Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®)

A Case Study on Incident Management

February 8, 2006

Tim Shepich
Principal, IT Management Consulting, Nouri Associates Inc.

itSMF USA San Diego Local Interest Group

Agenda
Incident Management’s Value Proposition
ITIL Incident Management Implementation Case Study
Project Approach
Situation Overview
Key Challenges
Project Results
Project Critical Success Factors
Key Performance Indicators
Lessons Learned

ITIL Incident Management Process Overview

Questions/Comments

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 Value Proposition

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Incident Management value proposition
To restore normal IT Service operation as quickly as
possible, and to minimize the adverse impact on business
operations thus assuring the best possible levels of service
quality and availability as agreed in the Service Level
Agreements

The Process of Incident Management is all about ensuring

that when an IT-based Service has been disrupted, in
either a small or significant way, normal functioning
capabilities are rapidly re-established. Normal Service
operation is defined as that which has been agreed to in
the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

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 ITIL® Incident Management Implementation
Case Study – “The Bank”

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 Project Objectives

Deploy subject matter expertise in ITIL Incident

Management implementation disciplines utilizing industry
Best Practices

Provide orientation on ITIL Incident Management to the

“The Bank’s” project Stakeholders and participants

Define a Process Roadmap to be followed for the entire

project lifecycle

Provide Training and awareness on all aspects of

Incident Management processes

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Project Approach – Best Practice
Interview Key Stakeholders
Business Executives/Business Process Owners
IT Executives/IT Support groups
Service Desk
Analyze SLA criteria
Ensure targets are reasonable, can be attained, how to attain, document
Complete Assessment/Create Gap Analysis
What works/What doesn’t/What’s needed
Identify starting point to gain momentum, quick wins and confidence
Establish Incident Control procedures
Identify, Record, Classify, Prioritize
Link Service Desk Tool to Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
Incident records
Known errors
SLAs

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Key Findings from Stakeholder interviews
Executive/Business Process Owner
SLAs below acceptable levels
Revenue Impact/Financial Risk
Negative Impact on Banking products, Financial Services programs
Negative perception in large Business Banking customer markets
IT Executives
Improve IT Service Delivery Value
Evolve IT to be more business-centric
Improve First Call Resolution and minimize functional escalation
Evolve into ITIL® process model and best practices framework
Essential process relationship/interface dependencies (Problem Management,
Change Management, Service Desk)
Improve Service Desk capabilities
Strengthen Knowledge base
Provide ability to identify and proactively alert IT Management of issues
affecting customers

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“The Bank’s” IT Service Quality Improvement Goals
Service Desk/Call center efficiencies
Decrease inbound call volume
Decrease call times
Meet or surpass SLAs
Decrease Mean Time To Identification (MTTI -)
Decrease Mean Time To Recovery (MTTR -)
Improve Incident Management Activities
Detect and Record
Classification and Initial Support
Investigation and Diagnosis
Resolution and Recovery
Closure
Ownership, Monitoring, Tracking and Communication
Management Information, Metrics and Reporting

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Incident Management Challenges at “The Bank”
Unknown and/or unrealistic Service Levels
Poor alignment and integration
Service Desk Incident origination and tracking Tool
Problem Management
Change Management
Configuration Management
CMDB
Service Quality Management
Metrics and reporting accuracy
Lack of investment in Service Desk automation
Poorly trained Service Desk agents and Incident Management staff
Inadequate staffing of the Service Desk
Visibility into End-user Performance Monitoring for proactive issue
detection and alerts.
Providing meaningful information regarding alerts and user service issues
in production that are not yet identified by IT Infrastructure teams.

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Project Results (Outcomes)
Business Benefits
Reduced lost Business productivity
Improved Customer Service
Decreased Financial Risk and Revenue impacts
Stabilized Service Desk utilization of Incident Management processes
Provided Accurate information pertaining to Service Levels
Achieved Service Quality enhancements
IT Benefits
Reduced inefficient IT Staff utilization
Improved data accuracy via Tool integration and CMDB
Increased Customer/User satisfaction
Enhanced abilities to meet SLA requirements
Achieved integration into other key ITIL processes
Problem Management, Change Management, Configuration Management,
Service Level Management

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Project Critical Success Factors
Standardized Incident Lifecycle “Status”.
New
Accepted
Assigned
Work in Progress (WIP)
Resolved
Closed
Established Problem/Error “knowledge base”
Linked functional problems and known-errors to resolution instructions
Documented escalation instructions by problem type
Provided effective Automation via Incident Management Tools
Incident recording, tracking, workflow, updating, resolution and closure
Recalibrated and Documented known SLAs
Ensured SLAs were realistic and attainable with stakeholders
Established Key Performance Indicators
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Initial Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Elapsed Time to Resolution targets – less than baseline
Percentage of Incidents handled within SLA targets
Response – Decrease over time compared to baseline
Resolution – Decrease over time compared to baseline
Size of Incident Backlog – Decrease over time compared to baseline
Resolutions per customer service agent – increase over baseline
Level of decrease in overall call volume
Level of decrease in call abandonment – wait time that caused a
user/customer to abandon the call
Level of decrease in call-times per incident
Service Unavailability Time to Customer – Decreasing trend over time
Improved Customer satisfaction feedback from surveys
Large Business Customer attrition – Decreasing trend over time
Balance Score Cards show Service Performance improvements

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 Other KPIs to Be Employed Over Time

Number of Incidents Percentage

open, closed, of incidents handled
related to a problem within SLA

Time spent on
First call
incidents,
resolution rate
by impact category

Total time
incidents open, End-User Satisfaction
by impact category

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Lessons Learned
Best Practices are constantly evolving

Existing Help Desk tools are not always easily linked in the CMDB

Monitoring tools can not always provide meaningful information to

Incident Management processes lead by the Service Desk

Work instructions and procedures currently in use by Help Desk

personnel can pose training and best practice utilization challenges

Level-setting and agreeing on Acceptable SLA targets can become a

challenge as not all stakeholders share common goals.

Establishing visibility and Proactive notification of user issues from

Incident Management to Infrastructure requires additional investment
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 ITIL Incident Management
Processes
Source - OGC

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Incident Management Activities
Colors represent phase categories built
into “The Bank’s” Help Desk Tool

Incident
IncidentDetection
Detectionand
andRecording
Recording

Y Service
ServiceRequest
Tracking,

Request
Monitoring,Tracking,

Request? Procedure
Procedure
Communication

N
andCommunication
Ownership,Monitoring,

Classification
Classificationand
andMatching
Matching Match?
Match?
Y
N
Ownership,

Analysis
Analysisand
andDiagnosis
and

Diagnosis

Resolution
Resolutionand
andRecovery
Recovery
Incident
Management
Incident Process
IncidentClosure
Closure

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First, Second, and Third-line Support roles

Colors represent phase categories built

Detection/Acceptance/Recording
Detection/Acceptance/Recording into “The Bank’s” Help Desk Tool

Service
Service Y
Request
Request Request?
Request? Second line Third line
Procedure
Procedure
Analysis
Analysisand
and Analysis
Analysisand
and
N Diagnosis Diagnosis
Diagnosis Diagnosis
Initial
Initialsupport
support

N N N
Known
Known Known
Known Known
Known
solution?
solution? solution?
solution? solution?
solution?
Etc.
Y Y Y
Nth-line
Recovery
Recovery Recovery
Recovery Recovery
Recovery

First line
Close
Close

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Incident Management Process details - Source OGC

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Handling Incident Workarounds and Resolutions - Source OGC

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Coding System for Incident/Request Classification - source OGC

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Priority Coding System – Source OGC

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 Questions/Comments

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 NAI Contact: NAI Contact:
Stephanie Southall Hamid Nouri
Telephone: 1 (415) 267-7650 Telephone: 1 (415) 267-7612
Facsimile: 1 (415) 267-7677 Facsimile: 1 (415) 267-6127
Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]

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