The printer that was fixed too well
A school printer breaks. The IT team swaps it for a new one in ten minutes. The ticket is closed. The team is pleased.
But the finance office PCs cannot use the new printer. Finance must print the month-end reports by noon. They cannot.
The fix worked. The service did not.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| IT service | help from the IT team that lets people do their work, such as email, Wi-Fi or a printer |
| ITSM | IT service management: running IT as a service for people, not only as machines |
| Customer | a person or group that uses a service |
| Provider | the team that runs the service, such as the IT department |
| Value | the good that people get from using a service |
| Co-creation | making something together, with each side doing a part |
| Change | anything new that is added to, or removed from, a live system |
| Department | one part of an organisation, such as finance or the library |
| Scope | how wide something reaches, and who it touches |
| Impact | the effect that a change has on people and systems |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can describe the four ideas of IT service management and use each one to judge a real situation.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
What ITSM is
ITSM is a way of running IT that starts with people. The question is not "is the server up?" The question is "can people do their work?"
ITSM has four main ideas. Each one answers a mistake that IT teams often make.
The four ideas
| Idea | In plain words | The mistake it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Co-creation of value | Provider and customer make the value together | IT thinks it alone makes the service good |
| Great customer experience | How the service feels matters, not only that it works | A closed ticket and an unhappy user |
| Wider scope and impact of change | Think about everyone a change touches | A fix in one place that breaks another |
| Working across departments | Learn how other teams use the systems | IT building what nobody needs |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
Idea 1: value is made together
IT gives a laptop service. A teacher uses it to teach a lesson. The value is the lesson, and neither side makes it alone.
IT must listen to what the teacher needs. The teacher must report faults and follow the rules. This is a service relationship: both sides have a part.
Quick check
Have a go
Quick check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.