These guidelines address the delivery and support of ICT services, covering the aspects related to the overall software and service life cycle (planning, development and software construction, operations and maintenance). The purpose of ICT service delivery is to provide agreed levels of service to users, and to manage the technology that supports the application of administrative procedures implemented by the institution.

It is only during this stage of their life cycle that services actually deliver value to the business, and it is the responsibility of ICT services staff to ensure that this value is delivered.

The objectives of ICT service delivery are to:

• Provide users with appropriate means to access the institution’s services, particularly through multichannel online systems;
• Maintain business satisfaction and confidence in ICT through effective and efficient delivery and support of agreed ICT services;
• Minimize the impact of service outages on daily business activities;
• Ensure that access to agreed ICT services is only provided to those authorized to receive those services.

These guidelines address the issues related to system construction and ICT-based service delivery. The goal is to provide a systematic and standardized approach to managing software applications, technical issues, system operations, requests and incidents. In particular, the management of service continuity aims at ensuring the continued operation of key processes, especially those involving critical operations, and maintaining the availability of information at an acceptable level in the event of significant disruption. These topics have been addressed by international standards (ISO/IEC 22301, COBIT® and ITIL) as well as by the ISSA.

It is important to note that ICT service delivery has to deal with, and try to keep in balance, conflicting goals, such as stability versus responsiveness, quality versus cost of service, and reactive versus proactive approaches.