The Wikipedia definition for IT Service Management (ITSM) talks about policies, procedures and process to design, deliver and support the services that customers need. Whilst this is true in terms of what we do, we prefer to think about how we approach ITSM as ‘Helping IT to do IT better’.
We want to assist and make sure that:
- We help the University to identify the right services to deliver what’s needed.
- We carefully design new services to meet requirements.
- We plan the release of our services, ensuring they are well understood and supported.
- Our services are available when they are needed by the University.
- We identify and investigate when things go wrong, fix them, learn, and prevent a repeat.
- We improve the services we have.
- We provide excellent support to users and minimise the ongoing support requirement.
Whilst designing and following processes to achieve these aims will be important, our first questions will be, ‘What are the current pain points?’ and ‘How can we help?’
Team Structure
The Service Desk joined the Service Management team in April 2018. The structure of the team is now as follows:
Core principles
- Keep it simple – Identify the key processes required to make a positive difference to our services and seek to remove bureaucracy.
- Make it relevant – Review and adapt existing processes, ensuring that what we do has a demonstrable value and is tailored to fit the needs of the business.
- Communicate well – Use appropriate language, ensuring people know how we can help; make ourselves available, for teams to approach us with issues and requests.
A joined up approach
The team will work closely with other areas to ensure a joined up approach, along with Business Partnering and the Project Office, to get a clear picture of what the University wants and its priorities.
The activities of the Service Management team are overseen by a steering group; this includes representation from across IT Services, to ensure there is a common agreed direction for Service Management activity.
Service Management frameworks
IT Service Management is not limited to ITIL only. Whilst we have a strong focus on ITIL best practice for our relevant processes, we also plan to integrate other frameworks to improve the way IT Services delivers and supports its services – including Agile, DevOps and Lean.
Further information
Service Management will now feature regularly in the news blog with further information about roles within the team, events and updates.
If you have any questions or wish to find out more, please contact Ian Bowman, Head of Service Management.