For Frequently Askes Questions about USM, please switch to the USM Wiki. There, you'll find - among others - the answers to the following questions:

  • What is USM?
  • Where does USM come from?
  • Why USM?
  • Who is USM for?
  • What makes USM special?
  • What doesn USM deliver?
  • What does USM cost?
  • What are USM products?
  • How do you deploy USM?
  • Which organizations use USM?
  • What is the USM Customer-Provider Interaction Model?
  • Are there 100+ definitions of 'service'?
  • What is a method?
  • Why is control so important?
  • How does USM relate to the Viable System Model?
  • Where do I get USM templates for user organizations?
  • What is the USM Deployment Toolkit?
  • How is public education supported with USM?
  • Which tools have been certified for supporting USM?
  • What is the difference with ESM?
  • USM vs ITIL, COBIT or FitSM? Key differences? Relations with any best practice framework?
  • What is the benefit of USM?
  • How would you make the market aware of USM, as there are a lot of (also widely unknown) models and methodologies around?
  • As a newcomer, how would USM help me build my career?
  • Why USM and not ITIL, Cobit, or some other methodology?
  • Process measurement and indicator if we are doing good or bad?
  • Does USM help maintaining an integrated management system, say ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO22301 and other more sectorial standards?
  • How would you explain service management in an easy way to people who don't know anything about it yet?
  • How to deal with the different modes of service delivery (machine-to-machine, customer portal, phone support, field support) in so few processes?
  • Why do we need yet another approach / framework / .... ?
  • Does this mean I have to re-define all my services and refresh my entire service catalog? That sounds like a lot of work….
  • How do other ‘ITIL shops’ address USM today?
  • What about our ITSM tool? How will this work with what I already have?
  • What are some of the most common misconceptions about USM?
  • What are the strengths of the USM method?
  • How long does it take to implement USM?
  • Is USM more difficult to implement than other methods/frameworks?
  • What are the main challenges in implementing USM?