University ITSM

I spent the summer of 2008 at the Information Services of Wake Forest University under John Borwick. During this time, I spent a lot of time learning about the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). Of course, the main purpose of this was to bring this knowledge together into an easily accessed source for everyone interested. We focused on how these things directly affect universities (being a part of a university ourselves).

The first few days were spent reading up on these topics and trying to understand them on at least a most basic level. Some of the topics covered were very common-sense things that you’d like to think most groups would include, but not all do, like a service desk. Other topics were just as important but probably not as highly impressed upon by most groups, such as application management.

Trying to bring all this information into one location was of course a large task when we started. John and I met almost daily to see what could be done that day to bring us one step closer to taking on this challenge. With the project planning guides he’d drawn up to help us along, the hill didn’t seem so big. We had clear and defined goals that made each day feel like something vital was accomplished at the end. Some tasks were harder than expected, but fortunately we were able to work out almost all the kinks together without many accompanying issues.

Each day, things seemed to pull together into a more and more professional look that we were hoping to achieve. When the site launched, it went off basically without a hitch. We were able to get several articles up about some of the most critical aspects of ITIL and ITSM. We also had links to various IT departments on campuses across the United States. There were videos from various people displaying certain aspects which were more entertaining to watch than to read. We continued to update more and more articles, add a mailing list, provide blogs for insight to articles and certifications related to ITIL/ITSM, and spread the word of our site through del.icio.us and brochures at various events. We are still, of course, always updating the site to provide access to even more material. Spending my summer with John and making this site a reality has been truly enjoyable and I can honestly say I’m going to miss it when I leave.

This was truly an enjoyable summer and all parts of it working for Wake Forest and to bring this project to life gave me an experience I will remember with fondness. I only hope that this site will continue to succeed and realize its dream of providing ITIL and ITSM support for all universities who could use any help.