UCISA ITIL Case Study on The University of Exeter

Transcription

1 UCISA ITIL Case Study on The University of Exeter 1. Introduction The University of Exeter is a research and educational institution with 15,525 registered students (including overseas and part time students) and 2,855 staff. The University is comprised of three main sites of study Streatham Campus, St Luke s Campus (Exeter) and Cornwall Campus. The University has 12 Schools, including the Peninsular College of Medicine and Dentistry, which are made up of 27 main departments/institutes for learning. IT Services is responsible for providing the IT and communications systems that support the University s teaching, learning, research and administration. 2. Using ITIL The current version of ITIL being used is v2. This has been used since The original drivers for choosing ITIL were: Lack of processes Lack of consistent customer service Implement Service Management Best Practice Understanding service from a customer perspective Using an existing recognised framework (not re-inventing the wheel) Introduction to IT Services of a service culture and increase in staff awareness of service management Factors that have contributed to current ITIL success: Management buy in ITIL awareness and training 3. The service life cycle service strategy Governance and strategic direction The IT strategy envisages the further embracing of the ITIL quality regime as the means by which service delivery across the University will be improved. IT Services has a specific IT strategy for customers/users, which identifies the key trends within Higher Education and the IT industry that will shape the delivery of IT services to the University. This strategy articulates a number of key principles that will underpin decision making in the coming years. Key amongst these is the prominence that will be given to maintaining existing services. This is in response to the expectation of high service availability, the growing realisation of the need to be able to maintain business continuity throughout a shock to the University (such as swine flu) and the tightening fiscal environment for the coming years. This strategy identifies a number of initiatives which respond to the challenges and trends within higher education and the IT industry. The strategy demonstrates how each of these projects supports the University s own strategic themes of research and knowledge transfer, student experience, sustainability and internationalisation. A brief summary of the key elements of this strategy are captured in the following statement of intent: Supporting the University to achieve its goals by providing a quality and reliable IT service which enables me to securely handle my information, wherever I happen to be delivered by IT professionals I can trust working within world-class quality processes 1

2 Service portfolio management and project management There is a dedicated Project Team who work on IT related projects across the University. Projects are based on PRINCE2 based methodology, and Project Managers are PRINCE2 qualified. Projects can come from a variety of sources: from strategic planning, form customer requests; from changes in customer demand. They may also be driven by regulatory and legislative changes, for example, secure web transactions for payment or a system to maintain sensitive data. The projects database contains all elements for forthcoming projects until they become operational. There is also a list of retired services. Communications Operational and tactical communications are done via the following: Student publications/newspaper Project communication plans Newsletters, e.g. FYI and News in Brief, which are ed to staff The change process this has a significant element of communication End user communications on outages and maintenance etc. The intranet/website Formal information and publicity of IT services are done through the Marketing and Communications Team. Academic Services has a dedicated Communications and Marketing Manager. 4. The service life cycle service design Service catalogue management A service catalogue is being developed which is in draft status. It currently has only one view, but this may be separated to form the business and technical views shown under v3 Service Catalogue Management. The service catalogue currently contains detailed information on all IT services, who supports the service and any corresponding supplier agreements. Business relationship management/service level management The role There is currently no dedicated role for business relationship management or service level management. Relationship management is carried out by individuals as part of their day to day role. This role would also be carried out by the Service Desk and Team Leaders and IT Managers. There are also some CDOs (Computer Development Officers) for some Schools. CDOs are designated IT personnel for that school. Staff/students within that School will usually liaise with the CDO in the first instance. Service level management is a developing area. It is being developed with stakeholders in the University and is being seen as an opportunity to set up new and strengthen existing working relationships/partnerships. It is also being used as an opportunity to review service scope and service delivery. The process and documents Currently, there are 187 IT services listed, and there is good understanding of these services from an IT perspective. Although there is an understanding of the requirements of a service from a university point of view, the IT services and the university services need to be related. For example, a university service would be lecture theatre availability and the supporting IT services would be availability of network, audio visual equipment etc. A Service Level Agreement template is being put together for use in the future for all new and existing services. 2

3 Measuring service KPIs and metrics are in place and are constantly monitored and measured. These are based predominantly on IT metrics, for example, availability. Service Desk measures are in place for each interaction with the Service Desk. These Service Desk measures include metrics for response times, first line fix rates and a number of trend analysis measures. Capacity management Capacity management is currently an operational activity, but is an emerging process. Availability management Metrics are in place to measure availability these measures have been agreed by the third line managers for a service with the business. Availability is measured using a number of different tools including Nagios. Information security management Information security management policies and procedures are in place and are managed by the Information Security Manager. The Information Security Manager also manages the information security management process and the auditing that is required. Supplier management There is a joint responsibility between IT Services and Procurement to ensure that the right suppliers are in place. The main role of Procurement is for ensuring that the correct policies and processes are followed, and they also manage the legal aspects of supplier management, including contract management for anything that is university wide. The ongoing review and relationship management of the IT suppliers is done within IT Services by the third line contacts. 5. The service life cycle service transition Change management A change management process is in place and the role of Change Manager is currently a part time role approximately 20% of the role. A scheduled Change Advisory Board (CAB) meeting is held to discuss and schedule changes and to look at the overall release schedule. All support teams engage in the change process. Project Managers engage with the CAB and do give notification of projects that have been approved and information on when the projects will become operational. The projects have to follow the change process to ensure that they are approved through the CAB. The change management process is currently reviewed informally every month and formally once a year. Emergency change is defined and there is an Emergency Change Advisory Board ready to make the required decisions. A forward schedule of change is in place. Release management There is currently no formal release management process, although a great deal of good practice has been adopted. Testing and documentation is carried out, and some training of support staff for handover, but this is not consistent and needs to be improved and formalised into a release and deployment process. 3

4 Configuration management An asset register is in place and there are pockets of information/data which could support configuration management moving forward. Configuration management is a planned process and a formal project will commence in Q4/ As Support Works (see 8. Service management software) is developed there will be more focus on the Configuration Management Database (CMDB). 6. The service life cycle service operation The Service Desk The Service Desk is functioning campus wide as a single point of contact. There are six Service Desk Agents, including a Help Desk Manager (it is not yet called a Service Desk). The Service Desk acts as first and second line support. The Help Desk also has remote access tools for an enhanced level of support. The Service Desk also provides a drop in centre, where individuals are given 15 minutes of support if this is not sufficient time to resolve the issue then they are able to book a 30 minute slot with a Subject Matter Expert from second or third line support. This is a heavily used service, which always has excellent feedback from the students. Incident management The distinction between incidents and problems is understood. There is an incident process owner in place (this is the Help Desk Manager), although this is only 10% 20% of their role. A major incident process is defined and fully documented. Service requests/request fulfilment Service requests are understood, but are not currently handled separately to incidents. Access management Access management is dealt with by the Service Desk, and those aspects that are not currently being handled there are dealt with by third line support. Problem management There is a Problem Manager, but this is not a full time role. Problems are currently captured in a spreadsheet as a problem record. Problem management is an emerging process. The process will be moving forward in Q4 2009, when the new version of Support Works (see 8. Service management software) is in place. 7. The service life cycle continual service improvement Continual service improvement has become a significant activity and there are a number of aspects of this that are already being carried out. Customer surveys Service reporting Communications Monitoring and reporting are carried out regularly, but these are currently more IT based than customer based, for example, incident management reports. Some service reporting is in place. User satisfaction surveys are carried out weekly. 4

5 The positive feedback: Good customer service received Response times Going that extra mile The negative feedback: Bad customer service received Response times 8. Service management software Support Works is the application currently being used to support the ITIL processes. This tool has been in place for approximately seven years, and currently an upgrade is taking place to the new version, which will be completed in August The new version is being put in place as it is an improved product with more features which support service management and underpin all the ITIL processes. It was originally chosen based on the fact that it was a cost effective product and the University of Exeter was an early customer. It took a number of months to implement, but the only aspects that are being used are the Service Desk and incident management functions. Support Works does have a knowledge base but this is not really being used at present; it is planned to be used in the next version currently being implemented. Support Works is used in other areas outside IT, including Library Support and the Student Guild. The current number of users is approximately 90. The best feature of Support Works is the views that are available. It has also allowed support of a more common process via incident management. It has also provided the opportunity to improve management information through its reporting capabilities. Recommendations on purchasing a software tool Must be ITIL conformant Easy to implement Easy to use and easy to support Good reporting capabilities 9. ITIL development and qualifications ITIL certification training is currently being carried out. Certification of staff is taking place and has been at both v2 and v3 but, moving forward, this will be following the v3 certification path at some stage. Training is carried out by the training company QA-IQ. Training is carried out on site, but staff also can attend ITIL courses off site. ITIL training has been made available and recommended to other IT staff, but this is at overview level. There are a number of other staff to whom training has been given/offered, as they need a higher level of ITIL knowledge. All Service Desk (first and second line) and third line staff and managers have received Foundation training. There are no plans for Intermediate training in The Quality Manager holds a v2 Managers Certificate, and has completed the Manager s Bridge, and now holds a v3 ITIL Expert Certificate. 10. ITIL conclusions and recommendations The University of Exeter would recommend ITIL as a service management framework based on: The fact that this is Global Best Practice It is a framework that can be appropriately adapted It is process based 5

6 11. ITIL lessons learned Launch sooner! Don t spend months and months planning it is better to get started and deliver something! Time pressures it took much longer than originally planned/anticipated be realistic with the timescales. Engage with those who will be involved in the process this ensures buy in at all levels and ensures contribution/collaboration in the process development. Ensure that the ITIL project groups include all key stakeholders particularly the ITIL evangelists within the IT teams. Put together a user group for the ITIL/service management tool, made up from those across the University who will be using the tool, to ensure effective set up and development. 12. Significant areas of experience Incident management 13. Contact information Zachary Nashed Quality Manager z.nashed@exeter.ac.uk

7 Table of ITIL Processes and The Service Desk 1 The University of Exeter ITIL Process Maturity Matrix Process name Implemented/ being improved Partially implemented/ emerging Planned Not planned Service strategy Financial management for IT services Service portfolio management Demand management Service design Service catalogue management Service level management Capacity management Availability management IT service continuity management Information security management Supplier management Service transition Knowledge management Change management Release management Deployment management Service asset management Configuration management Service validation and service testing Service operation The Service Desk Incident management Request fulfillment Problem management Access management Event management Continual service improvement The 7 Step Improvement Process 1 Subjective rather than objective assessment. 7