Joskos implements FITS (Framework for ICT Technical Support)

With Good practise at the top of the agenda for ICT service management in Schools Joskos have invested heavily in their support and management staff to become ITIL V3 certified and implemented “good practise” processes and guidelines as prescribed by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) V.3.

 Incident Management

ITIL defines an incident as “any event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes, or may cause, an interruption to, or a reduction in, the quality of service.” Incident management, therefore, is basically the process of restoring operations as quickly as possible with minimal adverse impact on business operations.

Incidents can be classified into three primary categories: Software (applications), hardware, and service requests. (Note that service requests are not always regarded as an incident, but rather a request for change. However, the handling of failures and the handling of service requests are similar and therefore are included in the definition and scope of the process of incident management.)

 Problem management

 Problem Management aims to resolve the root causes of incidents and thus to minimize the adverse impact of incidents and problems on business that are caused by errors within the IT infrastructure, and to prevent recurrence of incidents related to these errors. A `problem’ is an unknown underlying cause of one or more incidents, and a `known error’ is a problem that is successfully diagnosed and for which either a work-around or a permanent resolution has been identified.

A problem is a condition often identified as a result of multiple incidents that exhibit common symptoms. Problems can also be identified from a single significant incident, indicative of a single error, for which the cause is unknown, but for which the impact is significant.

 A known error is a condition identified by successful diagnosis of the root cause of a problem, and the subsequent development of a work-around.

Problem management differs from incident management. The principal purpose of problem management is to find and resolve the root cause of a problem and prevention of incidents; the purpose of incident management is to return the service to normal level as soon as possible, with smallest possible business impact.

The problem-management process is intended to reduce the number and severity of incidents and problems on the business, and report it in documentation to be available for the first-line and second line of the help desk. The proactive process identifies and resolves problems before incidents occur. Such processes include:

• Trend analysis;
• Targeting support action;
• Providing information to the organization

The Error Control Process iteratively diagnoses known errors until they are eliminated by the successful implementation of a change under the control of the Change Management process.

The Problem Control Process aims to handle problems in an efficient way. Problem control identifies the root cause of incidents and reports it to the service desk. Other activities are:

• Problem identification and recording
• Problem classification
• Problem investigation and diagnosis

The standard technique for identifying the root cause of a problem is to use an Ishikawa diagram, also referred to as a cause-and-effect diagram, tree diagram, or fishbone diagram. A brainstorming session—in which group members offer product-improvement ideas typically results in an Ishikawa diagram. For problem-solving, the goal is to find causes and effects of the problem.

A meta-model can define Ishikawa diagrams.

First there is the main subject, which is the backbone of the diagram that we are trying to solve or improve. The main subject is derived from a cause.

The relationship between a cause and an effect is a double relation: an effect is a result of a cause, and the cause is the root of an effect. But there is just one effect for several causes and one cause for several effects.

Change Management  

 In the ITIL framework, change management is responsible for controlling change to all configuration items in the configuration management database, (or “CIs” in the CMDB) within the live environment, test and training environments (all environments under the control of ‘ICT Operations’.

 Source www.wikipedia.org

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