ISO/IEC TS 25011:2017 is applicable to IT services that support the needs of an individual user or a business. IT services can be delivered personally or remotely by people, or by an IT application that could be in a local or remote location (see Annex A).

These include two types of IT services:

a) services completely automated provided by an IT system;

b) services provided by a human using an IT system.

ISO/IEC TS 25011:2017 describes the use of two quality models for IT services.

a) ISO/IEC TS 25011:2017 defines an IT service quality model composed of eight characteristics (which are further subdivided into sub-characteristics) that relate to properties of the IT service made up from a combination of elements including people, processes, technology, facilities and information.

b) ISO/IEC TS 25011:2017 describes how the quality in use model in ISO/IEC 25010 which is composed of five characteristics (some of them are further subdivided into sub-characteristics) can be applied to the outcome when an IT service is used in a particular context of use. This model is applicable to the complete service provision system composed of people, processes, technology, facilities and information.

The characteristics and sub-characteristics provide consistent terminologies and check lists for specifying, measuring and evaluating IT service quality.

The use of the IT service quality models can help:

- IT service providers to identify service quality requirements, and evaluate and improve the quality of the service provided;

- customers to specify their requirements for the quality of service, define the acceptance criteria for service, and evaluate the quality of an IT service; and

- a third party to evaluate the quality of an IT service.