Service Catalog Best Practices

Overview

In day-to-day operations, the terms service, service request, and incident are frequently used interchangeably — or confused with one another. This leads to misrouted submissions, incorrect prioritization, broken workflows, and frustrated customers who do not understand why their submission is being treated differently than they expected.

Figure 2: The three key distinctions — a Service is what the organization offers, a Service Request is how customers ask for it, and an Incident is an unplanned disruption requiring a different response.

Best Practice

Establish and publish clear organizational definitions that distinguish between a service, a service request, and an incident. A service is a defined capability the organization offers. A service request is a planned, expected customer submission asking for access to or delivery of a service. An incident is an unplanned disruption or degradation of a service that requires a different response process.

It is a best practice to establish and publish a policy that defines these three concepts and specifies how each type of submission should be routed and handled.

Benefit(s)

When the distinction between services, service requests, and incidents is clear and consistently applied, the entire service delivery operation becomes more efficient. Service requests flow through the appropriate fulfillment process. Incidents are escalated through the appropriate response process. Customers know what type of submission to make and what to expect from each. Eliminating this boundary confusion produces immediate and measurable improvements in both speed and quality.