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USMBOK™: Key Concepts
The Policy Framework
Policies - the operational rules
A 'policy' is a guiding principle, preferred or mandated course of action or rule, intended to influence or determine decisions, actions, or the manner in which activities within a procedure or process are performed.
Policies are operational rules that are typically set in conjunction with governance. There are three types of policies representing the level at which they are set, and their scope of effect:
- Global;
- Regional;
- Local.
Policies represent and enforce governance and are a means of maintaining order, security, consistency, and successfully furthering a goal or mission. Each service management strategy should have a common policy management system.
Global Policies
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A 'global' type policy represents a mandatory, cross enterprise rule. It may only be overridden by an approved 'Regional' policy.
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Regional Policies
Regional policies trump or override global policies and describe rules specific to a geographic region or defineable subset of the whole enterprise, customer and service model set, such as a country, state, or industry sector.
Regional policies are overridden by local policies.
Local Policies
A local policy is extremely specific to a situation, location, group or even a role or individual. Local policies override regional policiies and allow procedures and processes to be both rigorously enforced, and yet flexible enough to meet individual needs.
Policy Framework
A policy framework includes:
- A policy management system
- A policy classification system
- A policy enforcement method
- Policies for integration with a governance framework
Policies are maintained via the Change Management system.
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