We were in the same boat with over 4K of CTI's We started with the white paper Remedy had on their web site. Then we reviewed our existing CTI's loooking for ambiguos, and duplicate entrys. We started with 10 Cat 1's, and worked from there. Stressing that the CTI describe the issue, not the solution. After steamlining to about 200 CTI's we had our users, recategorize existing issues based on the new codes. We revied about 100 issues randomly.It has now been over a year and we haven added but handfull of Cat3's.
One of the frequent tasks as a Senior Consultant with Remedy¡¯s Services Organization is to assist our customers with developing effective and efficient categorizations for use with our Remedy suite of applications. I thought it might be helpful to review some of the ¡¯best practice¡¯ guidelines we have found helpful in the field to spark some ideas for companies thinking about re-doing their categorizations in the New Year. A Quick Review of Categorizations Even if your company is not running one of Remedy¡¯s RSM applications, there is a good chance your application does some form of defining a ticket in one of several levels. In the RSM applications we call this definition categorization and it includes a three-tiered approach of defining first a ¡®Category¡¯, then a ¡®Type¡¯ associated with that ¡®Category¡¯, and then an ¡¯Item¡¯ associated with the ¡®Type¡¯ selected. For purposes of this discussion we will use this structure and will call it CTI (Category,Type,Item) for short, but it is possible to apply these concepts to any custom build application as long as some type of categorizing structure is used. So why is defining good CTIs important? Well in the RSM applications, the CTI is the primary structure of the ticket and is used to control: ¡ö Ticket Routing ¡ö Metrics ¡ö Service Level Agreements ¡ö Priority/Response ¡ö Trending When working with customers defining this critical part of the configuration of the RSM applications, we have found that CTIs need to be: ¡ö Effective and easy to understand ¡ö Work effectively with the line of business the customer is supporting ¡ö Is ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) compliant So now that we have reviewed CTIs in the RSM applications and why they are important, how do we go about meeting these requirements and defining good CTI¡¯s for our applications? Using Good Grammar to Define Good CTIs As we mentioned above, the RSM application uses three levels to define categorization and based on that let¡¯s look at how we can build a useable set of CTIs using some rules of grammar. Just like a good sentence ¨C a good set of CTI¡¯s needs a noun and a verb. When working with clients we have suggested the first two levels (Category and Type) be nouns or the ¡®what¡¯of the categorization. Since you have two levels to define the ¡®what¡¯ structure, that gives you the ability to start with a small number of broad categories (I like to try and stay around 10,as a maximum). Some categories might include Software, Hardware, Networking, Database, and Security. From this point you now have another level to better define the list and to expand further the number of items you find your application supporting. If Category and Types are the nouns of the application, then the Item would be the verb. If defined properly, this final level can describe what action or actions would need to occur to what has been defined to this point. Using one of the suggestions above, you might have a Category of Database and the Type might be Oracle, and from this you can now use the item field to define the action you want to take, such as Backup/Restore, or Upgrade/Install. Using this type of structure will assist in the routing of tickets, defining usable metrics that can be used in the creation of effective Service Level Agreements. Proactive Versus Reactive? Typically Help Desk cases are defined as events that are reactive in nature and require some corrective action not planned for to resolve the issue .A network going down or a PC not functioning are examples of events requiring some type of unplanned intervention. On the other hand, proactive events such as moving a PC or installing new software are events that many times can be predicted and planned for and staffing adjusted. Using the noun\verb model in defining CTIs will allow for easy definition of Help Desk categorizations that will work and be effective and easy to understand. Summary To recap, just like most parts of a fully developed application, the definition of configuration data is critical to the success of how useful the application will be to your company. All the great workflow and bells and whistles will mean nothing if the data is not there to make the application run smooth and make sense to the users. Defining good useable categorizations is one of the most challenging parts of defining a good application and sometimes it takes time and trial and error to get a set of CTIs that will work for your company, but maybe this simple methodology of using nouns and verbs will give you a perspective to start with that will make the job a little easier. ~John, Sr.Managing Consultant,Remedy Professional Services,Western Region Started as an Admin/Developer for Bristol Hotels in 1997 on AR System version 3.0 ¡°I¡¯m hopeful that some day the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs will win the National Football Championship.¡± R E M E D Y T I P S + T R I C K S P A G E 3 2 _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org ARSlist:"Where the Answers Are"
