Creating Service Groups for Your Service Catalogue – Part 1

Last updated: January 10, 2020

The Docusnap documentation tool comes with a feature that allows you to create so-called system groups. In addition, it enables you to map IT systems as functionally related arrangements. The theoretical approach to this has its seeds in the ITIL library. The ITIL discipline called “Service Design” describes how to define and maintain a service catalogue, so this document is an ideal guideline when creating your IT documentation. The system groups in Docusnap are a means to assist you with mapping the relevant arrangements or groups to the service catalogue. A system group may also be referred to as a single IT service.

In our blog post titled Building Your Service Catalogue and Service Portfolio, we already explained some basic concepts of this topic. Here, we would like to show you a way to implement them in practice.

Getting an overview

In the first step, you will perform a comprehensive inventory of the network, i.e. scan all IT systems. This really means each and every existing IT system. Otherwise, the inventory database (CMDB) will be incomplete right from the start and the subsequent definition of IT services will miss out some of your IT systems. Data for all IT systems that cannot be scanned automatically through the network must be recorded manually, but this should be the exception rather than the rule. Your aim should be to have Docusnap inventory all IT systems continuously. Unfortunately, some IT systems actually do not lend themselves to network-based inventorying. If, for instance, the firewall is configured correctly, it will hardly be recognised in the network. Server cabinets and air condition systems are not very chatty either, which is due to their missing network connection.

Make sure to always scan the full IP address ranges and compare this scan result to the results of the individual inventory scans made by operation system or the SMNP inventories. This is an additional way to verify that none of the IT systems has escaped the inventory.

Defining system groups and services

When the inventory scan is done, you can go to the second step, i.e. defining the system groups. This step requires professional skills as you need to be quite familiar with the computing system and have a good overview of the hardware, software, processes, and services in use. Above all, you must know what these are good for. At any rate, make sure to also get the help from each technical department and the respective system admins, as they surely know their own systems in and out.

But what, in fact, are system groups? All of the hardware and software as well as external services related to your network have been purchased for a particular purpose. This purpose represents the IT service, and, thus, the system group. It is recommended that you use the same name for the system group and its IT service. Each IT service should further be given a unique number, such as IT-SF-xx. IT-SF stands for IT Service Folder, while xx represents a consecutive two- or three-digit number. This simplifies things a lot.

But how best to arrange these system groups? This is hard to say, since it highly depends – as in other cases – on the configuration of your network. Grouping the systems by technical or functional aspects might prove to be a viable option. Mail servers, directory services, network, application software, firewalls, file servers, Wifi access points, ERP system, workplace management, physical wiring, VPN, server hardware, etc. – all of these can represent separate IT services. Defining your first system groups will be a bit of a struggle, but don’t worry, simply get started. It would be an illusion to believe that you can find the perfect arrangement in the first go. Probably, you will have to go through a few cycles and adjustments. Make sure that you do not forget external service providers or cloud services. Both should be taken into account when defining the system groups, as other services, which are not covered by your own networked IT systems, might have to be added.

Then, appoint a person who will be responsible for each IT service, i.e. a service manager. But be careful! This might easily cause misunderstandings in the IT department, as the responsibility for an IT service does not automatically mean that the very person will also be responsible for administering the associated systems in the future. This is often misunderstood and then results in an attitude of rejection. However, it is absolutely necessary that the person responsible for a service coordinates all activities related to the associated hardware and software and therefore must know and agree to all changes beforehand. This takes us to the topic of change management. The service manager defines the targets of the IT service and is accountable for them. For example, these targets might refer to costs and availability. It goes without saying that a service manager can, at the same time, be the system administrator. When defining responsibilities, take your time to thoroughly explain yourself so that the employees correctly understand and follow your reasoning.

If an IT system cannot be assigned to any service, it might as well be switched off in most cases. This way, you finally do some sort of “housekeeping” in your IT landscape. You will certainly come across one or another computing system which actually is not needed any longer. By assigning hardware of the same type to the same IT service, you can more easily uncover potential for optimisation. In structures that have grown over a long time, you often find a surprisingly high number of devices which are still in use or could have been grouped into a single service long ago.

Read the second part of this blog to learn how to continue the definition of system groups.