ITSM News
Before we begin this month's Newsletter, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge some ITSM happenings to you.
The Second Annual International ITSM Forum Conference was held in Boston, MA. on September 23, 24,and 25th (the first was held last December in Orlando, FL.). The conference was superb. The knowledge transfer and contributions from presenters, attendees, and various other subject matter experts was outstanding. I would estimate that the attendance was somewhere around 700 fellow ITSM professionals which is probably close to twice as much as last year. Next year's attendance is expected to be in excess of 1,000. Apparently ITSM is something that is gaining increased interest within the business and IT community.
I would like to share some observations. First, ITIL development and publication was said to be proceeding well with expansions into topics such as Security Management and Customer Relationship Management as well as enhancements to existing Service Delivery and Service Support areas. In addition, I thought that this conference had a greater focus on IT Service Management than on ITIL. It was refreshing and I thought that this could be attributed to a greater customer demand on how to apply ITIL and how to better manage service within IT and across the enterprise.
Click Here to view the world wide ITSM Forum website. There are local regional ITSMF chapters around the world.
Lastly, I have made available previous Issues of this Newsletter on the downloads page of the www.itsm.info website.
Again, thank you all for your continued patronage and support!
Preface
Last month we discussed a critical core area of ITSM, Service Level Agreements, defining them and the best practices and other supporting ITSM information relative to developing and managing to them.
This month we will be focusing on an important ITSM area, Incident Management, defining it and the best practices and other supporting ITSM information relative to performing it. The process described here is offered as a high level, simplistic view that is a good basic starting point for Incident Management.
Incident Management - A Workable Definition
Incident Management is the
day-to-day process that identifies incidents and restores normal acceptable
service with a minimal impact to business operations.
Incident Management - Procedures
Managing incidents day-to-day typically includes the following high-level process for IT and
the business applications and programs. The Incident Management procedure includes but is not limited to the following steps:
1) Business, customer, or IT users have an incident or request.
2) Upon receiving an incident call or request information is entered into an Incident Event Log.
3) The incident is qualified based on the type of call.
4) A determination is made whether this call is an incident or a request for some type of information or procedure. If it is a request for information, not an incident then the incident and call is closed.
5) Appropriate information is gathered for the Incident Event Log.
6) A Level 1 Support Specialist solves the incident if this is a supported service type. If the Level 1 Support Specialist cannot resolve the incident then it is referred to an appropriate Level 2 contact. The close out call for the incident remains with Level 1.
7) At this point a determination is made whether to escalate the incident based on the prioritization procedures.
8) Update the Incident Event Log and the appropriate business or user representatives with all steps performed.
9) Continue to perform Incident resolution, escalation to Level 3, (could be vendor support) until the incident is resolved. Ensure that Incident Event Log and the appropriate business or user representatives are informed with all steps performed.
10) Obtain user sign-off once an incident resolution is done.
11) Update and close the Incident Event Log.
12) Close the Incident.
13) Update the business or user customer.
An Incident Event Log form needs to be developed and used when any incident occurs to the normal operation. This form is to track the status of the incidents and what has been done as well as who has been or needs to be contacted. During and after completion, this form is used to track incidents. It is stored, maintained, and reported on and used during problem management determination.
Incident Management Roles and Responsibilities
Typical, high level Incident Management roles and responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:
An IT Support representative to receive an incident call or request information is entered into an Incident Event Log.
An IT Support representative to qualify the incident based on the type of call.
An IT Support representative to make a determination as to whether this call is an incident or a request for some type of information or procedure. If it is a request for information, not an incident then the incident and the IT Support representative closes the call.
An IT Support representative gathers the appropriate information for the Incident Event Log.
A Level 1 Support Specialist solves the incident if this is a supported service type. If the Level 1 Support Specialist cannot resolve the incident then it is referred to an appropriate Level 2 contact. The close out call for the incident remains with the Level 1 Support Specialist.
A Level 1 Support Specialist working in conjunction with a Level 2 contact makes a determination as to whether to escalate the incident based on the prioritization procedures.
A Level 2 contact updates the Incident Event Log and the appropriate business or user representatives with all steps performed.
A Level 2 contact continues to perform Incident resolution, escalation to Level 3, (could be vendor support) until the incident is resolved. A Level 2 contact ensures that Incident Event Log and the appropriate business or user representatives are informed with all steps performed.
A Level 1 Support Specialist obtains user sign-off once an incident resolution is done.
A Level 1 Support Specialist updates and closes the Incident Event Log.
A Level 1 Support Specialist closes the Incident.
A Level 1 Support Specialist updates the ITSM Manager, business or user customer.
An ITSM Manager to store the Incident Event Log for later retrieval and reporting.
A Problem Management determination process takes place to find incident root cause.
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Incident Management Resource Allocations
The Incident Management roles and responsibilities listed above specify certain basic high level resource requirements. The following is a simple breakdown of resource allocation based on percent of involvement:
ITSM Manager 15%
Business or user 5%
IT Support 30%
Level 1 Support Specialist 35%
Level 2 10%
Level 3 (could be a vendor) 5%
The following is a simple, basic breakdown of manpower time allocation for typical tasks involved in a simple Incident Management process with minimal incidents:
IT Support functions to handle and resolve incidents 1 man day per week
Level 1 Support Specialist, Level 2, and Level 3 involvement to resolve incidents 1 man day per week
Manage incidents, review and report on incidents 1 man day per month
NOTE: This time does not include time required to document operational procedures that can be used to resolve incidents.
NOTE: This time does not include time required to execute Problem Management including root cause analysis.
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» Consolidation Questionnaires
» Service Continuity Methods
» Project Management Practices
» Developing a Communication Plan
» Data Management Process
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Service Briefs:
» ITSM Maturity Assessment
» Incident and Problem Management
» Service Continuity
» Config and Change Management
» Service Level Management
» Capacity Management
» Availability Management
» Release Management
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Additional Information
Visit www.itsm.info
to learn about ITSM, IT Infrastructure
Library (ITIL), and SolutionMethod (a
Policy Based ITSM Approach). In
addition, you can download free and
informative white papers,
questionnaires, and service briefs. This includes more in-depth information on the topics presented in this newsletter.
To learn how RL Consulting can assist in achieving IT Service Management goals and our full range of solutions:
Contact us at RL_Consulting@ITSM.info or phone us at 602-996-6830
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Volume 7 - September, 2002
This newsletter and the information contained herein is maintained by Rick Leopoldi and property of RL Information Consulting LLC.
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