University ITSM

Today Jack Probst presented to the itSMF Higher Education Special Interest Group (SIG). The presentation is to be posted on the SIG web site. The CMDB and the service catalog are very closely related. The CMDB starts with services anyways, and the service catalog is the list of services. Potential service catalog categories:

• Application Based Services (e.g. Customer Support Services)
• Hosting Services (e.g. Data Center services)
• Desktop Services (e.g. mobile devices)
• Shared Services (e.g. data LAN)
• IT Professional Services (e.g. Service Management, Procurement)

Questions to ask about service catalog entries (see the presentation slides 18 and 20 for details):

• What
• How
• When
• Why
• By Who
• To Who
• Status & Reporting
• Where
• How Much

You can't get by with a text document any more. You need a database, and people need to be able to select services they want (request fulfillment). What's the difference between a service and a service request? A service is something you are subscribing to; a service request is a point-in-time action e.g. issuing a mobile device. Pink Elephant has a book called "Definining IT Success Through The Service Catalog." Think about "The Tipping Point" as a book about organizational change. You can download a white paper from Pink Elephant: "Using Communications As An Agent of Organizational Change: Applying The Principles Of Made To Stick." Several schools have ITSM degrees now. I didn't catch the whole list, but one was Missouri State, which has an undergraduate degree. If your school wants to go to the itSMF USA Academic Forum, email academicforum2009@gmail.com.