Incidents vs Service Requests (survey)

[RobertBarnes]

ITIL v30 identifies the need to use different processes for incidents and service requests. ITIL (SO 4.3.2) also indicates that Service Requests can be handled through Incident Management process, and that a classification system can be used to distinguish between the two.

Service-Now appears to utilize this approach. There is an Incident Management module that can handle both Incidents and Service requests.

Our company has created a separate NEW module dedicated to Service Requests. The user would use the Service Request module to manage Service Requests and the Incident module to manage Incidents. The service request table is extended from the incident table so the fields in each are nearly identical. The data entry screens are nearly identical.

Survey Questions…

Is this a common practice?
Do you know of any other companies who have implemented service request in this fashion?
What do you think the advantages or disadvantages of this approach?

One advantage might be that the reporting and metrics are a little cleaner do to the physical separation of the data. This would be less of a dependency on categories that might change over time?

[vguihene]

Hi,

My view is that separation can be done as you just did (and some of our customers do just that) but hopefully it is always not necessary. Overtime, as you gather requests, you should be able to classify them and be able to see common parterns. Then, why not use the Service Catalog since many of them are standard?
My point is that it is probably simpler to keep them within Incident Mgt and keep their number under control by creating new types of request in the Service Catalog when they represent a number which is large enough, enough to justify the effort to create the request workflow in the Service Catalog.
Anyway, it is what I am trying to promote but I failed to convince some of my customers...
Finally, you may find that this new feature to be useful when it comes to create an incident or a request:
http://wiki.service-now.com/index.php?title=Best_Practice_-_New_Call_Wizard

I hope that helps.

Vince

[Mr_Petes]

Hi Robert,

I am in the process of creating new service request as a sub-task below the project task. This might be a bit outside of the scope of what you are asking but custom service-requests do play a huge part in the below as an example of my organisations requirements for greater diversity through service-requests.

Well lets look at it from a project managers point of view. We use Prince 2 project methodology in our organisation which means the IT Dept/Project Manager work off the ICT project life cycle or some similar variant. The current Prince2 methodology has a hierarchy of portfolios, which contain Programs, which contain projects, which contain phases, which contain the service-requests (or tasks).

Essentially I have just added two additional fields to the project container 'Portfolio' and 'Program' simply so I can easily group each project together for reporting and transparency purposes. This sorts out the top three layers in the hierarchy. Below that we have the Project tasks which have been redesigned as the life cycle phases of a project (e.g Idea Definition, Start Up, Initiation etc).Now this is where the service-request comes into play. At this stage we are looking at adding a service-request as a sub-task of the project task called Work Packages.

What are the benefits?

Well lots basically if you think about it.

Firstly it encourages and allows the Project Manager to map out the project phases in advance which in turn provides forecasting on cost, resources required for each project phase and a greater ability to segment and track the progress of a projects.

For example one of the service-requests for a project phase may be to build 100 servers and you may need additional resources brought in like a few extra contractors down the line etc. The ability to foresee this rather than it being dropped on your lap is a extremely useful. As we have given the service-request the naming prefix of 'Work Package' or WP00001 for example. Using this method we remove the need to add extra classification and sub classification maintenance (mentioned by you) as you can simply run a report on the project, grouping by project tasks which shows a very good breakdown of where your costs and resources are going.

It doesn't stop there though, I am 'playing' with creating full config forms within the service-requests (screenshot attached). This allows for far greater flexibility with what I can do without cluttering up the incident tasks with too many custom fields etc. See attached for an example (work in progress).

Anyway I've attached a Visio diagram of what I am trying to do with the project container and an image of the custom service request. Both of these are still in draft at the moment so please excuse the mess. I hope this helps.