IT Service Management Report Assignment

Learning objectives - This assignment addresses three of the learning objectives of the course:

• synthesise the nature and contribution of the IT service management standards and good practice frameworks such as IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), ISO/IEC 20000 and IT4IT in providing good practice frameworks for IT service management
• evaluate the objectives, activities and associated roles and responsibilities to enable effective planning, management and improvement of IT service processes
• appraise implementation of selected IT service management standards and good practice frameworks in case studies including aspects of IT service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation and continual service improvement.

Activity A: Journal (maximum 250 words)

Prepare a journal that records your activities and progress related to completing this assignment. In date order, clearly list the following:

• Date of research activity/discussion
• Web sites visited to collect information; other references accessed
• Time duration of the activity

If you are working in a team, clearly state the activities of each team member. Submit this journal as an appendix to activity B. Any references to web pages and online documents, such as white papers, should be listed at the end of the journal.

Activity B: Case study (maximum 3,500 words)

For the purpose of this assignment, assume the role of consultant(s) who have been hired by the case organisation (NNIT) to contribute to a review of ITSM at the organisation. You will prepare a report for the Head of IT at NNIT.

Read the following case study, then draw on the course material and other academic resources (e.g. journal/conference papers, books) to answer the following questions.

Serifovski, N. & Skytte, N. 2014, Building a service portfolio, AXELOS

Part 1: Introduction

Provide a brief introduction that describes the case study report.

Part 2: Importance of ITSM at NNIT

Explain why is it important for NNIT to have effective processes in place to manage IT services.

Part 3: ITIL processes

Based on the case study, identify the ITIL processes in place at NNIT and report them in a table, categorized by ITIL lifecycle stages. Based on the case and your knowledge, which of the ITIL processes are of the highest priority to be implemented/improved for NNIT? Justify your selection.

Part 4: Service Strategy

According to the case study, few IT service providers have a service portfolio and the difference between a service catalogue and a service portfolio is commonly not well understood. Based on the case study and your knowledge, explain the main differences between a 'service catalogue' and a 'service portfolio'. What are the main factors that helped NNIT to implement a service portfolio?

Part 5: Service Portfolio Tool

According to the case study at the time of designing the service portfolio framework at NNIT no ITSM tools were available with the required functionalities to support the management of a service portfolio. Based on your research of available ITSM tools, provide a short list and description of three ITSM tools that could be considered for portfolio management.

Part 6: Conclusions and recommendations

Summarise the key strength and weaknesses of ITSM implementation at NNIT you learnt from this case study. Provide recommendations for further improvement if ITSM at NNIT, including your preferred ITSM tool for portfolio management.