SIG-NOC Training - Market Research

General description

The proposed training aims at providing specific best practice service management knowledge to further develop subject matter expertise within the R&E NOC community. The training would be targeted to NOC manager and key personnel with the goal of providing specialized training focused on the best practice processes of most relevance to the NREN NOC community and in line with ITIL industry best practices.

The training would support the GÉANT SIG-NOC group in facilitating ongoing collaboration and knowledge exchange between leading R&E NOC staff members. It is recognized that there is naturally some diversity in NOC organization, structure and roles in the GÉANT community but at the same time all NOC environments face similar service management challenges and need to work together effectively within the federated environment.

This training would support the aims of the SIG-NOC in establishing common best practice principles within the community, fostering the development and improvement of the different NOCs, and sharing knowledge and experience specific to the R&E environment. The proposed workshop would provide a valuable forum for developing a common shared understanding of ITIL best practice on Operational Support and Analysis (OSA) within the targeted NOC community.

EXPECTED OUTCOME

The “GÉANT NOC Best Practice OSA Training” (working title) will be a customized two day training workshop based on some selected parts of the ITIL Service Management framework and would be relevant for R&E NOC participants of all levels who are involved in the management and delivery of services.

The training will be delivered as an intensive, highly interactive workshop consisting of formal presentations, group discussion and scenario based review exercises. The training will focus on selected key processes and concepts from the ITIL framework, thereby ensuring the workshop content is relevant for the R&E NOC community.

The difficulty level of the training will be equal to an ITIL Intermediate level training, intended to build upon the principles covered within the ITIL Foundation training. However, it is also the intention to go beyond the ITIL Foundation level in specific areas, although the workshop will also include a brief introduction to ITIL on day one to enable participants to attend even if they have not previously completed the ITIL Foundation course.

The overall approach will be practical and consultative, ensuring all discussions are in the context of the R&E NOC community. Key workshop training content will be taken from the official ITIL Operational Support and Analysis (OSA) course but will be restructured to provide a shorter, customized workshop for GÉANT.

It is intended that the workshop will also provide a valuable opportunity for participants to reflect on their current NOC working practices, discuss examples of real-world application of the ITIL principles, and identify potential process improvements within their own NOC environment.

To reinforce the training material we would work with participants throughout the training to draw out specific examples and ensure discussions are relevant to the GÉANT community and the specific NOC organizational context.

On completion of the workshop participants will gain an understanding of key OSA best practice principles enabling R&E NOC staff to work together in effectively applying the practices within the community.

PROPOSED STRUCTURE

The precise structure of the workshop will be developed specifically for GÉANT, but following initial discussions the workshop would ideally aim to cover the following areas:

1 - Introduction to ITIL best practice service management
          o   Service management as a practice
          o   Service operation principles
          o   Service lifecycle interfaces
2 - Key operational processes (these processes will form the main focus of the training):
          o   Event Management
          o   Incident Management
          o   Problem Management
          o   Request Fulfilment
          o   Access Management
3 - Brief overview of specific processes in other lifecycle stages:
          o   Change and Configuration Management
          o   Service Level Management
          o Knowledge Management
4 - Functions and Roles
5 - Technology and implementation considerations
6 - Challenges, critical success factors and risks
7 - Conclusions

Additional proposed mechanisms related to the workshop delivery:

2 hour peer-to-peer webinar prior to workshop attendance (internal GÉANT delivered):
       o   Engage participants prior to workshop delivery
         o   Introduce ‘pre-work’ scenarios to be reviewed

2 hour peer-to-peer webinar after the workshop delivery (internal GÉANT delivered) :
         o   Review workshop outcomes and identified process improvements
         o   Review progress on successfully implemented service improvements

Scenarios for participant review (pre-attendance preparation work and review during the workshop):
         o   Relevant scenarios will be developed for participants to reflect on their current processes/working practices prior to workshop attendance.
         o   Their high-level findings will be shared during the training and related to the ITIL best practice guidance, thereby enabling participants to identify potential process improvements.
         o   Best practice input will be provided through presentations of the material during the training and through participants gaining a shared understanding of the different approaches being adopted within the NOC community
         o   Potential scenarios for the workshop could include:
                      - Request Fulfilment – How specific requests are currently managed
                      - Incident Management – Current procedures for Major Incident management
- Problem Management – Existing techniques for problem diagnosis and resolution