ITIL:

Why Your IT Organization Should Care

Service Support

Wendy Shih
Wshih@kent.edu
Kent State University
 History
ITIL - IT Infrastructure Library
Developed by British government in 1980’s
Focus on continuously improvement
Consists of 8 books, currently in version 2
•Service Support (blue book) - core book

•Service Delivery (red book) - core book •Application Management

•Security Management •Planning and Implementation

•Business Perspectives •Software Asset Management

Version 3 released May 30, 2007 has 5 books

Why adopting ITIL?
It aligns with IT business goals and service objectives
It is process driven, scaleable and flexible
Reduce IT cost yet providing optimal services
Increase relationship and communication among different
departments, employees, customers and users
Successfully adapted by HP, IBM, PG, Shell Oil, Boeing,
Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, State of CA
How Is It Different?
Provide common language for IT

Not a methodology but guidelines with best practices

Connect processes

Provide a framework

It is public domain not proprietary

Core books consist - one function and ten processes:

Service Support
The Service Desk - a function
Incident Management Service Support
Problem Management Service Support
Change Management Service Support
Release Management Service Support
Configuration Management Service Support
Service Level Management Service Delivery
Financial Management Service Delivery
IT Continuity Management Service Delivery
Availability Management Service Delivery
Capacity Management Service Delivery
Incident Management

A disruption in normal or standard business operation

that affects the quality of service

Goal: restore normal service as quickly as possible and

minimize the adverse effect on business operation
Incident Activities
Detection & Report

Classification & support

Service Request
Monitoring,
Investigation & diagnosis tracking and
Escalate communication
Resolution & recovery

Incident Closure
Service Desk Function
SPOC - Single Point of Contact

Record and resolve incidents

Provide work-around, escalate if not resolved

Produce incident reports

Keep users and customers informed of progress

Responsible for incident life cycle

 Service
Service Desk
Support

End Users
Incident Management
Problem
Management
Change Management

Release Management

Configuration Management
Problem Management
A problem is an unknown underlying cause of an error
or failure in the IT infrastructure
Known error - incidents or problems that the underlying cause is
known (root cause) and a temporary work-around or alternative fix has
been identified

Goal:
• Minimize the impact of incidents caused by errors
• Reduce recurrence of incidents due to these errors

Error in Incidents Problems Known Error RFC

Solutions
Problem Management
Activities
Problem Control
Identify, classify and solve problems
Root cause identification
Provide work-around to the Service Desk
Error Control
Review and assess Known Error identified from Root Cause
Eliminate known errors using the Change management
Prevent incidents - trend analysis and place preventive measures
Service Desk & Problem Management
Incidents vs Problems
Propose incidents

Incident Matching

Identify recurrences of solved problems

Report and identify new work-around

Identify trend
Change Management
• Goal: All changes are controlled and managed with
standardized procedures and minimum interruption
• A change is when a state of supported hardware, network,
software, application, environment, system, or associated
documentation is different because of:
Addition
Change
Move
Change Management Activities
Log /Filter requests for change (RFC)

Prioritize and categorize RFCs

Assessing resource requirements and impact

Authorize and approve RFCs by Change Advisory Board

Schedule and build the change

Create back-out plan and test the change

Implement and review implemented changes

Review the change management process

Service Desk & Change Management

Receive and forward Request for Change (RFC)

Provide feedback to users about the changes
Ready to support and understand the impact
Identify and report failed changes
Report and feedback to Change management
Configuration Management
Accounts for relationship between assets
Owner of Configuration Management DB - CMDB
Account and track for all IT assets & configuration
items (CI) in the CMDB
Verify configuration records against the infrastructure
for accuracy
A sound basis for Incident, Problem, Change and
Release Management
Configuration Management
Activities
Plan

Identify - CI

Control - CI and change authorization

Status Accounting - keep CI up-to-date

Audit / Verification - accuracy

Report of CI life cycle

Service Desk and Configuration Mgmt
Use CMDB retrieve incident and problem records

Report and identify inaccurate CMDB relationship

Assess severity and priority with CMDB info

Provide customers with CMDB changes

Assist Configuration Management team with CMDB audit

Release Management
Goals:
1. Plan and oversee successful rollout
2. Design and implement efficient procedures
3. Communicate and agree to the rollout plan through Change
Management
4. Ensure master copies are secured in DSL and DHS
5. Ensure CMDB is updated and changes are traceable
Owner of DSL - Definitive Software Library

Owner of DHS - Definitive Hardware Store

Release Management
Activities: Development

Policy
Schedule
Test
Design /Develop
Build
Test Production

Accept
Plan Rollout
Archive
Distribute / install
Review
Service Desk and Release Management

Identify incidents from rollout

Assist in release planning

Record and report

Provide feedback

Ensure staff can support new releases

 Service
Service Desk
Support

End Users
Incident Management
Problem
Management
Change Management

Release Management

Configuration Management
Successful ITIL Service Desk
Increasing customers and users satisfaction
Decrease incident numbers
First call resolution goal
Accurate incident identification and escalation
Excellent communication with other areas
SLA compliance
Service Support
The common area to implement ITIL

Increase customer and user satisfaction

IT will be more efficient and effective

Decrease IT financial cost

Useful ITIL Links

The Official ITIL Site

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

ITSMF — ITIL global forum

http://www.itsmf.com/

ITIL COMMUNITY FORUM

http://www.itilcommunity.com
Questions and Discussion
Wendy Shih wshih@kent.edu

Thank you!