Support Readiness

What is Support Readiness?

"Support Readiness" means having all of the pieces, documentation and training in place to be able to support a service. Support Readiness is important for both new services and service changes.

About service changes:

Often, when a service is changed, either in its technology or its description, the change can impact how the service is supported. For some changes such as applying a patch to the OS or adding more storage space, the clients are not impacted; the service doesn't change and support doesn't change. However, other changes to a service may be client-impacting or may impact the Support Center. The Support Readiness process helps to identify client- or Support Center- impacting changes and what must be in place in order to support the newly changed service.

What is the Service Definition/Support Readiness Checklist?

The Support Readiness elements are identified on the Service Definition Checklist. The Checklist should be used to identify materials and related tasks needed to support (or change support for) a service. It is organized by the five service definition questions: What is the Service? How do I get it? How much does it cost? How does ITS support it? How does ITS deliver it? 

Where is the Checklist Located?

The Service Definition/Support Readiness Checklist can be found in ITS' Service Management Toolkit. It is also in the ITS Knowledge Base, as KB article KB0017091 (available internally to ITS staff).

How is the Checklist Used?

When planning a change to a service, a Service Manager can use the Service Definition/Support Readiness Checklist to build the complete list of tasks that are necessary before implementing a change. In effect, Support Readiness answers the question, "Is the Support Center* ready for the change to my service?" The answer is, "Yes," when the relevant items on the checklist are created, completed, and documented.

*Note: Some changes also affect other support organizations, such as Desktop Support, Client Relationship Management and Academic Divisional Computing. It is important to include representatives from all affected support organizations in the Support Readiness process.

The Checklist is designed to be a comprehensive list and an individual change to a service may not require everything on the Checklist.

The best way to approach the checklist is to read it over, and strike off the items that don't pertain to your project or change. This should be done in consultation with your service/project team and representatives of the groups responsible for supporting the service (Support Center, CRM, etc.).

The Checklist exists as a Google document and progress can be tracked directly in the Google doc or the items can be incorporated into a project plan or other tools, e.g. as Change TASKS in SlugHub.

Additional Information

For additional information, to inquire about Service Manager mentoring, or for feedback on this toolkit, please contact Client Services and Support using the ITS Feedback form.