Guidance & Governance will set the direction and control mechanism that the service value chain activities will need to understand and adhere.
CoE should be aware of all significant work efforts in which the organization is currently involved or is interested in pursuing.
The level of CoE involvement with individual, and organizational work efforts will vary based upon many factors, including:
- The level of complexity of the planned work
- The level of success that the organization has had with similar work
- Resource availability (this is very important
CoE needs to stay focused primarily on project acceleration and risk mitigation by guiding proven practices and (when applicable) reusable components (sharable assets already identified or opportunities for developing such assets as part of the current work effort).
The team should possess the ability to guide, suggest, and “govern” the work. This means that the CoE should be positioned as the authorized entity that will decide on any significant development or methodology decisions.

The 7 guiding principles are:
1. Focus on Value
2. Start where you are
3. Progress iteratively with feedback
4. Collaborate and promote visibility
5. Think and work holistically
6. Keep it simple and practical
7. Optimize and automate

Risk Management

The purpose of the risk management practice is to ensure that the organization understands and effectively handles risks. Managing risk is essential to ensuring the ongoing sustainability of an organization and creating value for its customers. Risk management is an integral part of all organizational activities and therefore central to the organization’s service value system. Risk must be considered in relation to all 4 of the ITIL dimensions of service management. Risks are prevalent in everything an organization does and must be appropriately considered in every decision it makes. Whilst the risk is most commonly associated with a negative context it should also be evaluated as a potential opportunity to increase or create value for the consumer and provider. The way each organization evaluates and manages risk is ultimately specific to that organization, however, the key activities of evaluation and prioritization remain the same. High-velocity organizations will have a higher acceptance and tolerance of risk than those organizations that prefer stability and a steady state.

Relationship Management

The purpose of the relationship management practice is to establish and nurture the links between an organization and its stakeholders at strategic and tactical levels. Relationships are key to understanding opportunity and demand and utilizing the service value system to create value. Relationships need to be understood at every level be they tactical in nature (service delivery and performance orientated) or strategic (understanding business goals and objectives and strategic direction). Relationships must be built, nurtured, and matured to enable value co-creation and a true partnership between consumer and provider originations, within this it is important to identify all stakeholders and manage the relationships accordingly. For some roles within an ITSM organization, relationship management will be the principal activity (for example Service Level Managers, Account Managers), however, it is the responsibility of all staff at various points in the execution of their role.

Service Financial Management

The purpose of the service financial management practice is to support the organization’s strategies and plans for service management buy ensuring that the organization’s financial resources and investments are being used effectively. Good financial management is key to an organization’s success and survival, every organization has to be able to demonstrate sound financial management in line with corporate policies, processes and procedures. To be effective, the financial management practice needs to align and integrate to the policies and practices of portfolio management, project management and relationship management.

Strategy Management

The purpose of the strategy management practice is to formulate the goals of the organization and adopt the courses of action and allocation of resources necessary for achieving those goals. Every organization has to have a strategic intent backed by goals and objectives. For a service provider it is important that their strategic direction aligns with that of its customer(s). Strategy management ensure requirements and outcomes are understand and drive the direction of the organization whist enabling effective and relevant decision making at pertinent levels and at key points in time. Strategy provides the overall direction for an organization and ultimately drives everything it does, strategy is set by senior management and governing bodies but affects every role within the organization and as such should be translated and cascaded accordingly. The key deliverable of any strategy is to enable value creation for the organization.