The ITS transformation to the Service Management Program was completed on June 30th, 2016. Current program information is now on the Service Management Office website.
Please refer to http://smo.psu.edu for information and questions.
Delivering the core needs first
IT Transformation is changing the way we all work together, and the transformation is happening within an Agile development model. The core values of the Agile Manifesto are:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change over following a plan
Instead of lengthy requirement gathering followed by deep tool development, the Service Management Program is facilitating the common core of Penn State service management, and adding to the documentation and tools in an iterative way.
Strictly speaking, the process standards and tool configuration will never be “done.” They will always be in a state of continuous quality improvement and modification, and will change with Penn State’s and IT’s needs. This allows the common, most used features to take priority in development, and produces a tool that brings the most value to the University in the shortest amount of time.
It also means that for some people, the tool is not going to be ideal for all their use in the initial rollout. The Service Management Office will have developers and a support model to continue developing and refining the tool throughout its life.
Ways that initial requirements were gathered
Penn State IT Shared Process and Policy Workshops
… creating the “how”
Participants from Outreach Information Technology (9), ITS (4), Smeal College of Business (4), Penn State Harrisburg (2), and Penn State York (2) collaborated in facilitated sessions to take the high-level industry best practices and agree on a common level of process and policy for each of the 11 processes that are in scope.
Penn State IT Shared Process and Policy Standards Peer Review
… getting broader input on the “how”
Each baseline document that was created in the workshops was released to all of Penn State for comments and suggestions. Edits and clarifications were made to the standards based on the Qualtrics survey results. Response rates ranged from 35 to 70 reviewers for each of the 11 processes. Most standards have gone through two or three rounds of peer review using the Delphi technique. Reviewers had to respond to each version in order to receive the next.
Penn State IT Shared Procedure Workshops
… documenting the “what”
Using the same model of the shared process and policy workshops, attendees walked through the process flow and documented common steps that all of Penn State will use.
ITS Unit Procedure Workshops
… finding the “what else”
Much like the shared procedure workshops, ITS sent liaisons from every subunit (with the self-exceptions of IdS and Data Centers) to collaborate on the documentation of any additional needs for ITS.
How we keep making it better
ITS has a duty to align to the shared processes that were created for Penn State. If the process or tool cannot work for your business need, your first step is to contact the ITS process manager. One of the local process manager’s responsibilities is to document outstanding needs and take them to the Service Management Office or the Project Portfolio Management office, where changes to the processes or tools can be facilitated across Penn State IT. Contact information for identified process managers can be found at smo.psu.edu/contact-us.