Skip to content | Change text size
 

ITS Procedure - Prioritising Service Problems

1. Introduction

Provides standards for and processes for categorisation of IT service problems and request for assistance. A Procedure of the ITS Service Problem and Critical Incident Management Policy.

2. Responsible Officer

Director - Client Services, ITS

3. Definitions

Senior Problem Manager - will be a senior staff member of the ITS Client Services or Production Facilities section. This role must always be occupied and be designated to a staff member.

4. Scope

Covers all problems and requests for assistance notified to ITS and specifies how such problems/requests are prioritised for resolution.

5. Procedures

This section defines who allocates priorities and how they are designated. The resolution of service problems should be managed in priority order. The ITS Service Desk normally allocates priorities as requests/problems are received. Production Facilities staff will be responsible for monitoring system alerts and logging service problems directly into the Service Desk software. Where a a Priority 1 or 2 problem is suspected, the Service Desk or other ITS staff member MUST notify the Senior Problem Manager immediately.

Priority 1

Priority 1 is defined as the total inability to perform the normal operation of any significant business function of the University.. This could be caused by system unavailability, major hardware failure, network failure or software problems. The result is that the affected function cannot operate normally, and the problem causes a major impact to Monash University services. Services affected by a Priority 1 problem are classified as important and must be fixed urgently. 

Affects:

  • The whole of Monash University
  • Significant University business function originating from or complete network outage at a Major campus - Clayton, Caulfield, Gippsland, Peninsula, Berwick, Malaysia, South Africa, Pharmacy.

Critical Services: includes but not limited to -

  • SAP
  • Callista
  • MDS
  • MMS
  • internet
  • Novell services
  • Phone -PABX
  • Monash web site
  • my.monash portal
  • Collabra
  • Central course providing services

Examples:

  • All students or staff unable to login.
  • VTAC is unavailable at student selection time, impacting Monash's ability to secure the best students.
  • Failure in the network, impacting one whole or multiple campuses.
  • MDS unavailable.
  • Loss of e-mail or Internet access to the entire University.
  • SAP HR is unavailable when payroll is due for processing.

Priority 2

Priority 2 problems severely restrict the use of an application, system, or piece of equipment affecting significant business functions of the University. This can result in a serious re-scheduling of business resources, and if it continues can result in severe degradation of service - University wide or at major campuses.

In the absence of a Priority 1 problem, a Priority 2 problem may assume the place of a Priority 1 problem.

Affects:

  • IT services over a large area.

Examples:

  • All computers inoperable in a student lab during semester.
  • A server abend. Eg: ITS-Clay or MFS01.

Priority 3

A Priority 3 problem is any problem impacting a group of users where the restriction is not critical to the overall operation of the University.

A Priority 3 problem does not require an immediate fix today. This would normally indicate that there is no significant loss of service or operations of Monash University. A Priority 3 problem can also be a request considered urgent to the customer.

Affects:

  • A group of users or senior staff member eg, Head of Dept.

Examples:

  • Shared printer inoperable in an office.
  • Restoration of deleted files from the network drive.

Priority 4

A Priority 4 problem is any problem only impacting one person where the function unable to be performed is not critical to the operation of the University.

A Priority 4 problem may take an extended period before being resolved, but should be attended to as soon as possible and within agreed service levels (where specified).

Affects:

  • An individual user.

Examples:

  • Information request.
  • Modem setup problem.

Establishing the Correct Priority

The ITS Service Desk and other staff of ITS will normally receive and enter problems/request into the Service Desk software. The Senior Problem Manager MUST be notified when a Priority 1 or 2 problem is suspected. The Senior Problem manager must assess the extent of the services affected (number of campuses/people, what services) and allocate Priorities as soon as possible.

An ITS customer may indicate that their problem warrants a higher Priority than that assigned by the ITS Service Desk according to the above definitions. The ITS Service Desk uses the following guidelines to assist in determining the true Priority of a problem:

  • How many people are affected, and what is the impact to the business?
  • The seniority of the customer.
  • Can the problem wait till the next working day?
  • Is there an alternative way to carry out the work (i.e. manual process)?
  • What type of work is being affected, i.e. production, development or testing?
  • Is the production work holding up people's work, or can they continue working without this information?
  • How urgent or important is this work?
  • Will a customer contact be available and on site to assist in problem resolution?
  • Will access to hardware/equipment be available if required?

6. Approval for Procedures

Authorising Body/Officer  Director - Client Services, ITS 
Meeting No and Date ITS Directors meeting   11/01, 24 April 2001
Issue of Policy  1 May, 2001 
Amended Procedures   

Authors - Margo Hellyer, Minh Sketchley, Patrick Lee, Steven White