Using VoIP Softphones

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Using VoIP Softphones

• 3UET
• Session 4

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Processes and Procedures

• What is a process?
• Collection of tasks/activities undertaken to
  produce a desired result
• What is a procedure?
• Step-by-step set of instructions describing how
  to perform the task/activities

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Processes and Procedures

• Why do we need processes and procedures in a user
  support environment?
• To produce consistent results
• To ensure people know what to do and why
• To ensure problems are solved quickly and
  correctly
• Where more than one person is involved, each
  person knows what their role is
• Where did the concept of processes and procedures
  originate?
• 1776 philosopher and economist Adam Smith
  introduced his principle of the division of labour

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Quality Improvement

• Quality improvement programs should be integrated
  into all of the organisations processes should
  not be an add on!
• TQM
• Developed in 1950s in Japan based on Edward
  Demings model
• ISO9000
• Set of universal standards for a quality
  assurance system
• 2nd standard is ISO9001
• Registration is a must for companies to be
  accepted internationally
• ITIL

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Activity Group Work

• Each group to read section assigned to them from
  the knapp handout
• Problem Management
• Request Management
• Knowledge Management
• Change Management
• Asset Configuration Management
• Summarise to the class what each process is about

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Problem Management

• Process of tracking resolving problems
• An event that disrupts service or access to
  products
• Goal to minimise impact of problems
• Includes the following activities
• Problem recognition
• Reporting and logging
• Problem determination
• Bypass and recovery (workaround)
• Resolution
• Management Review

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Problem Management

• Management review tasks differentiates problem
  tracking management
• Problem tracking follows one problem from
  recognition to resolution
• Problem management reviews all problems

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Request Management

• Process of collecting maintaining information
  about customer requests
• Request is a customer order or request to obtain
  a new product or service or enhancement to
  existing
• Common requests include
• Moves
• Adds
• Changes to printers, pcs, applications
• Goal is to identify and document the tasks
  required to satisfy requests and ensure that
  appropriate resources are assigned

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Request Management

• Difference between problem and request management
  is a request is for access they never had, as a
  problem is preventing them from gaining access to
  a system, product, or network they were
  previously able to use.

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Request Management

• Includes the following activities
• Request entry
• Assessment
• Management approval
• Implementation
• Management review
• Request management analyses request trends
  compared to tracking requests through to
  implementation

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Knowledge Management

• Todays problems and requests are recurring
• This is why companies continuously enter the
  information needed to resolve known problems and
  requests into knowledge bases
• Knowledge base is a collection of information
  sources such as
• Customer information
• Documents
• Policies
• Procedures
• Incident resolutions

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Knowledge Management

• Knowledge management is the process of gathering
  and maintaining a companys information assets
  (knowledge)
• Goal is to enable the support organisation and
  customers to share and reuse previously acquired
  knowledge.

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Knowledge Management

• Includes the following activities
• Knowledge capture
• Knowledge review
• Knowledge revision
• Knowledge approval
• Management review

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The change management process

• Process of controlling changes to the production
  environment while minimizing service disruptions
• Change management allows a change to occur as
  quickly as possible with the least amount of risk
  and impact. (Knapp)

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Change Management

• Activities
• Change entry
• Technical assessment
• Business assessment
• Management approval
• Monitor test
• Monitor installation
• Management review

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Asset Configuration Management

• The process of collecting and maintaining
  information about IT assets and showing the
  relationships that exist among those assets
• Consists of two processes
• Asset management focused on capturing financial
  information, such as license and warranty
• Configuration management focused on capturing
  non-financial information

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Asset Configuration Management

• Activities include
• Purchase request processing
• Change request processing
• Management review

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Integration of Help desk Processes
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Integration of Help desk Processes via CMDB
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The change management process

• See page 137 Knapp for Change Management Process
  flow chart

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The change management process

• Types of change management processes
• Group or committee to assess
• Weekly change assessment meetings
• Changes on a certain day of the week

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The change management process

• SAMPLE Change categories not all changes are
  equal!
• Most critical changes. Will make a major impact
  on delivery of services if problems occur during
  change implementation.
• Provide a greater degree of exposure and
  increased impact on delivery of services if
  problems occur.
• Minor impact on customer services if problems
  occur.
• Least significant changes will cause little or
  no impact if problems occur.
• Emergency Fall into any of the above categories
  but are not classified as normal changes.

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The change management process

• SAMPLE LEAD TIMES

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The change management process

• The process
• Begins by a person or group requesting the change
• Best to create a standard method for people to
  request changes
• EXERCISE 2
• Get into small groups and design a form suitable
  for logging a change request

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CiscoChange Planning

• Ciscos change requests include the following
  (how does it compare with yours?
• Name of person requesting change
• Date submitted
• Target date for implementing change
• Change control number (supplied by the change
  controller)
• Help desk tracking number (if applicable)
• Risk level of change
• Description of change
• Target system name and location
• User group contact (if available)
• Lab tested (yes or no)
• Description of how the change was tested
• Test Plan
• Backout Plan
• If successful, will change migrate to other
  locations (yes/no)
• Prerequisites of other changes to make this
  change successful