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Creating a Configuration Item in ServiceNow

ServiceNow Configuration Item (CI)

When constructing a CI, keep in mind that the focus of the information is to provide the support teams with the information they need to quickly resolve incidents and manage change requests.

The following are the required fields in the Configuration Item: 

  • Service Name: Select a name that is meaningful for support staff, as they need to quickly find the service in ServiceNow. This can include the vendor product name. 
  • Service Description: Should be a short and concise description of the service that is relevant and meaningful for support staff.
  • Business Unit: For UIT provided services, the Business Unit is UIT
  • Department (UIT options include):
    • IT Infrastructure Services
    • Client Experience and Solutions
    • Information Security Office
    • Enterprise Technology
    • Service Strategy
    • Research Computing
    • Office of the CIO
  • WorkGroup: The pull-down menu will display the Workgroups associated with the Department selected in the previous field.
  • Maintenance Schedule: The maintenance schedule defines the time when scheduled and approved work on the service will be completed. Many workgroups in UIT have adopted the following maintenance schedule: 
    • Thursday, 4 to 6 p.m.
    • Saturday, 5 to 8 a.m.
    • Sunday, 5 to 8 a.m.

Check with the service manager if you are unsure about the maintenance time for your service. If your service maintenance window is different than the standard, please document in this field.

Services purchased from cloud vendors typically build in redundancy and geo-diversity, and as such, do not have published maintenance windows, although some vendors send notifications of major scheduled work. Vendor notifications should be submitted as informational changes through the Change Advisory Board (CAB).

  • Service Tiers: Service Tiers define the path these define the path a ticket will take to resolve. The following is an example of Assignment Tiers for a UIT service:
    1. Tier 1 - UIT Service Desk 
    2. Tier 2 - UIT Service Desk ETS 
    3. Tier 3  - Typically the workgroup offering the service
    4. Tier 4  - Typically the team with the most knowledge and skill in supporting the service. 
  • Vendor: Provide the vendor name

Service Criticality

The following table can help you determine your service criticality level. If you'd like more information on how to assess criticality for your service, visit the Service Criticality webpage in the IT Resilience toolkit (access restricted).

1 - Critical

Mission-critical services that require continuous availability. Breaks in service are intolerable and significantly damaging and may represent significant financial and reputational impact. These services could also provide major dependencies for other services. Work is performed 24x7 to restore production availability. 

 
2 - Major Business-critical services are those that require continuous availability for effective business operation, though short breaks in service are not catastrophic. 
3 - Moderate Business-operational -  These services contribute to the efficient running of business operations. These services have limited dependencies on other services, and "workarounds" may be available. 
 
4 - Minor These services are on the level of office productivity tools that are required in order for the business to operate. Outages are undesirable but can be tolerated. There is no justification for additional expenses to provide a higher degree of service availability. 

It is not necessary to identify staff for approval at each level, in fact; if no one is identified, the change approval requests roll up to the Business Owner. However, best practice dictates that at least one person be identified in each of the risk categories.

  • Creating OnCall Instructions: The OnCall field provides the IT Operations Center (ITOC) with the service-specific instructions they need to address after-hours incidents. This is REQUIRED for all services with a Service Criticality Level of 1, 2 or 3. 

OnCall instructions should include the following:

  1. Triage instructions (if applicable).
  2. Whom to contact in the event of service disruption and the best contact method, OR a link to the service’s on-call schedule with contact information. 
  3. If this is not an SCL of 1 or 2, please note  “N/A” in the “OnCall” field.
  4. Some Service Owners also add support group-specific information in the Assignment Field. To do so, click on the Info (“I”) button next to an assignment group, AND reference this in the OnCall field.

The following is an example of  instructions that ITOC expects to see in the OnCall field:

  • After confirming service down, Call the following:
    • 1st: 1-251-255-4154 x8 (leave message)
    • 2nd: Mgr of "UIT ADV Systems Infrastructure" group
  • See additional information on "UIT ADV Systems Infrastructure" group
  • AND in all cases call or text (name) and/or (phone number)
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