ITIL / ITSM: Where Do I Start?

Transcription

1 ITIL / ITSM: Where Do I Start? A whitepaper presented by: Third Sky, Inc. 75 Union Street, Suite 100 Brighton, MA In partnership with: FrontRange Solutions, Inc. Page 1 of 11

2 Where do I start? The answer of Where do you start is unique to each organization. It depends on what processes have already been implemented; the maturity of those processes, and the problematic areas that need immediate attention. Why is it important to start right? ITIL is a strategic initiative. It can improve the quality of your I.T. services while driving down the cost. It touches every corner of the I.T. organization. Something this important is going to attract executive attention. So if it isn t done right, the failure is highly visible. ITIL is a big cultural shift. I.T. has traditionally been systems-oriented. ITIL changes the I.T. organization to be service-oriented. This cultural change requires careful planning. There needs to be education, time to assimilate new ideas and processes, and collaboration to encourage buy-in from all stakeholders. Introducing too much change at once will doom your ITIL implementation to failure. Instead, implement ITIL as a series of well planned phases. ITIL is a multi-phase endeavor. It is important to get the first phase right. Build momentum instead of killing it. By delivering tangible value in the first phase, the organization will by more accepting of a broader adoption of ITIL. ITIL requires significant dedication to the cause. Implementing ITIL is not easy because it is large in scope, but everyone still has their daily job to do. Support calls need to be answered. New projects need to be implemented. The ITIL implementation team will have limited time to devote to the initiative, so make sure their effort is focused on the most effective areas within your organization. Use your limited resources wisely, and be sure that when you start the effort, you understand your path to success. So where does the path begin? The successful implementations we have seen started out with education. People must understand the benefits of ITIL before they are willing to adopt the processes. Education can span from basic ITIL awareness to formal certification. Next, in order to know where to start, perform an assessment of current practices. What ITIL processes are you already doing today? What are your strengths? Where are your weaknesses? Are business drivers directing you more to one ITIL processes compared to the others? Based on the assessment, you can develop a multi-phase ITIL implementation plan. The plan is different for each client. So the answer of Where do you start? is a big It Depends. Page 2 of 11

3 But everyone wants to know the answer at the back of the book. Across our customers we have found some common starting points: Defining the service catalog Building on incident management and the service desk Implementing change management and creating a configuration management database Page 3 of 11

4 Defining the Service Catalog In the perfect world, where there are no other competing priorities, Third Sky recommends defining the service catalog as the place to start. If the business is demanding less expenses I.T. services and/or better quality services, the service catalog facilitates the discussion with the customer. Why start with the Service Catalog? When you define your service catalog, you generate an awareness of ITIL throughout the I.T. organization. During this process, the service catalog facilitates the culture shift from a system-oriented perspective to a service-oriented perspective. For example, an service resonates more with internal customer compared to providing Microsoft Exchange servers. Customers are concerned about disruptions in the service regardless of whether the disruption was caused by the Microsoft Exchange or some other component of the I.T. infrastructure. The cultural transition can be quite difficult and it may take several months of education, discussion and consensus-building. Though we may choose to start an ITIL initiative with a focus on Incident, Change, Configuration, or another ITIL process, the reality is that all the other processes have some level of dependency on the Service Catalog, which effectively means that any ITIL initiative must have building the Service Catalog as a component of the initial effort. The Service Catalog in FrontRange ITSM FrontRange Service Level Management (SLM) facilitates the building of a Service Catalog with a complete solution for managing: the set of services you provide to your customers SLAs, OLAs, and Underpinning Contracts underlying those services Escalations and metrics associated with each service Service Level Agreements are consistently used for Incidents, Problems, and Changes, facilitating management reporting and ultimately a solid foundation for demonstrating the value of IT services to the recipients of those services. Page 4 of 11

5 Service Desk/Incident Management Surprise--we do not live in a perfect world. I.T. departments have provided Help Desks / Service Desks for many years, many of them buried under the effort of putting out the fires. Why start with Incident Management? Incident Management is closely tied to the Service Desk or Help Desk function. Starting with processes within the organization that have matured over the years and aligning them with ITIL best practices acknowledges that evolutionary change results in minimal resistance, improving the probability of success and building momentum for a more expansive ITIL initiative. The Service Desk is frequently the first group to recognize the benefits of ITIL, and as such can become the evangelist for implementing ITIL throughout the organization, which facilitates continued education. Areas of Improvement Implementing Incident Management as prescribed in ITIL can improve the effectiveness of the Help Desk / Service Desk. One place to look is how you handle incidents, service requests and problems. Some clients have one system for incidents and a different system for service requests. Look to consolidate the two approaches. On the flip side, clearly distinguish between incidents and problems. Incidents are closed once the immediate user issue is resolved, even if it just a work-around. In contrast, a problem should remain open until the root-cause is addressed. For example, a problem is closed when a bug is fix. Ideally, you should use an ITIL-compliant Service Management tool that tracks Incidents and Problems separately, or at least clearly distinguish between the two so that Incident and Problem statistics are clearly delineated. Even if there is a single consolidated tool for tracking Incidents, different groups within I.T. may have different interpretation of lookup values within the database. Make sure there is a standard definition of priority across the organization and a standard method for determining priority based on the urgency and impact of the Incident. Also, make sure that the usage of Incident status is consistent across the organization. Although you may be starting with Incident Management, you will need to, at a minimum, define a simple service catalog. If you are implementing an ITIL-compliant Incident Management tool, the service is a mandatory field that requires modeling. Most organizations have an existing process for functional escalation. Functional escalation involves transferring the incident to second or third-level support; for example, to the desktop team or the application support team. However, the process for hierarchical escalation may not be defined. Hierarchical escalation involves notifying management, senior management and executives that an SLA is about to be or has been missed. Page 5 of 11

6 Incident Management in FrontRange ITSM Users migrating from HEAT can take advantage of FrontRange ability to integrate HEAT s incident management with other FrontRange ITSM modules. This approach provides the lowest-impact method of migrating to ITSM from HEAT. HEAT users can also take advantage of special pricing in this scenario. Whether moving from HEAT or starting fresh with ITSM, the process improvements associated with tight integrations between Incident, Problem, Change and Service Level Management provide immediate process enhancements and return on investment. FrontRange ITSM Incident Management also features: Built-in best practices Target Response and Resolution Dates and Times are automatically calculated based on key Incident information (using the Service Level Management module) Detailed Escalation Schedules are also automatically populated once Service Levels have been selected (using the Service Level Management module) Quick access to escalated incidents QuickActions reduce the effort involved in completing common, recurring activities like sending an to a customer acknowledging receipt of an inquiry. Full integration with FrontRange Problem, Change and Service Level Management Page 6 of 11

7 Change Management A Gartner study found that the majority of incidents are caused by changes to the I.T. infrastructure. I.T. creates its own work; we are the biggest cause of our own pain. Why start with Change Management? If changes are resulting in more incidents rather than less; or, if certain I.T. groups are introducing changes without coordinating with others, start your ITIL initiative by looking at Change Management. Common drivers for Change Management are: Reduced the number of failed changes Coordinate change across multiple I.T. groups Prevent unauthorized changes Regulatory requirements may also dictate that you start with Change Management. For example, Sarbanes-Oxley requires you to implement the controls that come with Change Management. Before a change in your financial system can be implemented, it must go through the appropriate approvals. You must maintain an audit of what was changed, who authorized the change and who performed it. Getting Started in Change Management The key to getting started in Change Management is getting started! Do not overthink the process. Instead, begin with a basic Request for Change form, and have the immediate goal of 100% compliance with the Change process. Then seek improvements in the process once the use of it is institutionalized. Also be sure to: Educate the stakeholders Create a Change Advisory Board (CAB) Start with a simple process but include provisions for Emergency Changes Publish a Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) Define standard changes Conduct Post-Implementation Reviews (PIR) Change Management in FrontRange ITSM Out of the box, FrontRange ITSM provides a solid Change Management platform that supports: Automated process workflow 360-degree view of Change impact and relationship with Incidents/Problems Change approvals and CAB support Publishing a Forward Schedule of Change internally as well as to customers Capture and analyze associated financial information Create powerful Dashboard and reporting views At-a-glance view of all pending and scheduled changes Support for Post implementation reviews to determine whether the change has achieved the establish goals Full Integration with FrontRange Release Management Page 7 of 11

8 Configuration Management The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) can be considered the sun which the other ITIL Service Support processes orbit around. Why start with Configuration Management? One of the key benefits of a Configuration Management Database, or CMDB, is to provide a systematic mechanism for performing impact analysis. The CMDB not only tracks each item but the relationship between items. Hence, if an item is about to be changed, you can analyze the relationship between items to identify the downstream effects of the change. Better impact analysis will lead to a higher percentage of successful changes. Like the Service Catalog, the CMDB is a common thread that runs throughout all ITIL processes. By associating configuration items (or CIs) to incidents and problems, you can identify trends. For example, you might discover that a hard drive of a specific laptop model usually fails within 18 months so you can start replacing the hard drives before data loss occurs. When CIs are associated with changes, the Service Desk can ask the user for their CIs, retrieve all changes associated with the CIs, and check if any recent changes caused the incident. Finally, the CMDB gives I.T. a better understanding of the infrastructure that it manages. The CMDB can be used for cost justification, promoting the standardization of infrastructure, and so on. Population Strategies Even though the CMDB can have a broad scope, do not attempt to populate the entire CMDB at once. Instead, focus your initial population efforts on one of the following strategies. Start with business critical services Start with where you have the most control Start with where you already have information Driven by regulatory requirements Populate the underlying enterprise application and its subsystems and the databases, middleware and hardware that support the service. Once populated, you can perform more thorough impact analysis for Change Management. If the information within the CMDB ages, its usefulness diminishes. Therefore, another place to start your population effort is in an area where you have the most control so you can ensure that the information does not age. For example, start with your data center. Populating a CMDB takes considerable effort. So, you may want to start by leveraging the information collected from auto-discovery tools. You may want to start with your financial systems for Sarbanes-Oxley or your clinical systems for FDA/HIPAA compliance. Page 8 of 11

9 Configuration Management in FrontRange ITSM FrontRange has full-range support for handling Configuration Management in your environment, with two primary modules: Configuration Management Inventory Management Handles Configuration Items underlying the ITSM infrastructure and ties directly into Incident, Problem, and Change Management processes. FrontRange s Inventory Management s key features: Automatic scans for desktops and network devices Agent-less technology reduces implementation costs Interoperability and shared CMDB integrates with FrontRange ITSM for faster problem identification and resolution Tightly integrated with the Problem and Change Management approval process. Full audit trail to record changes to assets through their lifecycle, ensuring full integrity of the CMDB Schedule automated scans for pre-defined network segments to collect inventory additions and changes during off-peak hours Manually enter data for non -scanned inventory items Implement customized business process for real-time alerts and event-driven automated responses Undiscovered assets are automatically scanned the next time they connect to the network Create real-time dashboards with customizable queries to display information driven by your business needs Page 9 of 11

10 About the Authors Third Sky specializes in the assessment, planning, and implementation of ITIL / ITSM solutions that enables IT organizations to deliver higher levels of service at lower costs. Third Sky provides a comprehensive set of IT Service Management solutions addressing people, process, and technology issues for medium to large enterprises. Third Sky offers: ITIL Education, ITIL Readiness Assessments, Process Consulting, Software Selection, and full life-cycle Implementation and Systems Integration services for ITSM, Help Desk, and VoIP Contact Center solutions. We are ITIL certified professionals with deep application implementation expertise. Third Sky s experienced team of consultants manages over 150+ customers. The ITSM Lifecycle as defined by Third Sky revolves around continuing education through all steps in the process. Third Sky has a full complement of services designed to meets the needs companies at any stage in ITSM development. Third Sky s offerings are built upon best-in-class education, services, and software to provide the right solutions for your People, Process, and Technology needs at every stage of the ITSM lifecycle. Third Sky ITSM Lifecycle Page 10 of 11

11 Third Sky offers a matrix of services designed to offer your organization a choice in approach to ITSM and ITIL. For example we can offer a solution that focuses on Education, but covers the full implementation lifecycle. Or we can offer Assessment services that aid your organization from an Education, Process, and Technology standpoint. The chart below gives our full complement of services at-a-glance: Assess Executive Awareness Project Stakeholder ITIL Foundations Line Staff ITIL Foundations Plan How to Succeed with ITIL ITSM Planning Workshop Implement ITSM Stabilization Workshop Service Support Process Training Service Delivery Process Training Practitioner Training Manage Advanced Certifications Process Assessment Workshop IT Service Manager Training Process Optimization Workshop Education Process Consulting Technology Solutions Please visit Third Sky at Process Maturity Assessment Service Desk Functional Assessment Service Support Process Deep Dives Service Delivery Process Deep Dives Service Quality Workshop Service Support/Service Delivery Effectiveness Assessment ITSM Process Design Service Support Process Design Service Delivery Process Design Technology Assessment Requirements Definition & Package Selection ITSM Implementation Plan Technology Implementation and Integration ITSM, HelpDesk, and VOIP Contact Center Packaged Applications (via technology partners) Custom Solutions ITSM Optimization Plan ITSM Process Effectiveness Testing and Measurement Online Mentoring Service Technology Enhancement & Improvement Pay-As-You-Go Consulting Support Page 11 of 11