UCISA ITIL Case Study on the University of Huddersfield

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1 UCISA ITIL Case Study on the University of Huddersfield 1. Introduction The University of Huddersfield is a teaching led educational institution, with approximately 22,000 students, including overseas students and approximately 25,00 staff. 2. Using ITIL The University first became aware of ITIL about five years ago, when they attended a seminar on high availability, which they assumed was to be a technical seminar. The seminar was split into two halves: the first half was about the technical aspects of planning and achieving resilience in the infrastructure; the second half was about how to improve people and process to help deliver service availability. This was the approach that Huddersfield had been looking for ITIL provided the right approach through Service Management. Some more investigation on ITIL was carried out, and training was arranged through an organisation called SysOp (who had delivered the original seminar) and the Foundation Course was delivered. The training was initially done by the Management Team only, but this was ultimately broadened to a further number of other IT staff. A programme was then established to implement ITIL. However, it was quickly established that doing things by the book was impossible, it didn t work and didn t fit and the adopt and adapt model became a more obvious direction. The programme started with the service catalogue, but this was not easy to achieve as the initial attempt was written from a systems point of view and not with a service focus. It was difficult to achieve a service catalogue that defined the service from the University point of view. The main focus of the implementation has been on organisation change management, to support ITIL in order to ensure that the organisation structure of Computing Services is appropriate in supporting ITIL and service management. The IT lead team are service management focused and ensure that service delivery is inherent in all aspects of IT delivery. Many individuals within IT do understand the concept of services and service management others only see the technology and systems. The current version of ITIL being used is v2. This has been used since However, a number of staff have done the v2 to v3 Foundation Bridge. The original drivers for choosing ITIL were: Availability service Control of changes 3. The service life cycle service strategy Governance and strategic direction There is currently no governance at a senior level with the University. Governance at the moment is predominantly a financial activity and is managed by the Finance Department. The University is largely devolved and there is little central management. The decisions on where the investment will be made in IT services and IT systems is made within Computing Services, as part of their budget planning, and any projects for which they have obtained capital investment. From 2009 onwards, there will be an additional level of strategic funding, which will be made available to IT for activities, such as upgrading the network. All these activities will be planned and managed both strategically by the Pro Vice Chancellor, to which Computing Services report, and by Finance. Computing and Library Services do have a strategic plan, which is put together annually, and supports and aligns with the overall strategic direction of the University. 1

2 Service portfolio management and project management There is no established or formal Project Office. Projects are managed by individuals within Computing Services. Resourcing these projects is an ongoing challenge. There is an Infrastructure Review Group, that was set up three years ago, which focused on resilience, but has matured over time to look at new systems, integration of systems and retirements. Some of the projects that have come out of the Infrastructure Review Group have been of a significant size, and then all the teams across Computing Services work together, to ensure that the resource is available when required, and that the projects are appropriately delivered. The Computing Services team is only 60 staff, but they work well collaboratively, to ensure the success of projects. Communications Within Computing Services, the Information and Training team manage the content and delivery of official communications on behalf of Computing Services and the Department s website, as well as the delivery of IT training to University staff. From late September 2009, this team is being combined with client consultancy and staff IT support to form a single Service Delivery team, which will aim to provide more pro-active and integrated advice, assistance, communication and training to the University on behalf of Computing Services. 4. The service life cycle service design Service catalogue management There is a service catalogue in place, but it is not very dynamic, and it is not kept up to date. New services are added, but services that are retired do not tend to get removed. The service catalogue is not actively being reviewed at the moment, but this is planned for the future. Business relationship management/service level management The role There is a team, within Computing Services, called Client Consultancy, and an individual in this team is assigned to each School and service. These individuals take on the role of the Service Level Manager/Business Relationship Manager. This has been successful in some instances, but not all Schools have embraced this role, and in these instances, the role is reactive, rather than an established proactive planning role. In addition, the Managers within Computing Services are all dynamically involved in building relationships with all parts of the University. The process and documents The University is not run by Service Level Agreements, but there are Service Level Definitions in place these really state what the service provides and what IT delivers. These are for the standard services, for example, and network. There are some Service Level Agreements, but these are only in place for discreet services with specific sets of users, i.e. the non-standard services. These also tend to be as a result of projects where funding is separate. These are signed Service Level Agreements and they are measured and reported. For example, an SLA has just been signed with West Yorkshire Life Long Learning Network, which this is a funded project for three years for website development, and will be hosted at Huddersfield University. A similar SLA has also recently been put in place with the School of Music and Humanities for a hosted service. Measuring service KPIs and metrics are in place and are constantly monitored and measured. These are based predominantly on IT metrics, for example, availability. These are published monthly on the website. There is a drive to be cost effective. Currently this has not been based around a cost per service, but more staffing versus non staffing costs. However, Computing Services are proactively looking at providing cost effective services and measuring themselves against other organisations within the HE sector, to ensure they offer the best and most 2

3 appropriate services possible. This means looking at opportunities, like outsourcing student , where the effort is not best placed in providing this service internally. Capacity management There is a Capacity Management Group, which meets once a month. The capacity planning is done at business, service and component level. This is done collaboratively in detail with every department in the University. Sometimes the capacity planning is done with individuals and sometimes this is done at teaching and learning committees and research committees the requirements then go to the Deans for endorsement and prioritisation, to ensure that the capacity planning does fit with the overall strategy of the University. Availability management Availability was the original driver to look at ITIL and service management. With the introduction of process improvement and significant investment in infrastructure, this is no longer an issue. Availability metrics are in place, but are predominantly IT based. Information security management There are two main vehicles for this. The first is the role of the University Secretary s Office in conjunction with the Computing Services Records Manager, in identifying and categorising the information handled, stored and distributed by each University department and ensuring compliance with legislative requirements, such as the DPA and FOIA. The second is the role of the Computing Services IT Security Group to ensure that IT system security is appropriate to the needs outlined by both the Records Manager and the particular needs of Schools and Service departments. The CSITSG is made up of representatives of each technical area of the infrastructure, who are each tasked with contributing, from their technical perspective, to a layered security model approach to system design and operation. Supplier management The supplier relationships tend to be managed directly with the suppliers from within particular functional areas of Computing Services. From a contractual documentation perspective the contracts are managed by the Computing Services Purchasing team, but the actual technical aspects of the required service would be the responsibility of the relevant individual IT Manager within Computing Services. Standard Procurement opportunities, which are nationwide, are also used wherever possible. 5. The service life cycle service transition Change management Change management as a process has been implemented. There is no actual Change Advisory Board (CAB) but some of the CAB activities are carried out both within the respective IT teams and by the Infrastructure Review Group. There is an emergency change policy and process in place. Release management There is no distinction between change and release these are managed as one process. Configuration management There is an element of configuration management. There is a comprehensive level of configuration management with regard to servers and their relationships, including who supports them, who owns them and applications that are on them etc. Configuration management for desktops is being monitored through SCCM from Microsoft; this is to ensure appropriate purchase and tracking of an asset. There are also a number of other disparate pockets of data and information on configurations, and the plan is to link them together with relationships, and this is being undertaken at the moment. 3

4 The concept of configuration management is well understood however; when it was first implemented, it was predominantly from the book, which didn t work. The lessons learned have been that it does work from the book with the adapt aspect, and the amount of time, resource and planning for configuration management was under estimated. This is an emerging process and will continue to be developed. The service life cycle service operation The Service Desk There are two Service Desks. There is one Service Desk for staff and one Service Desk for students. When Computing Services merged with the Library, and they refurbished the Library, it was appropriate to deliver IT support for students from a single service point within the Library. The structure in Computing Services is not a traditional first, second and third line support. The Staff Service Desk staff carry out the second line desk side support, as well as first line over the telephone support. There is a staff desktop, which is imaged every year the number of applications that now need to be built in is too many, so there is interest in moving to a virtual desktop. This will change the support requirements and will trigger the review of the service catalogue. Supported applications at the Service Desk fit into a number of categories. Category 1 applications are provided on the base image and are fully supported. Category 2 are additional applications that can be purchased, for example, Visio or Project, and the licence is an additional cost: the experience to support these applications may also not be available on the Service Desk, but they will be supported by client consultancy. Advanced knowledge may not be available for these applications. Category 3 applications are those that can be added to the image (they don t cause any issues, but must be supported by the School technical staff), for example, design software and music software. Category 4 are applications that are not supported. On the Staff Service Desk there are five staff, including the Team Leader. On the Student Service Desk there are five/six staff, but there are also staff from the Library that are used as an additional resource. Following a review of first and second line support activities within Computing and Library Services, from late September 2009, for staff, the single Service Delivery team, formed from the Staff IT Support, Client Consultancy and Information and Training teams, will provide a single service desk capability with expertise, which covers all first and second line activities. For students, there will continue to be a separate service desk within the Library, but certain activities, such as hardware repairs and AV support, will be delivered by a dedicated number of staff from within the Staff Service Delivery team. Third line support will continue to be provided by specialist IT teams on behalf of both staff and student service desks. Incident management There is an incident management process, but currently there is no distinction between incidents and service requests. When the new version of Touchpaper/Avocent LanDesk is implemented, this will provide the opportunity to distinguish between incident and service requests, and review and change the incident process as appropriate. Access management Access management is predominantly dealt with by the Service Desk. Access to specific applications, such as student records and finance, are authorised by the specific service department responsible and permissions implemented, by use of active directory group policies. Problem management Problem management is an emerging process. It is really limited to root cause of particular incidents, rather than a problem management process in full. This will be extended further, as the LanDesk software has the capability of linking incidents to problems and, as part of the plan for the single service delivery team to extend their use of LanDesk, the necessary processes can be developed and implemented. 4

5 6. The service life cycle continual service improvement Formal feedback surveys are carried out once every two years. This is the allowed timing for surveys. This survey would be for the Library and Computing Services only. Incidents are also surveyed at closure. Management information and measures and metrics are in place, but are predominantly IT focused. The single Service Delivery team will be exploring ways of developing more dynamic and regular feedback mechanisms as part of their more proactive approach. 7. Service management software Touchpaper Vega HelpDesk is currently the product that is being used to support service management, but is in the process of being upgraded to the latest version (Avocent LanDesk) for use from late September The reason for this move is that the old version is focused mainly around incident management, which is not sufficient any longer. The new version is fully featured and ITIL conformant. Touchpaper has been in place since Touchpaper was chosen based on ITIL conformance there were other products, which were looked at (Remedy, RMS, Magic Service Desk, House on the Hill), but not seen as being as suitable as Touchpaper. It took a long time to implement, and the consensus is that this has never really stopped. It took a while to understand that logging should be done on what the user was reporting as the incident, not on what was done to fix it and there were a number of other issues along the way. However, there is now fast logging, better categorisation and improved management information. All the lessons learned are being carried forward in the new version. The new version was chosen because this was a more cost effective way forward than buying a completely new product. The implementation will include Incident Management, Problem Management, Service Requests, Change Management and Configuration Management. The current number of users is 96. The best feature of Touchpaper is the workload list, which is very good. It gives visibility of everything that is going on and can also be at any level required. There is a knowledge base within Touchpaper. The new version will be more dynamic than the current version, and it is planned that known errors will be added to this knowledge base in the future. However, there has to be a change of behaviour/culture to ensure that appropriate information/required delivery data is added. Recommendations on purchasing a software tool Check the licensing costs Don t just buy a tool, don t just do the same again, look at the people and process as well the tool won t necessarily change the behaviour 8. ITIL development and qualifications All the Service Desk staff have done ITIL v3 training. All the other staff (other than those that have done the v2 to V3 Bridge, which was carried out on site) are still talking Service Management from v2. The recent training, which is externally off site, has been carried out by Remark. Training at Practitioner and Manager level are not a consideration at this stage, but will be reviewed. 9. ITIL conclusions and recommendations Huddersfield University would recommend ITIL as a Service Management Framework based on: It is a framework that must be appropriately adapted It is all about being service focused ITIL provides a common language 5

6 Tangible benefits seen: Availability has improved significantly IT reputation has improved Communication has improved 10. ITIL lessons learned Don t do ITIL from the book it needs to be adapted to the organisation Focus on the development of the organisation required to support service management 11. Significant areas of experience Capacity management Metrics and measures 12. Contact information Joanna Radley Operational Services Manager now Data Centre and Network Services Manager following the restructure Joanna.radley@hud.ac.uk

7 Table of ITIL Processes and The Service Desk 1 The University of Huddersfield ITIL Process Maturity Matrix Process name 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 mulfillment Problem management Access management Event management Continual service improvement The 7 Step Improvement Process Implemented/ being improved Partially implemented/ emerging Planned Not planned 1 Subjective rather than objective assessment. 7