University IT
About Service Management
What is Service Management?
IT Service Management (ITSM) refers to all the activities involved in designing, creating, delivering, supporting, and managing the lifecycle of IT services. There are a number of established frameworks that provide best practices for these activities, of which ITIL is the most popular. ServiceNow is the cloud-based service management tool that University IT (UIT) has selected to manage our services, and it closely aligns with the ITIL framework.
What is a Service?
In UIT, we define a service from the user’s perspective. It’s a consistent, repeatable UIT capability that provides value by enabling Stanford community members to achieve a specific goal - like sending an email, connecting to WiFi, teaching in a classroom, or analyzing research data.
Every service has a clearly defined scope and is supported by an accountable Service Manager and team. We make it easy for users to get the service and find help, and we keep all service information accurate and up to date. We also design and improve our services based on feedback from users.
Simply put, a service is the "what" the user gets, not the "how" we deliver it.
What is not a service:
- A one-time task: For example, “reset my password” is a request made to the Accounts service, not a service itself.
- A single technology or system component: We don’t offer “AWS” or “switches” as a service.
- Exception: We use well-known brand names (like Slack, Zoom, or Canvas) when a generic name would be more confusing to users.
- A project: Projects create or improve services, but they are not the services themselves.
- A policy: Policies inform how a service runs, but they are not the service.
What every service includes:
- Purpose and outcomes: What the service helps you do, written in plain, non-technical language.
- Eligibility: Who can use the service (e.g., students, faculty, staff, affiliates).
- How to get it: Steps to access or request the service, including any needed approvals.
- What’s included: Features, options, limits, and prerequisites (like needing a SUNet ID). If similar services are offered, the service is included in a comparison chart with the other services.
- How to get help: support hours and contact channels.
- Guides and FAQs: linked SNOW knowledge articles that are maintained with the service.
- Service expectations: Details on availability, maintenance windows, criticality level/expectations, and expected response times.
- Data and privacy: supported data types, security information, and user responsibilities.
- Cost: Whether it’s centrally funded or fee-based, with any one-time or recurring charges.
- Ownership: While not published, our systems reflect a service manager and last review date.
- Changes and notices: How we communicate changes that affect users.
- Feedback: A clear way for users to provide feedback about the service.
Identifying the members of your Service Team
Each member of the service team plays a specific role that comes with identified responsibilities. Review the following definitions to help you identify the members of your service team.
About this toolkit
The information you will find in this toolkit is UIT best practices based on the ITIL framework and refined to meet our specific needs. These needs are defined by the experts in each of the functional areas. For example, the UIT Finance team was involved in validating and approving the process and documentation for the Finance module. Other UIT teams helped validate and approve other service activities.
Information in the toolkit tracks the three major components of the service life-cycle:
- Develop and Launch Your Service
- Manage and Improve your Service
- Retire Your Service
