ITS Service Management Newsletter
In this edition, we provide updates on Incident Management and the Service Catalog, and answer more of your questions about the Change Management process.
Incident Management
Our updated Incident Management Standards and Guidelines document has gone to the Directors for their review and feedback. We hope to have all feedback addressed, and the document approved and published later this summer.
Service Catalog
Changes to the Service Plan have been implemented to reflect the EDUCAUSE categorization structure. The Service Catalog is now being re-mapped, beginning with Networking and Telecommunications group. Currently, all service offerings, services, and service categories under the N&T umbrella have been reviewed and realigned for implementation and testing in ServiceNow’s development environment. Once the proof of concept is finalized, we will begin the mapping process with Campus Solutions, Customer Support Services, and the University Data Center until the catalog is fully configured. This effort is expected to continue until March 2022.
Change Management
Where can I learn how to create an outage record for a Request for Change (RFC)?
Review the ‘Create an Outage Record‘ Knowledge Base article.
When should I place an RFC ‘On Hold”?
If you have created an RFC and you are not ready for it to move forward for approval yet, you may place it ‘On Hold’ as long as the change is not in the New, Canceled, or Closed state. You may be waiting on some internal testing results, working out scheduling, or some other reason. Once you place a change ‘On Hold’, a new field will display that requires you to provide a reason.
Where can I see ‘On Hold’ Changes?
Browse to the ITS Change Management Dashboard and select the ‘Change Open‘ tab. Click on the ‘On Hold Changes‘ widget to be taken to the list of on hold change records.
What is an ‘Overdue Change’?
A RFC will be considered an overdue change when its planned start date and time has passed, it is not in a Closed or Cancelled state, and has not been placed On Hold.
Where can I see ‘Overdue’ changes?
Browse to the ITS Change Management Dashboard and select either the ‘Change Overview‘ or the ‘Change Open‘ tab. Click on the ‘Overdue Changes‘ widget to be taken to the list of overdue change records.
How do I know what group to assign the RFC to?
A change should be assigned to the group that owns the Configuration Item (CI) affected by the change. Please review KB0018293 for additional guidance.
When do I post to Alerts & Outages vs the IT Maintenance Calendar?
Alerts & Outages is meant to inform the community of when service outages are planned or when an unexpected outage occurs. The IT Maintenance Calendar is meant to allow the IT community to plan their work around campus IT maintenance.
When creating an RFC, if the change will result in an outage, checking the “Create Outage” box on the “Planning” tab will create an outage record in Alerts & Outages in ServiceNow once the change is approved. Standing maintenance windows should be listed in the IT Maintenance Calendar regardless of the type of work being done in the maintenance window.
Please submit your questions or comments for the Service Management Team