ITIL: Why Your IT Organization Should CareService Support

Wendy ShihWshih@kent.edu

Kent State University

HistoryITIL - IT Infrastructure Library

Developed by British government in 1980’s

Focus on continuously improvement

Consists of 8 books, currently in version 2

•Service Support (blue book) - core book

•Service Delivery (red book) - core book

•Security Management

•Business Perspectives

•Application Management

•Planning and Implementation

•Software Asset Management

Version 3 released May 30, 2007 has 5 books

Why adopting ITIL?

It aligns with IT business goals and service objectives

It is process driven, scaleable and flexible

Reduce IT cost yet providing optimal services

Increase relationship and communication among different departments, employees, customers and users

Successfully adapted by HP, IBM, PG, Shell Oil, Boeing, Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, State of CA

How Is It Different?Provide common language for IT

Not a methodology but guidelines with best practices

Connect processes

Provide a framework

It is public domain not proprietary

Core books consist - one function and ten processes:

Service Support

Incident Management Service Support

Problem Management Service Support

Change Management Service Support

Release Management Service Support

Configuration Management Service Support

Service Level Management Service Delivery

Financial Management Service Delivery

IT Continuity Management Service Delivery

Availability Management Service Delivery

Capacity Management Service Delivery

The Service Desk - a function

Incident Management

A disruption in normal or standard business operation that affects the quality of service

Goal: restore normal service as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse effect on business operation

Incident Activities

Detection & ReportDetection & Report

Classification & supportClassification & support

Investigation & diagnosisInvestigation & diagnosis

Resolution & recoveryResolution & recovery

Monitoring, Monitoring, tracking and tracking and

communicationcommunication

Incident ClosureIncident Closure

Service Request

Escalate

Service Desk Function

SPOC - Single Point of Contact

Record and resolve incidents

Provide work-around, escalate if not resolved

Produce incident reports

Keep users and customers informed of progress

Responsible for incident life cycle

End Users

Service Support

Service Desk

Incident Management

Change Management

Release Management

Configuration Management

ProblemManagement

Problem ManagementA problem is an unknown underlying cause of an error or failure in the IT infrastructure

Known error - incidents or problems that the underlying cause is known (root cause) and a temporary work-around or alternative fix has been identified

Goal:

• Minimize the impact of incidents caused by errors

• Reduce recurrence of incidents due to these errors

Error in

Infrastructure

Incidents Problems Known Error RFCSolutions

Problem ManagementActivities

Problem Control

Identify, classify and solve problems

Root cause identification

Provide work-around to the Service Desk

Error Control

Review and assess Known Error identified from Root Cause

Eliminate known errors using the Change management

Prevent incidents - trend analysis and place preventive measures

Service Desk & Problem Management

Incidents vs Problems

Propose incidents

Incident Matching

Identify recurrences of solved problems

Report and identify new work-around

Identify trend

Change Management• Goal: All changes are controlled and managed with

standardized procedures and minimum interruption

• A change is when a state of supported hardware, network, software, application, environment, system, or associated documentation is different because of:

Addition

Change

Move

Change Management Activities

Log /Filter requests for change (RFC)

Prioritize and categorize RFCs

Assessing resource requirements and impact

Authorize and approve RFCs by Change Advisory Board

Schedule and build the change

Create back-out plan and test the change

Implement and review implemented changes

Review the change management process

Service Desk & Change Management

Receive and forward Request for Change (RFC)

Provide feedback to users about the changes

Ready to support and understand the impact

Identify and report failed changes

Report and feedback to Change management

Configuration Management

Accounts for relationship between assets

Owner of Configuration Management DB - CMDB

Account and track for all IT assets & configuration items (CI) in the CMDB

Verify configuration records against the infrastructure for accuracy

A sound basis for Incident, Problem, Change and Release Management

Configuration ManagementActivities

Plan

Identify - CI

Control - CI and change authorization

Status Accounting - keep CI up-to-date

Audit / Verification - accuracy

Report of CI life cycle

Service Desk and Configuration Mgmt

Use CMDB retrieve incident and problem records

Report and identify inaccurate CMDB relationship

Assess severity and priority with CMDB info

Provide customers with CMDB changes

Assist Configuration Management team with CMDB audit

Release Management

Goals:

1. Plan and oversee successful rollout

2. Design and implement efficient procedures

3. Communicate and agree to the rollout plan through Change Management

4. Ensure master copies are secured in DSL and DHS

5. Ensure CMDB is updated and changes are traceable

Owner of DSL - Definitive Software Library

Owner of DHS - Definitive Hardware Store

Release ManagementActivities:

Policy

Schedule

Design /Develop

Build

Test

Accept

Plan Rollout

Distribute / install

Review

Test

Development

Production

Archive

Service Desk and Release Management

Identify incidents from rollout

Assist in release planning

Record and report

Provide feedback

Ensure staff can support new releases

End Users

Service Support

Service Desk

Incident Management

Change Management

Release Management

Configuration Management

ProblemManagement

Successful ITIL Service DeskIncreasing customers and users satisfaction

Decrease incident numbers

First call resolution goal

Accurate incident identification and escalation

Excellent communication with other areas

SLA compliance

Service Support

The common area to implement ITIL

Increase customer and user satisfaction

IT will be more efficient and effective

Decrease IT financial cost

Useful ITIL Links

The Official ITIL Site

http://www.ogc.gov.uk/

ITSMF — ITIL global forumhttp://www.itsmf.com/

ITIL COMMUNITY FORUM

http://www.itilcommunity.com

Questions and Discussion

Wendy Shih wshih@kent.edu

Thank you!