Building Out Your ITOM Support Team

Callan Bond
ServiceNow Employee
ServiceNow Employee
‎01-24-2019 10:42 AM

What Happens After the Project Team Rides Off into the Sunset?

Getting ITOM products implemented and providing value to your business is a huge deal: it can take a lot of work but provides even more benefit in return. However, Discovery, Event, Service Mapping, and the rest of the ITOM suite don't run smoothly without proper maintenance, and a solid ITOM support team within your organization not only ensures those applications continue to deliver value, but it positions you to build on them and continue your ITOM journey. 

There are a number of considerations in building out a support team. How many staff will you need? What kind of skills and training should they have? What will they be doing on a day-to-day and month-to-month basis? The video embedded below covers these topics and more in just under 30 minutes, and we also list out some of the highlights below.

 

ITOM Supports IT and the Business

Both ITSM and ITOM support all of the critical functions of IT which in turn enable your business. Understanding the bigger picture helps frame the importance of  the services delivered through the ServiceNow platform, and with this the importance of a trained, experienced, and staffed operational support team. 

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How Many Staff?

While the following chart is not a definitive answer for every organization, it illustrates some typical FTE (Full Time Employee) counts associated with supporting the various applications within the ITOM suite. Most of the applications will have a range of support needed throughout the year. For example, Service Mapping maintenance may settle in at 0.3 to 0.5 of an FTE, but when new services are launched or need to be mapped, this can swing to a 1.0 FTE or even higher depending how much work volume is coming in.

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While many organizations may have one technical resource wear multiple 'hats', that is, fulfill multiple of the roles above, care must be taken not to position these resources up for severe overwork. Many of the workloads associated with the products above can spike or drop in tandem: a launch of a major new application means more Discovery work, more CMDB work, more Service Mapping work, and more Event Management work.

Recommended Skills and Training

Not every ITOM support staff is going to have all of the skills listed below, and these skills are also by no means an exhaustive list, but they can provide guidance when looking for candidates to transition from other areas into ITOM roles, or when hiring new staff members. Similarly, not everyone is going to be able to take every recommended course, but the list does provide guidance on courses to take to expand expertise and knowledge with the ITOM platform.

Discovery

Skills:

  • Ability to comprehend, modify and create server side object-oriented JavaScript, Unix Shell scripting and Windows scripting and Powershell
  • ‘CCNA’ level of networking knowledge to include routing protocols, TCP/UDP transmission, IP transit diagnosis, sub-netting and implement advanced troubleshooting including the ability to gather and analyze IP packet level data.
  • Intermediate knowledge and ability in Server Administration across OS platforms. Including the understanding of described domain structures, user permission levels, group policy objects and the execution of SUDO Policies.
  • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model
  • Comprehension of and the ability to communicate and implement the ITIL CMDB Model

Training:

Event Management and Operational Intelligence

Skills:

  • Advanced and current understanding (and practice) of supported out-of-box network monitoring connectors, such as SCOM, Netcool, Solarwinds and HPOM.
  • Understanding of SNMP traps & MIBs/OIDs.
  • Intermediate understanding of networking functionality, advanced troubleshooting including the ability to gather and analyze raw event data.
  • Advanced ability to modify and create server-side object-oriented JavaScript, JSON, Regular Expressions (RegEx).
  • Intermediate understanding of Network Fault Management and how it relates to the clients business.  Knowing the right questions to ask and where to get information.
  • Intermediate skill set in administration of the core ServiceNow Platform. Including the ability to create business rules, script includes and understand the impact of such changes on existing functionality and future upgrades.
  • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model.
  • Comprehension of, and the ability to communicate and implement the ITIL CMDB Model.

Training:

Service Mapping

Skills:

  • Intermediate Windows and Unix administration skills
  • Familiarity with network concepts (routers, switches, firewalls, NAT, load balancing)
  • Understanding protocols such as HTTP, TCP, SNMP, SOAP, and REST
  • Familiarity with the following concepts: XML, and JSON/script language
  • Intermediate to deep understanding of Ruby and Java RegEx
  • Ability to discuss credentials, install a product, troubleshoot permission issues, discuss and troubleshoot network connectivity with network engineers
  • Optional but very recommended: Scripting capabilities such as Groovy and JavaScript
  • Knowledge of Web and Application Servers, Load Balancers, Databases, and Virtualization (WebSphere, MQ, IIS, Apache, VMware)
  • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model
  • Comprehension of, and the ability to communicate and implement the ITIL CMDB Model

Training:

Orchestration:

Skills:

  • Basic Windows / Unix admin skills
  • Basic to Advanced Powershell scripting skills
  • Advanced Javascript skills (which is basically required for ServiceNow Development work)
  • Familiarity with Amazon EC2, Azure and VMware
  • Experience with Cloud Management Platforms such as AWS, Azure, VMware and BMC
  • Ability to Install and configure MID Servers
  • Experience scripting with PowerShell, Perl, WMI, SSH, python, JavaScript,  XPath, SNMP
  • Understanding of protocols such as HTTP, TCP, FTP/SFTP, SOAP and REST
  • Basic understanding of XML, Regex and JSON
  • Ability to discuss credentials, troubleshoot permission issues, discuss and troubleshoot network connectivity with network engineers
  • Intermediate skill set in administration of the core ServiceNow Platform, including the ability to create business rules, script includes and understand the impact of such changes on existing functionality and future upgrades
  • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model

Training:

CMDB Admin:

Skills:

  • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model
  • Comprehension of and the ability to communicate and implement the ITIL CMDB Model
  • Ability to collaborate and communicate effectively across multiple stakeholders to ensure an effective CMDB that adheres to governance standards
  • Broad general knowledge of IT infrastructure topology including typical application, server, and networking configurations

 Training:

Cloud Management:

Skills:

  • Intermediate to Advanced skill set in administration of the core ServiceNow Platform including:
    • The ability to create business rules, script includes and understand the impact of such changes on existing functionality and future upgrades
    • Understanding of Business Applications and their functionality in the ITIL model
  • Familiarity with Amazon EC2, Azure and Vmware, including appropriate template types (ARM templates, CFT)
  • Understanding of DNS and IP configuration
  • Understanding protocols such as HTTP, TCP, FTP/SFTP, SOAP, REST and SSH
  • Basic Windows/Unix admin skills
  • Ability to discuss credentials, troubleshoot permission issues within the frame of Cloud Providers
  • Ability to discuss and troubleshoot network connectivity with network engineers
  • Basic to Advanced scripting capabilities JavaScript
  • Some understanding of IP routing and Virtual Networks

Training:

Support Tasks

There are a number of tasks that occur on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Watch the embedded video for more details on a product-by-product basis, but some themes across all products are:

Daily:

Review of error logs, looking for errors that need to be corrected or informational messages to provide a general sense of the health of the system, are activities that occur every day. Depending on the specific product, common issues that need correction are:

  • Connection issues
  • Credentials changed or incorrect
  • Unidentified network gear
  • Errors in Event state
  • Failures of scheduled tasks

Weekly:

Here the support staff start to look more at the value being delivered by the particular application, rather than technical errors. Whether Discovery, Service Mapping, Event, or Cloud Management, technical output of the product often flows through the CMDB and so being familiar with the CMDB and aware of the difference between an effective vs ineffective repository are important. Common tasks on a weekly basis are:

  • Review of the CMDB dashboard 
    • Ensure all areas of dashboard are meeting agreed-to levels
    • Review if targets adequately reflect organization's actual needs
  • Health check reviews of existing schedules and tasks
  • Discussion with CMDB administrators on performance or quality issues
  • Reviews of manual exceptions required during the course of the week
  • Analysis of data gaps

Monthly:

It's important to be keenly aware of the end-users of the ITOM products that are deployed; those people in the business who depend on the continued operation and forward-looking planning associated with effective ITOM solutions. On a monthly basis ITOM support staff should:

  • Review ITOM output with the owners of affected services., e.g., service maps with owners of the mapped business services
  • Be at least aware of, if not involved with, new implementations or major changes to services coming within the next quarter
  • Review with service and process owners the frequency of data population, discovery schedules, and other regular tasks
  • Participate in CAB on at least a semi-regular basis, to see how the dashboards and output of ITOM services are used in Change planning
  • Participate in any major Incident reviews to see how the dashboards and output of ITOM services were used in Incident management, and note any areas for improvement
  • Participate in local SNUG (ServiceNow User Group) meetings or other networking opportunities

Yearly:

Keeping up with the ServiceNow community should happen throughout the year, but there are major events such as Knowledge that provide a rare opportunity to connect with a global community and see the 'latest and greatest'. In addition, strategic planning both around the ServiceNow platform and with your business stakeholders should not get lost in the day-to-day rush of pressing business.

  • Attend ServiceNow Knowledge or other industry conference for idea generation, knowledge sharing, and networking
  • Work with ServiceNow platform administrators to plan upgrades of your ServiceNow instance
  • Keep up-to-date on the latest features introduced in each major release, and plan on incorporating them into your production instance
  • Participate where possible, or at the very least review, strategic plans laid out by the business and incorporate them into your areas roadmap and goals for the coming year

 

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