#Entry 6 - Much ado about Service Requests
Sudipto Banerjee
Director- Consulting, ITIL Ambassador, IT Service Management/ Project Management, Certified Scrum Product Owner
Service Request- It might be hard to believe but most people whom I have asked the difference between an incident and service request, have got it wrong. So, I thought today I will write a little about a service request.
The term ‘service request’ is used as a generic description for many different types of demands that are placed upon the IT organization by the users. Many of these are typically requests for small changes that are low risk, frequently performed, low cost etc. (e.g., a request to change a password, a request to install an additional software application onto a particular workstation, a request to relocate some items of desktop equipment) or may be just a request for information.
Cannon, D. L., & Taylor, S. (2011). ITIL Service Operation. TSO.
Oddly though, the name of the process which was responsible for managing the lifecycle of service requests was not called Service Request management process but Request fulfilment process.
Request Fulfilment is the process for dealing with Service Requests – many of them smaller, lower-risk, changes – initially via the Service Desk, but using a separate process like that of Incident Management but with separate Request Fulfilment records/tables –where necessary linked to the Incident or Problem Record(s) that initiated the need for the request.
Office of Government Commerce. (2007). Service Operation (1st ed.). The Stationery Office.
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In ITIL4 though, in my opinion, this apparent incongruity was corrected. The purpose of the service request management practice is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all pre-defined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner. A request from a user or a user’s authorized representative that initiates a service action which has been agreed as a normal part of service delivery.
Office, T. S. (2020). ITIL Foundation, ITIL (ITIL 4 Foundation) (4th ed.). The Stationery Office.
With the advent of ITIL4, there are conversations happening in the higher corridors of IT about how automation can be imbibed in the service request practice. I loved the below case study on this.
PS: It might seem that the concept of a service request is simple and straight forward. But then again, I wonder why so many people get this concept wrong.