Change/Releases Calendar - Is it possible to have a Service Request Calendar?

[mojahidm]

Hi team,

Is it possible to have a Service Request Calendar, as there is a Change and Releases Calendar?

There are some standard, low risk changes, such as a large number of user accounts being created

If this feature doesn't exist, could it be considered for the future?

Many thanks,

Mojahid

[James Ainsworth]

Hi @mojahidm

Is there is reason why you wouldn't use a Change request for the creation of a large number of user accounts?  I do agree that a Service Request can be a form of standard, low risk change, and these can usually be moved out of Change Management and mostly automated, keeping the more complex and higher impact work in the world of Change Management.  Personally, I would put a request to add a new user under Service Requests, but for larger batches of users, I may lean more toward a change, but I'm sure that every situation will be unique. 

As more work goes into the Change Calendar, we will be dealing with schedules, authorisations, backout periods, change conflicts, and management of higher impact changes.  It is really being build up for the Change Management function.  The direction of the Service Request is more focused on the Can I have...? type of request from a user, rather than work planned by IT.

I would always be interested to understand more about how you would like to use this.  Who is the intended audience that needs to see when Service Requests are going to be fulfilled and what are the benefits that they are looking for?  

Regards,

  

[mojahidm]

Hi @James Ainsworth

The intended audience that would need to see when the Service Requests are going to be fulfilled would be a group of analysts (i.e. Servicedesk UK). The reason behind this is that currently, external customers will raise Service Requests asking us to make amendments to their system. For example, a change in the pricing of sales items, entering a closed date, creating a new category. Quite often, these changes have to be scheduled and cannot be completed until a particular day, such as after a bank holiday or when a new promotional deal becomes active. Different analysts will action these Service Requests and the idea behind the calendar is that we can have a view of all Service Requests on a particular day, thereby being able to cover for anyone who is off sick (Someone else could pick up the scheduled SR Work).

As you mentioned, the higher impact and more complex work would go through the change process, but changing 10p to 30p on a particular day would be raised as a SR by our external customers.

This is a nice option to have, rather than a must and therefore something I'd like to bring to Hornbill's attention if any discussions for future improvements regarding the change calendar occurs :-)

Kind Regards,
Mojahid

[James Ainsworth]

Thanks for your feedback @mojahidm