Latest Project News

[Oct. 3, 2021] The Service & Asset Management Project team is excited to announce that we are nearing the fruition of Release #4 with the imminent launch of the Self Service Portal. 

The Self Service Portal will empower users to:

• Request IT services and support
• Report incidents/issues
• Track the progress of reported incidents and service requests
• Access IT knowledge articles 

Staged Launch Begins November 1 with IT Pilot Group

We will be launching the Self Service portal in three stages across three different pilot groups. The first pilot stage will be rolled out IT beginning November 1. Pilot groups for Stage 2 and 3 are currently being finalized.

Other Release #4 Priorities

• Complete Sprint #3 (15 user stories)
• Enhance IT Service Management & Hardware Asset Management features
• Platform branding
• Establish reliable, efficient process for managing development and product backlog

Recent Milestones

• Finished Sprint #1 and #2 (29 user stories)
• Defined baseline for Self-Service Portal
  • Initial catalogue items 
  • Automated approval process

 

It’s been just over a month since we went live with Incident and Request Management in ServiceNow with Hardware and Asset Management taking the stage shortly after. Since that time, the system has seen a lot of action with over 1400 incidents being logged along with more than 1600 service requests.

Maintenance Fixes and Enhancements

Since going live with Release #3 last month, a number of maintenance fixes and enhancements have also been implemented. Details of these changes can be found in the ServiceNow community channel.  

Enhancements on hold pending Quebec Upgrade

There is now a freeze on any new ad-hoc system enhancements pending the completion of the platform upgrade that is scheduled for late spring/early summer. Any required emergency changes will, of course, be entertained.

Moving to Quebec

Beginning near the end of May 2021 with plans to conclude in early June, we will be upgrading our platform from our current version, ServiceNow Orlando, to the newly released ServiceNow Quebec. We will upgrade and test one environment at a time beginning with our ‘Dev’ environment before moving on to QA and finally our production environment. The upgrade will bring a number of enhancements and new features that we highlight further in a future communication, along with details about documentation and training.

End user training commences

Addressing Defects & Enhancements

The core team has analyzed the UAT results and has filtered the feedback received to create a list of defects and enhancements that need to be addressed for Release #3 (Incident Management, Hardware & Asset Management, and Request Management)

UAT Completed

We are pleased to announce the successful completion of user acceptance testing for Incident Management, Service Catalogue & Request Management, Agent workspace, and the remaining components of Hardware Asset Management.

Following some significant set-backs due to unforeseen circumstances, the project team has had to recalibrate the project plan as we work towards the go-live of Release #3 — Incident Management, Service Catalogue & Request Management, Agent workspace, and the remaining components of Hardware Asset Management.

The updated plan has been developed in consultation with our newly appointed Engagement Manager from SuMO, Douglas Hintz, who will help to ensure that release #3 is delivered successfully and on time.

Notable Plan Changes for Release #3

• User acceptance training (UAT) with Reduced Scope: We’re going to focus only on the scope of Release #3 for UAT. Self-Service Portal will also be included, given its synergy with the Service Catalogue
• Defects & Enhancements: In order to have a clear environment for testers, SuMO is going to fix the remediate defects and enhancements that are sitting in the backlog prior to our UAT
  
• Train the Trainer Sessions: We’re changing the approach to deliver a quick UAT Training session that will focus on bringing testers up-to-speed on system functionality. A proper Train the Trainer session will be organized and delivered closer to our Go-Live (ETA: Feb 2021).
  
• CMDB Discovery: As our focus will be on Release #3, defining the implementation plan for CMDB/Discovery will be deferred until the new year (Early Jan 2021).

Updated Timelines

Below is a list of the key dates associated with the next phase of the project:

• Pre-Remediation for Defects and Enhancements (including regression testing from Sheridan)
  • Who: SuMO/Sheridan 
  • ETA: November 4 - 20
    
    
• UAT Training
  • Who: SuMO
  • ETA: November 23 - December 4
    
    
• Test Cases – Loaded into SN Test Management 2.0
  • Who: Sheridan
  • ETA: November 20
    
    
• UAT – Release 3 + HAM + SS Portal
  • Who: Sheridan
  • ETA: November 24 - December 4
    
    
• Remediation for Defects and Enhancements (including regression testing from Sheridan)
  • Who: SuMO/Sheridan
  • ETA: December 4 - 11
    
    
• Remediation - Sign-Off
  • Who: Sheridan
  • ETA: December 14
    
    
• Train The Trainer Sessions - Release 3
  • Who: SuMO
  • ETA: February 2021
    
    
• Release 3 GO Live: March 2021

• GO Live for Change Management, Knowledge Management and soft launch of Hardware and Asset Management (August 18)
• User training for Change Management (August 5, 6, and 11)
• User training for Knowledge Management (August 4, 10, and 13)
• Limited UAT for Hardware Asset Management (FABM staff only)

• UAT for Change and Knowledge Management completed
  • Change Management completed during week of July 6-10
  • Knowledge Management completed during the week of July 13-17
• Completed remaining sprints for Self Service Portal and Software Asset Management
• Walk Up Experience, Continual Service Improvement (CSI), and Performance & Analytics will be conducted using a waterfall approach with completion scheduled for July 3
• QA testing for Problem Management completed
• QA testing for Hardware Asset Management and Request Management now underway
• Implementation plan for CMBD is in progress.

• Software Asset Management Sprint begins
• IT Organizational Management (ITOM) Workstream Development (early June)
• Training & Communication (end of June)
• Provided demos to Enterprise System Services group

• Provided demos to stakeholders in Office of the Registrar, the Centre for Teaching in Learning, as well IT team meetings.
• Finalized Sprint 6: Hardware Asset Management and Request Management
• Finalized user stories for Software Asset Management
• Identified the major roles required for Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Request, and Knowledge Management

• Change Management component was demonstrated for the project champions group
• Identified the major roles required for Incident, Major Incident, Problem, Request, and Knowledge Management
• Sprints continue for ITOM and ITAM
• Completed initial sprint for Hardware Management

• Completed sprints for Knowledge, Incident, and Problem Management
• Sprint planning & stories for ITOM and ITAM
• Sprint development for ITOM and ITAM

• Sprint planning and stories for ITSM workstream conclude
• Sprints for ITSM workstream begin
  • started developing user stories for Incident Management

• Workshops for Reporting, CSI, Virtual Agent
  
  
• Stories sign off for:
• Incident Management
• Knowledge Management
• Self Service Catalogue & Portal
• Walk up Experience
• Asset Management
• CMDB/Discovery
  
  
• Sprint Planning for:
• Incident Management, Self-Service Portal & catalogue
• Walk up experience
• Asset Management
• CMDB/Discovery
  
  
• Development begins for:
• Change Management
• Problem Management
• Incident Management
• Self Service Portal/Service Catalogue
• Walk-up Experience
CMDB/Discovery

• Workshops & Requirements Refinement: The second follow-up session for Hardware Asset Management has been scheduled. In parallel, teams are working on scoping out the Discovery solution for Sheridan. Remaining workshops for next year:
  • Reporting / Performance & Analytics
  • Virtual Agent
  • Continual Service Improvement
  • Roles & Responsibilities
• Core setup: Setting up the Mid-server and LDAP Integration.
• Delivery Plan and User Stories: Waiting sign-off for user stories related to Problem Management. Currently reviewing user stories related to Change Management and Incident Management.
• Organizational Change Management Strategy: Project website page has been communicated to all IT. Next step is to send out a survey to capture feedback from IT stakeholders in order to begin working on plans to enhance adoption and awareness around this project.

• Project Management: Sheridan has reviewed the dates and strategy for the Examine and Plan phases of the project with SuMO
• Workshops & Requirements Gathering: Workshops are 90% complete. The follow-up sessions for Discovery/CMDB, Hardware Asset Management and Software Asset Management have been scheduled
• Delivery Plan and User Stories: Reviewing user stories related to Change Management and Problem Management. In parallel, both teams are working on high-priority action items for the completion of the user stories
• Organizational Change Management Strategy: OCM Committee has been established to work on items related to the Organizational Change Management. As part of the OCM plan, we are finalizing the project website page to ensure strong communications with stakeholders

Representatives from SuMO and ServiceNow were on-site demonstrating the out-of-the-box capabilities of each ServiceNow component to key stakeholders across Sheridan. As a prerequisite to these demos, the process owners for each component were asked to create and submit their user stories, outlining the:

• current state of operations
• challenges faced
• desired outcomes for implementation

Discussions regarding best-practices, and how ServiceNow can be best used to align to Sheridan's practices were integral parts of these workshops.