Service Ownership and Responsibilities
Effective service management requires clear ownership.
ISS assigns responsibility for both services and the service offerings that make up those services.
The general structure is:
Service
→ Service Owner
→ Service Offerings
→ Technical Lead / Backup
→ Supporting Technologies and Components
Service Owner
The manager of the ISS team responsible for a service is the Service Owner.
The Service Owner is accountable for the overall health, management, support, and continual improvement of the service.
Technical work may be assigned to other employees, but overall accountability for the service remains with the Service Owner.
Service Owner Responsibilities Across Plan, Build, and Operate
Service ownership extends across the full ISS operating model.
Plan
The Service Owner should:
- Understand changing College needs.
- Review customer and operational feedback.
- Identify risks and opportunities.
- Prioritize improvements.
- Plan lifecycle changes.
- Identify technical debt.
- Determine when projects or significant changes are needed.
- Coordinate with College stakeholders when appropriate.
Build
The Service Owner should:
- Ensure approved improvements and projects are appropriately planned.
- Assign technical resources.
- Ensure appropriate testing occurs.
- Ensure required documentation is created.
- Ensure training and support preparation occur.
- Coordinate changes to the service.
- Ensure new or changed service offerings can transition successfully into normal operations.
Operate
The Service Owner should:
- Ensure the service is supportable.
- Ensure appropriate Technical Leads and Backups are identified.
- Ensure the Help Desk has information necessary to support common requests.
- Monitor incidents, recurring problems, and service performance.
- Ensure required maintenance occurs.
- Review customer feedback.
- Identify opportunities for continual improvement.
Service Offerings
Services may contain multiple service offerings with different technologies and technical responsibilities.
For example:
Service Owner: Manager of the team responsible for Email
Possible service offerings:
- Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online
- Barracuda Email Security
- Phishing Report Button
Each offering may have its own Technical Lead and Backup.
This structure allows ISS to maintain specialized technical expertise while still managing Email as one overall service provided to the College.
Technical Lead
The Technical Lead has primary technical responsibility for an assigned service offering or, where appropriate, a service.
Responsibilities may include:
- Understanding configuration.
- Maintaining technical health.
- Planning maintenance.
- Participating in projects and changes.
- Maintaining technical documentation.
- Coordinating with vendors.
- Understanding service dependencies.
- Supporting incident resolution.
- Helping the Help Desk support common issues.
- Identifying opportunities for improvement.
Being the Technical Lead does not mean that only one person should understand the technology.
Backup
Important services and service offerings should have an identified Backup whenever practical.
The Backup should develop enough knowledge, access, and experience to meaningfully support the service when the Technical Lead is unavailable.
Developing effective backups may include:
- Documentation
- Cross-training
- Shared troubleshooting
- Participation in maintenance
- Participation in changes
- Participation in projects
- Appropriate system access
A name appearing in a Backup field is not sufficient by itself.
The goal is to reduce single-person dependencies.
Incident Coordinator
Services may also identify:
- An Incident Coordinator
- An Incident Coordinator Backup
During a significant incident, the Incident Coordinator focuses on coordination and communication so technical staff can concentrate on restoring service.
The Incident Coordinator does not have to be the Service Owner or Technical Lead.
Detailed responsibilities are defined later under Incident Management.
Service Dependencies
Services rarely operate independently.
For example, Email may depend on:
- Identity and authentication
- Network connectivity
- DNS
- Internet connectivity
- Microsoft 365
- Email-security systems
- Other integrations
Understanding dependencies helps ISS manage:
- Incidents
- Problems
- Changes
- Maintenance
- Security
- Projects
- Disaster recovery
- Continual improvement
Important dependencies should be documented whenever practical.
Managers Balance the Work
Managers serve as Service Owners while also managing people and resources.
They must deliberately balance employee assignments across Plan, Build, and Operate.
Managers are responsible for helping ensure there is sufficient capacity to:
- Support existing services and customers.
- Address incidents and operational needs.
- Maintain and secure existing services.
- Improve services and reduce recurring problems.
- Complete approved projects and changes.
- Plan for future College technology needs.
Employees may wear multiple hats, but managers should make assignments clear enough that employees understand which responsibilities require their attention and when protected time should be used for Build or Plan work.
Keeping Ownership Current
Ownership and technical responsibilities should be reviewed when:
- An employee joins ISS.
- An employee leaves ISS.
- An employee changes roles.
- A service moves between teams.
- A new service or service offering is introduced.
- A service offering is removed.
- A service is retired.
- An incident exposes unclear ownership.
- Responsibilities materially change.
Customers Should Not Have to Know Any of This
This structure primarily exists to help ISS organize and manage itself.
A customer with an email problem should not have to determine whether the issue involves Exchange Online, Barracuda, identity, DNS, networking, or another supporting component.
The customer contacts ISS.
We figure out the rest.