Project Proposal Service Management Best Practice

Project Proposal Service Management Best Practice


Contents

1 PROJECT DETAILS 3
1.1 Summary 3
1.2 Business Objectives 3
1.3 Deliverables and Limits 3
1.4 Timing and Multi Year Projects 4
1.4.1 Timing 4
1.4.2 Multi-Year 4
1.5 Risks 4
2 PROJECT CATEGORY AND JUSTIFICATION 4
2.1 Category 4
2.2 Justification 4
3 PROJECT BENEFITS AND COSTS 5
3.1 Five Year Benefits 5
3.2 Other Funding and Staff Resources to be secured 6
3.3 Detailed Benefits and Costs Worksheet 7

1 Project Details
1.1 Summary

The IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) was developed to help organisations meet their the corporate aims and business needs through best use of IT . In particular ITIL provides guidance on how to provide quality IT services focusing on the resources and facilities needed to support successful deployment of IT.

ITIL is now widely recognised as the world standard for IT service management best practice. Organisations can draw from ITIL taking aspects appropriate to their individual needs and building upon them. ITIL provides a flexible basis for the development of hiqh quality service provision. The coverage of ITIL includes:

• Incident Management
• Change Control
• Configuration and Release Management
• Service Level Agreements (SLA)
• Financial and Budgetary Control
• Capacity Planning and Management
• IT Service Continuity
• Running Helpdesks
• Security Management
• Disaster Recovery Planning

With the increasing adoption of IT across all aspects of University activity and in particular within the corporate applications area it is appropriate that MIS consider adopting ITIL. This project is intended to lay the foundations for the formal adoption of ITIL based service management best practices by MIS and our service partners.

Further background on ITIL is available on the UK Office of Government Commerce website www.itil.co.uk . ITIL has been adopted by a number of leading HE institutions worldwide including: Southampton and Hull in the UK and Melbourne Autstralia.
1.2 Business Objectives

Objective Number Objective Description
1 To create an awareness of ITIL within MIS and service partner areas.
2 To provide basic introductory training for key staff involved in IT service management, delivery and support.
3 To identify and recognise current examples of best practice.
4 To identify gaps in service management provision and agree a timetable for prioritising and addressing these deficiencies.
5 To agree a framework and plan for the roll out of ITIL based service management for all corporate applications related services.
1.3 Deliverables and Limits

Deliverable Number Deliverable Description
1. ITIL awareness sessions for MIS and service partner staff. We would envisage up to 16 staff being involved in these initial sessions with perhaps 8 from MIS and the same number from business partner areas.
2 Introductory ITIL training for key staff. Perhaps all 16 of the initial group but will be dependent on funding from each area so up to 8 staff in total is a more realistic target.
3 Reports on best practice and gaps for each business area represented in project. The target would be to include at least Corporate Infrastructure, Estates, Finance, Human Resources and Student in this initial group.
4 Framework and roll out plan for ITIL based service management across all corporate IT services.

1.4 Timing and Multi Year Projects
1.4.1 Timing

There are no hard milestones for this project which is the start of a long term commitment to ITIL based high quality IT service management. We would anticipate that the initial work covered by this project will be completed by July 2007 in accordance with the following outline schedule:

1. ITIL Awareness - Completed by December 2006
2. ITIL Introductory Training – Completed by March 2007
3. Business Area Service Reports – Completed by May 2007
4. Framework and Roll-out Plan – Completed by July 2007
1.4.2 Multi-Year

n/a

1.5 Risks

Risk Description
1 Key MIS service management staff are diverted to short tem and apparently higher priority support activities.
2 Service partners unable to commit resources to project due to staff shortages in service areas.


2 PROJECT CATEGORY and JUSTIFICATION
2.1 Category

Very Important This project is “Very Important”. There is an argument in favour of an “Essential” classification give the increasing and critical importance of IT service deliveryto the success of the University.

2.2 Justification

University Goals And Operational Priorities Details of these goals and operation priorities can be found in the UoE strategic plan.

Excellence in Education IT services such as DACS, WISARD and MyEd are key components in delivering educational support to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Excellence in Research IT services such as eFinancials, Research Grants, ERI Financials and InfoEd are key components in supporting the University research programme.
Excellence in knowledge transfer and commercialisation N/A
Quality infrastructure High quality IT services are now part and parcel the overall working and learning environment for staff, students and visitors to the University.
Quality services High quality IT services are now part and parcel the overall working and learning environment for staff, students and visitors to the University.
Quality knowledge management High quality IT services are now part and parcel the overall working and learning environment for staff, students and visitors to the University.
Promoting opportunity and diversity N/A
Developing leadership and management ITIL promotes high quality management within all areas actively engaged in the delivery, support and management of IT services – this is an increasingly large group of staff within the University.
Advancing Internationalisation N/A
Engaging with the wider community It may be considered that IT services, e.g. MyEd and/or the University web site may be one of the key initial contacts people in the wider community will have with the University.
Building effective partnerships and collaborations It may be considered that IT services, e.g. MyEd and/or the University web site may be one of the key means by which partnerships and collaborations are maintained and advanced.
Effective governance and ensuring sustainability This an explicit objective of ITIL with respect to IT service management.
KMS Milestone N/A
OTHER N/A


3 PROJECT BENEFITS and COSTS

3.1 Five Year Benefits

Tangible Benefits
Benefit Assumptions
Within the 5 areas explicitly covered by this proposal (INF, EST, FIN, HR, STU) the support (KSR) budget is approximately 1250 days

If adoption of ITIL based best practice provided efficiency gains of 5%, which is a realistic target, then this translates to a saving of at least 60 days per annum.


Intangible Benefits
Benefit Assumptions
This project explicitly recognises the importance of high quality IT service delivery support and management. This can be overlooked in a period of change where ther is, rightly, a focus on delivering IT projects.
Staff engaged in IT service delivery will welcome the adoption of industry recognised best practice both as a confirmation of the quality of existing service delivery and recognition of those gaps which exist.
Customers will welcome the security provided by the adoption of industry recognised best practices for the IT services that are an increasingly vital part of their business activities.
3.2 Other Funding and Staff Resources to be secured

Additional Funding / Resources Requirements
Secured?
YES /NO
N/A – all costs includen in detailed worksheet.