According to the ITIL 4 framework, all service management activities must be driven by business value. When a business-critical service is failing, the primary step is to engage with stakeholders to understand the precise impact on business goals and outcomes. This coordination, as described in option B, is a core aspect of the 'Engage' value chain activity and the 'Focus on value' guiding principle. It ensures that subsequent improvement actions are correctly prioritized and justified, addressing the root business problem rather than just the technical symptoms. Implementing technical solutions without this business context risks misallocating resources on improvements that do not deliver the expected value.

A. Improving the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is a reactive measure for disaster recovery; it does not address the root cause of the frequent downtimes or slow performance.

C. Scaling up infrastructure is a presumptive technical solution. The root cause has not been identified and may not be related to insufficient capacity or resilience.

D. Spreading demand is a specific capacity and demand management tactic. It assumes the problem is caused by peak loads, which may not be the case.

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1. AXELOS

ITIL® 4: Drive Stakeholder Value (2020). Section 2.1

"The customer journey

" emphasizes the importance of understanding the customer's perspective

needs

and desired outcomes throughout the service lifecycle. Option B is a direct application of this principle

re-engaging the customer to understand the value context of the failing service.

2. AXELOS

ITIL® 4 Foundation

ITIL 4 Edition (2019). Section 4.3.1

"Focus on value

" states

"Everything that the organization does needs to map

directly or indirectly

to value for the stakeholders." Before taking action

the service provider must understand how the performance issues are impacting value

which requires coordination with the business.

3. AXELOS

ITIL® 4 Foundation

ITIL 4 Edition (2019). Section 4.5

"The ITIL service value chain

" describes the 'Engage' activity as providing "a good understanding of stakeholder needs... and a continual engagement with all stakeholders." The scenario necessitates this 'Engage' activity to reassess needs before proceeding to 'Improve' or 'Design and Transition'.