Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan

Nail your ITSM tool implementation from the outset.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Configure your ITSM tool, don’t customize it.

"Besieged managers often think a new tool will solve all of their problems. Buy the right tool, customize it to a magic set of specifications, and tickets will be prioritized, incidents resolved, and service requests fulfilled. Unfortunately, the outcome is often ad hoc changes that complicate upgrades, increase support cost, and fail to get the service desk out of firefighter mode. Tool customization isn’t the answer. Implementing an ITSM tool can cement organizational change and improve the performance of the service desk, but it’s the time spent standardizing service desk processes that makes the difference, not the customizations. The key to a successful ITSM tool implementation is to understand that it actually involves two projects: the first standardizes service desk processes, and the second configures the tool to meet those processes. If you follow this approach, you’re less likely to get lost in the details of the implementation and lose sight of what you’re trying to achieve."

Sandi Conrad

Senior Director, Infrastructure Practice

Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

• IT directors and managers who need to structure an ITSM tool implementation project to develop an RFP to hire professional implementation services.
• IT directors and managers tasked to prepare for a vendor-assisted ITSM implementation.
• IT directors and managers who are implementing an ITSM tool without external assistance.

Assumptions:

• You have selected and purchased the ITSM solution and necessary licenses.
• You are not implementing an in-house developed application.
• You have standardized your service desk processes and have a clear understanding and documentation of those processes.
• You have secured executive buy-in, approval, and funding for the project.
• You have the necessary infrastructure to support the solution.

This Research Will Help You:

• Develop an IT service management (ITSM) tool implementation strategy and plan.
• Structure the implementation project to ensure the ITSM tool delivers value from the onset.
• Organize resources and manage the implementation project to ensure all necessary tasks are completed on time.
• Make key tool configuration decisions and configure the tool to align with your service desk processes.
• Develop a testing and training plan to ensure adoption and sustainability of the solution.
• Deploy the ITSM tool and manage and communicate the change associated with new processes for all users.

Executive summary

Situation

• ITSM solutions must be replaced or upgraded periodically to ensure the service desk continues to meet organizational requirements. The software can also require a fair amount of configuration to deliver value.
• Configuring the tool, integrating applications, and migrating data can be complex tasks involving a number of templates and workflows.

Complication

• Project managers often underestimate the complexity of an ITSM solution or rely heavily on professional services to organize the implementation.
• Managers without a project plan are often pressed into making decisions around configurations, data, and integrations during the implementation without fulling understanding their impact.

Resolution

• Build an implementation plan to ensure the tool continues to meet business requirements in the long run. Make key decisions about configuration, application integration, and data migration before the implementation begins and you have time to forecast the impact of your decisions.
• Include a service desk process review in the implementation plan to ensure you are not carrying over poor data and bad habits. The new tool doesn’t need to recreate your old service desk environment; it needs to create one that meets business requirements. Thinking critically about your service desk processes will help you identify which templates and workflows need to change and which data needs to be migrated to the new tool, if any.
• A detailed implementation plan can help you decide whether your team can do the tool implementation in-house and identify requirements for the RFP if you choose to draw on professional services.

Info-Tech Insight

1. A tool implementation is actually two projects. Buying a new tool is not a silver bullet for service desk woes. Your project needs to incorporate both a review of service desk processes and a product implementation.
2. There is much to do before the implementation. Whether or not you rely on professional services, the project will press you to make decisions around configurations, data, forms, and fields. Build a plan to avoid hasty decisions that could undermine the tool’s value in the long run.

Rushing into an ITSM tool implementation is a recipe for failure

The majority of medium-scale software implementations are plagued with project failures and cost overruns.

The most important aspect of this research is discovering why some projects succeed while others fail. In conversation with IT executive managers, Standish Group researchers identified three elements without which chance of failure increased dramatically.

The three major reasons that projects fail are insufficient user involvement, lack of executive management support, and a vague statement of requirements.

This blueprint will help you secure executive support, involve end users in the planning process, and design, test, and deploy a solution that meets business requirements.

The 2015 CHAOS Report shows a staggering proportion of projects fail or are challenged.

The 2015 CHAOS Report gathers the findings of 365 respondents representing 8,380 applications, four focus groups, and a number of personal interviews to provide context to the survey results.

The report classifies project into three types:

• Success: The project is completed on time and on budget, and with all features and functions initially specified.
• Challenged: The project is completed and operational, but over budget, over the time estimate, and with fewer of the features and functions initially specified.
• Failure: The project is cancelled during the development cycle.

Parse ITSM tool implementations into manageable stages to ensure success and solution effectiveness

A successful implementation project will avoid the cost and time overruns that plague software implementations

The Standish Group 2105 Chaos Report found that on average, across all companies:

• Implementation costs were 189% of the original cost estimate.
• Implementation time was 222% of the original time estimate.

Infotech’s ITSM tool implementation project blueprint provides a structured approach to cost estimates and resource allocations.

Follow Info-Tech Research Group’s approach to avoid expensive cost and time overruns.

Use these formulas to measure the value of the project.

% Cost Overrun		Budgeted cost		Costs initially budgeted for phase or project completion.
		Actual cost		Actual costs incurred for phase or project completion.
		Results		Project costs avoided in $.
% Time Overrun		Budgeted cost		Time initially budgeted for phase or project completion.
		Actual cost		Actual time spent for phase or project completion.
		Results		Project resource costs avoided in FTE.

Service desk success will get you noticed by business stakeholders

Since 2013, Info-Tech has surveyed over 20,000 business stakeholders as part of our CIO Business Vision program.

We asked them to rank the importance of the following 12 core IT services:

Top IT Services for Business Stakeholders

1. Network Infrastructure
2. Service Desk
3. Business Applications
4. Data Quality
5. Devices
6. Analytical Capability
7. Client-Facing Technology
8. Work Orders
9. Innovation Leadership
10. Projects
11. IT Policies
12. Requirements Gathering

N=21,367 respondents (2015)

A successful ITSM tool implementation is critical to the service desk’s capacity to meet business requirements.

Carry out the activities in this blueprint to manage the complexity of the project and mitigate implementation risks.

Learn more about the CIO Business Vision program.

N=215 organizations (2015)

Info-Tech Research Group’s approach to service desk optimization focuses on building essential best practices

Info-Tech’s service desk methodology aligns with the ITIL framework

Our Approach to the Service Desk

Service desk optimization goes beyond the blind adoption of best-practice frameworks.

Info-Tech’s approach focuses on controlling support costs and making the most of IT’s service management expertise to improve productivity.

Do the projects sequentially or in any order.

Extend

Facilitate the extension of service management best practices to other business functions to improve productivity and position IT as a strategic partner.

Standardize

Build essential incident, service request, and knowledge management processes to create a sustainable service desk that meets business needs.

Consolidate

Build a strategic roadmap to consolidate service desks to reduce end-user support costs and sustain end-user satisfaction.

Improve

Build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review and evaluate key processes and services, and manage the progress of improvement initiatives.

Adopt Lean

Build essential incident, service request, and knowledge management processes to create a sustainable service desk that meets business needs.

Select and Implement

Review mid-market and enterprise service desk tools, select an ITSM solution, and build an implementation plan to ensure your investment meets your needs.

Info-Tech draws on the COBIT framework, which focuses on consistent delivery of IT services across the organization

Evaluate, Direct, and Monitor

• EDM01 Ensure Governance Framework Setting and Maintenance
• EDM02 Ensure Benefits Delivery
• EDM03 Ensure Risk Optimization
• EDM04 Ensure Resource Optimization
• EDM05 Ensure Stakeholder Transparency

Align, Plan, and Organize

• APO01 Manage the IT Framework
• APO02 Manage Strategy
• APO03 Manage Enterprise Architecture
• APO04 Manage Innovation
• APO05 Manage Portfolio
• APO06 Manage Budget and Costs
• APO07 Manage Human Resources
• APO08 Manage Relationships
• APO09 Manage Service Agreements
• APO10 Manage Suppliers
• APO11 Manage Quality
• APO12 Manage Risks
• APO13 Manage Security

Build, Acquire, and Implement

• BAI01 Manage Programs and Projects
• BAI02 Manage Requirements Definition
• BAI03 Manage Solutions Identification and Build
• BAI04 Manage Availability and Capacity
• BAI05 Manage Organizational Change Enablement
• BAI06 Manage Changes
• BAI07 Manage Change Acceptance and Transitioning
• BAI08 Manage Knowledge
• BAI09 Manage Assets
• BAI10 Manage Configuration

Deliver, Service, and Support

• DSS01 Manage Operations
• DSS02 Manage Service Requests and Incidents
• DSS03 Manage Problems
• DSS04 Manage Continuity
• DSS05 Manage Security Services
• DSS06 Manage Business Process Controls

Monitor, Evaluate, and Assess

• MEA01 Monitor, Evaluate, and Assess Performance and Conformance
• MEA02 Monitor, Evaluate, and Assess the System of Internal Control
• MEA03 Monitor, Evaluate, and Assess Compliance with External Requirements

Tools and templates support each step of the project

This project provides the following key deliverables:

The project blueprint illustrates the scope of each phase of the project with relevant case studies

Plan→Organize→Build→Deploy

1. A major hardware vendor implements a new ITSM tool. This case study continues throughout the blueprint and illustrates the full scope of the project.
2. A large news service provider cut back the scope of its implementation project to keep it manageable. This case study illustrates the scope of the plan phase.
3. Reviewing and defining processes before the implementation can be a project in itself. This case study illustrates the scope of the organize phase.
4. Consider the consequences of over-customizing your tool. This case study illustrates the scope of the build phase.
5. Choose a cut-over approach that works for you. This case study illustrates the scope of the deploy phase.

Don’t start the implementation project until you have selected an ITSM solution

Info-Tech Research Group evaluates ITSM solution providers, and ranks each in terms of functionality and affordability.

The results are published in the Enterprise and Mid-Market Service Desk Software Vendor Landscapes.

The current project picks up where the Vendor Landscapes left off. This project blueprint assumes that you have gone through the ITSM solution selection process and that you are ready to plan the implementation of the tool you selected.

If you have not yet selected an ITSM solution, use the Vendor Landscape to complete your purchasing decision.

Book a Guided Implementation to have our analysts walk you through recommended vendors, explain our method, review your material, and answer your questions.

Section 1: Shortlist Assistance and Requirements

Get off to a productive start: Discuss the market space and how vendors are evaluated. Decide on which deployment option suits you best and narrow down the options based on customized requirements.

Section 2: RFP and Budget Review

Interpret and act on RFP results: Review vendor RFPs and ensure the solution meets your needs. Discuss average pricing of solutions and what can fit into your budget.

Section 3: Negotiation and Contract Review

Purchase optimization: Review contracts and discuss best practices in negotiation tactics to get the best price for your solution.

Info-Tech Research Group is a vendor-neutral organization. We have no financial relationship with vendors we evaluate.

Refer to this glossary to understand the terms used throughout this blueprint

Throughout this project, implementation refers to the entire set of activities involved in designing, building, and releasing the ITSM tool, whereas deployment refers specifically to the final stage where the tool is released.

Glossary of Terms:

ITSM tool: The information technology service management (ITSM) tool that will be used to support the service desk and any additional service management functions in other departments.

Implementation: The entire process of planning, designing, building, testing, training, and deploying the ITSM tool.

Deployment: The final stage of the process where the tool gets introduced into the live IT environment. This encompasses the cut-over from the old tool and the release of the solution to all relevant departments.

Cut-over: The process of transitioning from the previous ITSM solution/system to the new ITSM solution.

Go-live: The first day the system will actually be used in a production mode by at least one user.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan project overview

Measured value for Guided Implementations (GIs)

Engaging in GIs doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Phase 1

Plan for the Implementation

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan

Parse ITSM tool implementations into manageable stages to ensure success and solution effectiveness

PLAN→ORGANIZE→BUILD→DEPLOY

→Project Management →

Project Goals & Scope

Define Processes

In the planning stage of the implementation project, you will:

• Define implementation project goals.
• Develop a strategy for communicating the change and getting buy-in from stakeholders.
• Evaluate current and target performance of your ITSM tool.
• Define the scope of the project and the processes the tool will need to support.

Info-Tech Insight

Many organizations purchase a new tool and assume that it will fix poor processes, or they can simply configure the new tool to do exactly what they were doing with their old system. The implementation of a new ITSM tool should be an opportunity to evaluate your processes and take the opportunity to consider whether what you were doing with the old system was actually working.

→ Change Management & Communications →

Phase 1 outline

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Plan for the implementation

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 1: Identify and communicate project goals

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Set up diagnostics and receive results.
• Document goals, strategy, and business requirements. Identify and address potential objections.

Then complete these activities…

• Document goals, strategy, and requirements.
• Review pain points and evaluate end-user satisfaction.
• Identify potential objections and create a plan.

With these tools & templates:

• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist
• Project Charter
• Diagnostic Results

Step 2: Define scope and processes tool will support

Review findings with analyst:

• Formalize an engagement strategy. Identify metrics to measure progress towards your implementation goals.

Then complete these activities…

• Formalize an engagement and communications strategy.
• Identify metrics to measure progress.

With these tools & templates:

• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist
• Project Charter

Phase 1 Results & Insights:

• Defined project scope, goals, & processes.

A major hardware vendor implemented a new ITSM tool: the first step was to understand the tool requirements

Part 1/5

CASE STUDY

Industry Information Technology

Source Gautam Bangalore, Business Analyst

Understand business needs and maturity to select a tool.

The organization was looking to migrate to a new ITSM tool, and was choosing between two tools.

It first conducted a maturity assessment to gain a clear understanding of what the business required from the tool to ensure that the selected tool had the right capabilities.

Other factors considered in the selection process included:

• Integrations with other tools
• Cost Required/available customizations
• Licensing and hosting options

Capabilities of the tool were important to keep in mind (e.g. ticketing, monitoring, tracking, service catalog, CMDB), but it was also important to ensure the tool could support the organization’s key processes including change management, problem management, and knowledge management.

It was important to ensure that the selected tool supported the primary goal of the move to the new ITSM tool: to increase end-user self-sufficiency by providing end users with self-service capabilities.

The organization selected a tool with these factors in mind, then built an implementation plan.

Implementation stages:

• Business Requirements Analysis
• Tool Selection
• Review Processes
• Plan Phases
• Build Tool
• Train & Deploy

This case study continues in the next section.

A major hardware vendor implemented a new ITSM tool: in the second step it reviewed current & future ITSM processes

Part 2/5

CASE STUDY

Industry Information Technology

Source Gautam Bangalore, Business Analyst

Review the processes the tool will need to support to ensure it will be able to support them.

One of the first stages of building the implementation plan was to review and evaluate service desk processes. This involved the following activities:

• Deciding which processes and activities should be automated within the tool, and understanding the benefit of automating each process.
• Understanding necessary integrations for each process that would be automated within the tool and whether those other tools or systems would be included in the implementation.
• Defining problem areas and how much efficiency or improvement was expected to be gained from the new tool.

It was important for the company to first understand the business requirements from the tool and define the ITSM processes that the tool would support before proceeding with the implementation.

“Before implementing the tool it was important to understand that this is not something we implement once and then the work is done. The tool implementation was part of a complete change in the organization’s culture itself, and thus required in-depth definitions of the processes around the tool.”

Implementation stages:

• Business Requirements Analysis
• Tool Selection
• Review Processes
• Plan Phases
• Build Tool
• Train & Deploy

This case study continues in Phase 2.

Step 1: Identify and communicate project goals

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine the goals of the implementation project.
• Create a plan to communicate the change and get buy-in from key stakeholders.
• Identify metrics to evaluate the success of the ITSM tool implementation.

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Clear understanding of the business requirements from the tool and objectives of the implementation of the new ITSM solution.
• Plan to get buy-in for the implementation and overcome resistance to change from your staff.
• Documentation of key metrics of service desk performance and end-user satisfaction which you wish to improve through the new solution.

Tools and Deliverables

• Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
• End-User Satisfaction Survey
• Implementation Project Charter Template
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Align your ITSM tool implementation to your larger service desk goals and strategy

Your ITSM tool was likely selected as part of your service desk strategy; the implementation process must ensure that the tool will align with and support that strategy.

Implementing a new ITSM tool is an opportunity to redefine and improve your service desk processes and performance. Before planning the implementation of the tool, ensure that your organization and service desk have a clear strategy for establishing and improving service desk processes, and align the implementation to the goals and objectives of the broader strategy.

The decision to implement a new ITSM tool was likely part of a broader initiative of organizational change, changes to processes or services, or an effort to deliver better services to customers or end users.

Ideally, your tool was selected as the most likely solution to help you attain these service desk goals and objectives. It is therefore important to ensure that the implementation of the tool is conducted with this strategy in mind to ensure it will help the service desk attain its broader objectives.

If your service desk strategy is not currently defined, use these Info-Tech blueprints to help you develop a strategy:

Develop an IT Service Desk Strategy

Standardize the Service Desk

Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk

Identify business requirements to ensure the tool will meet business needs

If you don’t have a clear understanding of the business needs from an ITSM tool, you can’t build a solution to meet them.

Your ITSM tool implementation should aim to:

• Improve end-user satisfaction with the service desk.
• Increase end-user self-sufficiency.
• Improve IT’s relationship with the business.
• Demonstrate the value of the tool to deliver a return on investment to the organization.

It is thus important to ensure that the implementation will achieve these objectives and demonstrate the value of the tool to the business as early as possible.

Ideally, the goals and strategy of your organization were taken into account prior to the selection of your tool. In order to ensure the implementation will be successful, it is important to have a clear picture of the following from the outset:

• Your organization’s goals and objectives.
• Business needs and processes.
• Business, IT, and service desk strategies.
• Impact of IT on the business.
• Alignment of the service desk with other parts of the organization.

Identify the triggers for the selection and implementation of your new ITSM tool.

Whether this is your first ITSM tool or a replacement for your old tool, the project was likely triggered by pain points that must be addressed by the new tool in order to improve your service desk. Having a clear understanding of these pain points throughout the implementation of your new tool will help to prevent them from reoccurring.

Common pain points with ITSM tools include:

• Poor communication with end users on ticket status.
• Lack of SLA automation to escalate issues to the appropriate channels.
• Poor self-service options for end users to perform simple requests on their own.
• Undeveloped knowledgebase for users to find answers to common issues.
• Lack of reporting or mistrust in reporting data.
• Lack of automation, including ticket templates.
• Overcomplicated ticket categories resulting in categories being misused.
• Over-configuration prevents future upgrades.
• Lack of integration with other tools.

Document goals of the implementation and project triggers

1.1 Document goals, strategy, and business requirements in project charter

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter Template.

1. Identify and document the location of your service desk strategy, if one has been defined. This can be referenced throughout the implementation project to ensure the tool will align to the overall strategy and goals of your service desk and IT department.
2. Identify and document the goals and objectives of the ITSM tool selection and implementation project.
• Record under section 6, “Project Purpose and Goals,” in the Implementation Project Charter Template.
3. Identify and document the triggers for the purchase of a new tool and the pain points it needs to address.
• Record both the rationale for the procurement of the new ITSM solution and its anticipated benefits under sections 7 & 8 of the Implementation Project Charter Template.
4. Schedule a meeting with recommended participants to discuss and document the goals of the implementation project based on the overall strategy and business needs of the tool.

Prevent pushback from executives and staff; get buy-in for the implementation before installing the tool

Executive support and buy-in from all teams is critical to the success of the tool implementation.

Communicate with executives to prevent pushback:

Keep management in the loop through every stage of the implementation process. They are the ones who are paying for the software, so they need to be informed throughout implementation and feel that their needs and feedback are being heard to prevent pushback further into the implementation.

Your service desk team will resist if they’re not involved:

The service desk teams are the ones who will be using the product, so it is equally important to ensure that there is communication with your staff throughout the project to prevent resistance to change.

• Have discussions with the teams to understand their pain points.
• Sell the product to the teams; explain how the tool will help to resolve their issues.
• If the tool won’t resolve all of their pain points, be honest with them to manage expectations.
• Set expectations up-front for how the new tool should be used to avoid having bad behavior incorporated into the tool.
• Even if it’s just one member from each team, have representation from the team members across IT as part of the implementation process.

Info-Tech Insight

A fundamental assumption when you deploy any new piece of software is that you’re going to have to do your job differently, so it is critical to ensure that all teams that will be using the new software are prepared and excited for the change.

"The tool implementation is not just a service desk initiative; it is something that has the potential to change how the whole IT department works, so it’s critical to have that buy-in for the implementation." – Yev Khovrenkov, IT Consultant

Convert resistors into supporters by encouraging open communication about concerns

Your service desk staff may be satisfied and comfortable with their current solution and resistant to a change in tools or processes. Manage that resistance by addressing these concerns and involving staff in the implementation or they will feel ignored and disengaged.

You may encounter the following types of resistors:

• Staff who are familiar with the current tool and don’t want to learn a new one
• Staff who fear change and don’t like being taken out of their comfort zone
• Staff who doubt that the new tool will provide any value or improvement
• Staff who have experienced failed software implementations in the past

If so, use these strategies to address their concerns:

• Listen to their concerns and address them. Have an open forum to discuss any concerns in a transparent manner.
• Sell the new tool in terms of “what’s in it for me.” Lead with the benefits.
• Treat each individual who will be using the software as a valuable stakeholder.
• Explain any changes that will be forthcoming and why these changes are taking place.
• Assure staff that they will be trained on the tool before it goes live.
• Listen to existing concerns some staff may have from past failures to understand any misperceptions they may have going into this implementation.
• Ensure that the individual in charge of the project is approachable and always has their door open to listen.
• Encourage anonymous question submission through an email suggestion inbox for those not willing to speak out.
• Consider offering incentives for those who discuss questions and concerns.
• Ask for volunteers to participate on the change board.
• Allow your stakeholders to feel ownership in the process so they will feel motivated to see it succeed.

Create a plan to communicate the change and get buy-in from key stakeholders

1.2 Identify potential objections and create a plan to address them and get buy-in for the change

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager

Materials

• Whiteboard, markers, sticky notes
• You can use sticky notes to populate an org. chart with sentiments, responses, and actions you are likely to encounter from champions and resistors

1. Define key stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) who will be affected by the project (implementation of the new ITSM tool) or are in positions to enable or block change.
• Remember to consider customers, partners, and other external stakeholders.
• These people should be engaged early and often in the transition process – not just to make them “feel included” or “part of the change,” but because their insight could very likely identify risks, barriers, and opportunities that need to be addressed
2. Discuss and identify potential objections that could be raised to the implementation of the new tool by resistors:
• For example, “I’m comfortable with the current tool and don’t see why we need to change,” “I don’t have time to add more work to my role,” and “The last implementation did not go well.”
• For each potential objection, identify a response that will be communicated.
3. Conduct a meeting or informal workshop with key stakeholders to demonstrate the value of the new tool. This may include:
   • Overview of the tool and what it can do.
   • Short demonstration of the product.
   • How IT, end users, and other departments can benefit from the solution.

Formalize an engagement and communications plan to cultivate support for the change if needed

1.3 Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to formalize an engagement strategy

If this is your first time implementing an ITSM tool and you will also be introducing new processes along with it, you may find it useful to document an engagement strategy to ensure buy-in for the implementation. Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to document an engagement and communication strategy.

The engagement plan is a structured and documented approach for gathering requirements by eliciting input and validating plans for change and cultivating sponsorship and support from key stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.

The Communications Requirements tab will help you refine the lists of effects of change, benefits to highlight, and sources of resistance to address, as well as actions required from each stakeholder for change to be successful.

Identify metrics to evaluate the success of the ITSM tool implementation

1.4 Identify metrics to measure progress towards your implementation goals

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter Template.

Referring to the implementation goals identified in Section 1.1, identify metrics to measure the project’s progress towards those goals.

Sample High-Level Goals:

1. Improved service desk efficiency
2. Improved end-user satisfaction
3. Improved self-service options for end users
4. Improved data and reporting capabilities

Survey your end users to understand their challenges and establish a baseline measure of satisfaction

1.5 Customize question 13 to determine satisfaction with current user-facing tool features

Info-Tech’s End-User Satisfaction Program assesses the satisfaction of end users from different departments concerning business enablement, IT communications, IT services, and applications. Use the survey to evaluate end-user satisfaction as a baseline metric, which you can re-assess six months or one year after your implementation project to determine if satisfaction has improved.

To specifically evaluate your end users’ satisfaction with the service desk solution and ticket input process, you may include a measure in the survey of tool satisfaction.

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Step 2: Define scope and the processes the tool will support

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Define the scope of the implementation project.
• Identify current and future processes the tool will support.

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Understanding and definition of the scope of the implementation project as well as the scope of the solution and which business units it will support.
• Understanding and definition of the current and future service management processes the tool will need to support.

Tools and Deliverables

• Project Charter Template
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Think holistically about the service desk so that it can support future extension if necessary

Design the solution from the start with a holistic service management view so it will be easier to adapt and integrate in the future if needed.

• Extending the service desk across the organization (to Facilities, HR, Finance, Legal, Marketing, etc.) can introduce automated, structured processes based on service management best practices to other departments to streamline service delivery across the organization.
• If the long-term business strategy and vision includes extension of the service desk, you will need to think about how your ITSM tool will support other departments to ensure it will be able to support future processes if necessary.
• Failing to adopt this holistic thinking can make it difficult to configure the tool to support other services down the road.

If you need more help planning for an extension of your service desk processes and tool across your organization, download Info-Tech’s blueprint, Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise.

Info-Tech Insight

Think towards the long term when implementing your tool. Configuring the tool to support a complex organization if organizational growth occurs down the road, even if all the tool’s functionality is not used at first, will be easier than reconfiguring or replacing the tool later on.

"I often see clients who want to do service requests, change management, and release management in the future, but they don’t realize that they’re all interrelated. Thinking holistically about processes you want to implement and keeping the end goal in mind throughout implementation will help to ensure the tool will have all the necessary integration points between processes." – Scott Walling, Co-Founder of Monitor 24-7

Keep the project scope manageable to ensure success

While it is advantageous to think about future processes and services you may want the tool to support, don’t try to implement everything at once, or the implementation will fail.

Keep in mind your project scope, goals, and objectives. Your selected ITSM tool may have the capability to support Facilities, HR, Accounting, and other departments across the organization, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the tool should immediately be used to support these departments.

In order to ensure the implementation will be successful and the tool can support other departments in the future:

1. Get buy-in for the new tool across the organization.
2. Start small by implementing the tool within one department only (i.e. IT), supporting key processes only.
3. Ensure proper adoption of the tool and measure success of the implementation.
4. Demonstrate the value of the tool to business executives to garner support for extension of the tool to other departments.
5. Extend the use of the tool to other departments only after it has successfully been adopted by the service desk.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t bite off more than you can chew by trying to implement every function of the tool from the beginning because you think you’re supposed to. Every organization is different. Take the time to evaluate where you are and where you’re going, start off small with core processes, then expand out from there.

A large news service provider cut back the scope of its implementation project to keep it manageable

CASE STUDY

Industry Publishing

Source CIO

Situation

The organization had many departments that wanted to use the new ITSM tool.

They started off the implementation by inviting all interested stakeholders and conducting a stakeholder analysis to determine who would be using the new system. They wanted everyone to have access to the solution from the beginning.

The plan was to conduct a large implementation across multiple departments, which required capturing massive amounts of information to build out all necessary workflows.

Challenge

The amount of work to prepare for the implementation became overwhelming and they soon realized that they had bitten off more than they could chew.

Because the organization was changing multiple departments’ processes and workflows at the same time as they were planning to implement a new tool across the organization, the amount of organizational change was unmanageable.

As a result, about a month of time spent planning for the implementation was wasted.

Solution

The teams took a step back to re-evaluate their implementation plan. They decided to cut down on the scope of the project, and brought in only two groups as the kickoff team for the implementation: the service desk and the services group.

The new strategy for implementation was to take an iterative approach, starting off small and obtaining feedback after deploying among one group only to improve the process before implementing the tool with another group.

After successfully deploying the tool among these two kickoff groups, they later brought in the other teams to expand the use of the tool to other departments.

Discuss and document implementation project scope

2.1 Discuss, identify, and document the scope of the tool implementation

Participants

• CIO/IT Director
• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document using the Project Charter Template.

1. Meet with key stakeholders within the business and your core project team to discuss and identify the scope of the project.
2. Document the project scope under Section 9 of the Implementation Project Charter.
   • Will the tool be required to support the service desk only or other departments such as Facilities, HR, Finance, and Legal?
   • If so, identify any special considerations that will need to be made through the implementation process to ensure the tool will meet those departments’ needs.
   • If the tool will only be supporting the service desk but may be extended to other departments in the future, document this along with any necessary considerations to ensure that the tool can be configured to support an extension later on.

Identify both current and future processes the tool will need to support

Whether you’re planning to conduct the implementation in-house or through professional services, you’ll need to have a clear picture of where you are now and where you need to be.

Assessing the gaps between the services your previous tool allowed you to provide and the services you would like to be able to provide will help you to determine where to focus your efforts for the implementation.

1. Know what processes you have implemented already, and of those, which are delivering the most value to the organization and which are being performed most often.
2. Identify which processes you want to implement in the future, and ensure that the tool configuration will be able to support that down the road.

For Example:

Current Processes: Incident Management Service Request Fulfillment Change Management Problem Management

Core Processes: Incident Management Service Requests

Future Processes: CMDB Asset Management

"You’re not going to get in your car and start driving without knowing where you’re going. If you want to get where you need to be, you need to first know where you are now and what your destination is." – Nicklas Fredrickson, CEO and ITSM Magician, Penguin Consultants Brasil

If you need help conducting a baseline assessment of your current processes and identifying needs for improvement download Info-Tech’s blueprint, Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk.

Info-Tech Insight

Clients often tell vendors that they want their tool to do something without first identifying what it is they are trying to achieve through that process, so they’re trying to fit the tool to something that they may not even need to be doing.

Clearly define services and processes to align the tool to your service desk

Don’t adapt your processes to match the tool. Define your processes first, then adapt the tool to support them.

What is a process?

• A set or sequence of related activities performed by defined roles.
• Triggered by one or more events.
• Has a broad but clear scope.
• Defined start and finish.
• Delivers a defined output to achieve one or more objectives.
• Differs from a workflow, which can cross multiple processes or fall into only a portion of one process.

Examples:

• Incident Management
• Service Requests
• Problem Management
• Change Management
• Asset Management

Info-Tech Insight

Often, a new ITSM tool is purchased with the hope that it will fix poor processes, but the tool is there to support your processes and should only be implemented after these processes are defined and standardized.

• One of the most common challenges that consultants and vendors encounter during ITSM tool implementations is that the client has not clearly defined the scope and processes before their arrival. When this happens, the clients try to adapt their organization to the tool rather than adapting the tool to work with their organization.
• Even when clients have an idea of the processes they want to implement using the tool, such as incident management, they often haven’t thought about the specific configurations needed to support the process like ticket input and categorization, or the integrations between processes.
• Defining processes can be a significant challenge and require a lot of time and negotiation across several departments. It is important to dedicate enough time for the right parties to get together to make decisions before engaging professional services to implement the tool according to their best practices that may not necessarily align with your processes.

If this is your first ITSM tool, dedicate time to define processes and prepare staff for the change

If you have purchased your first ITSM tool, you should have already done your research to ensure that you’ve selected the right tool to deliver your services. Now you need to prepare for the change to ensure the tool and any new processes will be adopted and maintained.

It’s never too early to start thinking about how your processes will map into software. This can be a significant training exercise and culture change in itself. In order to ensure the change will be successful, follow these steps.

Assess your organizational readiness. Ensure that you:

• Have strong commitment to the project from a management level.
• Understand the project triggers and drivers for the change.
• Have a full understanding of how your organization operates, along with the business needs and objectives for the tool implementation.
• Are prepared for a complete change in organizational culture.
• Are committed to your services and products and continually maintaining and improving them.

Then answer the following questions:

• What processes are we currently using that will be configured into the tool?
• What processes are we not currently using but will want the tool to support?
• What processes and activities do we need to make more efficient or automated?
• What processes do we want to stay manual?
• What information system or tool is involved with each process or activity we’re using, and do they need to be integrated in the new solution?

Further Guidance:

If this is your first time implementing an ITSM tool and you’re unsure how to define your processes, see Standardize the Service Deskfor additional guidance.

Organizational change management is necessary for to ensure sustainable, long-term adoption of the ITSM solution. See Adopt Organizational Change Management Best Practices to Maximize Project Benefits for additional guidance.

If you are switching to a new tool, don’t automatically copy everything over; review processes if necessary

The implementation of a new ITSM solution is the perfect time to revisit and improve your processes if necessary.

• Service organizations that have been using an ITSM tool for some time often fall into a legacy thought trap, where they’re so accustomed to doing things a certain way that they have become constrained by their previous tool and don’t stop to rethink their processes when it comes time to implementing a new tool.
• Implementing a new ITSM tool is the perfect opportunity to stop legacy thinking, step out of your normal routine and ask yourselves if the new tool can help you deliver better service by supporting improved processes.

Stop and evaluate the following:

1. What processes were working well with the previous tool? (No need to change)
2. What processes were we not using and will not implement in the future? (No need to change)
3. What processes were not working well with the previous tool? (Define or redefine)
4. What processes were we not using but will implement with the new tool? (Define or redefine)

Info-Tech Insight

If you proceed without inspecting your current processes against what you can do with new system, you’re losing the point of the new tool and won’t receive the value it can deliver. Many organizations configure the new tool to do exactly what they were doing with the old system without taking the opportunity to consider whether what they were doing with the old system was actually working for them.

"Implementing a new ITSM tool is probably not going to resolve any process-related pain points and inefficiencies. Simply implementing a new tool without fixing the underlying processes is like painting a rusty car." – Yev Khovrenkov, IT Consultant

"Customers can often become so constrained by their previous tool that they don’t stop to rethink their processes before implementing the new tool. We’ve had a customer ask to transfer everything from their old system, which had over 2,000 ticket categories. We replied that we could do that, but why would they want to?" – Pedro Soto, Managing Director for TOPdesk

Reviewing and defining processes before the implementation can be a project in itself

CASE STUDY

Industry Defense

Source Anonymous

Situation

The organization was switching to a new ITSM tool. To prepare for the implementation, they gathered stakeholders, held steering committee meetings, and broke down key processes, teams, and owners before even meeting with the larger group.

They used a software tool called InDesign to visibly map service requests and incidents and determine who owned each process and where the handoffs were.

The service catalog also needed to be built out as they were performing certain services that didn’t relate to anything in the catalog.

Challenges

The goal for the implementation was to have it completed within a year, but it ended up going over, taking 15 to 16 months to complete.

Most of the time was spent identifying processes up front before configuring the tool. There were difficulties defining processes, as well as agreeing on who owned a process or service.

There were also difficulties agreeing upon who the valid stakeholders were for processes, as groups were siloed.

The major obstacles to implementation were therefore people and process, not the product.

Results and Lessons

New processes were introduced, and boundaries were placed around processes that were being done in the past that weren’t necessary.

Once the groups were able to agree upon process owners, the tool configuration and implementation itself did not pose any major difficulties.

After the implementation, the tool was continually improved and sharpened to adapt to processes.

Document current and future processes the tool will support

2.2 Define and document your existing and future processes that the tool will need to support

Input

• Service Desk SOP

Participants

• CIO/IT Director; IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter Template.

Implementing an ITSM tool requires a complete understanding of how your service desk and your organization operate. As part of the planning stage, it’s important to understand and document the activities and processes that your ITSM tool will need to support.

1. Organize a meeting with all recommended participants to review service desk processes.
• Your service desk processes should already be well defined and standardized in a standard operating procedure (SOP). This SOP serves as the input for this step.
• If your processes are not yet standardized and need significant work to restructure or define them, consider delaying the implementation project until you’ve had time to do so. See Info-Tech’s blueprint, Standardize the Service Desk, and call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more for guidance.
2. Document your processes in section 10 of the Project Charter including:

• Current processes the tool needs to support.
• Processes you have not implemented yet but you will need the tool to support from deployment.
• Processes you may need the tool to support in a future implementation phase.

Use the Implementation Checklist to assess whether you’ve completed all of the steps for phase 1

2.3 Use the checklist tool to determine whether you’re ready to move to Phase 2

Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist to ensure that all appropriate steps within the planning stage of the implementation project have been completed before moving on to phase 2 of the project.

Phase 1 includes tasks under the following categories:

• Implementation project goals
• Buy-in for the change
• Success metrics
• Project scope and processes

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The follow are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

1.1 Document goals, strategy, and business requirements

Identify and document the goals and objectives of the ITSM tool selection and implementation project, the triggers for the purchase, and the pain points the new tool needs to address.

1.3 Formalize an engagement strategy

The engagement plan is a structured and documented approach for gathering requirements by eliciting input and validating plans for change, and cultivating sponsorship and support from key stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.

Phase 2

Organize the Approach and Resources

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan

Parse ITSM tool implementations into manageable stages to ensure success and solution effectiveness

PLAN → ORGANIZE → BUILD → DEPLOY

Implementation Strategy & Phases

Allocate and Organize Resources

In the organize stage of the implementation project, you will:

• Define an implementation approach and phases.
• Decide whether to hire professional services and if so, develop an RFP.
• Define roles and responsibilities for the project.
• Organize resources, tasks, and timeline.

Info-Tech Insight

A phased implementation strategy may take longer to deploy the full solution, but will allow you to use fewer dedicated resources on the project and deploy only those functions of the solution you really need at first, expanding to meet your needs later on and resulting in a better quality solution in the long term.

→ Change Management & Communications →

Phase 2 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 2: Organize the implementation

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 3: Determine strategy and implementation phases

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Identify and document the scope of the implementation.

Then complete these activities…

• Discuss, identify, and document the scope of the tool implementation.
• Define and document the existing and future processes that the tool will need to support.
• Evaluate pros and cons of different implementation approaches.
• Define what each phase will contain.

With these tools & templates:

• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist
• Project Charter Template

Step 4: Define and organize project resources

Review findings with analyst:

• Develop and issue RFP.

Then complete these activities…

• Weigh the costs and benefits of each option to decide whether to hire professional services.
• Develop and issue RFP for professional services for implementation.
• Define roles and responsibilities of implementation team.
• Track implementation tasks, timelines, and resources.

With these tools & templates:

• Project Planning and Monitoring Tool
• RFP for Professional Services
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Phase 2 Results & Insights:

• A strategy and project plan for the implementation

A major hardware vendor implemented a new ITSM tool: in step 3 it broke the project down into eight phases

Part 3/5

CASE STUDY

Industry Information Technology

Source Gautam Bangalore, Business Analyst

Employ an iterative approach to implementation to break the project down into manageable phases.

The implementation process was broken down into eight phases which each went through designing, building, and testing stages.

The following project phases were implemented:

1. Link all existing data in the CMDB to the new tool
2. Populate data
3. Service requests
4. Incident management
5. Problem management
6. Change management
7. Capacity management
8. Availability management

Implementation stages:

• Business Requirements Analysis
• Tool Selection
• Review Processes
• Plan Phases
• Build Tool
• Train & Deploy

This case study continues in Phase 3.

Step 3: Determine strategy and phases for implementation

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Choose and document implementation approach.
• Define project phases if you’re taking a phased approach.

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Overall approach to the implementation project (i.e. linear vs. phased)
• Defined project phases, if applicable

Tools and Deliverables

• Project Charter Template
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Choose a linear or phased implementation approach to structure the project

Your project scope, objectives, and defined ITSM processes will determine the implementation strategy that is best suited for your organization.

Linear, Big-Bang Approach

• Ideal for simpler solutions involving fewer processes.
• Implementation will involve only one phase.
• Preferable in some cases when the organization is completely replacing a tool and needs the new tool to be operational as soon as possible.

VS.

Iterative, Phased Approach

• Ideal for complex solutions involving many business processes.
• Implementation will involve multiple phases.
• Each phase may add a new layer of functionality and performance, a new integration with another tool, or extend the use of the tool to more organizational units or user bases.

• Depending on the complexity of the project, the implementation may take a linear waterfall-style approach with a big-bang deployment of the tool at one time, or it may contain multiple iterative phases of implementation, each covering a different scope, process, tool function, department, or organization.
• The right approach for you depends on your organization, service management processes, necessary integrations, teams and process owners, and services that will be using the tool.

Employ a linear or big-bang strategy for smaller projects

A big-bang deployment may be more suited for less complex projects, or for organizations that are switching tools and need the tool to be fully functional across all users as soon as possible to avoid interruptions in service.

• With big-bang software deployments, the new system goes live for all users on a specific date, rather than having different modules of the system rolled out in a phased step-by-step approach. This may be ideal for organizations that are replacing an existing tool and need to offer the same set of existing functionality to their users without an interruption in service.
• However, these types of implementations still require appropriate preparation beforehand. Processes should be defined, the solution should be designed with necessary data migrated from the old tool, and testing and training should be conducted before deployment. This follows a more linear implementation strategy than an iterative, phased approach.
• For organizations that have already had an ITSM tool in place for some time and have well-defined and documented processes, a big-bang deployment will be easier than for those in a lower maturity space.
• A big-bang deployment may also be appropriate for smaller, less complex solutions.

Info-Tech Insight

While it’s important to properly prepare for the implementation, it’s also important not to overcomplicate the project if it’s not necessary. There is nothing wrong with a simple implementation of an out-of-the-box solution if that’s what’s right for your organization.

The solution will follow a linear implementation:

Design → Build → Test → Deploy

Employ an iterative implementation approach for more complex projects

An iterative implementation strategy will help to break down more complex projects into manageable phases.

• If multiple processes are going to be supported by the tool, a phased approach allows you to gain experience with one process within the new tool, then continue to build the other processes based on your experience gained.
• Even with proper testing, it is often difficult to fully prepare for every issue you will come across once the tool is deployed. Working in phases allows you to use the insight you gain from deploying one work package to feed into the next phase of the implementation, making for a more Agile approach. The output of later phases may also include updates to the output from a previous phase based on new learnings.
• Process versions and subversions can be carried out in stages.
• Start with the most basic and necessary processes, then move to more advanced processes and functions.

Each phase or work package may go through its own implementation cycle before the next phase begins:

Phase 1:

Design → Build → Test → Deploy →

Phase 2:

Design → Build → Test → Deploy →

Phase 3:

Design → Build → Test → Deploy →

Phase 4:

Design → Build → Test → Deploy

Info-Tech Insight

Trying to work on all work packages simultaneously can take up a large number of resources. Using fewer dedicated resources, even if it takes longer to implement the solution, may result in a better quality solution in the end.

Choose and document your implementation approach

3.1 Evaluate the pros and cons of different implementation approaches

Participants

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter Template.

1. Organize a meeting with recommended participants.
2. Evaluate the pros and cons of a linear versus phased implementation project within the context of your organization.

3. Decide upon the implementation approach that will make the most sense for you, using the information on the previous slides.
4. Document your approach in section 11 of the Project Charter.

For phased approaches, break down the implementation into manageable steps

Your specific project phases will depend on your organization, processes, and the complexity of the tool, but should each be manageable, well-defined work packages.

• If you choose to implement your ITSM tool using a phased approach, start with basic, core processes such as incident management and build out to more advanced processes and functions from there.
• Start with smaller, simpler processes to demonstrate success of the implementation and the tool, build confidence around the tool and processes, demonstrate the value of the tool to the business, and then leverage that success to move on to implementing other processes.

What should phases look like?

• Phases are not simply steps to an implementation (such as configuration, implementation, training, deployment), but rather processes that each have a start and finish and may go through the plan-build-test-deploy cycle before the next process begins.
• Phases may also involve deploying different functions or modules of the tool. For example, business analytics and reporting might not be deployed until after incident management and service requests have been put in place.
• Phases could also involve process versions. For example, first you may deploy incident management version 1.0 along with service requests 1.0, then in six months you may improve upon that process based on experience and deploy incident management 1.1, along with problem management 1.0, with versions and subversions carried out in stages.

"Don’t try to boil the ocean at the beginning. You need to have goals and achieve something through starting small to demonstrate success or the return on investment will be too far out. Plan your phases with the end in mind; under-promise and over-deliver." – Director of ITSM Tools

Define project phases if you’re taking a phased approach

3.2 If your implementation will take a phased approach, define what each phase will contain

Participants

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter.

• Your project phases will depend on the processes that your service desk is currently handling and those that will be implemented in the future, along with your project scope and objectives and the capabilities of the tool.
• Each process does not have to be implemented individually; several processes may be grouped together into one phase.

Define the phases your implementation approach will take. The sample presented here is only a suggestion; choose the approach that works best for your organization.

Sample Project Phases

Note: While continual improvement may not be a module within your ITSM tool, it is important to keep in mind from the beginning of your implementation project to ensure your tool will capture baseline metrics to evaluate and improve upon your processes in the future.

Step 4: Define and organize project resources

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine whether you will hire professional services to assist with the tool implementation and develop an RFP.
• Define and document key roles for the implementation.
• Assign roles and responsibilities.
• Track your project using the Project Planning & Monitoring Tool.

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Manager and Project Team

Outcomes of this step

• Decision on whether to hire professional services for the implementation
• RFP for a consultant to assist with the implementation
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities for the project
• Project plan with tasks, ownership, and timeline

Tools and Deliverables

• Request for Proposal (RFP) Template
• Project Charter Template
• Project Planning & Monitoring Tool
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Determine whether you will engage professional services for the implementation

The decision to engage an external consultant or your vendor in the implementation will depend on available budget and resourcing, and also on your service level maturity and capability.

There are three main ways to implement your ITSM tool:

1. Implement in-house by own staff.
2. Implement using a combination of your own staff and professional services from a consultant or vendor.
3. Implement by professional services.

DIY Implementation

Adopting a DIY implementation approach can save money, but could draw out your implementation timeline and increase the likelihood of errors. Carefully consider your integration environment to determine your resourcing, capabilities, and maturity.

VS.

Professional Services

Opting for professional services may result in a shorter implementation period and fewer errors, but may also deny your IT staff the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to maintain and configure the solution in the future.

External Consultant

Consultants have extensive experience completing similar implementations with in-depth knowledge of processes, but could have less in-depth knowledge of the tool itself.

Vendor

The vendor will know their product and its technical requirements better than anyone, but may have less in-depth knowledge on how to structure processes before installation.

Evaluate the trade-offs for each option to choose your implementation approach

4.1 Weigh the costs and benefits of each option to decide whether to hire professional services.

Choose and document your approach in section 14 of the Project Charter Template.

Develop an RFP if you choose to hire a consultant to assist with the implementation

4.2 Develop and issue an RFP to hire professional services to assist with the implementation

If you decide to hire professional services to assist with the implementation of your ITSM tool, use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Request for Proposal Template to document your requirements and invite interested bidders to submit proposals detailing the methods they will employ to meet the project requirements, along with a plan of work and budget.

The template includes prefilled examples that can be customized to your specific organization and needs.

Define and document key roles for the implementation

4.3 Define the roles that will form your implementation project team and their responsibilities

Participants

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Project Team

Document

Document in the Project Charter Template.

1. Organize a meeting with recommended participants.
2. Identify (if necessary) and document key project stakeholders who will oversee the implementation project.
• Document their roles and involvement in section 13 of the Implementation Project Charter.
3. Identify necessary project roles that will form the implementation project team and define the responsibilities that each role will include.
   • Document roles and responsibilities in section 14 of the Implementation Project Charter. A sample table is provided in the document.

Ensure there is strong project governance to oversee the implementation

A successful implementation project needs clear project governance and project management procedures to guide decisions, processes, and people.

• Without project governance over your ITSM implementation, decision making will be hampered, scope will be poorly managed, project control may be relinquished to external resources, and project phases may not go according to plan.
• Implementing a new ITSM tool along with new processes can require significant organizational and cultural change, which will be critical to manage through strong leadership, vision, and communication.
• Your tool needs to have at least one champion in the organization: someone with a vision of how that tool should be used and the resources required to implement that tool successfully.

In less mature organizations, the governing body will need to explain how the implementation should be performed, check the project execution at regular intervals, and correct errors when necessary.

In more mature organizations, the governing body will be informed of progress and may only occasionally request clarification, provide guidance, and correct minor deviations from the project plan.

A governance process should include three components:

1. A project plan to implement the solution according to agreed-on goals and objectives, and within the time and budget.
2. Resources to execute the plan.
3. A monitoring strategy to ensure the implementation goes according to plan and provide guidance and corrections where needed.

Info-Tech Insight

You won’t get engagement unless there is a sense of accountability. Specific individuals in your organization need to be assigned accountability to ensure the ITSM tool will achieve what it was intended to by your organization.

Process and product owners should work together to champion both the new tool and new processes

The roles of process owner and product owner are important for ensuring success in ITSM tool implementation and adoption.

Product Owner (Product Manager or Tool Owner)

• Champions the product.
• Accountable for the tool throughout its lifecycle.
• Responsible for developing and managing the budget for the tool.
• Understands how the tool will be used and ensures that users will have a good experience with the product.
• Consulted on any decisions related to value of the tool, staff required to support the tool, and the way the tool supports business outcomes and the processes for which it’s used.
• Ensures the product will continually fulfill business needs.

Process Owner

• Champions the change brought on by the solution.
• Defines processes prior to implementation and recommends when and how to implement specific processes into the tool.
• Consulted during the tool selection process, the design of the solution, and acceptance of solution into production.
• Ensures that users understand and are excited about the change and trains users after installation.
• Manages the release and deployment of the solution, including any problems that may arise.

• The process owner and product owner roles could be played by the same person or there may be multiple process owners involved in the implementation, each responsible for a separate process.
• If these roles are played by different individuals, it’s important for them to work together throughout the entire implementation.

Info-Tech Insight

Even if you will have professional services implementing the ITSM solution, it is still important to have your process and product owner(s) present throughout the selection and implementation to document the process and ensure the tool is installed and configured according to the project plan and your organization’s specific needs.

Form a project team to work together throughout the implementation

The roles that should be defined for the implementation project will vary across organizations, depending on complexity and maturity of the organization and the ITSM solution. Some or all of the roles described below may be fulfilled by the same individual or may not be needed in your organization for the implementation to be successful.

Assign roles and responsibilities using a RACI chart

4.4 Assign and document roles and responsibilities for the implementation project

Participants

• IT Manager
• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team

Document

Document assigned roles responsibilities by copying the information from the RACI table into the Project Team section in the Implementation Project Charter.

Use a RACI table to assign individuals to roles: identify who will be accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed through each stage of the project.

Example:

RACI = Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed

Organize the resources required for your ITSM solution implementation

It’s easy to overlook the organization of resources for the implementation, especially technical resources, but this is a critical step to ensure the implementation goes smoothly.

Build your resourcing team to address the technical competencies required to implement an ITSM solution. Prioritize members who were involved in the selection of the tool. They will have a strong insight into the tool and its envisioned position in the organization.

General Roles:

• Integration Specialists
• Solution/Enterprise Architects
• QA Engineer
• IT Service Management Team

External Roles:

• Vendor’s Implementation team and/or Professional Consulting Services
• Systems Integrator

Design and implement a resource plan. This may include:

• Allocate project personnel.
• Find and hire any required external personnel.
• Find and reserve meeting room space in advance.
• Administer time sheets if required.
• Order any required tools to support the solution (e.g. computers, telephones, software).
• Ensure there is enough capacity in the data centers.

"The first hurdle that we often encounter during ITSM tool implementations is that people are technically unaware of what’s required in terms of infrastructure, databases, security, etc. The infrastructure technicians and systems administrators who need to be there as part of the physical installation of the tool are often not there when needed and sometimes are the last to know that a new system is going in. Don’t forget the technical side of things when planning for the implementation and organizing resource." – Rod Weir, Founder and Managing Director of PRD Software

Track your project using the Project Planning & Monitoring Tool

4.5 Track your tasks, timelines, and resources for the project

Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Project Planning and Monitoring Tool to plan and organize the implementation project.

This tool allows you to break the project down into major tasks, assign start and end dates to each task and track them using a Gantt chart, assign responsibility for each task, and track the status of each task using time-based progress reports.

Use the Implementation Checklist to assess whether you’ve completed all of the steps for phase 2

4.6 Use the checklist tool to determine whether you’re ready to move to phase 3

Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist to ensure that all of the appropriate steps within the organize stage of the implementation project have been completed before moving on to phase 3 of the project.

Phase 2 includes tasks under the following categories:

• Implementation strategy
• External resources
• Internal resources

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

3.1 Choose and document your implementation approach

Evaluate the pros and cons of a linear versus phased implementation project within the context of your organization, and select an implementation approach.

4.3 Assign roles and responsibilities for the implementation project

Build a RACI table to assign individuals to roles: identify who will be accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed through each stage of the project.

Phase 3

Design, Build, and Test the ITSM Tool

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan

Parse ITSM tool implementations into manageable stages to ensure success and solution effectiveness

Plan→Organize→Build→Deploy

→Project Management →

In the build stage of the implementation project, you will:

• Develop a strategy for and conduct data migration and integrations.
• Design and implement all required configurations for the tool.
• Conduct functional and performance testing of the tool.
• Conduct user acceptance testing (UAT).

Build:

Design Solution

Installation, Configuration, Integrations

Data Migration

Testing

Info-Tech Insight

Once you begin building your solution, it can be tempting to expand the scope of the project to implement additional functions or make significant customizations to the tool, but it’s important to follow your project plan and minimize customizations to the tool unless necessary.

→Change Management & Communications →

Phase 3 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 3: Design, build, and test your ITSM solution

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 5: Design and build solution

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Identify and document functional tests to be performed

Then complete these activities…

• Use the Implementation Checklist to determine whether you’ve made all of the necessary design decisions.

With these tools & templates:

ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Step 6: Test solution to ensure functionality

Review findings with analyst:

• Develop a UAT plan and test case scripts.

Then complete these activities…

• Identify and document tests to be performed.
• Develop a UAT plan and test case scripts.

With these tools & templates:

User Acceptance Testing Plan Template

UAT Results Template

Phase 3 Results & Insights:

A solution implementation design with relevant implementation tests.

A major hardware vendor implemented a new ITSM tool: in step 4 it built and tested the tool in phases

Part 4/5

CASE STUDY

Industry Information Technology

Source Gautam Bangalore, Business Analyst

Design, build, and test the tool in phases to ensure successful configuration.

Data migration was a critical first step to ensure the implementation would be successful. Data from the previous tool had to be accurately captured and mapped to the new tool to avoid confusion and loss of data or functionality.

Integrations were also a key step in this stage of the implementation. The team had to ensure that integrations were made between each and every service management process. For example, an incident recorded in the tool may need to have a problem ticket generated from it and links between tickets needed to exist. Integrations also had to be made with other tools and processes.

Integrations were done in phases, with continual testing and adjusting.

Testing of each module of the tool was also conducted in phases.

Implementation stages:

• Business Requirements Analysis
• Tool Selection
• Review Processes
• Plan Phases
• Build Tool
• Train & Deploy

This case study continues in Phase 4.

Step 5: Design and build solution

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Make configuration decisions using the implementation checklist.

This step involves the following participants:

• Service Manager and Service Desk Team
• Project Manager and Core Project Team
• Subject-Matter Experts and Tool Administrator, if applicable

Outcomes of this step

• Tool is designed and configured to support service desk processes and organization needs.
• Decisions made around data migration, integrations, automation, and reporting.

Tools and Deliverables

• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Understand the operating requirements of the solution and learn how the tool works before it’s installed

Before the tool is installed, understand what the tool requires to operate and design that operating environment.

• Work with the vendor to understand the infrastructure specifications they recommend for their product to ensure that you can meet those requirements before the solution is installed.
• When designing the solution, take into account the operating environment requirements, infrastructure requirements, and tool’s platforms for each stage of the implementation.

One of the first activities in the design stage is to learn how the tool works and what it can and cannot do. This should include training from the vendor and trial with a demo copy.

Explore the tool’s functionality in a sandbox environment:

• Depending on the complexity of the solution, you may find it advantageous to set up the tool in a sandbox environment which will allow you to see how the tool’s functions operate and experiment with configurations in a testing environment.
• This will provide you with a clear understanding of what may be necessary in terms of setup, configurations, and customizations before you build the solution.

"It’s hard to know if you're going with the right solution if you haven't been able to play around with it. Once you do that, you may realize that there are certain things that don’t work the way you thought they would. So it’s helpful to set up a demo environment to learn these things yourself before the implementation." – Kamal Roz, IT Operations Manager

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t lose track of your project scope and objectives when you gain an understanding of the functionality the tool offers. It can be tempting to expand the scope if the tool offers more than you had planned for, but carefully evaluate whether a new function is necessary, what its impact would be, and whether resources are available to support it before making any changes in project scope.

Design the solution before building the tool

The design stage of the implementation is when you decide how the tool will map to your defined processes and precisely how your service desk staff will use the tool to perform their roles.

Design your solution to match your objectives and processes.

• Much of the configuration, installation, integration, and administration of the tool will be determined by the functionality of the solution, but you will need to ensure that the design takes into account the details of your specific organization, the goals and objectives of the implementation, and your service desk processes.
• Recall that if you are following an iterative approach with portions of the system released in separate phases, each phase of the implementation may go through its own design-build-test-deploy cycle.
• Depending on the complexity of your project and the solution, the design activities may involve multiple interdependent work streams.

Don’t simply replicate your old system’s configuration in the new tool.

"Organizations confuse their current practices with the real requirements. They believe that the way in which they currently work is the way in which they must continue to work…One wonders why a new tool was sought if it were just to work in exactly the same way." – Robert Falkowitz, IT Tools for the Business when the Business is IT

Make use of documentation from the vendor to ensure your solution design will work with the tool.

The vendor may provide documentation and tools to help you define and design your requirements of the solution before they arrive to install the tool. This may include specific guidance on:

• Ticket categorization
• Teams and skill groups
• Queue management
• Templates and workflow
• Workflow automations
• User self-service
• Escalations, SLAs
• CMDB
• Network management
• Systems integration
• Importing and exporting data
• Resource schedules for availability
• Extended attributes specific to the product

Configure, don’t customize, your solution to minimize risk

Your tool may require at least some basic configurations to align with your processes, but in most cases customization of the tool is not recommended.

Configuration

• Creating settings and recording reference data in the tool within the normal functionality of the tool.
• Does not require changes to source code.

Documentation of configurations is key.

Failure to document configurations and the reasons for specific configurations will lead to:

• Difficulty diagnosing incidents and problems.
• Difficulty reconstructing the tool in the case of disaster recovery.
• One administrator having all of the knowledge of configurations and taking it with them if they leave the organization.
• Configurations that become useless in the future are maintained and lead to unnecessary work if documentation is not regularly reviewed.

Customization

• Extending the functionality of the tool beyond that which it was originally intended to do.
• Requires manual changes to source code.

Carefully consider whether a customization is necessary.

• Over-customization of your ITSM tool code may lock you into your current version of the software by preventing future patches and upgrades, leaving you with outdated software.
• Over-customization becomes particularly risky when your ITSM solution is integrated with other tools, as a loss in functionality of your ITSM tool resulting from over-customization may cause disruptions across the business.
• If your selected ITSM solution doesn’t do something you think you need it to do, carefully evaluate whether you really need that customization and if the trade-off of potentially limiting future innovation is worth it.

Info-Tech Insight

Some software products allow for massive customization whereas others are designed to be more out of the box (OOTB). There’s nothing wrong with OOTB solutions if they meet your needs.

Consider the consequences of over-customizing your solution

CASE STUDY

Industry Education

Source IT Director

Situation

A few years ago, the service management office at the university decided to switch ITSM tools, from Computer Associates to ServiceNow.

They wanted the new tool to behave similarly to what they had previously, so they made a lot of customized code changes to ServiceNow during implementation.

Challenges

As a result of the customizations, much of the functionality of the tool was restricted, and the upgrades were not compatible with the solution.

The external consultants who performed the customizations and backend work did not document their changes, leaving the service management team without an understanding of why they did what they did.

Resolution

The service management team is working with ServiceNow to slowly unravel the custom code to try to get the solution back to having out-of-the-box functionality, with the ability to be upgraded.

It has been challenging to do this work without disrupting the functionality of the tool.

Over-customization led to the organization paying for features they couldn’t use and spending more time and resources down the road to try to reverse the changes.

Migrate transactional data only if it makes sense to do so

If you are switching from a previous ITSM tool, carefully weigh the pros and cons as well as the necessity of migrating historical transactional data before deciding to import it into the new tool.

Decide whether you should migrate your data.

Importing your old transactional data will allow you to track metrics over time, which is extremely valuable for data analysis and reporting purposes.

However, ask yourself what the true value of your data is before you import it.

You will not get value out of migrating the old data if:

• You have incomplete or inaccurate data (a high percentage of incidents did not have tickets created in the old system).
• The categorization of your old tickets was not useful or was used inconsistently.
• You plan on changing the ticket categorization in the new system.

If you decide to migrate your data, keep in mind that it can be a complex process and proper time should be budgeted for planning, structuring the data, and importing and testing it.

"Don’t debate whether you can import your old data until you’ve made sure that you should." – Barry Cousins, Senior Director at Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech Insight

It’s up to you to have good data through standardized processes and ticket categorization, as well as proper training for your service desk staff.

If you ask the vendor to import your old data, they can’t legitimize it if it’s not good data to begin with. If you decide to start fresh with the new tool, the tool won’t change the source of poor quality data. It’s your responsibility to assess and address the causes of poor quality data before implementing the new tool.

Consider and plan for any necessary integrations with other systems

A major component of the implementation that should be carefully considered throughout is if and how to integrate your ITSM tool with other applications in the environment.

Businesses may need to integrate their ITSM tool with other systems including asset management, network monitoring, reporting systems, etc., to make the organization more efficient.

Regardless of whether your solution will be configured and installed on premise or as a SaaS, you need to consider the underlying technology to determine how you will integrate it with other tools where necessary.

Carefully evaluate the purpose of each integration. Clients often want their ITSM tool to be integrated with all of the available data in another application when they only need a subset of that data to be integrated.

Consider not only which systems you need to integrate with your ITSM tool, but also who the owners of those systems are and which way the data needs to flow.

As with other aspects of the implementation, configure and test the integrations before going live with the tool.

Build automation into the tool early on to make your service desk as efficient as possible

Use rules and templates to automate ticket creation, categorization, assignment, and escalation to reduce time spent on mundane tasks and boost productivity.

Take advantage of automation.

Building automation into the tool should be a priority of your implementation plan, though few service providers take advantage of the efficiency that automation can provide.

Automation can help you:

• Categorize tickets
• Prioritize and escalate tickets
• Assign tickets to the right agent or group
• Alert a member of your team when specific incidents occur
• Trigger specific actions on incidents
• Update users on when to expect a response based on the priority of their ticket

Ticket templates are the backbone of automation.

A common complaint is that tickets take too much time. However, a little planning can reduce the time it takes to build a ticket template to less than 15 minutes and the time it takes to create a ticket to less than a minute.

Ticket templates should be created for recurring issues. Templates can include:

• Import of user contact information and location from Active Directory
• Categorization of ticket
• Resolution code
• Link to knowledgebase article
• Workflows – route to technician, set up multiple tasks, notifications, email to end user, etc.
• Q&A for escalations – include troubleshooting tips and questions to ask before escalation

Info-Tech Insight

Be prepared: design the ticket template before the issue even occurs. For example, if you know that a new operating system or application is going to be released for your users, anticipate the possible issues that will arise, and create ticket templates for those issues so they’re ready when the tickets start coming in.

Map your processes to the tool by defining your ticket input, categories, escalations, and workflows

You should already have well-defined processes before building your ITSM solution. Now that you have a better understanding of how the tool works, tune those processes to make use of specific tool features if necessary, then configure the solution to support your processes.

Resist the temptation to change your project plan and processes to match the tool’s capabilities during configuration, unless it makes sense to do so. Rather, tune your existing processes to your tool. This may involve the following activities:

• Providing additional detail to processes, such as defining work instructions for how to perform a certain task.
• Optimizing an existing processes by revising activities in that process to make it more efficient.
• Creating new ticket categories or sub-categories.
• Adapting algorithms for defining priorities.
• Creating models, templates, and rules for executing a process within the specific tool.
• Defining and formalizing workflows for incident, change, and request fulfillment as well as configuration management.
• Mapping process roles to the individuals or units with responsibilities specific to the tool.

Ensure that all templates, workflows, and specifications built into the tool are well documented.

If you need additional guidance defining your processes to map to your tool, refer to our blueprint, Standardize the Service Desk, which will help you build the following:

• Ticket categorization scheme
• Ticket prioritization based on SLAs
• Ticket escalation rules and processes
• Incident and service request workflows

Ensure that reporting will be useful by tracking the right data within the tool from the start

It’s critical to ensure that your tool will be able to track necessary metrics on KPIs and that this data is accurate and reliable so that reporting will be relevant and meaningful to the business.

During implementation:

• Ensure that your ITSM tool will provide you with the data you need to generate useful reports on service provision.
• Whether you use your own tool for tracking metrics or an external tool, ensure that you can get the internal data you need from the ITSM tool. This may include measures of:
  • Productivity (e.g. time to respond, time to resolve)
  • Service (e.g. incident backlog, customer satisfaction)
  • Proactiveness (e.g. number of knowledgebase articles per week)

After implementation:

• It’s not enough to simply set up metrics and reporting; you have to actually use the information. Reports should be analyzed regularly and used to manage costs and productivity, improve services, and identify issues.
• Ensure that your service desk team contributes to the usefulness of reporting by following processes such as creating tickets for every incident and request, categorizing it properly, and closing it after it’s resolved with the proper resolution code.

"One of the key challenges clients face during the implementation process is how to measure the success of the ITSM tool implementation. It’s critical to understand as early as possible where you are right now, what you’re trying to achieve, and not only the steps you’ll take to get there but also how you’re going to measure it. To do this, you need to know what are the metrics, do we have the data we need in place, and what data do we want to capture moving forward? Having a continual improvement mindset early on will help you later." – Yev Khovrenkov, IT Consultant

Don’t forget about the client-facing side of the solution

While your new ITSM tool should help to make your service desk more efficient, it can also help to make your users more self-sufficient if designed appropriately.

Consider the following questions when designing and building your solution to keep the end-user experience in mind. Many of your answers will depend on the capabilities of your solution and your implementation plan.

Self-Service Portal

• How will users submit a ticket?
• Will users be able to log their own tickets through a web interface?
• Will you send users an acknowledgement receipt when they submit a ticket?
• How much information do you want to convey to your users about the status of their ticket?
• How often will you update users about the status of their ticket?
• Will you allow users to browse knowledgebase articles?

Service Catalog

• What services will be included in the catalog?
• If the information is attached to the ITSM tool, how will the routing and workflows be structured?

Marketing Aspects

• Will you use the corporate color scheme if the solution is public facing?
• What branding do you want to incorporate into the portal and messaging?

"When people develop client-facing service modules, I recommend that they design those services with their clients in mind and make it look like something those clients would actually want to use." – Rod Weir, Founder and Managing Director of PRD Software

Info-Tech Insight

Gather feedback from your end users to find out what they would like to see from a self-service viewpoint before making decisions based on assumptions about what your users want.

Make all necessary configuration and design decisions before building the tool

5.1 Sign off on design and configuration decisions to build into the solution

Input

• Service Desk SOP

Participants

• IT Director
• Service Desk Manager and Technicians
• Process and Product Owners
• SMES

Document

• Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist.

1. The recommended participants along with the tool vendor and consultant hired to assist with the implementation (if applicable) should work together to review the tasks that are necessary to build the solution and ensure that all necessary decisions have been signed-off on.
2. Use your service desk SOP and Info-Tech’s Implementation Checklist to document design and build decisions for the following items and tasks:
   • Data migration
   • Integrations
   • User accounts and access
   • Ticket input and tracking
   • Self-service options and design
   • Interface
   • Ticket categorization
   • Templates (e.g. ticket and email templates)
   • Workflows; prioritization and escalation
   • Data and reporting
   • Knowledgebase
   • Configurations

Step 6: Test solution to ensure functionality

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify and plan for functional testing requirements.
• Develop a user acceptance testing (UAT) plan.

This step involves the following participants:

• Service Manager
• Project Manager and Core Project Team
• Vendor and/or Consultant
• SMEs

Outcomes of this step

• Identification of testing requirements and plan for test completion.
• Plan for user acceptance testing (UAT), including roles and responsibilities.
• Template to document test cases and results.

Tools and Deliverables

• User Acceptance Testing Plan Template
• User Acceptance Test Cases and Results Template
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Avoid post-deployment failure through pre-deployment testing

Start with the approach typically used for testing other software solutions, then identify additional tests specific to ITSM tools.

• Tests have different priorities. If you cannot test your solution against all possible requirements, optimize your testing approach by ensuring that the more important tests are performed.
• Your testing priorities will depend on the goals and objectives of your project and the processes that you have configured into the solution.

Consider the following types of tests specific to ITSM tools:

"Don’t just test for success; test for failure to expose any potential problems with the solution before deployment."– Dave Smith, IT Trainer

Info-Tech Insight

Use a staging or demo copy from the vendor with a mirror of what was built into the production copy to do testing and workflow validation with dummy data before going live with your tool.

Don’t take shortcuts; allow appropriate time for testing

Failure to properly plan and allocate time for the testing stage can lead to rushed tests or the tool going live without validation that it works the way it was intended.

Risk:

• Often, when schedules get tight, the number of test cycles and the time allocated to them is an area where projects look to take shortcuts.
• As a result, the tool is rolled out too quickly without validating that the product works the way it was intended to.
• Reducing the time allocated to testing efforts may not necessarily leave defects undiscovered, but it certainly increases the risk for errors and misalignment with the business needs, which will result in end users rejecting the solution.

Solution:

• Allocate appropriate time for testing. If short on time, prioritize the minimum required tests to ensure functionality.
• Create test scenarios that reflect real-world situations and experiences and use these during the testing stage.
• Ensure that, at a minimum, the following tests are conducted:
  • Product Testing (modules or functions tested individually).
  • Integration Testing (testing of integration across modules or functions, and with external systems and components if applicable).
  • Interface Testing (string testing to confirm connectivity between systems and data transformation logic for the interface).
  • Performance Testing (testing and fine-tuning of system performance and stability under projected workloads).
  • User Acceptance Testing (final checks performed by end users to confirm system’s readiness for deployment).

Identify and plan for functional testing requirements

6.1 Identify and document functional tests to be performed

Participants

• Service Manager
• Project Leader and Core Project Team
• Vendor and/or Implementation Consultant

Document

Document planned tests in the Project Planning and Monitoring Tool, assigning responsibility and timelines to each test.

1. Schedule a meeting with recommended participants, including your solution vendor and consultant who is implementing the solution, if applicable.
2. Work with the vendor and SMEs to identify any functional and performance tests that will be completed before deployment. This may include, for example:
• Integration testing (e.g. with Active Directory, CMDB)
• Testing the interface with a remote desktop tool
• Integration with the phone system
• Interface testing
• Usability testing
• Mobile self-serve portal (if applicable)
3. Determine who will be responsible for completing each test and when the test will need to be completed. Allow sufficient time for the test to be completed. Record timelines in the Project Planning and Monitoring Tool.

Note that the functional testing requirements will vary considerably according to your organization and ITSM solution. Work with your vendor to determine your testing needs.

Test the user experience to ensure the solution will work as your users expect

After the functional, technical requirements have been tested, remember to test the user experience to ensure successful and sustainable adoption and not merely technical efficiency.

• User acceptance testing allows users of the ITSM solution to validate and accept that it works the way they expect it to.
• Specific use test cases should be developed and assigned to testers.
  • Test cases should be tasks that will be completed by the resources who will be using the solution (i.e. your service desk staff).
  • Test scripts should be process oriented, from a user perspective, not a technical one.
  • Expected results should be identified, and testers will compare the actual results to expected results to identify any defects or issues.
• Any identified defects and issues must be prioritized, escalated, and resolved before the solution is deployed.
• For each failed task, ask what prevented it from being processed correctly.
• UAT should be conducted after the solution has been configured and installed, but before rolling out the solution to all users.

Info-Tech Insight

Include qualitative feedback as part of the assessment.

In addition to UAT, it may be helpful to include qualitative assessments as part of your testing. This can include feedback and observations from your users as to aspects of the solution that confused them, suggestions for enhancement, and their satisfaction with the solution.

Develop a user acceptance testing plan

6.2 Develop a UAT plan and test case scripts

User acceptance testing should be completed by the service desk team and any other teams that will be utilizing the ITSM solution.

The testing is conducted before rolling out the solution to enable users to validate that the tool meets the agreed-upon acceptance criteria and performs at an acceptable level. This gives the project sponsor and end users confidence that the solution being delivered meets their requirements.

Use Info-Tech’s User Acceptance Plan Template to outline the plan for user acceptance testing of your ITSM solution. This document is a high-level guide including the testing plan, roles and responsibilities, and methods for completing test cases.

Use Info-Tech’s User Acceptance Test Cases and Results Template to document the detailed test scripts/cases that will be completed by your testers and record the results of user testing.

Use the Implementation Checklist to assess whether you’ve completed all of the steps for phase 3

6.3 Use the checklist tool to determine whether you’re ready to move to phase 4

Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist to ensure that all appropriate steps within the design, build, and test stage of the implementation project have been completed before moving on to phase 4 of the project.

Phase 3 includes a detailed list of tasks and decisions that will need to be made as you design and build your solution, including all configuration considerations and testing requirements.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The follow are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

6.1 Identify and document functional tests to be performed

Work with the vendor and SMEs to identify any functional and performance tests that will be completed before deployment. Determine who will be responsible for completing each test and when the test will need to be completed.

6.2 Develop a UAT plan and test case scripts

Outline the plan for user acceptance testing of your ITSM solution. Document the detailed test scripts/cases that will be completed by your testers and how you will record the results of user testing.

Phase 4

Deploy, Monitor, and Maintain the ITSM Tool

Build an ITSM Tool Implementation Plan

Parse ITSM tool implementations into manageable stages to ensure success and solution effectiveness

Plan→Organize→Build→Deploy

→Project Management→

In the deploy stage of the implementation project, you will:

• Develop a training plan for all levels of users.
• Conduct and/or monitor training.
• Develop a deployment strategy.
• Execute cut-over plan and roll-out solution.
• Monitor and maintain the tool.

Info-Tech Insight

Ensure that the communication and training around the solution demonstrate not only how the tool should be used, but also the benefits it will provide to your staff and end users in improved efficiency and productivity. Users who can clearly see the benefits of the tool will adopt it and accept the change more readily. However, full benefit realization from the tool requires ongoing investment and learning to be sustained.

DEPLOY

Training

Deployment

→Change Management & Communications →

Phase 4 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 4: Deploy, monitor, and maintain ITSM solution

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4

Step 4.1: Train service desk analysts & end users

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Develop a plan for communicating changes associated with the new tool.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop a plan for communicating changes associated with the new tool.
• Develop a training plan and allocate training modules.

With these tools & templates:

Communication & Training Plan Template

Step 4.2: Deploy, monitor, and maintain solution

Review findings with analyst:

• Develop a plan to ensure the transition to the new tool and go-live run smoothly.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop a deployment plan to ensure the transition to the new tool and go-live run smoothly.

With these tools & templates:

Deployment Plan Template

Phase 4 Results & Insights:

• Training, communication, and deployment plans for the ITSM implementation.

A major hardware vendor implemented a new ITSM tool: the final step was to train stakeholders before deployment

Part 5/5

CASE STUDY

Industry Information Technology

Source Gautam Bangalore, Business Analyst

Train stakeholders before deploying the tool.

Once everything has been installed and configured, the vendor chose a few service desk analysts to gain hands-on experience with the tool before it went live onto the production floor. This helped to ensure that any issues that arose either with the tool itself or with understanding of the use of the tool could be corrected before the tool was deployed for all analysts to use day in and day out.

Decommission the old tool if necessary.

After releasing the new tool, the vendor decommissioned the existing tool. The old tool remained as a legacy system to act as a read-only tool for anyone who needed to refer back to an old ticket.

The implementation was successful thanks to careful planning:

The implementation took between 4–5 months to complete, including all data migration, and was successful because there was a proper business case and strategy for each aspect of the implementation beforehand.

Implementation stages:

• Business Requirements Analysis
• Tool Selection
• Review Processes
• Plan Phases
• Build Tool
• Train & Deploy

This case study is continued from earlier in the blueprint.

Step 7: Train service desk analysts & end users

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Develop a communications and training plan.

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager

Outcomes of this step

• Plan for communicating the change with business executives, service desk agents, and end users.
• Training modules for different users of the tool.
• Assignment of training modules to users and schedule for completion.

Tools and Deliverables

• Communications & Training Plan
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Ensure there is strong communication from management throughout the implementation and deployment

A common contributing factor for unsuccessful implementation is a lack of communication around training, transitioning, and deploying the new tool.

Common Pitfall:

Organizational communication and change management should have been ongoing and tightly monitored throughout the project. However, cut-over is a time in which critical communication regarding deployment and proper user training can be derailed when last-minute preparations take priority. Not only will general user frustration increase, but unintended process workarounds will emerge, eroding system effectiveness.

Mitigating Actions:

• Strive to deliver training for those end users that will be engaged in testing. For all other business users, aim to deliver training prior to go-live, while avoiding the risk of training too early (where materials may not be sufficiently ready or users are likely to forget what was learned before the deployment). If possible, host quick refresher training a week or two prior to go-live.
• Take time to communicate the upcoming go-live. The purpose of communication here is to re-iterate expectations, complexities, and ramifications on business going forward. Alleviate performance anxiety by clearly stating that temporary drops in productivity are to be expected and that there will be appropriate assistance throughout the transition period.
• Have the project/program manager remain on the project team for some time after deployment to oversee and assure smooth transition for the organization.
• Have a clear plan for training those users that were missed in the first round of training, as well as a plan for ongoing training for those that require refresher training, for new joiners to your organization, and for any training requirements that result from subsequent upgrades.

Base your communications timeline on a classic change curve to accommodate natural resistance

It’s important to communicate the change ahead of the implementation, but also to reinforce that communication after implementation to recover from any resistance that occurs through the implementation itself.

Stages in a typical change curve:

1. Change is announced. Some people are skeptical and resistant but others are enthusiastic. Most people are fence sitters; if they trust senior leadership they will give the benefit of the doubt and expect change to be good.
2. Positive sentiment declines as implementation approaches. Training and other disruptions take people’s time and energy away from their work. Project setbacks and delays take credibility away from project leaders and seem to validate the efforts of saboteurs and skeptics.
3. Overall sentiment begins to improve as people adjust and see real progress made. Ideally, early successes or quick wins neutralize saboteurs and convert skeptics. At the very least, people will begin to accept and adapt to new realities.
4. If the project is successful and communication is reinforced after implementation, sentiment will peak and level out over time as people move on to other projects.

Example change curve:

Develop a communications and training plan

7.1 Develop a plan for communicating changes associated with the new tool

Participants

• IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager

Document

Use Info-Tech’s Communication and Training Planning Template to document your plan.

Develop a Communications Plan:

1. Examine your project planning timeline and determine the most appropriate timing for communications with executives, business unit leaders, end users, and technicians.
2. Identify the messaging that must be delivered and the objectives for the communications. Messaging should communicate the benefits to the user, any new expectations of the user, and the impact the change will have on them.
3. Identify multiple methods for getting the messages around the new solution out (newsletters, emails, posters, company meetings), and identify who will be responsible for delivering the communications.
4. Identify how feedback will be collected (i.e. through interviews or surveys) to measure whether the changes were communicated well.

Develop a Training Plan:

1. Identify the training modules that will be delivered, including the scope and purpose of each module.
2. Identify who will deliver the training and how the training will be conducted.
3. Identify the recipients and schedule for each training module.
4. Identify how knowledge gained will be tested to ensure the training is successful and how feedback on the training will be collected.

Communicate new processes with business leaders and end users to improve positive customer feedback

1. Communicate with business unit leaders and users:

• Share the new process with end users via email.
• Focus on the benefits for end users to encourage buy-in for the change.
• Include preliminary instructions with a date for training sessions.

2. Train users:

• Teach users how to contact the service desk and submit a ticket.
• Set expectations for IT’s response.

3. Enforce:

• IT must point users toward the new process but ad hoc requests should still be expected at first. Deal with these politely but encourage all employees to use the new service desk ticketing process, if applicable.

4. Measure success:

• Continue to adjust communications if processes aren’t being followed to ensure SLAs can be met and improved.

"Communicate with your end users in phase 1 to let them know what will be changing, get feedback and buy-in, and inform them that training will be happening, then ensure you train them once the tool is installed. A lot of times we’ll get our tool set up but people don’t know how to use it." –Director of ITSM Tools

Info-Tech Insight

If there is a new process for ticket input, consider using a reward system for users who submit a ticket through the proper channel (e.g. email or self-serve portal) instead of their old method (e.g. phone). However, if a significant cultural change is required, don’t expect it to happen right away.

Create a training and communication plan to support adoption of the solution

Training must take place before deployment to ensure that both your service desk agents and end users will use the tool in the way it was intended and improve end-user satisfaction.

• Implementing a new ITSM tool will likely bring with it at least some degree of organizational and cultural change. It’s important to manage that change through proper training. Your training needs will vary depending on the maturity of the organization and the amount of cultural and process change being implemented.
• If this is your first ITSM solution with many new changes for staff to take on board, it will be important to dedicate training time not only before deployment but also several months after the initial installation, to allow staff to gain more experience with the new tool and processes and formulate questions they may not think to ask during implementation.
• A training plan should take into account not only training needs for the implementation project but also any ongoing training requirements that may be required. This may include:
  • Training for new personnel.
  • Training on any changes to the tool.
  • Training on any new processes the tool will support.
• Better agent training will lead to better performance and improved end-user satisfaction.

Agent training is strongly related to higher first call resolution (FCR), which in turn yields improved customer satisfaction.

Source: MetricNet, 2011

Target training session(s) to the specific needs of your service desk and IT staff

Create targeted role-based training programs for your service desk analysts; they care about the portion of the solution they are responsible for, not the functionality that is irrelevant to their job.

The need for targeted training:

• IT personnel may challenge the need for training. They may feel they don’t require training on the use of tools or that they don’t have time to dedicate to training when there is so much work to be done.
• Providing targeted training focused on only the functions of the solution that each tier is responsible for can help to overcome that resistance.
• Targeted training may include basic training for level 1 technicians, and more advanced in-depth training for administrators, power users, or level 2/3 technicians.

Create and execute a role-based training program by conducting training sessions for targeted groups of users, training them on the functions they require to perform their jobs.

Use a table like the one below to help identify which roles should be trained on which tasks within the ITSM tool.

Info-Tech Insight

Properly trained users promote adoption and improve results. Always keep training materials updated and available. New employees, new software integration, and internal promotions create opportunities for training employees to align the ITSM tool with their roles and responsibilities.

Choose an appropriate training delivery method that will focus on both process and tool

Training should include use cases that focus not only on how the tool’s interface works, but how the tool should be used to support process activities.

• Training through use cases highlights how the tool will support the user in role-based tasks.
• If new processes are being introduced along with the tool, training should cover both in an integrated way.
• There must be strong team leadership and management commitment to ensure that all agents take their training seriously and are prepared for all use cases by the deployment date.

Trainer-led sessions

• May take the form of on-site or video training.
• Vendor may train administrators or managers, who will later train remaining staff.
• Allows for interaction with the trainer and greater opportunity to ask questions.
• Difficult for large organizations with many users to be trained.

Self-taught sessions

• Delivered via computer-based training applications, typically through a web browser.
• May include voice training sessions combined with exercises and quizzes.
• More feasible for large, distributed organizations with less flexible schedules.

Info-Tech Insight

Ensure that the training demonstrates not only how the tool should be used, but also the benefits it will provide your staff in terms of improved efficiency and productivity. Users who can clearly see the benefits the tool will provide for their daily work will accept the tool more readily and promote it across the organization.

Step 8: Deploy, monitor, & maintain solution

Phase 1: Plan

1 - Identify & Communicate Goals

2 - Define Scope & Processes

Phase 2: Organize

3 - Determine Implementation Strategy

4 - Organize Project Resources

Phase 3: Build

5 - Design and Build Solution

6 - Test Solution

Phase 4: Deploy

7 - Train Analysts & Users

8 - Deploy and Monitor Solution

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Develop and document your deployment plan.
• Revisit the metrics that you identified in phase 1 and assess against goals.

This step involves the following participants:

• IT Director
• Project Manager
• Service Desk Manager

Outcomes

• Deployment plan, including a plan for cut-over from the old tool (if applicable), release of the new tool, and post-deployment support and maintenance of the tool.

Tools and Deliverables

• Deployment Plan
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist

Make a plan for transitioning from your old tool to ensure continual functionality

If you will have a transitional period during which the current tool will be used alongside the new tool, develop a clear plan for the transition to ensure continued service for your end users.

• If there will be an interim period during which only some aspects of the new ITSM tool are functional, you will need to determine how the new system and old systems will work together for that period of time. This may require creating interfaces, as well as providing user documentation and/or SOPs on how the business processes will operate during the interim period. Cut-over is the period during which the changeover to the new system occurs.
• Cut-over activities need to be tightly choreographed for a successful deployment. If improperly planned, chaos may erupt when unforeseen issues are encountered during deployment, the deployment may be jeopardized, and the organization may encounter costly interruptions to its daily operations.
• Many organizations may leave any open tickets in the old tool until they are closed, which requires that tool run alongside the new tool for a transitional period. In this case, it is necessary to create guidelines around how long the open tickets will remain in the old system and ensure there is clear communication around these processes.

Be prepared for the transition:

• Create a robust cut-over plan that includes when the old tool will be decommissioned, what activities are necessary during the cut-over, and what the contingency plan is in case of unforeseen issues.
• Plan for and perform mock cut-overs to establish the timeline and dependencies for all steps that need to be performed in order to successfully complete the changeover. Do this to avoid any surprises or delays during the true cut-over period.
• Establish cut-over logistics: Create a schedule for resources to work in shifts to avoid burn-out during cut-over which can lead to lapses in judgment and easily avoidable mistakes. Allocate dedicated workspaces for cut-over activities, e.g. “war rooms” for the triage of issues.

Develop and document your deployment plan

8.1 Develop a plan to ensure the transition to the new tool and go-live run smoothly

Create a deployment plan for the transition and release of the new tool using Info-Tech’s Deployment Plan Template.

This includes planning and documenting the following:

1. Deployment strategy and approach
2. Assumptions and risk
3. Deployment schedule
4. Resource allocation
5. Cut-over plan
6. Back-out plan
7. Roll-out plan
8. Go-live support and post-deployment maintenance
9. Notification of deployment

Choose a cut-over approach that works for you

CASE STUDIES

Approaches and insights from three case studies

Case Study #1

"On one day we started recording all new incidents in the new tool, and everything that was open in the old tool remained open for about one month. At that point we transferred over some open incidents but closed old incidents with the view that if anyone really wanted something done that hadn’t been yet, they could re-submit a ticket." – Brett Andrews, Managing Director at BAPTISM Consultancy

Case Study #2

"It made sense for us to start fresh with the new system. We left all of the old tickets in the old system and started the new system with ticket #1. We only had about a dozen open tickets in the old system so we left them there and ran the two tools side by side until those were closed." – CIO, Publishing

Case Study #3

"It depends on the client and the size of their service desk, as well as the complexity of their data and whether they need their old data for reporting. If there are only a dozen open tickets, they can manually move those over easily, and decide whether they want to migrate their historical data for reporting purposes." – Scott Walling, Co-Founder at Monitor 24-7 Inc.

Deploy the solution and any new processes simultaneously to ease the transition

Follow a deployment plan for introducing new processes alongside the new tool to ensure changes to both process and technology are adopted simultaneously.

• If you’re introducing new processes alongside the new tool, it’s important to maintain the link between process and tool. Typically, the processes and tool should be deployed simultaneously unless there is a strong reason not to do so.
• Deployment can be done as a big-bang or phased approach. The decision to employ a phased deployment depends on the number and size of business units the tool will support, as well as the organization’s geography and infrastructure (deployment locations).

Before deployment, conduct readiness assessments to understand whether:

• The people are ready to accept the new system (have received the proper training and communications, and understand how their jobs will change when the switch is flipped).
• The technology is ready (test results are favorable, workarounds and a plan for closure have been identified for any open defects, and the system is performing as expected).
• The data is ready (data for final conversion has been cleansed, and all conversions have been rehearsed).
• The post-deployment support model is ready (infrastructure and technical support is in place, sites are ready, knowledge transfer has been conducted with the support organization, and end users understand procedures for escalation of issues).

Ensure that strong internal support for the project and tool will continue after deployment

Have a post-deployment support plan in place, defining the following:

• What are the roles and responsibilities for ongoing tool administration support?
• What level of support will exist to assist service desk staff after deployment?
• How much time will project team resources devote to tackling upcoming issues and assisting with ongoing support?
• Who will be responsible for ongoing training needs and documentation?
• If your organization is spread across multiple locations, what level of support/assistance will be available at each site?
• How will new code releases or system upgrades be managed and communicated?

The stabilization period after a new software deployment can last between three and nine months, during which there may be continued training needs and fine-tuning of processes. Internal support from project leaders within your organization will be critical to recover from any dip in operational efficiency and deliver the benefits of the tool.

Info-Tech Insight

Deployment is only the first step in the system lifecycle. Full benefit realization from the tool requires ongoing investment and learning to be sustained. Unless processes and training are updated on an on-going basis, benefits gained will start to decrease over time. If your service desk efficiency stagnates at the level it was at prior to implementation, the tool has failed to serve its objective.

Establish ongoing tool maintenance and improvement structures and processes

Establish a process for ongoing review and maintenance of the solution. People, processes, and organizations change over time, and your ITSM tool will need to change to meet expectations.

Develop and execute a plan for the maintenance of the solution and its infrastructure components.

1. Include periodic reviews against business needs and operational requirements (e.g. patches, upgrades, and risk and security requirements).
2. For maintenance updates, use the change management process and assess how an activity will impact solution design, functionality, and business processes.
3. For major changes that result in significant change in current designs, functionality, and/or business processes, follow the development process used for new systems.
4. Ensure that maintenance activities are periodically analyzed for abnormal trends indicating underlying quality or performance problems, cost/benefit of major upgrade, or replacement in lieu of maintenance.

"If you’re not prepared to maintain it, then don’t change systems." – Barry Cousins, Senior Director at Info-Tech Research Group

Assign responsibility for ongoing maintenance. Hold regular meetings for the following activities:

1. Inspect data and reports.
2. Assess whether you’re meeting SLAs.
3. Predict any upcoming changes that may impact ticket volume (e.g. a new operating system or security patch).
4. Create new ticket templates for recurring or upcoming issues.
5. Create new knowledgebase articles.
6. Determine whether ticket categories are being used correctly.
7. Ask team if there are any problems with the tool.

Revisit the metrics that you identified in phase 1 and assess against goals

Revisit your goals for the solution and assess if they are being met by evaluating current metrics. If your goals have not yet been met, re-evaluate how to ensure the tool will deliver value.

Sample High-Level Goals:

1. Improved service desk efficiency
2. Improved end-user satisfaction
3. Improved self-service options for end users
4. Improved data and reporting capabilities

Remember: So long as the implementation of the ITSM solution resulted in improvements in all of the core areas identified in phase 1, the implementation was a success. If you do not fully attain every goal, this is not a sign of failure. Gaps may indicate where deeper improvements to process or more sustained training of project resources are needed.

Record any remaining gaps. These represent challenges and opportunities to be addressed in the organization’s broader ITSM strategy.

Incorporate your ITSM tool and processes into your continual improvement plan

The implementation may be complete, but if you don’t plan for continual improvement of your tool and processes, it may fail to deliver value in the future.

Once your staff becomes familiar with the new tool and processes, build a strategy to optimize the solution and continually improve its functions. Planning for continual improvement from the beginning will ensure the tool will deliver long-term value to the business and continually align to changing business needs and goals.

Download Info-Tech’s blueprint, Build a Service Desk Continual Improvement Plan, for guidance on:

• Assessing your service desk performance.
• Identifying and prioritizing improvement initiatives.
• Building a continual improvement plan and action roadmap.
• Measuring the improvement.

Use the Implementation Checklist to assess whether you’ve completed all of the steps for phase 4

8.2 Use the checklist tool to determine whether you’re ready to move to deploy the ITSM tool

Use Info-Tech’s ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist to ensure that all appropriate steps within the deploy stage of the implementation project have been completed.

Phase 4 includes tasks under the following categories:

• Training and communication
• Deployment strategy
• Cut-over
• Go-live

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The follow are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

7.1 Develop a plan for communicating changes associated with tool

Examine your project planning timeline, determine the most appropriate timing for communications with key stakeholders, and develop the right messages that will help you achieve your goals.

8.1 Develop a plan to manage the transition to the new tool

Create a deployment plan for the transition and release of the new tool using Info-Tech’s Deployment Plan Template.

Summary of accomplishments

Knowledge Gained

• It’s important to align your processes to the tool rather than adapting your processes to match the out-of-the-box functionality of the tool. Evaluate and standardize your processes before configuring the tool to support them and ensure the tool will be able to support any future processes you may implement.
• Whether or not you rely on professional services, there is a lot of work to do to ensure the project will be successful. It’s important to develop and manage a detailed plan to avoid hasty decisions that could undermine the tool’s value in the long run.
• Customization of the solution can hinder its performance down the road, but configurations can ensure the tool will deliver the value you need. However, there’s nothing wrong with an out-of-the-box solution if that’s what works for your organization.
• Testing and training are two steps of the implementation project that must not be overlooked or rushed in order to ensure the tool will run as expected and will be adopted by your users as expected.

Deliverables Completed

• Project Charter Template
• ITSM Tool Implementation Checklist
• Project Planning and Monitoring Tool
• Request for Proposal Template
• User Acceptance Testing Plan Template
• UAT Results Template
• Communications and Training Plan Template
• Deployment Plan Template

Related Info-Tech research

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Vendor Landscape: Enterprise Service Desk Software

Move past tickets to proactive, integrated service.

Vendor Landscape: Mid-Market Service Desk Software

Ensure the productivity of the help desk with the right platform.

Adopt Organizational Change Management Best Practices to Maximize Project Benefits

Don’t let bad change happen to good projects.

Govern and Manage an Enterprise Software Implementation

Don’t outsource your brain: You can’t outsource project accountability to the SI.

Establish a Right-Sized Release and Deployment Management Process

Improve the speed and success rate of your deployments.

Research contributors and experts

Rod Weir

Founder and Managing Director

PRD Software

Nicklas Fredriksson

CEO and ITSM Magician

Penguin Consultants Brasil

Kamal Roz

IT Operations Manager

USO

Gautam Bangalore

Business Analyst

Optus

Michelle Hoyt

Enterprise Application Supervisor

Matanuska-Susitina Borough School District

Anusha Das

IT Governance Analyst-ITIL

Oregon Lottery

Research contributors and experts

Ravi Prakash Singh

MS IS Student

Stevens Institute of Technology

Brett Andrews

Managing Director

BAPTISM Consultancy

Marty Miller-Crispe

Manager – Service Management Office

Griffith University

Vlad de Ramos

General Manager

AIM Corporate Solutions, Inc.

Pete Langlois

Systems Administrator

Century Bank

Scott Walling

Co-founder

Monitor 24-7

Research contributors and experts

Pedro Soto

Managing Director

TOPdesk

Roeland van Rijswijk

Service Management Consultant

TOPdesk

Yev Khovrenkov

IT Consultant

Lucas Gutierrez

End-User Services Manager

City of Santa Fe

Dave Smith

IT Trainer

Quanta Training Ltd.

Select references

Adiga, Siddanth. “10 Reasons Why ITSM Implementations Fail.” Could Strategy, 6 May 2015.

Falkowitz, Robert. IT Tools for the Business when the Business is IT - Selecting and Implementing Service Management Tools. London: The Stationery Office, 2011.

Hastie, Shane and Stéphane Wojewoda. “Standish Group 2015 Chaos Report.” InfoQ, 4 October 2015.

“How to Manage Change in the Implementation of an ITSM Software.” C2, 20 April 2015.

Hubbard, Peter , and Michael Jenkins. “Thinking Outside the ‘Out of the Box’ ITSM Tool Implementation.” Pink Elephant, 16 April 2014.

“Implementation a New IT Service Management Tool: Free Guidance from ITSM Industry Leaders and Experts.” Cherwell, 2015.

Mainville, David. “7 Steps to a Successful ITSM Tool Implementation.” Navvia, 2012.

Rae, Barclay. “Preparing for ITSM Tool Implementation.” Joe the IT Guy, 24 June 2015.

Rae, Barclay. “Successful ITSM Tool Implementation.” 9 May 2013.

“The Seven Key Challenges of a Service Desk Software Rollout.” Monitor 24-7 Inc., 2013.