Change Request / RFC

[asrilrm]

Hi, I am working for an IT company, and the company now is toward implementing ITIL. I am given the responsibility on the change management.

I would like to ask about Change Request or RFC. I've seen from some models that RFCs are only internal sheet, and the Change Management Team have no responsibility for change requests that came from customers. Is this true?
To be more specific, if a customer sends a letter that asks for a change, who will be responsible for receiving the letter and calculating the charge that would be applied to the customer?

Thanks in advance

[UKVIKING]

First

Has any of the staff taken any of the ITIL courses ?

Foundation, Practioner etc

whether iti si ITIL v2 or v3 ?

From the question, I gather that you have not taken the foundation class.

Please, please ask your mgmt to get you to take at the the foundaiton course. It will help you get a foundation in ITIL at least

Second, if your company palns to implement ITIL, some one needs to know what it is. Get a consultant who is ITIL certified to help you all get started

As to your question.
Part 1
In ITIL,, All communications come through the Service Desk. So the Service Desk should receive the paper chaneg request from the customer
This is Incident Management and the Function - Service Desk

Part 2
There should be a contract with the customer with an Service Level Agreement which would state what the basic charges for changes

Usually, the customer has # number of changes per time period - month, quarter - that they can get without a charge. beyond that, there is a charge. Usually the charge is a set charge for the change

Part 2a

There shoudl be some sort of a service catalogue that says what services are available, what the cost/charge for the change is.

This is Service Level Management (SLM)

Part 2b

If the cost of the charge is variable, then the Financial Accounting and Budget office or some thing shoud have a say in this. In addition, the Contract with the customer should state the charge sheet so that the costing model is known

This is both SLM and Financial Management for IT

Part 2c

There should be a individual / team for the follow

Customer relationship management
Charge Costing

This is Financial Management for IT.

Part 3

The work flow for the change request should view like this

RFC fm Cust -> Service Desk -> Cost team w/ change cost -> service desk
Service Desk -> customer - customer approve cost -> service desk
service desk -> build change in tool
tech and non technical build is done by someone
complete change
assign appropriate change model / priority / categoru as part of tool
send to approvals for the appropriate model
approve change (Change advisory board if necessary)
build and test change package (if required)
Implement change package
test implemented change - technical and customer
complete change if good
communication to customer good or bad news
back out if bad
review change from change mgmt review process (Post Implementation Review)
close change

Part 4

Change Management (CM) should be for all operational IT environments

Internal CM can be for desktop etc
Internal CM can be for infrastructure - facilities, network, servers, applications
then you have customer CM
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[asrilrm]

Some of our staff have taken ITIL course but haven't taken the certification exam yet. I myself have not been in any ITIL course.
I might consider asking the management to take one.
Thanks alot for your information, I really appreciate it.
I might come back with a bunch of silly questions, so I hope you won't be annoyed

[OhioScott]

First I agree with your comments.

My question has to do with your thoughts regarding the 'ITIL Light' versions that exist.

I don't know if there are many versions in the European theatre, but over in the States, there are as many versions as there are practitioners and many of the consultants are willing to give the customer what they want rather than what is proper according to ITIL.

That being said, my question to you then is what is your take on staged implementations of ITIL that first attempt to address the controls and reporting issues via policies and then the modification of the existing processes based upon the outcome of said reports?

The goal of this is to get the dinosaur to realize why it must turn instead of getting yourself trampled trying to make it turn because you said so.

[UKVIKING]

asrilrm

No worries. Silly questions are ok

So are any questions

OhioScott:

ITIL Lite ? What is that ?
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[OhioScott]

In reference to ITIL Lite... its a term several of us have bandied about in reference to borrowing some aspect of ITIL for implementation while ignoring others. Sometimes it might be the omission of the CAB while in others it might be the bastardization of the entire Change process to fit certain client expectations. The result is not truly an ITIL process implementation but its enough to satisfy the customer.

Invariably the result is that while some improvement is realized, the core issues are never truly addressed because of the process short-cuts. I believe this is one of the reasons for the stringency (besides the capital gains) on the recognition of training providers.

This has been a common practice with some consultants in the US space... give the people what they want rather than what they need then milk them for additional improvements when long-term expectations aren't met. I'm sure it happens elsewhere.

But I'm interested in how to manage a long-term change process... mapped out over a couple of years... so as not to appear as one of these hucksters and the opinion of others in the ITIL arena.