Scenario for Migrating HelpDesk to ITIL Compliance

Sample Scenario:

Outline the steps for evaluating existing helpdesk operations and migrating to an ITIL compliant service desk.

Conducted a Strategy Assessment of existing HelpDesk people, process, and platform resulting in an approach to transformation that will be the framework for an ITIL Implementation Plan for the Service Desk function. Examples of key finding in this scenario are as follows:
1. ITSC acts as a catch all for any task or project currently not defined in any other department.
2. There is no defined hand-off for ITSC on issue resolution for new changes implemented in the
production environment.
3. There is no defined hand-off for communications to be sent out to stakeholders on changes approved
and scheduled to be implemented in the production environment.
4. Service Requests follow the same lifecycle as incidents.
5. Incident criticality is poorly defined.
6. Standard operating procedures are organized in a hierarchal shared folder structure.
7. Most documentation is from emails and does not follow a standardized format.
8. Currently there are no standardized training materials in place for ITSC personnel.
9. Patching activities do not follow the current change management process.
10. There is no standard escalation protocol for system problems that cannot be resolved by the ITSC.
11. ITSC acts as tier 1 and tier 2 support for YOUR COMPANY.
12. Knowledge Management module not implemented within Remedy tool suite.
13. Multiple tools utilized for various ITSC functional tasks.
14. Tool Assessment:

i. Remedy Incident Management module has been implemented and utilized by the ITSC however has limited use across the enterprise.
ii. Blueprint and AML utilized for requirements management and testing, respectively.  These two tools interface with each other providing easy interfacing between the two teams.
iii. Most of the current tools utilized do not support all the current needs of the established IT processes.
iv. Tools are not integrated into one platform to provide a holistic management approach.
v. There currently is no process to update and improve the current tool set based on an enterprise approach to ensure process alignment.
vi. IBM Filenet Workplace V1.1.5 has limited capability for managing the Change Management process.

Listed below are high level steps to evaluate the existing helpdesk operations and migrate to an ITIL compliant service desk.

1. Define Scope of Functional Tasks within ITSC

2. Conduct a thorough process assessment of the Incident (and Problem) Management processes. This analysis will evaluate across three main points: People, Process, and Tools. The first phase of the assessment is derived from the TIPA and CMMI for Services maturity assessment model. This evaluation is conducted through interviews and observation of the process in action. The second phase of the assessment is derived from Business Process Architecture principles. During this assessment, process documents and artifacts are analyzed. This evaluation is conducted by using a process evaluation form that assesses:

3. Conduct a gap analysis on the Incident Management Process (and Problem Management) and Service Desk function role. Essentially taking the outputs from Step 2 and Step 3 and comparing to identify the gaps.

4. Deliverable Prioritization and Determine Strategy / Work Plan. From the gap analysis, tasks are identified and prioritized. Resources are assigned tasks and a schedule is developed and agreed to.

While the above plan is being executed, an analysis of ITSC SOPs will be conducted. A complete inventory of all ITSC documents will be performed given many of the training documents and SOPs reside in emails or a folder directory structure. Once complete, SIS will assist the ITSC to identify systems that do not have any documentation in place and work with stakeholders to start getting the necessary documentation captured.

Sample Performance Measures: