ITIL Practitioner Support and Restore (IPSR) All-in-One Help Desk Exam Guide and Certification Work Book Copyright © The Art of Service Notice of Rights All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Notice of Liability The information in this book is distributed on an “As Is” basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor the publisher shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the products described in it. Trademarks Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book. .
ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
Table of Contents ITIL Practitioner Support and Restore (IPSR) All-in-One Help Desk Exam Guide and Certification Work Book ................................................................................................................. 1 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... 2 Write a Review & Receive a Bonus Emereo eBook of Your Choice: Up to $99 RRP FREE! .... 11 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 12 Program Objectives ..................................................................................................................... 13 Why Service Management? ........................................................................................................ 14 ITIL Model ................................................................................................................................... 15 Parties Involved........................................................................................................................... 16 Training & Certification ................................................................................................................ 17 Training & Certification II ............................................................................................................. 18 Exams per Region 2006 .............................................................................................................. 19 Who is a Practitioner? ................................................................................................................. 20 GENERAL TERMS & CONCEPTS................................................................................................. 21 Terminology ................................................................................................................................ 22 Terminology (continued) .............................................................................................................. 23 ITSM Focus – The Components .................................................................................................. 24 Vision, Objective & Policy ............................................................................................................ 25 Service Management – The Objective Tree ................................................................................ 26 Process Improvement Model ....................................................................................................... 27 Implementation – Where do we want to be? ................................................................................ 28 Implementation – Where are we now? ........................................................................................ 29 Implementation – How will we get there? .................................................................................... 30 Implementation – How will we get there? (continued) .................................................................. 31 Implementation – How do we know when we’ve arrived? ............................................................ 32
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Implementation – How do we keep going? .................................................................................. 33 The Functional Oriented Organization ......................................................................................... 34 The Process Driven Organization ................................................................................................ 35 Generic Process.......................................................................................................................... 36 ARCI Model ................................................................................................................................. 37 IPSR – Introduction to Support and Restore Processes ............................................................ 38 INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE DESK ........................................................................................... 39 Service Desk – Goal.................................................................................................................... 40 Service Desk – Terminology........................................................................................................ 41 Service Desk – Staff Skill Set ...................................................................................................... 42 Service Desk – Staff Skill Set (continued) ................................................................................... 43 INTRODUCTION TO INCIDENT MANAGEMENT .......................................................................... 44 Incident Management – Goal ...................................................................................................... 45 Incident Management – Scope .................................................................................................... 46 Incident Management – Terminology .......................................................................................... 47 Incident Management – R&R and Skills ...................................................................................... 48 INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM MANAGEMENT ......................................................................... 49 Problem Management – Goal...................................................................................................... 50 Problem Management – Scope ................................................................................................... 51 Problem Management – Terminology .......................................................................................... 52 Problem Management – R&R and Skills...................................................................................... 53 SUPPORT AND RESTORE – Managing, Organizing, Optimizing............................................... 54 SERVICE DESK ............................................................................................................................. 55 Managing – Service Desk ............................................................................................................. 56 Initial Planning ............................................................................................................................. 57 Managing – Service Desk Actions, Activities, Objectives ............................................................. 58
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Implementing............................................................................................................................... 59 Service Desk – Key Considerations ............................................................................................ 60 Managing – Service Desk Monitoring and Reporting ................................................................... 61 Frequency of Reporting and Review ........................................................................................... 62 Organizing – Service Desk ........................................................................................................... 63 Organizing – Service Desk Information ....................................................................................... 64 Keep Customers and Users Informed ......................................................................................... 65 Keep Customers and Users Informed II....................................................................................... 66 Service Desk – Relationships ...................................................................................................... 67 Organizing – Service Desk Procedures ....................................................................................... 68 Processes and Procedures ......................................................................................................... 69 Processes and Procedures II ...................................................................................................... 70 Organizing – Service Desk Structure ........................................................................................... 71 Service Desk Structures .............................................................................................................. 72 Organization: Local Service Desk................................................................................................ 73 Organization: Centralized Service Desk ...................................................................................... 74 Organization: Virtual Service Desk .............................................................................................. 75 Organizing – Service Desk R&R, Functions, Staffing, Technology .............................................. 76 Service Desk Functions ............................................................................................................... 77 Service Desk – Education & Training .......................................................................................... 78 Service Desk – R&R and Skills.................................................................................................... 79 Service Desk – Staffing Levels .................................................................................................... 80 Service Desk – Staff Turnover ..................................................................................................... 81 The ‘Super-User’ ......................................................................................................................... 82 Service Desk – Workload Monitoring ........................................................................................... 83 Service Desk – Technologies ...................................................................................................... 84 Service Desk – Technologies II ................................................................................................... 85 Service Desk – Technologies III .................................................................................................. 86 4
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Service Desk – Technologies IV .................................................................................................. 87 Service Desk – Technologies V ................................................................................................... 88 Service Desk – Technologies VI .................................................................................................. 89 Service Desk – Technologies VII ................................................................................................. 90 Service Desk – Technologies VII (continued) .............................................................................. 91 Organizing – Service Desk Incidents ........................................................................................... 92 Service Desk – Incident Classification ......................................................................................... 93 Service Desk – Escalation Management ..................................................................................... 94 Optimizing – Service Desk ........................................................................................................... 95 Customer Satisfaction Surveys.................................................................................................... 96 Service Desk – KPIs.................................................................................................................... 97 Service Desk – CSFs .................................................................................................................. 98 Optimizing Service Desk – Propose Improvements ..................................................................... 99 Incident Reporting and Review .................................................................................................. 100 Incident Reporting and Review II ............................................................................................... 101 Effective Workload Analyses ..................................................................................................... 102 INCIDENT MANAGEMENT .......................................................................................................... 103 Managing – Incident Management ............................................................................................. 104 Initial Planning ........................................................................................................................... 105 Managing – Incident Management Information .......................................................................... 106 Incident Management - Relationships........................................................................................ 107 Managing – Incident Management Actions, Activities, Objectives.............................................. 108 Incident Management – Timing and Planning ............................................................................ 109 Incident Management – Timing and Planning (continued) ......................................................... 110 Managing – Incident Management Monitoring and Reporting .................................................... 111 Management Reporting ............................................................................................................. 112 Incident Management – KPIs .................................................................................................... 113
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Incident Management – CSFs ................................................................................................... 114 Organizing – Incident Management ........................................................................................... 115 Incident Management – Relationships ....................................................................................... 116 Organizing – Incident Management Procedures ........................................................................ 117 Roles of the Incident Management Process .............................................................................. 118 Incident Manager ...................................................................................................................... 119 Incident – Handling Support Staff .............................................................................................. 120 Incident – Handling Support Staff II ........................................................................................... 121 Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking and Communication............................................................... 122 Incident Management – Tools ................................................................................................... 123 Organizing – Incident Management Relationships ..................................................................... 124 Relationships – Service Desk & Incident ................................................................................... 125 Organizing – Incident Handling ................................................................................................. 126 Incident Management – Activities .............................................................................................. 127 Incident Management – Activities (continued) ........................................................................... 128 Incident Management – Investigation & Diagnosis .................................................................... 129 Incident Management – Escalation............................................................................................ 130 Incident Management – Detection & Recording......................................................................... 131 Incident Management – Detection & Recording II...................................................................... 132 Incident Management – Classification & Initial Support ............................................................. 133 Basic Concepts – Categorization............................................................................................... 134 Incident Management – Resolution & Recovery ........................................................................ 135 Incident Management – Major Incidents .................................................................................... 136 Optimizing – Incident Management ........................................................................................... 137 Incident Management – Activities .............................................................................................. 138 Incident Management Activities – Report .................................................................................. 139 Optimizing Incident Management – Propose Improvements ...................................................... 140
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Continuous Service Improvement.............................................................................................. 141 PROBLEM MANAGEMENT ......................................................................................................... 142 Managing – Problem Management ............................................................................................ 143 Initial Planning ........................................................................................................................... 144 Managing – Problem Management Information ......................................................................... 145 Problem Management – Relationships ...................................................................................... 146 Managing – Problem Management Actions, Activities, Objectives ............................................. 147 Timing & Implementation ........................................................................................................... 148 Managing – Problem Management Monitoring and Reporting ................................................... 149 Management Reporting ............................................................................................................. 150 Problem Management – KPIS ................................................................................................... 151 Problem Management – CSFs .................................................................................................. 152 Organizing – Problem Management .......................................................................................... 153 Inputs & Outputs ....................................................................................................................... 154 Organizing – Problem Management Information ....................................................................... 155 Cascading Information .............................................................................................................. 156 Organizing – Problem Management Procedures ....................................................................... 157 Roles within Problem Management ........................................................................................... 158 Problem Manager ...................................................................................................................... 159 Problem Support – Reactive Responsibilities ............................................................................ 160 Problem Support – Proactive Responsibilities ........................................................................... 161 Problem Management – Tools .................................................................................................. 162 Organizing – Problem Management Relationships .................................................................... 163 Relationships – Incident & Problem ........................................................................................... 164 Relationships – Incident & Problem II ........................................................................................ 165 Organizing – Problem Control ................................................................................................... 166 Problem Management – Activities ............................................................................................. 167
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Problem Control – Activities ...................................................................................................... 168 Problem Identification and Recording ........................................................................................ 169 Problem Classification ............................................................................................................... 170 Problem Classification II ............................................................................................................ 171 Problem Investigation and Diagnosis ........................................................................................ 172 Organizing – Error Control......................................................................................................... 173 Error Control.............................................................................................................................. 174 Error Control – Activities ............................................................................................................ 175 Error Identification and Recording ............................................................................................. 176 Error Assessment ...................................................................................................................... 177 Error Resolution Recording ....................................................................................................... 178 Error Closure ............................................................................................................................. 179 Organizing – Proactive Problem Management .......................................................................... 180 Proactive Problem Management ............................................................................................... 181 Proactive Problem Management II ............................................................................................ 182 Proactive Problem Management II (continued) .......................................................................... 183 Problem Management – Activities ............................................................................................. 184 Optimizing – Problem Management .......................................................................................... 185 Problem Management – Metrics ................................................................................................ 186 Optimizing – Propose Improvements ......................................................................................... 187 Periodic Audits .......................................................................................................................... 188 Example Flow-Through ............................................................................................................. 189 REVIEW – Service Desk ............................................................................................................. 190 Service Desk Activities – SPOC ................................................................................................ 191 Service Desk Challenges .......................................................................................................... 192 Service Desk Benefits ............................................................................................................... 193 Service Desk Staff Functions .................................................................................................... 194
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Service Desk R&R and Skills .................................................................................................... 195 REVIEW – Incident Management ............................................................................................... 196 Incident Management Activities ................................................................................................. 197 Incident Management Activities (continued) .............................................................................. 198 Incident Management Costs ...................................................................................................... 199 Incident Management Costs II ................................................................................................... 200 Incident Management Costs III .................................................................................................. 201 Incident Management Costs IV.................................................................................................. 202 Incident Management Benefits .................................................................................................. 203 Incident Management Challenges ............................................................................................. 204 Incident Management R&R and Skills ....................................................................................... 205 Example Flow-Through ............................................................................................................. 206 REVIEW – Problem Management ............................................................................................... 207 Problem Control Management Activities .................................................................................... 208 Error Control Management Activities ......................................................................................... 209 Problem Management Activities ................................................................................................ 210 Problem Management Activities (continued) ............................................................................. 211 Problem Management Costs ..................................................................................................... 212 Problem Management Costs II .................................................................................................. 213 Problem Management Benefits ................................................................................................. 214 Problem Management Challenges ............................................................................................ 215 Problem Management R&R and Skills....................................................................................... 216 ASSIGNMENTS ........................................................................................................................... 217 Assignment 1 – Service Desk .................................................................................................... 217 Assignment 2 – Incident Management....................................................................................... 218 Assignment 3 – Problem Management ...................................................................................... 220 ASSIGNMENT RESOURCES ...................................................................................................... 221 9
ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
Case Study – RECE Shoe Company ........................................................................................ 221 EXAM PREPARATION ................................................................................................................ 235 FURTHER READING ................................................................................................................... 251
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this “Clustered Practitioner Program” from The Art of Service. This program is fully accredited by the globally recognized accreditation agency for IT Service Management programs – EXIN. The program has been developed and accredited in accordance with guidelines provided by EXIN.
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
Program Objectives
The ITIL Practitioner Support and Restore is intended for professionals who will participate in managing, organizing, and optimizing, the operations of the Support and Restore processes in an IT Service organization. Typically such organizations will have implemented, or started to implement, elements of the ITIL Framework or may be looking to make improvements in these process areas.
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Why Service Management?
The requirement to look at the provision of IT Services in a professional way is driven by a variety of factors. Organizations understand the benefits of having Information Technology (IT) throughout their structure. However, few realize the potential of truly aligning the IT department’s objectives with the business objectives. More and more organizations are beginning to recognize IT as being a crucial delivery mechanism of services to their customers. The starting point for IT Service Management (ITSM) and the ITIL Framework is not the technology, not the processes; it is the organizational objectives.
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ITIL Model
The IT Infrastructure Library is a set of books/CDs with best (good) practice processes on how to manage the provision of IT services. It is the “process” part of the Service Management challenge (people, process and technology). The core set of material is the following set of tightly coupled areas: •
Service Delivery
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Service Support
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Security Management
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Business Perspective: The IS View on Delivering Services to the Business (Vol I)
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Applications Management
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ICT Infrastructure Management
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Planning to implement Service Management
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Software Asset Management
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Parties Involved
OGC: Office of Government Commerce (the trademark owners of ITIL) APMG: In 2006 APMG won the tender to own the rights for accreditation and certification of the ITIL courses. EXIN and ISEB used to be independent bodies, but now sublicense through APMG. EXIN: Stichting EXameninstituut voor INformatica (Translation: Foundation for EXamination INformation Systems) ISEB: Information Systems Examination Board. This certification is recognized worldwide! TSO: The Stationary Office Tool Vendors: (HP, Infra, Remedy, HEAT, etc…) provide technical solutions for customers trying to implement ITIL/IT service management. There is no such thing as ITIL certified tools. Only people can be ITIL certified. ITSMF: (IT Service Management Forum) is the only internationally recognized and independent organization dedicated to ITSM. Accredited Vendors: (E.g. The Art of Service) only accredited vendors can provide ITIL training.
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Training & Certification
Notes:
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
Training & Certification II
Notes:
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Exams per Region 2006
Notes:
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Who is a Practitioner?
Notes:
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
GENERAL TERMS & CONCEPTS
Notes:
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Terminology
Balanced score cards (BSC): One of the most common methods of measurement. This method uses the objectives of the organization or process to define Critical Success Factors (CSF’s). Critical Success Factors (CSF’s): Are defined for a number of areas of interest or perspectives: customer/market, business processes, personnel/innovation and finance. Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s): The parameters for measuring progress relative to key objectives or CSF’s in the organization. Process: A process is a logically related series of activities conducted towards a defined objective. Processes may define roles, responsibilities, tools, management controls, policies, standards, guidelines, activities and work instructions if they are needed. Process Owner: A process owner is responsible for the process results. Example: The owner for the Service Level Management Process Process Manager: A process manager is responsible for the realization and structure of the process, and the reports to the process owner.
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Terminology (continued)
Function: A team or group of people and the tools they use to carry out one or more Processes or Activities. Functions provide units of organization responsible for specific outcomes. E.g. The Service Desk function is responsible for performing activities from the other ITIL processes including Incident Management, Event Management, Request Fulfilment etc. Vital Business Function (VBF): A function of a business process that is critical to the success of the business. Vital Business Functions are an important consideration of all ITIL processes.
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ITSM Focus – The Components
More and more people see the importance of Processes. The Organizational Perspective issue ensures that we align the vision, strategy and goals of the business with the delivery of IT services. The People issue is without doubt where we – as IT Service Management professionals face our greatest challenges. Historically, the Technology considerations got most attention. Now we understand that without well defined processes we can often make inappropriate selections in this area.
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Vision, Objective & Policy
To impress stakeholders (e.g. customers, investors, personnel) your organization will have to communicate the ‘vision’ and why they should do business with you, e.g. because you are the cheapest, the most reliable etc. The vision can be communicated in the form of a mission statement (see slide). The mission statement should be a short, concise description of the objectives of the organization and the values it believes in. The policy of the organization is the combination of all decisions and measures taken to define and realize the objectives. Implementing policies in the form of specific activities requires planning. Realization of the planned activities requires action. Actions are allocated to personnel tasks, or outsource to external organizations. There is a danger, that after time, the mission, objectives and policies will be forgotten by the organization. This why it is so important to measure at every stage of the organizations maturity, to ensure remedial action is taken when necessary.
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Service Management – The Objective Tree
So if we accept that the objectives are the starting point for the provision of IT Services, how can we position the delivery of services and the utilization of the ITIL Framework? The objective tree is a very powerful tool not only in showing the benefit and alignment of IT and Service Management principals to the business, but also in being able to effectively sell the concepts as well. See if you can follow along in the following paragraphs and match the sentences to the above objective tree: To meet organizational objectives, the organization has business processes in place. Examples of business processes are sales, admin and financial departments working together in a “sales process” or logistics, customer service and freight who have a “customer returns process”. Each of the units involved in these business processes needs one or more services (e.g. CRM application, e-mail, word processing, financial tools). Each of these services runs on IT infrastructure. IT Infrastructure includes hardware, software, procedures, policies, documentation, etc. This IT Infrastructure has to be managed. ITIL provides a framework for the management of IT Infrastructure. Proper management of IT Infrastructure will ensure that the services required by the business processes are available, so that the organizational objectives can be met.
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Process Improvement Model
The questions raised on the left hand side of this diagram arise constantly in the process-based approach typical of modern IT Service Management. The tools to answer these questions are shown on the right hand side of the diagram. The standards for the output of each process have to be defined in such a way that the complete chain of processes that meets the corporate objective, if each process complies with its process standard. If the result of a process meets the defined standard, then the process is effective. If the activities in the process are also carried out with the minimum required effort and cost, then the process is efficient. Processes are often described using procedures and work instructions.
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Implementation – Where do we want to be?
Elements derived from the OGC – Planning to Implement Service Management. GQM = Goals/Questions/Metrics The first and most important question that needs to be answered is whether the “initiative” or adoption of a CSIP (Continuous Service Improvement Program) will deliver sufficient revenue/savings to justify the expense. The principle challenge is that much of the benefit cannot be quantified (e.g. quality, flexibility, service satisfaction). With regards to Risk Management we must remember that this initiative is not the only one competing for organizational budget. What is the effect on other initiatives if this IT initiative is successful at attracting funds? Also what risks will be faced after the program has begun? The salient point is that risks will always be present, so don’t attempt to eliminate them – simply get to understand them. The Gap analysis is generally an opportunity to use “scores” to measure current and future expected levels of maturity. For example a 5 level model of maturity is defined in the OGC “Planning to Implement Service Management” text (Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed, Optimized).
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Implementation – Where are we now?
Elements derived from the OGC – Planning to Implement Service Management IT organizational maturity progresses through a variety of stages (Technology focus, Product/Service focus, Customer focus, Business focus, Value Chain). To move from one stage to the next requires management and control over people, processes, technology, steering, attitude and changing relationships between the business and the IT organization. IT process maturity is best measured by using an assessment tool for a more detailed analysis. A variety of such assessments can be carried out as “self-assessments” as well as commercially available solutions. (Also discussed in the next slide)
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Implementation – How will we get there?
Elements derived from the OGC – Planning to Implement Service Management (notice some of the concepts raised by Kotter creeping through – the fundamentals are all the same). The starting point should not be determined on the emotions or “feelings” of an individual. The starting point will be a combination of current maturity levels of the IT organization, the IT processes AS WELL AS – overall organization priorities, IT “pain points”, process interdependencies (e.g. You cannot have Problem, without Incident Management) and other factors (including budget, available resources and current workloads). The most important aspect of the communication plan is that it needs to be ongoing and not just given enthusiastic support at the outset of the CSIP initiative. Under the banner of managing organizational change; it simply isn’t enough to get a group of people together that have project management and ITIL skills and experience. There is a multitude of issues that have to be considered and addressed (including resistance, gaining and keeping commitment, involvement and communication).
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Implementation – How will we get there? (continued)
Cultural change is largely reflected in the leadership/management style that is prevalent/dominant in the organization. Remember that some organizations suit dominant leadership styles (e.g. Regimented organizations (such as military units)). Careful role definition is required (see later section on using the ARCI model), especially when considering the allocation of new activities to existing staff (overload) or the conflict that could arise when processes are implemented across traditional hierarchical models. As people are an integral part of the CSIP there is a need to provide appropriate levels of education. The critical element being timing of delivery. All too often we see education programs delivered only to witness a lack of follow up activity that gives the participant an opportunity to put the theory into practice. Finally, tools. The raging debate is which comes first. Tools or process? In reality, most organizations have a variety of IT Service Management tools already. It is not the place of this program to suggest that existing tools are a wasted investment, however, the commonly accepted principle is that the processes should be supported by the tools and not the other way around.
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Implementation – How do we know when we’ve arrived?
We need to use measures and metrics to help us determine a “point of acceptance” with regard to process improvements and progress of the CSIP. CSFs are quite simply the things that we have to be able to do. They tell us in qualitative terms the basic objective for a process (e.g. the CSFs for Change Management can be (a) a repeatable change process, (b) ability to deliver change quickly, (c) deliver organizational benefits via change management). KPIs can be considered the quantitative elements of a process that give us a guide to the process efficiency (e.g. the KPIs for Change Management can be (a) the number of rejected RFCs, (b) the size of the change backlog, (c) quantity of changes delivered according to RFC schedule). Note that there are generally a lot more KPIs than CSFs for a given process. Organizational drivers are the points that are raised by “business people” as their “wish list” for the IT department. There have been many surveys conducted over many years, but the essence of what business people want from their IT departments can be condensed down into several points. These include support business operation, facilitate delivery of electronic services, and help to deliver business strategies, enable change to match pace with required business change.
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Implementation – How do we keep going?
Elements derived from the OGC – Planning to Implement Service Management Quick wins should be used to help drive more change that is medium to long term. Also consider what your legacy of change will be. Consider in 10 years time when all current staff have moved on or been replaced. When asked why certain activities are done the way they are – what will be the response? That is the way it’s done around here. Perhaps that could be considered a good legacy, provided that part of “the way it’s done around here” involves continual monitoring and reviews. The real essence of a CSIP is the first word of the acronym. Continuous! The way to create continuity is to go back to the start and begin again. Remember it begins with the VISION. The vision must essentially promote business and IT alignment. Knowledge management is another way to ensure the legacy of the work you do is not lost. The rate of change, staff turnover, expectations of performance and market place competition are all heading in an upwards direction. With these trends the organization cannot afford to retain knowledge and not learn from previous mistakes and lessons. The CSIP must include in its overall design elements consideration for the gathering, organizing and accessibility of data/information/knowledge.
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The Functional Oriented Organization
Most businesses are hierarchically arranged. They have departments, which are responsible for a group of employees. There are various ways of structuring departments, for example by customer, product, region or discipline. In this type of arrangement we often see that communication is ineffective.
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The Process Driven Organization
A process is a logically related series of activities for the benefit of a defined objective. This slide illustrates cross functional process flows. The concept of processes “linking” functional areas together can apply to business departments as equally as it can to IT functional areas.
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ITIL Practitioner: Support and Restore
Generic Process
What is the Goal? To bake a cake! What are the inputs? The ingredients (eggs, milk, flour, sugar, butter, chocolate) plus equipment such as pans, mixers etc. What are the activities? Mix, pre-heat oven, bake, cool, decorate etc. What are the measures? How much ingredients, how long to bake, at what temperature etc. What are the norms? The recipe What are the outputs? CAKE!!!!!! As we can see the basis of ITIL’s approach to Service Management is on the interrelated activities.
•
Unlike a project a process is never ending
•
In this example, baking a specific cake (e.g. a birthday cake for Jane) is a project.
•
The goals, activities, inputs, outputs, goals, measures and norms defined makes up the process for baking cakes.
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ARCI Model
The ARCI model helps show how a process actually does work end to end across several functional groups. A – Accountability (is made accountable for ensuring that the action takes place, even if they might not do it themselves). R – Responsibility (actually does the work for that activity but is responsible to the function or position that has an “A” against it. C – Consult (advice / guidance / information can be gained from this function or position prior to the action taking place). I – Inform (the function or position that is told about the event after it has happened). General Rules •
Only 1 “A” per Row (ensures accountability, more than one “A” would confuse this)
•
At least 1 “R” per Row (shows that actions are taking place)
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IPSR – Introduction to Support and Restore Processes
Notes:
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INTRODUCTION TO SERVICE DESK
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Service Desk – Goal
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Service Desk – Terminology
Service Desk Types: Relates to the skill level and resolution rate for service calls. Service Desk Organizational Structure: Relates to the physical organization of the service desk Incident: Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause an interruption to, or a reduction in the quality of that service. A failure of a CI that has not yet affected service is also classified as an incident. Service Request: Request for information or status of a service (not related to loss of service) Includes Standard Changes. E.g. Contact details, Service availability, request for common software. Request for Change: Request to Move, Add, Change (MAC) E.g. Asking for changes to functionality of applications or supporting infrastructure. Access Rights: User or user groups permission rights to use a service, and the prevention of access to non-authorized users. Effectively the execution of both Availability and Information Security management, in that it enables the organisation to manage CIA of the organization’s data and intellectual property.
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Service Desk – Staff Skill Set
Basically, there are three areas of required expertise for Service Desk staff: Technical skills for first line call resolution (unless it’s a call center). Communication skills: listening, reasoning, negotiating, conflict resolution etc…Business understanding: in order to determine the effect of incidents, requests etc on the business – this one is usually understated. It is up to the organization to determine the focus of skills: how much technical etc? Question: “What’s the focus in your organization?”
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Service Desk – Staff Skill Set (continued)
OGC recommends that a service desk member should be: •
customer-focused
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articulate and methodical
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trained in interpersonal skills
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multilingual (if required)
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able to understand the business’s objectives
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able to understand and accept that the Customer’s problem affects the business, without the Customer there is no support department, the Customer is an expert in their own field
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genuinely wanting to deliver a first-class service
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team-focused
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empathic with users
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professional in their conduct
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active listeners
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willing to accept ownership
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able to work under stressful situations.
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INTRODUCTION TO INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
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Incident Management – Goal
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Incident Management – Scope
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Incident Management – Terminology
Incident: Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and that causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of that service. Service Request: Every Incident not being a failure in the IT Infrastructure. (Request for support, delivery, information, advice or documentation) Workaround: Used to restore agreed service operation, as quickly as possible. May use non-IT systems. Escalation: The mechanism that assists timely resolution of an Incident.
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Incident Management – R&R and Skills
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INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
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Problem Management – Goal
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Problem Management – Scope
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Problem Management – Terminology
Incident: Any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause an interruption to, or a reduction in the quality of that service. A failure of a CI that has not yet affected service is also classified as an incident. Problem: Unknown underlying cause of one or more Incidents (The investigation) Known Error: Known underlying cause. Successful diagnosis of the root cause of a Problem, and a workaround or permanent solution has been identified KEDB: Known Error Database Workaround: Used to restore agreed service operation, as quickly as possible.
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Problem Management – R&R and Skills
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SUPPORT AND RESTORE – Managing, Organizing, Optimizing
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SERVICE DESK
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Managing – Service Desk
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Initial Planning
Other considerations for preparing to set up a Service Desk include: •
The environment
•
Defining your services
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Service Desk pre-Release requirements
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Advertising and selling the Service Desk.
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Managing – Service Desk Actions, Activities, Objectives
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Implementing
Choosing quick wins should be based on what important to your customer and will yield a short-term service improvement and enhance customer perception. Quick wins are essential to obtain customer and business support during the initial phases of any service improvement project e.g. •
Provision of faster response and standard requests
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Enhancement of professionalism of the Incident registration and closure process
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Keeping Customers better informed of progress
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Allowing Customers to register and query their own requests
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Publishing a Service Catalogue and User Handbook
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Improving communications with the business
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Development of better working relationships within the business
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Reduced Incident –resolution times
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Improvements to business reporting.
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Service Desk – Key Considerations
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Managing – Service Desk Monitoring and Reporting
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Frequency of Reporting and Review
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Organizing – Service Desk
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Organizing – Service Desk Information
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Keep Customers and Users Informed
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Keep Customers and Users Informed II
When visiting a customer location, the same personalized service can be provided to confirm that you have attended, especially if the customer was not there at the time.
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Service Desk – Relationships
E.g. the Service Desk may act as a the focal point for Change requests from users, issuing Change schedules on behalf of Change Management, and keeping users informed of progress on changes. Change Management should therefore ensure that the Service Desk is kept constantly aware of change activities.
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Organizing – Service Desk Procedures
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Processes and Procedures
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Processes and Procedures II
Common structured interrogation technique: Providing a common structured dialogue to managing Customer requests is essential, no matter who in the support organization responds to the Customer. The order in which questions and responses are required helps both the Customer and the support person to ensure nothing is forgotten. Using a common technique presents a professional and well structured organization to the Customer. Customer details and identification: Correct and unique Customer identification is essential to ensure that Customer details, existing requests and management information are uniquely and easily selectable. The more we know about our customer the more we can support them! Maintaining the Customer database: Maintaining a single source of Customer and supplier details is a major issue for many organizations, because they generally have several sources to deal with. A process should be defined for maintaining Customer, support staff and supplier details that answers all the relevant questions e.g. what needs to be stored? What are the sources and where are they stored? How do we consolidate them? How do we keep them up to date? Who maintains the master source? Marketing the Service Desk amongst Customers: Raising the profile of the support services, especially the Service Desk is critical to success. The Service Desk needs to attain its own identity in order to instill confidence and strengthen the Customer relationship e.g. invite customers to visit you computer training and support facilities, use advertizing materials etc.
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Organizing – Service Desk Structure
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Service Desk Structures
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Organization: Local Service Desk
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Organization: Centralized Service Desk
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Organization: Virtual Service Desk
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Organizing – Service Desk R&R, Functions, Staffing, Technology
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Service Desk Functions
Every incident and request reported by the Customer should be registered, regardless of the time taken to find a solution. The actual elapsed time is not a measure of its importance or business impact. Every contact with the customer provides an invaluable metric to assist in the understanding of Customer requirements.
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Service Desk – Education & Training
As there are different types of Service Desk, each having its own requirements, particular attention should be paid to selecting the right type and caliber of staff.
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Service Desk – R&R and Skills
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Service Desk – Staffing Levels
Defining full time staffing levels is very difficult without a definitive way to predict the demand for service. All these items should be carefully considered before making any decision on staffing levels. This should also be reflected in the levels of documentation required. Remember that the better the service, the more business it will use.
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Service Desk – Staff Turnover
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The ‘Super-User’
To deal with some of these staffing constraints, it is common to use ‘expert’ Customers to deal with 1st line support Problems and queries: they are known as a Super User. With all requests entered into the main Service Desk tool, valuable usage details can be provided to the local management to ensure that resource is focused in the correct areas and not misused.
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Service Desk – Workload Monitoring
Types of request that staff may be spending the most time on: •
Equipment failures
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Business application problems
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Telecommunications
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Customer queries
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Installations/upgrades.
Types of request that may be taking the longest time to turnaround to the customer:
•
1st line support
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2nd line internal support groups
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3rd party support groups
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Suppliers.
Which customers require the most support, and in which areas? This information can be used to develop training programs for both Customer staff and Service Desk and support staff.
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Service Desk – Technologies
Computerizing the Service Desk will provide additional benefits, namely: •
accessibility to all support staff and perhaps customers and users
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the faster turnaround of Customer requests
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request tracking, escalation and workflow is improved
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better information is available in the form of online access to: o
Known Errors, solutions and request histories
o
external knowledge sources
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management information is more accessible and accurate
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duplicate, lost or forgotten requests are reduced
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skilled staff and resources are better used
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complex support tasks and calculations are made easier
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ITIL and business processes are automated
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integration with other business processes and systems provides streamline IT management (e.g. service desk staff effort exported to organization’s ERP systems).
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Service Desk – Technologies II
Some of the issues that will help you decide on build versus buy include the following. •
Do you have the Service Management and business expertise to design: o
integration with email and other communication systems?
o
automated operations?
o
cross-platform and multilingual support?
o
integration with other support tools such as Asset Management and Configuration Management, Change control and automated operations?
•
Do you have the resource, both now and in the future, to plan, implement, upgrade and maintain the system?
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Who will support it, how long will it take to develop, who is going to pay for it, when will it be ready?
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What if your ‘experts’ leave?
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Service Desk – Technologies III
In conjunction with the business and process requirements, the technological requirements of the organization must be carefully considered. Poor performance by the tool may lead to staff frustration, who may bypass the tool in order to provide timelier incident resolution. This may eventually lead to a loss in the return on investment.
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Service Desk – Technologies IV
The use of intelligent phone systems and interactive voice recognition (IVR), voicemail and email can greatly benefit your Service Desk. It should however, not be used as an electronic barrier. The careful set-up of IVR systems is required so as to prevent the customer being passed around. Some customers of major organizations have become so frustrated with IVRs that “IVR cheat sheets” have been published on the Internet. IT service providers should consider that some customers may contact the Service Desk by mobile phone, and call queuing will be expensive for the customer. If voicemail and email are used, it is imperative that they are reviewed regularly and responses sent promptly to those leaving messages. Put SLAs in place to maximize these technologies and ensure a consistent and high-quality service is maintained.
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Service Desk – Technologies V
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Service Desk – Technologies VI
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Service Desk – Technologies VII
Service Desk outsourcing considerations are as follows: •
have the outsourcer use your Service Desk tool, not the other way round – often internal support staff are involved in the support process and you do not want to retrain them each time you change supplier
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insist that you have complete access/ownership to management information at its source
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make sure the supplier is capable of supplying suitably skilled and qualified Service Management staff for holiday and sickness cover
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be sure to request details and previous experience of all supplied staff
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continually monitor ‘value for money’, deliverables and the business benefits derived
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regularly check for supplier dependencies – ensure all procedures, functions and processes are clearly documented, up-to-date and available
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make certain that the contractual terms, deliverables and chargeable activities are clearly understood and agreed by both parties
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seek professional and specialist assistance when negotiating contractual terms with a supplier.
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Service Desk – Technologies VII (continued)
Vendor partnership You are buying a total solution and you should want your vendor to be a business partner. Utilize the vendor’s expertise to help you implement any service-improvement project. A sign of a good working relationship between yourselves and a supplying organization is that it is hard to tell the contracted staff from the full-time employees, in terms of their commitment and understanding of the Customer’s needs. A professional vendor will seek a long-term relationship and repeat businesses in the form of additional product’s upgrades, training and consultancy. Often buying the tool is the easy part; the costs of the software or other tools are generally the minority of the costs associated with an implementation project. Do not underestimate the cost of retraining your staff, the costs of changing procedures to maximize the benefits of the new tool, and the impact on Customers or secondary support organizations of the cost of expansion and additional software licenses.
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Organizing – Service Desk Incidents
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Service Desk – Incident Classification
Depending on the incident being reported and detail required, further information may need to be obtained e.g. version number, supplier, software model, grouping etc. When an incident is completed, it is beneficial, for certain types of request, to enter a ‘closure classification’ or ‘closure code’. This should state the actual cause, a summary conclusion, or a specific course of action e.g. •
Incident completed successfully
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Customer training required
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Documentation needs reviewed
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No faults found
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Monitoring required
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Advice given
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Change request needs to be raised.
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Service Desk – Escalation Management
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Optimizing – Service Desk
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Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Aligning Customer perception and satisfaction is paramount to the success of any support operation. It is customer perception that, in the end, defines whether the Service Desk is meeting their needs. Satisfaction surveys are an excellent method of monitoring Customer perception and expectation and can be used to monitor the function and identify improvement areas.
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Service Desk – KPIs
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Service Desk – CSFs
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Optimizing Service Desk – Propose Improvements
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Incident Reporting and Review
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Incident Reporting and Review II
Reporting is often subjective and needs to be focused on business improvement. It is important that results are not just filed away but used as an essential business tool to justify, develop and continually improve the service.
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Effective Workload Analyses
The most valuable and expensive resource within the support operation is the staff. Optimizing staff utilization is of primary importance. Workload analysis can help determine staffing levels, when staff are needed, and how work patterns vary from day-to-day, or even week–to-week. Accurate support staff and 3rd party workload analyses need to take into account the complete request life-cycle and the time spent during each phase. For detailed analysis, support staff should enter the time they spend working on a request or any part of it. This slide gives an example of a single request, which took four hours to complete. In the given example, we may wish to know whether the 3rd party engineer exceeded his or her SLA, as well as the actual Customer Incident. In the same situation we may also wish to know how long a request may spend in a specific status, priority. Workload analysis is an important tool for identifying SLA and OLA target achievement.
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INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
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Managing – Incident Management
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Initial Planning
If resources are not available to implement all Service Support processes at the same time, begin by implementing the Service Desk function together with Incident Management. This will result in ‘quick wins’ and therefore acceptance of process implementation in general within in the IT organization and with Customers.
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Managing – Incident Management Information
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Incident Management - Relationships
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Managing – Incident Management Actions, Activities, Objectives
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Incident Management – Timing and Planning
Don’t plan to implement and operate Incident Management in isolation. The scope of planning should be extended to include the implementation and integration and operation of all the Service Support Processes and function. If resources are not available to implement all Service Support processes at the same time, begin by implementing the Service Desk function together with Incident Management. This will result in ‘quick wins’ and therefore acceptance of process implementation in general within the IT organization and with customers. Plan to create the Service Desk and to define Incident Management process at the earliest opportunity. The planning phase for Incident Management could last from 3-6 months for a sophisticated, extensive solution. The implementation phase could last from 3 months to 1 year, although implementation and improvement should be considered as an ongoing activity. Procurement of hardware and software can be time-consuming. Start selection procedures ASAP, based on seeking those that support the ITIL processes, and provide the required level of flexibility to allow for organization-specific needs.
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Incident Management – Timing and Planning (continued)
Keep closely linked systems, especially Configuration Management, in step. Plan for the creation of a CMDB and the conversion of existing equipment inventories. If no integrated Configuration Management system is in place, make this database part of the Incident Management system. Plan for interface with Problem Management system to assist Service Desk with recognizing and advising on Known Errors. If a system like this is scheduled for later implementation, using a paperbased system in the interim will be helpful.
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Managing – Incident Management Monitoring and Reporting
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Management Reporting
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Incident Management – KPIs
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Incident Management – CSFs
Up to date CMDB: a prerequisite for an efficiently working Incident Management process. If a CMDB is not available, information about CI’s related to Incidents should be obtained manually, and determining impact and urgency will be much more difficult and time consuming. Knowledge base e.g. problem/error database: should be developed to provide resolutions and workarounds. This will greatly speed up the process of resolving Incidents. Third party known error databases should also be available to assist in this process. Effective automated system: is fundamental for Incident management and the success of the Service Desk. Paper-based systems are not really practical or necessary, now that good and cheap support tools are available. Close link with SLM: to obtain necessary Incident response targets. Timely Incident resolution will satisfy customer and users.
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Organizing – Incident Management
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Incident Management – Relationships
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Organizing – Incident Management Procedures
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Roles of the Incident Management Process
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Incident Manager
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Incident – Handling Support Staff
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Incident – Handling Support Staff II
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Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking and Communication
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Incident Management – Tools
Most SW vendors (HP, BMC, Infra, Goldmine) have applied ITIL flavour to their tools. This assists in linking to CMDB, SLAs etc… Self help and self logging by users is also recommended for efficiency and effectiveness of the Incident Management process.
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Organizing – Incident Management Relationships
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Relationships – Service Desk & Incident
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Organizing – Incident Handling
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Incident Management – Activities
Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking & Communication •
Service Desk OWNS/accountable for ALL Incidents
•
Monitor progress, escalation of Incidents,
•
Advise user and IT management
Incident identification and Logging • Update/confirm Incident and user details Categorization, Initial Support, Prioritization (Most critical activity) • Categorize so the exact type of call is recorded e.g. Incident (E.g. Desktop, Network, Email) • Assess urgency and impact to assign priority • Match against existing Problems/Known Errors • Match multiple Incidents and create new Problem record. • Prioritization –taking into account the impact and urgency (how quickly to incident needs a resolution).
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Incident Management – Activities (continued)
Investigation and Diagnosis •
Assess the Incident details and provide workaround (if available)
•
Escalate to support areas (Functional) or IT management (Hierarchical)
Resolution and Recovery • Resolve the Incident or raise a RFC Incident Closure • Update details of actions taken and classification of Incident. • Confirm closure with User
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Incident Management – Investigation & Diagnosis
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Incident Management – Escalation
Escalation is the human element of Incident Prioritization. It helps us identify incidents that may need to be moved up or down the priority list due to changing factors or priorities. ITIL defines two types of escalation. Functional: Based on knowledge or expertise •
Also known as “Horizontal Escalation”
•
Based on knowledge or expertise.
Hierarchical: For corrective actions by authorized line management Also known as “Vertical Escalation” When resolution of an incident will not be in time or satisfactory Escalations can be combined.
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Incident Management – Detection & Recording
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Incident Management – Detection & Recording II
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Incident Management – Classification & Initial Support
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Basic Concepts – Categorization
Categorization is the unemotional/statistical aspect of prioritization IMPACT + URGENCY = PRIORITY!!!! Impact: Degree to which the user/business is affected Urgency: Degree to which resolution can be delayed
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Incident Management – Resolution & Recovery
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Incident Management – Major Incidents
A separate procedure, with shorter timescales and greater urgency, must be used for ‘major’ incidents. The Problem manager should be alerted ASAP and will arrange a meeting with the relevant parties e.g. all key internal staff, vendor support staff and IT Services management, with the purpose of reviewing progress and determining the best course of action. A Service Desk representative should attend these meetings and ensure a there is a record of all actions and decisions made (ideally this will form part of the incident record)
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Optimizing – Incident Management
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Incident Management – Activities
During Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking and Communication functional escalation can be performed to other solution groups (or hierarchical escalation) in order to reach decisions on the handling of the incident.
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Incident Management Activities – Report
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Optimizing Incident Management – Propose Improvements
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Continuous Service Improvement
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PROBLEM MANAGEMENT
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Managing – Problem Management
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Initial Planning
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Managing – Problem Management Information
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Problem Management – Relationships
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Managing – Problem Management Actions, Activities, Objectives
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Timing & Implementation
Good Problem Management relies to a great extent on an implemented and efficient Incident Management process. So it is sensible to implement Problem Management either in parallel with, or after Incident Management processes. If resources are scarce, it is advisable to concentrate in the first instance on the implementation of Problem and error control (reactive Problem Management). When these activities reach maturity, resources can be directed to proactive Problem Management. The quality of proactive Problem Management depends largely on successful implementation of service monitoring activities and the base data thereby captured. Smaller organizations can introduce reactive Problem Management by focusing daily on the ‘top ten’ Incidents of the previous day. This can prove to be effective, since experience shows that 20% of Problems cause 80% of service degradation!
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Managing – Problem Management Monitoring and Reporting
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Management Reporting
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Problem Management – KPIS
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Problem Management – CSFs
•
An effective automated registration of Incidents. With an effective classification, is fundamental for the success of Problem Management.
•
Setting achievable objectives and making use of the Problem -solving talents of existing staff is a key activity. Consider ‘part-time’ Problem Management, whereby staff set side periods when they will look at Problems away from the daily fire-fighting pressures.
•
In view of the potentially conflicting interests between Incident Management and Problem Management good cooperation between both processes is essential. Both also have enormous synergy, which can help.
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Organizing – Problem Management
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Inputs & Outputs
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Organizing – Problem Management Information
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Cascading Information
Disseminating this information is the primary task of the Service Desk. Problem Management should provide sufficient information and support to the Service Desk for this task. Relevant information can be distributed by Problem Management to the Service Desk and the support organization by feeding this information into existing Service Management tools and databases.
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Organizing – Problem Management Procedures
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Roles within Problem Management
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Problem Manager
It is recommended that the Service Desk Manger and the Problem Manger roles are not combined because of the conflicting interests inherent in these roles.
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Problem Support – Reactive Responsibilities
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Problem Support – Proactive Responsibilities
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Problem Management – Tools
Most SW vendors (HP, BMC, Infra, Goldmine) have applied ITIL flavour to their tools. This assists in linking to CMDB, SLAs etc… Self help and self logging by users is also recommended for efficiency and effectiveness of the Incident Management process.
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Organizing – Problem Management Relationships
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Relationships – Incident & Problem
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Relationships – Incident & Problem II
This slide illustrates how the Service Desk, Incident, Problem and Change Management can be connected. This shows just one example of the actions taken when a user reports an Incident to the Service Desk.
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Organizing – Problem Control
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Problem Management – Activities
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Problem Control – Activities
Reactive Problem Control is concerned with identifying the real underlying causes of Incidents in order to prevent future recurrences. The three phases involved in the (reactive) Problem control processes are: •
Problem identification and recording
•
Problem classification – in terms of the impact on the business
•
Problem investigation and diagnosis.
When the root cause is detected the error control process begins.
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Problem Identification and Recording
It should be noted that some Problems may be identified by personnel outside the Problem Management team, e.g. by Capacity Management. Regardless, all problems should be notified and recorded via the Problem Management process. Much of the Availability Management process is concerned with the detection and avoidance of Problems and Incidents to the IT Infrastructure; a synergy between the two areas is thus an invaluable aid to improving service quality. Problem records need to be recorded in a database (CMDB) and are very similar to Incident records. The solution and workarounds of Incidents should be recorded in the relevant Problem records for others to access should other related Incidents occur.
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Problem Classification
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Problem Classification II
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Problem Investigation and Diagnosis
The objectives of Problem investigation frequently conflict with those of Incident resolution. E.g. Problem Investigation may require detailed diagnostics data, which is available only when an Incident has occurred; its capture may significantly delay the restoration of normal services. It is essential that Problem Control liaise closely with Incident control and the computer operations or network control functions to get a balanced view of the right time for such actions.
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Organizing – Error Control
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Error Control
Many IT departments are concerned with error control, and it spans both the live and development environments. It directly interfaces with, and operates alongside, Change Management processes.
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Error Control – Activities
Tips on error control: •
Not all known errors need to be resolved.
•
Preparing an RFC is one of the responsibilities of error control.
•
Consider creating standard error records e.g. by specific CI, or by device category, for routine hardware failures.
•
The rectification of many hardware faults is carried under Incident control, and not via error control and Change Management.
•
Ideally, common tools should be used for Incident, Problem and error control in live and development environments.
•
In practice, the level of detail usually required for development Configuration Management often precludes a viable shared system.
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Error Identification and Recording
Errors found during live operations are identified and recorded during the Problem Control activity – investigation and diagnosis. The Problem records form the basis of the Known Error record. Errors found during the development activity are likely to include known, but unresolved, errors from the development phase. The data relating to Known Errors, from development, needs to be made available to the custodians of the live environment when an application or a Release package is implemented. The Problem Management system should provide a record of all resolution activity and provide monitoring and tracking facilities for support staff. It should also provide a complete audit trail navigable in either direction, from Incident to Problem to Known Error to Change Request to Release.
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Error Assessment
Notes:
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Error Resolution Recording
This data is then available for Incident matching, providing guidance during future investigations on resolving and circumventing Incidents, and for providing management information.
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Error Closure
Consideration should be given to inserting into the process an interim status, on the Incident, Known Error and Problem records, of ‘Closed pending PIR’ to ensure that the fixes have actually worked. PIR: For Incidents, this may involve nothing more than a telephone call to the user to ensure that they are now content. For more serious and Problems and Known Errors, a formal review may be required.
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Organizing – Proactive Problem Management
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Proactive Problem Management
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Proactive Problem Management II
Trend Analysis: Using Incident and Problem analysis reports Pro-active Problem Management can identify: Trends, such as the post-Change occurrence of particular Problem types. Incipient faults of a particular type. Recurring Problems of a particular type or with an individual item. The need for more Customer training or better documentation. •
Analysis of Problem Management data may reveal:
That problems occurring on one platform may occur on another platform. The existence of recurring Problems. Targeting Preventative action: Once Trend Analysis has identified faults within the IT Infrastructure, focus can be given to Problem areas that need the most attention.
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Proactive Problem Management II (continued)
Problem Management should initiate appropriate actions: •
Raising an RFC
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Provide feedback regarding testing, procedures, training and documentation
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Initiating customer education and training
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Initiating service support staff education and training
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Ensure adherence to Problem Management and Incident Management procedures
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Process or procedural improvement
Tips on proactive Problem Management: •
Added value of trend analysis in CI robustness is rather limited until sufficient historical data has been accumulated.
•
Engineering reports from many manufacturers’ operating systems provide information on inherent Problems. These reports should be examined on a regular basis to identify potential hardware Problems before they occur.
•
Proactive Problem Management does not necessarily need to be a full-time task.
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Problem Management – Activities
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Optimizing – Problem Management
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Problem Management – Metrics
In addition to Management reports, periodic audits of all operations and procedures should take place. These audits are intended to confirm that the Problem Management and support teams are adhering to defined procedures. These audits will include analysis of major problem reviews.
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Optimizing – Propose Improvements
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Periodic Audits
Reports are produced and analyzed according to the agreed schedule. A representative sample of Incidents to verify that related Problems have been correctly identified and recorded. A representative sample of Problems to verify that Problems are diagnosed correctly by authorized Changes to CI’s and within the prescribed period. A representative sample of Known Errors, to verify that Known Errors are cleared by authorized Changes to CI’s and within a prescribed period. Thresholds for escalation are adhered to A representative sample of records, for correctness and completeness. Documentation is being maintained correctly - updates being distributed by Problem Management staff and executed recipients. Management reports are produced regularly and are meaningful. Evidence of trend analyses and the identification of preventative actions. Staff training records.
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Example Flow-Through
This slide illustrates how the Service Desk, Incident, Problem and Change Management can be connected. This shows just one example of the actions taken when a user reports an Incident to the Service Desk.
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REVIEW – Service Desk
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Service Desk Activities – SPOC
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Service Desk Challenges
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Service Desk Benefits
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Service Desk Staff Functions
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Service Desk R&R and Skills
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REVIEW – Incident Management
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Incident Management Activities
Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking & Communication •
Service Desk OWNS/accountable for ALL Incidents
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Monitor progress, escalation of Incidents,
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Advise user and IT management
Incident identification and Logging • Update/confirm Incident and user details Categorization, Initial Support, Prioritization (Most critical activity) • Categorize so the exact type of call is recorded e.g. Incident (E.g. Desktop, Network, Email) • Assess urgency and impact to assign priority • Match against existing Problems/Known Errors • Match multiple Incidents and create new Problem record. • Prioritization –taking into account the impact and urgency (how quickly to incident needs a resolution).
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Incident Management Activities (continued)
Investigation and Diagnosis •
Assess the Incident details and provide workaround (if available)
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Escalate to support areas (Functional) or IT management (Hierarchical)
Resolution and Recovery • Resolve the Incident or raise a RFC Incident Closure • Update details of actions taken and classification of Incident. • Confirm closure with User
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Incident Management Costs
This slide acknowledges that there will be issues. There always will be – to think otherwise is naïve.
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Incident Management Costs II
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Incident Management Costs III
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Incident Management Costs IV
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Incident Management Benefits
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Incident Management Challenges
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Incident Management R&R and Skills
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Example Flow-Through
This slide illustrates how the Service Desk, Incident, Problem and Change Management can be connected. This shows just one example of the actions taken when a user reports an Incident to the Service Desk.
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REVIEW – Problem Management
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Problem Control Management Activities
Reactive Problem Control is concerned with identifying the real underlying causes of Incidents in order to prevent future recurrences. The three phases involved in the (reactive) Problem control processes are: •
Problem identification and recording
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Problem classification – in terms of the impact on the business
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Problem investigation and diagnosis.
When the root cause is detected the error control process begins.
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Error Control Management Activities
Tips on error control: •
Not all known errors need to be resolved.
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Preparing an RFC is one of the responsibilities of error control.
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Consider creating standard error records e.g. by specific CI, or by device category, for routine hardware failures.
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The rectification of many hardware faults is carried under Incident control, and not via error control and Change Management.
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Ideally, common tools should be used for Incident, Problem and error control in live and development environments.
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In practice, the level of detail usually required for development Configuration Management often precludes a viable shared system.
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Problem Management Activities
Trend Analysis: Using Incident and Problem analysis reports Pro-active Problem Management can identify: •
Trends, such as the post-Change occurrence of particular Problem types.
•
Incipient faults of a particular type.
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Recurring Problems of a particular type or with an individual item.
•
The need for more Customer training or better documentation.
•
Analysis of Problem Management data may reveal:
•
That problems occurring on one platform may occur on another platform.
•
The existence of recurring Problems.
Targeting Preventative action: Once Trend Analysis has identified faults within the IT Infrastructure, focus can be given to Problem areas that need the most attention.
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Problem Management Activities (continued)
Problem Management should initiate appropriate actions: •
Raising an RFC
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Provide feedback regarding testing, procedures, training and documentation
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Initiating customer education and training
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Initiating service support staff education and training
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Ensure adherence to Problem Management and Incident Management procedures
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Process or procedural improvement
Tips on proactive Problem Management: •
Added value of trend analysis in CI robustness is rather limited until sufficient historical data has been accumulated
•
Engineering reports from many manufacturers’ operating systems provide information on inherent Problems. These reports should be examined on a regular basis to identify potential hardware Problems before they occur.
•
Proactive Problem Management does not necessarily need to be a full-time task.
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Problem Management Costs
It is always good to balance the general benefits and positive theoretical discussions that surround the ITIL processes. This slide acknowledges that there will be issues. There always will be – to think otherwise is naïve. So use this slide as a discussion point about the likelihood of these issues arising. See if you can draw on any participants’ experiences.
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Problem Management Costs II
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Problem Management Benefits
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Problem Management Challenges
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Problem Management R&R and Skills
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ASSIGNMENTS Assignment 1 – Service Desk You will complete the following tasks relating to the Service Desk over the course of the day, culminating in a presentation that will summarize your knowledge. You will need to use the associated case study in responding during these tasks and for the final presentation. Task a) Prepare and deliver a presentation outlining information flows between the Service Desk and the Service Support processes. Relate your presentation to the case study. Your audience will be Managers from the business organization. Supplement the presentation with a fact sheet that explains the relationships. Task b) Design templates to be used for customer communications in the following situations: •
Incident/Service Request confirmation
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General correspondence e.g. incident progress reports, further information required etc
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Physical attendance e.g. when the customer was not present.
Task c) Presentation Acting as an external consultant, you are required to deliver a presentation to the CIO and managing directors who are considering implementing a Service Desk. Your presentation will need to include: •
What are the goals of the Service Desk?
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What are the activities that are performed?
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Who will be involved?
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What are the benefits that would be delivered to the organization?
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What challenges may be faced and how would these be overcome?
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Conclusion.
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Assignment 2 – Incident Management You will complete the following tasks relating to Incident Management over the course of the day, culminating in a presentation that will summarize your knowledge. You will need to use the associated case study in responding during these tasks and for the final presentation. Task a) Prepare and deliver a presentation outlining how Incident Management will interface with the Service Delivery processes. Your audience will be Service Delivery Process Managers. Supplement the presentation with a factsheet that explains the relationships. Task b) Present a concise explanation of on the activities of the Incident Management process. Your audience will be Managers from the business organization. Supplement your presentation with handout notes. Task c) Acting as an external consultant, you are required to deliver a presentation to the CIO and managing directors who are considering implementing Incident Management. Your presentation will need to include: •
A brief description of Incident Management
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What are the goals of Incident Management?
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What are the activities that are performed?
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Who will be involved?
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What are the benefits that would be delivered to the organization?
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What challenges may be faced and how would these be overcome?
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Conclusion.
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Formal memo to Financial Controller – explaining cost benefits.
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Task d) You are the Incident Manager and have received feedback that customers are concerned about the following issues with Incident Management: •
Lack of communication
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Service Desk reputation: bad attitude
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Failure to explain/justify the use of resources.
Using the case study, prepare a written response, explaining how you intend to address each issue.
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Assignment 3 – Problem Management You will complete the following tasks relating to Problem Management over the course of the day, culminating in a presentation that will summarize your knowledge. You will need to use the associated case study in responding during these tasks and for the final presentation. Task a) Prepare and deliver a presentation outlining how Problem Management will interface with the Service Delivery processes. Your audience will be Service Delivery Process Managers. Supplement the presentation with a factsheet that explains the relationships. Task b) A Major Problem Review is required. Using the case study, write a memo inviting relevant members of the organization to attend (you will need to clarify why their attendance is required). You will also need to include a detailed agenda for this meeting. Task c) Acting as an external consultant, you are required to deliver a presentation to the CIO and managing directors who are considering implementing Problem Management. Your presentation will need to include: •
A brief description of Problem Management
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What are the goals of Problem Management?
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What are the activities that are performed?
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Who will be involved?
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What are the benefits that would be delivered to the organization?
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What challenges may be faced and how would these be overcome?
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Conclusion.
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Formal memo to Financial Controller – explaining cost benefits.
Task d) Create a plan for the concurrent implementation of the Support and Restore processes. Present to Senior IT Management.
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ASSIGNMENT RESOURCES Case Study – RECE Shoe Company
Business Case Study RECE Shoe Company Global Conglomerate ITIL Practitioners Case Study V1.0
Rece
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Introduction Rece Couture Shoe Company of London, England, is a privately owned shoe company, founded in 1994. Rece has grown rapidly to become one of the leading shoe retailers of the world. During recent years Rece has expanded substantially to reach in 2004 the third most favoured designer shoe label. The company has also expanded the product line with the introduction of an accessory line. Such spectacular growth has been achieved internally and not through acquisition or merger. Rece is a company that has major operations centres in New York, Paris, Milan, Hong Kong and Melbourne, as well as 150 retail outlets worldwide (Rece stores and concessions in major department store locations). In addition, Rece operates an online store with the capacity to accept in excess of 5000 online orders per day. Rece provides an unparalleled service network via dedicated own offices throughout the world and remains a truly independent and private Company able to respond quickly to market changes and implement long term plans, without unnecessary interference or delay. With a streamlined management structure in London, England, Rece has become a leading customer focused and cost effective global retailer, their first class craftsmanship is favoured by international stars and elegant women worldwide.
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Officers & Employees •
CEO: Claire Enever (co-founder and president)
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Creative Director: Angela Miller
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Group Managing Director, Finance and Administration: Paul J. Rizzo,
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Group Managing Director, Commercial and Consumer: Bernard Scholl
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Group Managing Director, Retailing Business Solutions: Cecile Yelland
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Group Managing Director, International Shipping: Anton Chirac
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Group Managing Director, Employee Relations: Rebecca Cartwright
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Group Managing Director, Network and Technology: Anwar Sadat
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Group Managing Director, Sales and Marketing: Steve Birch
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Group Managing Director, Press and Public Relations: Carla Scott
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Group Managing Director, Convergent Business: Rachael Alfonsin
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Group Managing Director, Legal and Regulatory: Pien Ch'iao
2007 Employees: 13,840 1-Year Employee Growth: (7.7%) Headquarters: Level 42, 76 Oxford Street, London, England
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Vision Rece vision is to enhance its position as the leading designer shoe design and retailer in the world. To realise this vision and prepare for competition, Rece has adopted a four-part growth strategy, entailing: •
Optimising returns from the ‘classic’ products and services throughout the world
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Developing and delivering value-added services via an online interface and extended accessories line.
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Transforming our corporate culture and improving productivity
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Extending our global scope
The Rece Organization The organization is virtually identical at each of the head offices. For example, each head office will have the following departments: •
Marketing and Sales
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Design and Manufacturing
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Retailing and Logistics
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Shipping and distribution
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Customer Services
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Maintenance
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Legal
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Accounts Department
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Human Resources
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ICT Department
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Each manager for the listed departments will report directly to the director of that that local office. The CEO of the company and her managing directors are located in Head Office in London, England.
Logistics The logistics department’s main responsibility is to ensure that all goods being shipped by sea or land are loaded to the appropriate carrier. This is to ensure that Rece can fulfill their obligations regarding paid orders from their customers. The logistics department works very closely with both the Sales and the Manufacturing departments. The logistics departments will organise the loading and consignment of the goods, but it needs to also ensure that appropriate crews have already been notified and that there is an availability of transport. The Sales, Manufacturing and Logistics departments work closely together. As a result of the complexity of the relationship a number of business process issues can arise. In the event that it becomes difficult to ascertain the nature or the solution for the issues, the Logistics department will be given priority to manage the issue to resolution. The Logistics department will therefore have the final authority in these decisions.
Maintenance The Maintenance department is responsible for maintaining and stocking the necessary parts for both road and air transport. The primary objective is being responsible for the state of repair of the delivery road vehicles. Rece operates a number of large container workshops around the world, so that maintenance can be carried out more efficiently.
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Sales The sales department is responsible for obtaining orders for international company chains and stores requiring Rece concession stock. They are also responsible for the online orders made via the Rece website. Rece operates a total of 350 dedicated sales offices across the entire globe, and employs approximately 8,000 sales staff. Because of such a large volume of people each regional head office will have a Sales Director which will look after the sales offices within that region.
Accounts Department The Accounts Department takes care of the head office's financial accounts, including the management of the accounts payable and accounts receivable ledgers. The Accounts Department also takes care of the payment of salary to staff members and any contractors. There will also be small Accounts Departments at each key location across the globe. The managers of these departments will report directory to the manager at the head office for that region. As a general rule, there is not more than four Accounts Departments per region. The Accounts Departments work very closely with the Sales Departments. The Sales departments will interface into the computer systems controlled by the Accounts Department.
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Human Resources The Human Resources department is the department, involved in the recruitment, selection and discharge of personnel and in human resource management. For example, each head office employs a company doctor and a psychologist, who provide medical and mental assistance to employees. Rece sees this function as being critical to their organization. Sales, Design and some Manufacturing staff are required to travel on a regular basis, sometimes at short notice for extended periods of time. This can place a serious strain on staff and their families, and as a result Rece wishes to ensure the well being of its staff members as it is recognises that they are integral to the organization. Rece does this through medical and mental assistance programs, and by offering generous product discount and annual leave packages. ICT Department Each head office around the world employees a small team of IT personnel to help deliver and support IT Services for their specific regions. For all intents, these groups run fairly autonomously, having their own support teams, including their own Service Desks. However, in London, there is a central ICT Department that provides IT Support for all the store and online requirements.
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The Rece Information Systems
General The computerisation of Rece’s information systems has not been fully completed at this stage. However, there are certain aspects that can be considered fairly mature. A large part of the financial accounts of the entire Rece organization have been computerised. Due to the geography that exists between the various head offices, there had been identified a need for a virtually identical computerisation standard at these offices. However, unfortunately a large part of the handling of orders and planning processes has not been as well computerised as possible. This is generally due to local constraints being enforced by the relevant government organizations within the various regions that Rece operates. Resolution of this is being seen as a key aspect of the success of the Rece organization.
Systems FINANCE is the information system used by the Accounts Department to prepare financial reports. FINANCE contains modules for accounts receivable, accounts payable, salary records and book keeping. After an order is completed, the relevant invoices are created automatically. The payments to suppliers of shipping and payments to providers of specialist maintenance are also made by means of this system. Due to the need for various head offices to comply with the local laws regarding finances, the FINANCE system has evolved to be the most diverse system in the organization, being virtually different at each head office. PAYPOINT is the companies’ point of sale system. This is ready for an update. The technology being used is out of date and not to the standard represented by the company, who want to be state of the art but at the right cost! STOCK is the Rece Inventory Management system. It holds list of goods and materials themselves, held available in stock by the business. The inventory is held in order to manage and hide from the customer the fact that manufacture/supply delay is longer than delivery delay, and also to ease the effect of imperfections in the manufacturing process that lower production efficiencies if production capacity stands idle for lack of materials.
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FOCUS is the companies CRM system that manages their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information. There are three aspects to the FOCUS system: •
Operational - automation or support of customer processes that includes the company sales or service reps
•
Collaborative - direct communication with customers that does not include the company sales or service reps
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Analytical - analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes
Currently the third aspect of Analysis is not used effectively.
General Systems There is also a general suite of applications, mainly Microsoft, with some Lotus Notes, which includes an e-mail, word processor, spreadsheet application, appointment calendars & scheduling software and the Human Resources applications. These suites of applications are offered via local networks. The links between local networks and the links between desktop computers are completely transparent to the users.
This software is stored centrally on the main servers within the ICT Department in London, which allows remote users to download them as needed. However, each head office around the world, local versions are kept as this allows for easier management of the local standard operating environments.
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Hardware Each of the head offices uses a series of UNIX based servers for capturing and recording their information. These servers have direct data links back to the head office in London, where the information is then stored on a central mainframe. The mainframe is equipped with disk and tape storage facilities. However, across the organization the network structure is fairly similar at each of the head offices. This allows for easier deployment of applications across the entire organization.
Additional Infrastructure Information The wide area network has been outsourced. The outsourcer in this situation is managing and coordinating the leasing of the necessary network infrastructure. The outsourcer is responsible for providing monitoring information regarding the availability of the wide area network. The cost of the organization maintaining the WAN infrastructure was considered too great. However, recently it is being seen by the organization that the infrastructure may not be as stable as proposed and are looking at the IT Departments to manage this in a more structure manner. This has resulted in incomplete transactions being fed back into the central mainframe, potentially costing the organization millions of dollars.
IT Organization Due to the diverse nature of Rece, there are a number of IT Departments. However, policy and objectives for IT are created and managed from the London office. London is seen as the central IT Department. However, autonomy is provided to the other head offices to manage, deliver and support IT Services as they need. As such, each head office has a Chief Information Officer (CIO), who reports into the Group Managing Director, Network and Technology. All CIO’s have a monthly video conference call, with a bi-annual face to face meeting. At the biannual meeting, strategy and policies for Information Services and Information Technology are discussed and agreed upon. This meeting is chaired by the Group Managing Director, Network and Technology. 230
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In addition to this, there are regular consultations between the head offices regarding technical matters. Telephone and e-mail are the means most commonly used for this with the occasional video conference. There is however a general consensus amongst the senior IT Managers that the IT functions within Rece could probably contribute more to the business objectives of the company. However, they still all agree that in general terms the deployment and organization of its IT resources is reasonably good: •
Communication internationally is regular with good information and results
•
Head Offices are communicating well
•
The technical infrastructure has been extensively documented by each head office
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London London uses a Fujitsu 8500 series mainframe as its central computer. The mainframe serves as a way of centralizing all the data from the other various head offices. The mainframe has approximately 3000 GB of disk storage. Due to the large nature of the organization, it was determined that there also needed to be a development mainframe, although scaled down in size. At this stage the organization does not have a testing mainframe and as such, most of the testing is carried in the development environment. The remote head offices can access the mainframe via deployed client applications and for some specific uses, via the World Wide Web.
Sales Offices The following IT components have been installed at each local sales office: •
•
Personal Computers o
Operating System: Windows 2000
o
No CD ROMs
o
No Floppy Disk Drives
o
Pentium III – 500Mhz
At least 1 Server – o
Operating System: Windows 2000 Server
This allows individual sales offices to enter shipping orders into the system, as well as create and distribute information via email for their local regions. This is seen as a key aspect, as each sales office is responsible for generating their revenue.
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General – Other Head Offices At certain times and for certain parts of the infrastructure, development and maintenance of this is contracted out to various suppliers with whom a maintenance agreement has been signed. At this stage Rece does not have any reciprocal arrangements with any other company in the event of a disaster. The IT Organizational structure of each of the head offices is as follows: •
Regional IT Manager – Overall Manager for the specific region
•
Network Manager - Local Area Network infrastructure
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Project Manager - who is responsible for testing and co-coordinating any modifications to the systems and solving small problems
•
Service Desk - manager specialising in the management of the service desk representatives and dealing with IT Incidents
•
Desktop Manager – responsible for managing co-coordinating the roving engineers.
•
Change Control Coordinator
In addition to this, there is a group of roving engineers who travel their local region and are trained to solve the most commonly occurring problems independently. If he/she is unable to do this, the head office is contacted. The call will then be routed through to the local head office, if resolution is not possible then the assistance of suppliers who are able to solve the problems are called in.
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Issues to be Considered Item A: The relationship between the IT organization and the Business is strained. Customers and Users are complaining that they are unsupported by the IT Staff. Incidents that are reported are not recorded and there is little or no follow up. Users claim that they have to continually call the Service Desk to find out what, if any, progress has been made, and that they never get to speak to the same person twice which means they have to repeat the details of their incident report. It is also widely reported that the Service Desk are consistently rude and unfriendly in person and over the telephone. The feedback from the Service Desk is that they are under-staffed and unable to meet the current demand. They explain that this has had negative effects on staff morale and attitude. There is a high turnover of Service Desk staff, which has led to an inconsistent training and development. Several requests for new staff have been refused by senior management who believe that the Service Desk are not managing their resources appropriately and are unable to justify the additional need for staff.
Item B: Last week Rece lost the use of STOCK, the stock inventory system for 3.5 hours. The system went down at 8.05 am. During this time new orders could not be taken, existing orders could not be filled, the manufacturing department where unable to order sufficient materials and staff where overwhelmed with customer complaints and queries. This was not considered a ‘disaster’ situation as the SLA states the system would have to be down for 4.5 hours before IT Service Continuity Management takes over. It has been decided to conduct a major problem review in order to improve the IT department’s delivery and support of the STOCK system.
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EXAM PREPARATION QUESTION 1 A small organization has limited numbers of staff that can take on process ownership roles and as such there has been some discussion about who in the organization can take on the roles of Incident and Problem manager. Which of the following statements is incorrect regarding such a situation? a) The Problem Manager and Service Desk manager roles can be combined b) The Incident Management and Problem Management roles can be combined c) The Service Desk Manager and Incident Management process owner can be combined QUESTION 2 An upgrade to an existing application has been released across the organization. The upgrade was not properly tested. When all the staff come in for work after the weekend they are unable to get access to the new application. Which process will first notice the effect of this? a) Incident Management b) Problem Management c) Service Desk QUESTION 3 Of the following, what is the best example of a service request? a) Upgrade to accounting application b) Moving a server to a location c) Granting a user access to a common application
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QUESTION 4 While reviewing Incident and Problem records, it is found support groups have not adhered to the escalation thresholds. These thresholds were established based on the Service Levels agreed with the customers. When questioned, support groups state the escalation thresholds are too short and/or not reasonable timeframes. As a result, the support groups request more time before the event is escalated (e.g., increase the escalation threshold). Which one of the following is the most effective improvement option to ensure adherence to the escalation thresholds? a) Renegotiate the OLA to tie the performance of OLA to annual bonus pay b) Improve the escalation process and procedures c) Renegotiate the SLA to allow for more relaxed escalation thresholds QUESTION 5 Which of the following terms conveys the degree to which an incident leads to a departure from the normal service level? a) Impact b) Escalation c) Urgency QUESTION 6 The main reason not to outsource a Service Desk is that: a) The Service Desk staff are not located in the same location as the users b) The external Service Desk staff have no feeling of ownership for the calls c) Quality support requires intellectual capital of an organization, that cannot be easily transferred
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QUESTION 7 Which of the following is NOT a skill required of Service Desk staff? a) Programming Skills b) Customer Service Skills c) Technical Knowledge QUESTION 8 Which Key Performance Indicator is important for determining the added value of the Problem Management process for the Service Desk? a) The number of RFCs for error resolution b) The number of structural errors in the infrastructure that have been resolved c) The number of closed Problems QUESTION 9 Users who work with the Payroll System have problems with printing: no prints are produced. The workaround offered is that one must first break off the session before the prints roll out. An RFC has been submitted for a structural solution that ensures that in the new Payroll module, a time-out of 10 seconds is set as standard. In this phase of the Problem process, what must be fed back to the Service Desk? a) What is the cause of this Problem and how it must be solved b) Which information they should give to the users c) How the Service Desk can recognize and solve Incidents related to this Problem
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QUESTION 10 Which of the following is not a responsibility of the first line Service Desk staff? a) Solving all service requests and tracking cost per incident for management reporting b) Incident registration and initial support c) Closure of incidents and solving incidents not routed QUESTION 11 Within ITIL the Service Desk is also referred to as which of the following? a) First line support b) First Point of contact c) Single Point of contact QUESTION 12 Setting up a Service Desk requires a lot of thought regarding the benefits that will be delivered to the organization. Delivering benefits comes from understanding the critical success factors (CSF). Which is not a CSF of the Service Desk? a) Goals and deliverables are clearly identified b) Improved user and customer satisfaction c) Business needs are understood d) Investment is made for training Service Desk staff and support teams
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QUESTION 13 The Service Desk has received a call regarding the release of an application. The error being received by the end user is "Unable to process request, incorrect string entered" What would be the most likely reason for these calls? a) Release roll back required b) End user training required c) Problem to be resolved QUESTION 14 The Service Desk manager is conducting an information session regarding the implementation of a local Service Desk. The Manager explains that the following are considerations for establishing a local Service Desk. 1. Making localized skills available to other local service desks. 2. Using the same escalation procedures across all locations. 3. Using common reporting metrics. From the following list which would you select as another consideration? a) Discouraging the ‘super user’ from providing local support b) Providing training in learning the cultural differences for International organizations c) Creating commonality in top level request classifications QUESTION 15 Which of the following is NOT a function of a Service Desk? a) Tracing the underlying cause of incidents b) To maintain ownership of an Incident from discovery to closure c) To act as an interface for Service Management activities such as Change Requests
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QUESTION 16 Critical Success Factors (CSF) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI) can provide very useful information. One of the critical success factors for the Incident Management process is to "resolve Incidents quickly". To support this critical success factor many KPIs can be used. Which of the following KPIs will be most useful to help you demonstrate the good performance of the Incident Management process? a) Percentage reduction of Incidents incorrectly categorized b) Percentage reduction in average time to respond to a call for assistance from first-line c) Reduced mean elapsed time for resolution or circumvention of Incidents, broken down by category and priority QUESTION 17 An incident is not resolved following the initial support offered by the first line of support. What step should be taken next?
a) Escalate the incident to second level support for further investigation and diagnosis b) Perform a Boolean search on the knowledge base with an extended time period c) Request further information from the person that has logged the incident QUESTION 18 In ITIL terminology, an Incident is defined as… a) Any event which requires the approval of the Change Management process and is captured in the CMDB b) Any event that is not part of the standard operation and may cause a disruption to or degradation in service quality c) Any event which cases one or more incidents in the IT infrastructure to which the cause is unknown
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QUESTION 19 What is missing from the following list of incident management activities? 1. Detection and recording 2. ? 3. Investigation and diagnosis 4. Resolution and recovery 5. Closure. a) Categorization & matching b) Functional Escalation c) Hierarchical Escalation d) Classification & Initial support QUESTION 20 The goal of Incident Management is to…? a) Remove the cause of Problems in the IT infrastructure b) Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible c) Act as a single point of contact for end users
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QUESTION 21 Your organization has defined the following criteria for determining the impact on the business of an incident. High impact: a vital business function is unavailable to an entire department Medium impact: a regular business function is unavailable to part of a department -Low impact: a single desktop or non-critical peripheral device is unavailable Consider the following three incidents: Incident 1: The vice-president of the finance department reports that her laptop keeps rebooting. She has an important report to complete. Incident 2: The supervisor of the payroll department reports that he has just received the new tax tables from the government. These tables must be incorporated into the payroll system as soon as possible. Incident 3: The supervisor of the distribution center reports that she cannot print the manifests required to ship goods. All printouts are totally illegible. Which of these incidents has a high business impact based on the information available at this time? a) Incident 2 b) Incident 1 c) Incident 3
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QUESTION 22 The Business Manager has requested that some of the third party suppliers have access to update Service Desk records, this request has the approval of the Service Desk Manager and will be agreed through Underpinning Contracts. What do you as the Incident Manager have to consider with regard to this request? a) Communicating to the End Users this scenario b) The affect this will have on the Incident Management process c) If this is possible using the software QUESTION 23 Each incident goes through a number of ‘actions’ during its life-cycle. For each action it is important to record the name or identification of the person or support group recoding the action and the date/time of the action. Of the following which would you also consider as mandatory to record for each action? a) Related Configuration Item (CI) information b) Description and outcome of action c) Time spent on the action QUESTION 24 As project manager for the implementation of the Incident Management process you have finished defining the procedures necessary. Other factors that you need to consider concern the people that will be involved and the timing of going live with the process itself. Which item is missing from the process implementation checklist? a) Cost benefits analysis b) Dependency review c) Return on investment analysis
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QUESTION 25 The current position of an Incident in the Incident Management lifecycle is called…? a) The Priority b) The Urgency c) The Impact d) The Status QUESTION 26 The amount of effort required to detect and recover a failing Configuration Item (CI) allows the Service Provider to ‘classify’ the problem. Which of the following lists is used to classify problems? a) Category, Impact, Urgency, Priority b) Priority, Impact, Cost, Resources c) Category, Effort, Cost, Impact QUESTION 27 From the following list which can be considered as benefits of Problem Management? 1. Reduced incident volume 2. Permanent solutions 3. Higher first time fix at the Service Desk a) 1 and 2 only b) All are benefits of Problem Management c) 1 only
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QUESTION 28 The goal of Problem Management is to… a) Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse impact on business operations b) Minimize the adverse impact of Incidents and Problems, and to prevent the reoccurrence of Incidents c) To ensure IT systems are available over a set period of time or at a given instance as defined by Service Level Management QUESTION 29 Which process will Problem Management consult to gain an understanding of the infrastructure and the relationships between infrastructure items? a) Configuration Management b) Release Management c) Change Management
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QUESTION 30 A User calls the Service Desk to report an Incident related to the functioning of a PC. Service Desk staff ask the User to reboot the PC to see if the Incident could be quickly resolved. As such, "reboot" can be considered and used as a Workaround for many PC related incidents. To record this Workaround in the Known-error database, the following is a suggested procedure: • Service Desk staff records this Workaround in the Incident record • Incident Management will record the Workaround in the Known-error database and inform
the Workaround and the associated Incident records to Problem Management • Problem Management will further analyze the incidents and the Workaround to find a
permanent solution. What is wrong in this procedure? a) Problem Management must record the Workaround in the Known-error database and not the Service Desk staff b) The Workaround is not analyzed by Problem Management before it is recorded in the Known Error database c) The Problem Manager must record the Workaround in the Known-error database QUESTION 31 You are the Problem Manager for your organization. You have just completed the resolution of a very major Problem. Before you can close the Problem record, best practice calls for a review of actions. You publish an agenda for the meeting and invite the appropriate people to determine: • What was done right? • What was done wrong? • How to prevent the Problem from happening again?
In order to conduct a full major Problem review, what is missing from the agenda? a) Review of the Problem Management process b) What could be done better next time? c) Review of the Incident Management process
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QUESTION 32 There is confusion as to which process controls the final stages of error resolution. Which of the following is the most appropriate guidance? a) Release Management, as this process actually distributes the resolution to the live environment b) Change Management controls the final stages as it often requires analysis and assessment of the resolution actions to be carried out c) Problem Management as through the Error Control activity QUESTION 33 You are the Problem Manager and are wishing to implement Proactive Problem Management. Which of the following would create the greatest challenge for you to do so? a) Lack of human resources b) Lack of financial resources c) Lack of sufficient historical data QUESTION 34 Which of the following is the most suitable measure to ensure that all involved staff are following the procedures of the Problem Management process? a) Problem related incident measure b) Periodic Audits c) Problems categorized by status and impact d) Strict Management reporting
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QUESTION 35 Each month the Problem Management department produces the following statistical reports: A. The progress of Problems B. The number of defined Problems in percentage of total C. The number of solved Problems in percentage of total D. The reasons for Problems arising E. The elapsed time of Problems F. The number of RFCs that have arisen from Problems in percentage of total G. The effort taken in dealing with Problems Which report should Problem Management provide to Service Level Management? a) Report C b) Report F c) Report B QUESTION 36 Which of the following would NOT be appropriate for communicating as a benefit of a centralized Service Desk and Incident Management support team? a) Reduced operational costs for Support b) An ability to handle incidents from multiple locations and time zones 24/7 c) Central incident registration d) Central location for monitoring and responding to incidents
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QUESTION 37 How should the categories for Incidents be defined for use by the Service desk when registering Incidents? a) In management terms b) In technical terms c) In end-user terms QUESTION 38 Which process or function maintains ownership of an Incident throughout its lifecycle? a) Problem Management b) The Service Desk c) Incident Management QUESTION 39 What are the key differences between the "Investigation & Diagnosis" activities that are performed within both Incident and Problem Management? a) Nothing, they both do the same thing b) For Incidents, Investigation and Diagnosis investigates all common and known issues, Vendor documentation and CMDB data. Problem Management requires actual investigation that does not rely on documentation c) They are similar activities, only the timeframes are shorter for Incident Management
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QUESTION 40 Recently it has been reported that SLA targets regarding the resolution of Incidents and associated Problem Records have not been met. It is agreed that a lack of adequate staffing is the issue. Who should determine where extra staff should be allocated to support this situation? a) The Service Desk Manager as the Service Desk is accountable for Incidents throughout their lifecycle b) The Support and Restore team as they collectively understand the relationships and interfaces between the two processes and the Service Desk c) The Incident Manager as it is the resolution of Incidents that is most important d) The Problem Manager as they can investigate why SLAs are not being met
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FURTHER READING For more information on other products available from The Art of Service, you can visit our website: http://www.theartofservice.com If you found this workbook helpful, you can find more publications from The Art of Service at: http://www.amazon.com
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