Process vs. Service: What’s the difference?

ITIL thoughts:

I run into a quick discussion on the differences between ITIL & COBIT with a fellow officemate.   I started searching for the definitions of a Process and a Service.  
Below are some views about this matter from John Worthington, Director of Consulting, Third Sky

Process vs. Service: What’s the difference?

Process (white box) - an inward view of how the business capability works --- inputs-process-output.
A process view sharpens the understanding for the operational model of a capability.
It provides the required analytical foundation to reflect on the current and potential future performance
of a capability as far as this performance can be impacted by the way it is delivered.
As such, a process-view can be seen as an approach to 'white box a corporate capability'.

Service (black box) - a service-oriented (external) view on a corporate capability
The emphasis is, as described above, on the conscious abstraction of the internal
operations of this capability. Instead, the focus is on the overall value
proposition (what can the service provide?), the related costs, the
underlying governance model ('what happens when the service fails,
i.e. service continue management') and further non-functional service
properties as part of a service level agreement ('response time, quality
standards, etc.).

The Service Catalog should not confuse what we are delivering to customers (services) with how we are doing it (processes).


Reference:
Process vs. Service: What’s the difference? - John Worthington, Director of Consulting, Third Sky
http://www.thirdsky.com/process-v-service.html

Linkedin blog: Critical Success Factors vs Key Performance Index - what's the difference?

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/What-is-actual-difference-between-51930.S.95120955

Chris E.
Key Performance Indicators are a quantitative measure of achievement of specific objectives and that these objectives are what support the more qualitative Critical Success Factors.
Michael C.
A critical success factor is "something that must happen if an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity is to succeed" (OGC, 2011, p. 433). Sometimes CSFs are referred to as prerequisites for success. A key performance indicator is "a metric that is used to help manage an IT service, process, plan, project or other activity" (p. 441). Think of them this way -- the CSF is what you need to have or do (input or action), whereas the KPI is about measuring the result so that you can make adjustments to the CSF (input or action) as needed.

Christine W.
CobiT Definition: CSF: The most important issues or actions for managment to achive control over and within the IT Processes
KPI: Measures that determine how well the process is performing in enabling the goal to be reached. They are lead indicators of wheather a goal will likely be reached and are good indicators of capablities, practices and skills. They measure the activity goals, which are the actions the process owner must take to achieve effective process performance.

Ian B.
SLAs are agreed with the customer to define in a measurable, repeatable form what constitutes a good service. Ultimately the customer will decide whether the service is a success or not. KPIs are the measures you use internally to ensure you are meeting the customer's requirements and you publish them externally to prove it. CSFs are what underpin your ability to hit your KPIs.
So, you are achieving 99.9% availability. Have you got your capacity management under control? Is your change process robust? Are you tackling incidents quickly and efficiently? Immediately you can see that good ITIL based service management is the biggest CSF in any IT service.

Roy B.
For me, a CSF is the reason we do things, it is a purpose, a strategic ambition that should be linked to other desired strategic outcomes that lead to “Success”. To know whether we are heading in the right direction we need indicators and this is what a KPI is, a sign we are either heading towards or away from a Critical Success Factor.
...
The KPI helps me to assess whether my performance is good enough to achieve the CSFs. Without this I could be failing, going in the wrong direction, and would not know until it is impossible to succeed.

The CSF should be strategic and linked to other strategic objectives (i.e. look to the future). The KPI should be operational (i.e. how are we doing today?). Together they help the firm assess whether things are going well or not and so empower management to make corrective decisions if such are needed.

Larry C.
http://www.itsmsolutions.com/newsletters/DITYvol6iss5.htm

Daniel L.
I'm going to use an analogy that may help clear this up.
...
 You have a control panel in front of you with a bunch of gauges, each of which has some numbers and a needle indicator on it. This control panel as a whole shows you the current state of your service/process/whatever that you are managing.

One or more gauges GROUPED TOGETHER show you the state of a CSF. These gauges represent things you need to keep an eye on to ensure your factor is actually successful.

Each gauge (in isolation) is equivalent to a KPI. On any one gauge, you have a needle that points to some numbers. The needle shows you the current performance state (expressed as a result of some measured metric). Some of the numbers on that gauge are "in the red" (which may be above or below the current needle mark.) The "black zone" is your target area that you want to stay within, and the "red zone" is the area you want to stay away from. The metric is of course the actual number that the needle is pointing to.

In and of itself, the metric means nothing. It simply is a number with no real meaning. When you combine that number with a comparison to a reference value or values you begin to get some information. If you measure that reference over time, you can begin to see trends that will help you take actions to manage your CSF appropriately.