Though Service Desk is not a process, the Service Desk is an important function within the service support.
Objective:
To focus on Incident Control and Communication as it is the first and ideally single point of contact for users (SPOC).
How it works?
The Service Desk handles all incoming calls through Mail / Phone / ticketing system and escalates them to the second or third tier support as and when necessary.
The Service Desk will have access to a Knowledge Base, which will contain a list of known solutions for some common incidents. This way queries or incidents can be solved by the Service Desk staff without escalating to next level and taking much time from IT Engineers.
The Service Desk is responsible for keeping the customer informed on the status of their request.
For the customer the advantage is that they are the single point of contact and they don’t have to go around searching for the right person to solve their problem.
For IT personnel (IT Domain Engineers) they only have to deal with issues that are related to their skills or area of responsibility.
Process of Service Desk:
• Provide Assistance, advice and guidance to customers
• Communicate and promote IT services as per the SLA
• Manage and control service communications to customers, suppliers, Vendors and the business
• Coordinate Incident Management activities
• Manage people, processes and technologies w.r.t operations of an IT infrastructure
• Provide management information about Service Desk quality and operations
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Ensure long term Customer retention and satisfaction (as they are the face of the IT department.)
· Reduce support costs by the efficient use of resource and technology
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Ensure Long Term Customer Retention and Satisfaction
• Percentage of Customers provided Satisfaction Surveys
• Customer Satisfaction Rating on Service Desk
• Percentage of Caller Hold Times within SLA
• Percentage of Calls Responded To Within SLA
• Number of Incident Records Not Yet Closed With in SLA
• Number of Calls Abandoned
Reduce Support Costs by Efficient Use of Resources and Technologies
• Percent of Calls Resolved At the Service Desk without Escalation
• Staff Turnover Rate on the calls / requests.
• Overall Cost per Call.
Finally Service Desk stands for providing a central point of contact for customers and supports the Incident Management process by providing a single point of contact to manage incidents to resolution w.r.t operations.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Objective:
To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used / followed for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, to minimize the impact of Change-related incidents upon service quality and day-to-day operations of the organization, and in order to improve the day to day operations of organization.
Input: RFCs, CMDB, Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC)
Process of Change Management:
• Filtering changes
• Managing changes and the change process
• Chairing the CAB and CAB/EC
• Reviewing and closing RFCs
• Management reports
Procedure of Change Management:
• Accept Changes (RFCs)
• Prioritize and classify changes
• Coordinate for change impact assessment
• Coordinate for approval of changes
• Coordinate for scheduling of changes
• Coordinate for implementation of changes
• Conduct post implementation reviews
• Provide management information about Change Management quality and operations
Advantages of Change Management:
• Better alignment / assesments of IT service to business requirements
• Increased visibility and communication on changes to both business and Operations.
• Improved risk assessment
• Reduced adverse impact of changes on the quality of services and on SLAs
• Improved problem, availability and capacity management through the use of valuable management information relating to changes
• Minimal changes to be backed-out
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Controlling Changes
• Making Quick and Accurate Changes Based on Business Priorities / request.
• Protecting Services When Making Changes to IT infrastructure.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Controlling Changes
• Number of RFCs processed
• Number of RFCs rejected
• Number of unauthorized changes detected
• Number of RFCs implemented on schedule
• Number of RFCs requiring reschedules
Making Quick and Accurate Changes Based On Business Priorities / request
• Number of RFCs marked as URGENT
• Number of RFCs not tested prior to implementation
• Number of RFCs that failed
• Number of RFCs without business case
• Number of RFCs bypassing CAB or CAB/EC
Protecting Services when making Changes to IT Infrastructure.
• Number of SEV1 incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of SEV2 incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of other incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of RFCs without a backup strategy
Names to remember:
RFC: Request for Change
RFC represents the change with a unique number that is going to be implemented.
FSC: Forward schedule of Changes
FSC contains the information on the upcoming changes planned for the IT Infrastructure changes and it should be circulated to all the key stake holders of the Project / Company.
CAB: Change Advisory Board
CAB is an authority board to approve the RFC in a scheduled CAB meets (Weekly / bi-weekly) with all the IT domains heads.
CAB EC: Change Advisory Board – Emergency Committee
CAB EC is a special authority board to approve RFC in a critical situation or in emergency conditions, where in they can not wait for the formal approval process.
Finally, Change Management stands for Coordinating and controlling all changes to IT services to minimize adverse impacts of those changes to business, operations and the users of IT services.
To ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used / followed for efficient and prompt handling of all changes, to minimize the impact of Change-related incidents upon service quality and day-to-day operations of the organization, and in order to improve the day to day operations of organization.
Input: RFCs, CMDB, Forward Schedule of Changes (FSC)
Process of Change Management:
• Filtering changes
• Managing changes and the change process
• Chairing the CAB and CAB/EC
• Reviewing and closing RFCs
• Management reports
Procedure of Change Management:
• Accept Changes (RFCs)
• Prioritize and classify changes
• Coordinate for change impact assessment
• Coordinate for approval of changes
• Coordinate for scheduling of changes
• Coordinate for implementation of changes
• Conduct post implementation reviews
• Provide management information about Change Management quality and operations
Advantages of Change Management:
• Better alignment / assesments of IT service to business requirements
• Increased visibility and communication on changes to both business and Operations.
• Improved risk assessment
• Reduced adverse impact of changes on the quality of services and on SLAs
• Improved problem, availability and capacity management through the use of valuable management information relating to changes
• Minimal changes to be backed-out
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Controlling Changes
• Making Quick and Accurate Changes Based on Business Priorities / request.
• Protecting Services When Making Changes to IT infrastructure.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Controlling Changes
• Number of RFCs processed
• Number of RFCs rejected
• Number of unauthorized changes detected
• Number of RFCs implemented on schedule
• Number of RFCs requiring reschedules
Making Quick and Accurate Changes Based On Business Priorities / request
• Number of RFCs marked as URGENT
• Number of RFCs not tested prior to implementation
• Number of RFCs that failed
• Number of RFCs without business case
• Number of RFCs bypassing CAB or CAB/EC
Protecting Services when making Changes to IT Infrastructure.
• Number of SEV1 incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of SEV2 incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of other incidents caused by RFC implementation
• Number of RFCs without a backup strategy
Names to remember:
RFC: Request for Change
RFC represents the change with a unique number that is going to be implemented.
FSC: Forward schedule of Changes
FSC contains the information on the upcoming changes planned for the IT Infrastructure changes and it should be circulated to all the key stake holders of the Project / Company.
CAB: Change Advisory Board
CAB is an authority board to approve the RFC in a scheduled CAB meets (Weekly / bi-weekly) with all the IT domains heads.
CAB EC: Change Advisory Board – Emergency Committee
CAB EC is a special authority board to approve RFC in a critical situation or in emergency conditions, where in they can not wait for the formal approval process.
Finally, Change Management stands for Coordinating and controlling all changes to IT services to minimize adverse impacts of those changes to business, operations and the users of IT services.
CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
Objective:
Providing information on the IT infrastructure to all other processes and IT management.
Enabling control of the infrastructure by monitoring and maintaining information on all the resources needed to deliver services
Process of Configuration Management:
• Planning.
• Identification and naming.
• Control.
• Status accounting.
• Verification & audit.
· Update CMDB – Configuration Management Database
Procedure of Configuration Management:
• Plan for Configuration Management databases and activities
• Identify Configuration Items
• Control Configuration Item information
• Perform status accounting
• Perform verification and audit of Configuration Management databases
• Provide management information about Configuration Management quality and operations
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Managing Configuration Item information end to end of IT infrastructure.
• Providing capability to perform risk analysis of changes and releases performed.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Managing Configuration Item Information end to end of IT Infrastructure
• Number of Configuration Items logged and tracked
• Number of Configuration Items with attribute failures
• Number of changes to Configuration Item attributes
• Number of additional Configuration Items
• Number of deletions of Configuration Items
• Number and frequency of exceptions in configuration audits
Providing Capability to Perform Risk Analysis of Changes and Releases performed
• Number of incidents caused by inaccurate configuration data
• Percentage of Services tracked with Configuration Items versus known products and services
Advantage of Configuration Management:
• Provides accurate information on Configuration Items (CIs) and their documentation
• Controls valuable CIs
• Facilitates adherence to legal obligations
• Helps with financial and expenditure planning
• Making software changes visible
• Contributes to contingency planning
• Supporting and improving Release management
• Allowing the organization to perform impact analysis and schedule changes safely and efficiently
• Providing problem management with data on trends
Are tools required for Managing CMDB?
Yes, Software tool is key to maintain CMDB especially for large infrastructure. Most of the organizations require a Configuration management-based tool, capable of storing all relevant configuration items (CIs) and should have the following facilities:
• Problems, RFCs are stored upon the same database in an easily accessible format.
• The ability to identify the relationship among CIs (physical and logical), and between CIs and RFCs, RFCs and Problems, RFCs and CI
Finally Configuration Management stands to identify, record and report on configuration items and their relationships for IT services.
Providing information on the IT infrastructure to all other processes and IT management.
Enabling control of the infrastructure by monitoring and maintaining information on all the resources needed to deliver services
Process of Configuration Management:
• Planning.
• Identification and naming.
• Control.
• Status accounting.
• Verification & audit.
· Update CMDB – Configuration Management Database
Procedure of Configuration Management:
• Plan for Configuration Management databases and activities
• Identify Configuration Items
• Control Configuration Item information
• Perform status accounting
• Perform verification and audit of Configuration Management databases
• Provide management information about Configuration Management quality and operations
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Managing Configuration Item information end to end of IT infrastructure.
• Providing capability to perform risk analysis of changes and releases performed.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Managing Configuration Item Information end to end of IT Infrastructure
• Number of Configuration Items logged and tracked
• Number of Configuration Items with attribute failures
• Number of changes to Configuration Item attributes
• Number of additional Configuration Items
• Number of deletions of Configuration Items
• Number and frequency of exceptions in configuration audits
Providing Capability to Perform Risk Analysis of Changes and Releases performed
• Number of incidents caused by inaccurate configuration data
• Percentage of Services tracked with Configuration Items versus known products and services
Advantage of Configuration Management:
• Provides accurate information on Configuration Items (CIs) and their documentation
• Controls valuable CIs
• Facilitates adherence to legal obligations
• Helps with financial and expenditure planning
• Making software changes visible
• Contributes to contingency planning
• Supporting and improving Release management
• Allowing the organization to perform impact analysis and schedule changes safely and efficiently
• Providing problem management with data on trends
Are tools required for Managing CMDB?
Yes, Software tool is key to maintain CMDB especially for large infrastructure. Most of the organizations require a Configuration management-based tool, capable of storing all relevant configuration items (CIs) and should have the following facilities:
• Problems, RFCs are stored upon the same database in an easily accessible format.
• The ability to identify the relationship among CIs (physical and logical), and between CIs and RFCs, RFCs and Problems, RFCs and CI
Finally Configuration Management stands to identify, record and report on configuration items and their relationships for IT services.
PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
What is a Problem?
A ‘Problem’ is the unknown cause of one or more incidents, often identified as a result of multiple similar incidents.
Objective:
The objective of Problem Management is to minimize the impact of problems on the organization. Problem Management plays an important role in the detection and providing solutions to problems (work arounds & known errors) and prevents their reoccurrence.
{ Know Error!!!!
A ‘Known error’ is an identified root cause of a Problem.
Work Around?
Work around is temporary solution for a problem. }
Inputs & Outputs of PM:
Inputs:
Incident Records And Details About Incidents
Known Errors
Information From Other Processes
Outputs:
RFCs (Request for Change)
Management Information
Work Arounds
Known Errors
Update Problem Records (solved problems records if the known error is resolved)
Process of Problem Management:
Problem control
· Problem detection and Recording
· Identify the repeated incidents.
· Perform Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Error control
· Identify Know error and provide workaround.
· Resolve the root cause and provide permanent solution or Initiate RFC’s.
Proactively manage problems
Conduct major problem reviews
Provide management information about Problem Management quality and operations
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
• Avoiding Repeated Incidents
• Minimizing Impact of Problems
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Avoiding Repeated Incidents
• Number of repeated incidents
• Number of existing Problems
• Number of existing Known Errors
Minimizing Impact of Problems
• Average time for diagnosis of Problems
• Average time for resolution of Known Errors
• Number of open Problems
• Number of open Known Errors
• Number of repeat Problems
• Number of Major Incident/Problem reviews
Names to remember:
Known Errors: A Known Error is a problem for which the root cause is understood and there is a temporary workaround or a permanent fix has been identified. Note that the implementation of the permanent fix may be some time in the future.
RFC: RFC is an acronym for: Request for Change. This is normally part of a formal procedure, and can, for example, be an input to a service desk. It is largely part of ‘business as usual’ in a development or business cycle.
Work Around: work around is an uncommon solution to a problem where the known methodology is insufficient. Work arounds are usually used to minimize the effects of the problem, until a permanent solution is offered. Note that when the root cause has been identified Work Arounds become Known Errors.
Finally, Problem Management stands for minimizing the adverse impacts of incidents and problems on the business caused by errors in the IT infrastructure and initiate actions to prevent recurrence of incidents related to those errors.
INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
What is an Incident?
An ‘Incident’ is any event which is not part of the standard operation of the service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption or a reduction of the quality of the service.
Objective:
The objective of Incident Management is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible with the least possible impact on either the business or the user, at a cost-effective price.
Inputs & Outputs of IM:
Inputs, mostly come from users, but can have other sources as well like management Information or Detection Systems.
The outputs of the process are RFC’s (Requests for Changes), resolved and closed Incidents, management information and communication to the customer.
Process of Incident Management:
· Incident detection and recording
· Classification and initial support
· Investigation and diagnosis
· Resolution and recovery
· Incident closure
· Incident ownership, monitoring, tracking and communication
*** These elements provide a baseline for management review.
Procedure of Incident Management:
• Detect and record incidents
• Classify incidents
• Provide initial incident support
• Prioritize incidents based on impact and urgency
• Investigate and diagnose incidents
• Resolve incidents and recover service per agreed service levels
• Close incidents
• Maintain ownership, monitoring, tracking and communications about incidents
• Provide management information about Incident Management quality and operations
What are the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of IM?
• Maintaining IT Service Quality
• Maintaining Customer Satisfaction
• Resolving Incidents Within Established Service Times
What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for IM?
Maintaining IT Service Quality
• Number of Severity 1 incidents (total and by category)
• Number of Severity 2 incidents (total and by category)
• Number of other incidents (total and by category)
• Number of incidents incorrectly categorized
• Number of incidents incorrectly escalated
• Number of incidents bypassing Service Desk
• Number of incidents not closed/resolved with workarounds
• Number of incidents resolved before customers notice
• Number of incidents reopened
Maintaining Customer Satisfaction
• Number of User/Customer surveys sent
• Number of User/Customer surveys responded to
• Average User/Customer survey score (total and by question category)
• Average queue time waiting for Incident response
Resolving Incidents Within Established Service Times
• Number of incidents logged
• Number of incidents resolved by Service Desk
• Number of incidents escalated by Service Desk
• Average time to restore service from point of first call
• Average time to restore Severity 1 incidents
• Average time to restore Severity 2 incidents
Finally, Incident management stands for Restoring normal state of IT service operations as quickly as possible to minimize the adverse impact on business operations.
An ‘Incident’ is any event which is not part of the standard operation of the service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption or a reduction of the quality of the service.
Objective:
The objective of Incident Management is to restore normal operations as quickly as possible with the least possible impact on either the business or the user, at a cost-effective price.
Inputs & Outputs of IM:
Inputs, mostly come from users, but can have other sources as well like management Information or Detection Systems.
The outputs of the process are RFC’s (Requests for Changes), resolved and closed Incidents, management information and communication to the customer.
Process of Incident Management:
· Incident detection and recording
· Classification and initial support
· Investigation and diagnosis
· Resolution and recovery
· Incident closure
· Incident ownership, monitoring, tracking and communication
*** These elements provide a baseline for management review.
Procedure of Incident Management:
• Detect and record incidents
• Classify incidents
• Provide initial incident support
• Prioritize incidents based on impact and urgency
• Investigate and diagnose incidents
• Resolve incidents and recover service per agreed service levels
• Close incidents
• Maintain ownership, monitoring, tracking and communications about incidents
• Provide management information about Incident Management quality and operations
What are the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of IM?
• Maintaining IT Service Quality
• Maintaining Customer Satisfaction
• Resolving Incidents Within Established Service Times
What are the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for IM?
Maintaining IT Service Quality
• Number of Severity 1 incidents (total and by category)
• Number of Severity 2 incidents (total and by category)
• Number of other incidents (total and by category)
• Number of incidents incorrectly categorized
• Number of incidents incorrectly escalated
• Number of incidents bypassing Service Desk
• Number of incidents not closed/resolved with workarounds
• Number of incidents resolved before customers notice
• Number of incidents reopened
Maintaining Customer Satisfaction
• Number of User/Customer surveys sent
• Number of User/Customer surveys responded to
• Average User/Customer survey score (total and by question category)
• Average queue time waiting for Incident response
Resolving Incidents Within Established Service Times
• Number of incidents logged
• Number of incidents resolved by Service Desk
• Number of incidents escalated by Service Desk
• Average time to restore service from point of first call
• Average time to restore Severity 1 incidents
• Average time to restore Severity 2 incidents
Finally, Incident management stands for Restoring normal state of IT service operations as quickly as possible to minimize the adverse impact on business operations.
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