Management and Change Management.
Release Mechanism
(Release Management) The methodology for deploying a Release to its target Environment. A Release Mechanism may include hardware and software tools as well as Procedures.
Release Process
The name used by ISO/IEC 20000 for the Process group that includes Release Management. This group does not include any other Processes.
Release Record
A Record in the CMDB that defines the content of a Release. A Release Record has Relationships with all Configuration Items that are affected by the Release.
(Release Management) A Category that is used to classify Releases. A Release Type may be one of Full, Delta or Package Release.
Release Unit
(Release Management) Components of an IT Service that are normally Released together. A Release Unit typically includes sufficient components to perform a useful Function. For example one Release Unit could be a Desktop PC, including Hardware, Software, Licenses, Documentation etc.; a different Release Unit may be the complete Payroll Application, including IT Operations Procedures and user training. See Release Type.
Repair
The replacement or correction of a failed Configuration Item. Often measured as Mean Time to Repair (MTTR). See Maintainability, Recovery, Restoration of Service.
Request for Change (RFC)
(Change Management) A formal proposal for a Change to be made. An RFC includes details of the proposed Change, and may be recorded on paper or electronically. The term RFC is often misused to mean a Change Record, or the Change itself.
Requirement
A formal statement of what is needed. For example a Service Level Requirement, a Project Requirement or the required Deliverables for a Process. See Statement of Requirements.
The ability of a Configuration Item or IT Service to resist Failure or to Recover quickly following a Failure. For example, an armoured cable will resist failure when put under stress. See Fault Tolerance.
Resolution
(Incident Management) (Problem Management) Action taken to repair the Root Cause of an Incident or Problem, or to implement a Workaround. In ISO/IEC 20000, Resolution Processes is the Process group that includes Incident and Problem Management.
Resolution Processes
The ISO/IEC 20000 Process group that includes Incident Management and Problem Management.
Resource Capacity Management (RCM)
(Capacity Management) The Process responsible for understanding the Capacity, Utilisation, and Performance of Configuration Items. Data is collected, recorded and analysed for use in the Capacity Plan.
Resource
A generic term that includes IT Infrastructure, people, money or anything else that might help to deliver an IT Service.
A measure of the time taken to complete an Operation or Transaction. Used in Capacity Management as a measure of IT Infrastructure Performance, and in Incident Management as a measure of the time taken to answer the phone, or to start Diagnosis.
Responsiveness
A measurement of the time taken to respond to something. This could be Response Time of a Transaction, or the speed with which an IT Service Provider responds to an Incident or Request for Change etc.
Restoration of Service
See Restore (Below).
Restore
(Incident Management) Taking action to return an IT Service to the Users after Repair and Recovery from an Incident. This is the primary Objective of Incident Management.
Retire
Withdraw an Application, IT Service etc. from use in the Live Environment.
Review
An evaluation of a Change, Problem, Process, Project etc. Reviews are typically carried out at predefined points in the Lifecycle, and especially after Closure. The purpose of a Review is to ensure that all Deliverables have been provided, and to identify opportunities for improvement. See Post Implementation Review.
Risk
The possibility of suffering harm or loss. In quantitative Risk Management this is calculated as how likely it is that a specific Threat will exploit a particular Vulnerability.
The initial steps of Risk Management. Analysing the value of Assets to the business, identifying Threats to those Assets, and evaluating how Vulnerable each Asset is to those Threats. See CRAMM.
Risk Management
The Process responsible for identifying, assessing and managing Risks. Risk Management can be quantitative (based on numerical data) or qualitative. See Risk Assessment, Risk Treatment, CRAMM.
Risk Reduction Measure
Synonym for Control. See Countermeasure.
Risk Treatment
The part of Risk Management responsible for choosing and implementing an option for managing a Risk. Options for Risk Treatments include:
- Applying Cost Effective Controls to reduce the Risk
- Deciding to accept the Risk
- Avoiding the Risk, by preventing the situation that could lead to it
- Transferring the Risk to a Third Party, for example by taking out insurance.
Role
A set of responsibilities defined in a Process and assigned to a person or team. One person or team may have multiple Roles, for example the Roles of Configuration Manager and Change Manager be carried out by a single person.
(Release Management) Synonym for Deployment. Most often used to refer to complex or phased Deployments.
Root Cause
(Problem Management) The underlying or original cause of an Incident or Problem.
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
(Problem Management) An Activity that identifies the Root Cause of an Incident or Problem. RCA typically concentrates on IT Infrastructure failures. See Service Outage Analysis.
Running Costs
Synonym for Operational Costs
