ITIL Exercises

The University o f th e South South Pacifi Pacifi c Background The university currently has 65,000 students. More than 40% of these students come from overseas. The expected revenue per student from overseas students is about 40% higher than from local students. The university has a central campus in Hong Kong (50,000 students). Campuses also exist in Taiwan, Beijing and Sydney, Australia. Last year, a pilot course was run in the business faculty in providing on-line teaching; overall, it was a success.

Objectives As a result of deregulation, the university has to depend more and more on its revenues. These revenues are generated primarily through course fees to students. Increasingly, the university provides services to organisations in Asia and overseas, in terms of applied research. A good example of this is the university’s involvement in cancer treatment. The percentage of overseas students is estimated to increase over the next 5 years to 60%. Another important statistic is that demography statistics show a decline in the age category of 12-18 year olds over the next 10 years. The aim is to rapidly expand the opportunities in on-line teaching. Particularly, overseas students are inclined to sign up for on-line courses; the main reason is (cost) efficiency.

Challenges The university’s main challenges lie in its Information Services (IS) area. Historically, each faculty has its own IT department, which in turn is spread out over various schools and research areas. The IT departments vary in size, complexity and culture: a few are fairly customer focussed; most are not. IT investments are made de-centrally. No one has an overall control of IT expenditure (totalling US$45M. last year) The CIO has appointed an IT strategist, to look at the IT architecture and come up with a central model for the entire university. This includes the websites. Specific comments that have been heard about IT provision: 

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“It’s a mess; everything’s everything’s connected by band aids. It’s a matter of time before it falls apart.” “Those people don’t even even know how to spell ‘customer ‘customer service’.” service’.” “IT is just a bottom-less bottom-less pit; a lot of money is put in, nothing ever ever comes out of it.”

1. Reasons for IT Servi ce Management Objective:

Positioning IT Service Management within an organisation

Format:

Presentation

Input:

Separate document ‘Mini Case Study

Background:

You, an IT Service Management consultant, have been approached by Roger Jolly, the CIO of a well-known university. You have made notes of your initial discussion with Roger on the university’s current situation (see separate Mini Case Study document).

Assignment:

Prepare a presentation for Roger on the need for IT Service Management within the university. In this presentation, explain what ITSM is and why it should be introduced to the university.

Time:

30 minutes preparation 10 minutes presentation (max) per group

2. Reasons for Availabi lity & Capacity Management Objective:

Understand the reasons for a central Availability & Capacity Management process

Format:

Discussion / presentation

Input:


Background:

During a recent chat with Roger in the university coffee bar, he tells you his concerns about the availability and performance of the many IT services. It turns out that each faculty has its own technical specialists who maintain the individual systems. Therefore, the performance of the systems within and between faculties varies immensely. When you mention you might have a solution, Roger is so delighted. He wants to know more.

Assignment:

A week later, in the coffee bar, explain to Roger, in no more than 10 minutes how he could approach the challenges he described above.

Time:

30 minutes preparation 10 minutes discussion (max) per group

3. IT Servi ce Continuity Management Objective:

Practice with risk analysis and management concept

Format:

Presentation

Input:


Background:

The infamous hacker ‘Gerardo’ hacked into the central system and brought the central mainframe down for 2 days, as well as awarding himself a Master’s degree. While Neal, who is responsible for security management, has promised to instigate actions in his area, Roger is concerned about the lack of countermeasures in case of a disaster. He appoints Dawn Craven, one of the mainframe operators, as an interim Service Continuity Manager.

Assignment:

You are asked, by Dawn, to head a brainstorming group on risk analysis and management. Determine a number of potential threats, vulnerabilities and countermeasures for the following assets:   

Online teaching system Central mainframe Salary system

Present your findings to Dawn. Time:


Ad di tio nal in fo : The online teaching system is in the basement of the business faculty, which has its own building on the local campus. As it’s still an experimental setting, the doors are left open, so anyone who needs to work on the system can do so without too much trouble. The central mainframe is in the main university building. Staff from all the university’s campuses can access the mainframe through a WAN. The mainframe also has internet connection through a firewall. Authorisation is managed by Dawn’s group. The salary database runs on a midrange system in the main university building. Authorisation to the database is very tight, for obvious reasons. As no other applications are run from this system, it also serves as a test machine for a number of application developers (they all follow clear guidelines).

4. Servi ce Desk Objective:

Understand the various options for Service Desk organizations

Format:

Presentation

Input:

Separate document ‘ Mini Case Study

Background:

There are currently 8 Help Desks for 12 faculties. Some faculties share a help desk, a few have none at all. The variation of service support is one of Roger’s concerns. The perceived quality of services is largely determined by the way questions and issues are treated.

Assignment:

Provide Roger with a number of options for improving the support of IT users. Make sure you cover the following:   

Time:

Service Desk organisations Service Desk types Service Desk staff skills


5. Incident & Prob lem Management Objective:

Understanding the concept of incidents, problems and known errors

Format:

Discussion

Input:


Background:

Roger has opted for a central Service Desk for the entire university. As part of this major change, he has decided to introduce the Incident & Problem Management processes. Karen Frost, one of the most promising help desk analysts, has been appointed Service Desk manager. Karen has sought your help in explaining the concepts of these processes.

Assignment:

Give Karen a number of examples of incidents, problems and known errors that are related. Provide both IT and non-IT examples.

Time:

5 minutes preparation 15 minutes discussion total

6. Config uratio n Management Objective:

Understand the added value of configuration management

Format:

Presentations

Input:

Separate document ‘ Mini Case Study’

Background:

Historically, the university’s different IT departments were responsible for their own areas. As a result, information on the IT infrastructure is scattered around the university. Roger, the CIO, has a grand vision of one repository with all relevant information of IT components. He asks Jo, head of the university’s library IT department, to act as a Configuration Manager; she happily accepts, believing this to be a sensible career move.

Assignment:

One of the first activities of the project is to proclaim Roger’s grand vision. Help Jo with the following: 

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Time:

Organisational benefits of one central information repository Challenges in setting this up Ideas on how to get the other IT departments to co-operate


7. Change Management Objective:

Understand the necessity of change management and the main activities within this process

Format:

Presentation

Input:


Background:

On a Monday morning, the e-learning system is hit by an outage. Although the incident is detected and dealt with rapidly, a large number of students were affected. Karen, the Service Desk manager, insists on a proper investigation. The Problem Management process reveals that Troy Black, one of the technicians, did some maintenance on the system the day before. As it was a Sunday, Troy didn’t bother to inform anyone of this.

Assignment:

Roger asks you for some advice on how to avoid this in the future. Present him with the following: 

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Time:

The essential activities that would need to be part of a change management process How to include all areas of this large infrastructure in this process, without making it too bureaucratic?


8. Consequences of Processes Objective:

Understanding the process concept

Format:

Meeting

Input:

Results exercise 1

Background:

Roger is convinced that introducing ITSM processes into the university is a good thing. However, he is well aware that this could clash with the culture of the various IT departments that currently operate independently.

Assignment:

In a meeting with representatives of the various IT departments, explain the following concepts:   

ITSM processes (use a specific ITIL process as an example) Service culture Continuous improvement

Make sure that your input is specific and to the point (no abstract discussions!) Time:

30 minutes preparation 15 to 25 minutes meeting (max) per group

9. Summary Objective:

Summarise all ITIL processes

Format:

Presentation / discussion

Input:

Entire ITIL Essentials training

Background:

You now possess an impressive amount of ITIL knowledge. Congratulations! To test whether you fully understand the concepts of the processes, imagine running a hotel. You have rooms, a restaurant, a bar, a gym and a few convention rooms to manage.

Assignment:

Apply the ITIL concepts to managing the hotel. Your instructor will assign a number of processes to the subgroups. After preparation, your subgroup will present the results to the entire class.

Time:


ITIL Exercises

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