Service request management practice

Service request management practice (hereinafter, the Practice) is the practice to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all predefined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner. The Practice relates to service request and service management. This Practice is a part of the ITIL practices.

Definitions

According to the ITIL Foundation 4e by Axelos,

Service request management practice. The practice of supporting the agreed quality of a service by handling all predefined, user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.

Purpose

The purpose of the service request management practice is to support the agreed quality of a service by handling all agreed user-initiated service requests in an effective and user-friendly manner.

Requests

A service request is 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.

Characteristics

Service requests are pre-defined and pre-agreed and can usually be formalized with clear, standard procedures. Service requests are a normal part of service delivery, not a failure or degradation of service, which are handled as incidents. Fulfillment of service requests may include changes to services or their components; usually these are standard changes. Service requests may have simple workflows or quite complex workflows. Some service requests require authorization according to financial, information security or other policies.

Examples

Some examples of a service request:

• Request for a service delivery action
• Request for information
• Request for provision of a resource or service
• Request access to a resource or service
• Feedback, compliments and complaints

Best practices

Standardization and automation

Service requests and their fulfillment should be standardized and automated to the greatest degree possible:

• Opportunities for improvement should be identified and implemented to produce faster fulfillment times and take additional advantage of automation.
• Some service requests can provide a self-service experience – completely fulfilled with automation.
• Service request management depends on well-designed processes and procedures, which are operationalized through tracking and automation tools.

Policies and workflows

• Policies should be established regarding what service requests will be fulfilled with limited or even no additional approvals so that fulfillment can be streamlined.
• The expectations of users regarding fulfillment times should be clearly set, based on what the organization can realistically deliver.
• Policies and workflows are needed to redirect service requests that should actually be managed as incidents or changes.
• Steps to fulfill requests should be well-known and proven.
• Leverage existing workflow models whenever possible to improve efficiency and maintainability.
• The service provider can agree to fulfillment times and provide clear status communication to users