Purpose
This web site exists to guide teams in collecting information needed to build a service catalog that will be useful to the consumers of OIT’s services, as well as to our own organization. The step-by-step approach below is a strategy to clearly describe our services in order to communicate that information effectively once we have it.
OIT offers a large number of services, and our services are often broad in scope, comprise many components, and are maintained and delivered by teams of people who may be members of different workgroups. Understanding our services, knowing what needs to be done to support a service, and knowing who is responsible for its components is key to offering and supporting our services effectively and efficiently.
The Service Planning Process
Things to Know Before You Begin
- It is important that we use consistent terminology when describing our services in order to facilitate clear communication both within OIT and with our customers. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the following definitions:
- The final format of the OIT Service Catalog has not yet been determined. There will, however, be two types of information in the Catalog:
- Public Information about the service (name, description, entitlement, authorization, availability, charge, metrics, request procedure, supported configurations, website address)
- Internal support information about the service (lifecycle status, team, owner, components, service and support workflows, cost, and support tasks)
- Documenting each service will involve a two-phased approach:
- Phase I includes three tasks: identifying the top-level component managers of the service, agreeing upon the Service Owner, and producing the high-level service definition.
- Phase II includes three tasks: producing detailed service component task lists, achieving agreement amongst the Service Team to complete the service task list, and producing service costing information.
- For more details about each task in each phase, see the Service Planning Process Overview (PDF).
- Using the definition of a service, the OIT Cabinet will determine the high-level services to be included in the OIT Service Catalog, as well as the top-level service operation managers who should take each service through the process of describing it for the catalog.
Getting Started with Phase One
- OIT leadership identifies a Service Owner for each service.
- Use the definition of a Service Owner to help with this step.
- The Service Owner identifies the related service operation manager(s).
- The relevant Service Operation Managers meet to produce the high-level Service Description. Service Operation Managers may want to include key technical folks in this meeting.
- Complete the Service Design Package to document the business rationale and purpose of the Service, to generate the public information about the Service, and other supporting information.
- The Service Owner approves the Service Design Package for inclusion in the OIT Service Catalog.
Finishing Up with Phase Two
- The Service Operation Managers work with their respective teams to produce detailed support task lists.
- Each Service Operation Manager uses the “Phase 2” tab of the Service Planning Worksheet to fully develop a detailed support tasks list. Once the support tasks lists are completed for each component, they should be consolidated into one master support tasks list for the entire Service.
- Time spent on this step is estimated to consist of 2-3 meetings, as well as 2-4 hours spent outside of meetings.
- The output of the meeting is a the completed Phase 2 tab of the worksheet.
- The Service Owner and the Service Operation Managers meet to achieve agreement about the service catalog information for the service.
- The full team meets to brainstorm, discuss, review, expand, and/or refine the service catalog information in total, including the consolidated support tasks list.
- Time spent on this step is estimated to consist of 1-2 meetings, as well as 2-4 hours spent outside of meetings.
- The output of the meeting may consist of revisions made to the final service catalog information.
- The Service Owner and Service Operation Managers meet to produce service costing information.
- Develop service costing information from the service information that has been gathered using the Service Planning Worksheet, as well as data available through OIT Business Services and Institutional Strategy and Analysis.
- Time spent on this step is estimated to consist of 2-3 meetings, as well as 2-4 hours spent outside of meetings.
- The output of the meeting is the completed Internal Staff Information about the Service for the Service Catalog.
Service Planning Process Overview
Additional Project Information
Goals and Objectives
- A long-term goal for a Service Planning project is the development of a service catalog, along with the guidelines, processes and tools to sustain the maintenance of the catalog.
- A more immediate goal for an OIT Service Planning project is to document the OIT services that are heavily cross-functional and where there is uncertainty and confusion about responsibilities, expectations and organizational alignment.
- Develop a service description that defines the service, establishes scope, describes the user base and defines how access is granted (and revoked) to the service.
- Document the components of the service including the infrastructure hardware and software, activities and dependencies that comprise a Service. Assign responsibilities for these components.
- Develop a list of support tasks associated with a service. A support task is a task that is essential to the operation of a service, not necessarily a client-facing task. Assign responsibilities for support tasks and group them as Tier 1, 2, or 3 tasks.
- Designate a Service Owner, based on service responsibilities and organizational structures. Identify a primary and backup support person for the Service and associated components/support tasks if applicable.
- Evaluate the alignment of tasks and responsibilities within a service and across multiple services, and use this information to improve efficiency and minimize organizational barriers.
- Assemble service information in a format that is available to (and searchable by) OIT staff and campus users. The OIT Service Catalog is an essential component in our Incident Response processes because it allows us to quickly ascertain the Service Owner and is a resource for staff who are working to resolve the incident.
Scope
The scope of this project is the services provided by OIT as well as campus partner services supported by OIT. The focus of the Service Planning project is the development of a process and tools for an ongoing effort to develop a service catalog for OIT.
This project will contribute toward the following OIT Operational Goals as follows:
- Innovation, Agility and Alignment by clearly defining services
- Pervasive Transparency both as an outcome and as a guiding principle in the team’s operations
- Collaborative Engagement by describing the purpose and value of our services
- Proactive Customer Support by moving OIT closer to the “one stop shopping” model
- Reliable Systems and Security by documenting the underlying system components of services and how the services interrelate
Contacts
Sponsors
- Susan West, Assistant Vice Chancellor, Technology Support Services
- Mardecia Bell, Chief Information Security Officer, Security & Compliance
Project Manager
- Kevin McDonald, Service Portfolio Process Owner, Technology Support Services and Security & Compliance
Team Members
- Danny Davis, Director of Client Solutions, Technology Support Services
- David Ladrie, Director of Help Desk & Learning Spaces Support, Technology Support Services