Slashdot Log In
How Do You Manage Requests in Your Organization?
Posted by
Cliff
on Mon Oct 06, 2003 04:36 PM
from the getting-the-work-done-efficiently dept.
from the getting-the-work-done-efficiently dept.
StormShadw asks: "How do you manage IT requests in your organization? There seems to be a lack of software solutions specifically designed to track requests. Most that I've been able to find are either problem tracking systems or bug tracking systems, neither of which completely fit the 'request management' model. I work for a large bank and my department supports all of the internet web presence and online banking applications for the company. We receive hundreds of requests a week (my department has 51 people in it), typically through a variety of mediums (phone, email, hallway conversations). It's impossible to manage all these efficiently when there is no centralized system. What's the solution? What do you all use?"
"There is a 'workflow' aspect to many of these requests: we do our thing, then pass it off to the UNIX admins, firewall folks, or DBAs to process another portion of the request. Ideally, I'd like to have a web based system where our customers (internal lines of business) can submit their requests, get status, etc. We would also manage a queue of work through a web interface, assigning requests internally or to other teams we work with. Email notifications could be generated when requests are completed."
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Round filing cabinet (Score:4, Funny)
RT! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RT! (Score:2)
bugzilla (Score:5, Interesting)
Process this (Score:5, Funny)
My computer's down...
Parent
Re:Process this (Score:5, Funny)
> My computer's down...
Send me an email.
Parent
Re:Process this (Score:3, Funny)
you say that, but I once left my work laptop on my desk when I went home (actually, I always left my worklaptop on my desk when I went home) and someone from the IT dept took it and locked it up for safe keeping, and then sent me an email to my corporate account so I'd know where it was...
the absurdity of this did not strike her until I pointed it out
dave
Re:bugzilla (Score:3, Funny)
Re:bugzilla (Score:3, Informative)
Rational is big, I'll give you that. However, there is no reason why your CQ team hasn't setup that database for you. I routinely setup up ClearQuest databases and it takes a grand total of about 4 minutes. After the database is setup it takes an additional few minutes to add the user data (login ID and password) but it doesn't take *that* long to do, especially if the users are already in the system
Our solution - Broken but it works.... Kinda (Score:2, Informative)
What I use (Score:3, Informative)
RT (Score:5, Informative)
Re:RT (Score:4, Insightful)
So do I, across three companies now that I've worked for. It's eccentric, to say the least.
It's not nearly as bad as Big Brother, but it's close, at least in terms of eccentricity. If I had to recommend a system, after almost a half decade of using RT, I'd flat out tell them to try something else first, and leave RT to last to evaluate. Bugzilla certainly does sound interesting, though I have no experience with it.
Parent
Hallway conversations (Score:5, Funny)
If it's really that important, they'll keep bugging me about it until I do something. If it wasn't important, I didn't need to worry about it in the first place.
Our own internal app (Score:3, Informative)
Of course, since there's a web interface, we also have several automated scripts that submit problems for us whenever something breaks, reminders of daily / weekly / monthly checks and so on...
Don't use... (Score:4, Funny)
The Tried and True Way (Score:2)
Post-It notes left on my monitor...
Request Tracker (Score:5, Informative)
Give Double Choco Latte a look.... (Score:2, Interesting)
A couple of years back I had need of an issue tracking system. Double Choco Latte was one of the systems I used. The source code is well laid out and easy to modify if you have special needs.
There are a lot of features, not sure if it will cover all of your requirements. It actually had more features than I needed at the time I was using it.
RT is God (Score:2)
Custom solutions (Score:2)
The problem is people continue to make requests outside of the system, change scope mid project etc.
You can solve some of that by saying "Everything is one big step" in the tracking system, and then solving scope change via XP-like processes or something, but you project management types usually don
Why not like problem tracking? (Score:2)
The main thing that's different between requests and support problems is that you can ignore a request for nearly forever and have that be the correct response (low priority etc.) but most ticket/request
Cerberus! (Score:2)
Request Tracker (Score:3, Informative)
After facing the same dilemma you're facing and having a VERY limited (read: no) budget, I stumbled upon Request Tracker [bestpractical.com]. It's got all the features you get in the $20k packages (albeit a little rough around the edges on the GUI, as with most open-source), but it's completely free.
It's scriptable, it has plugins, it's web-based, it has full email management (submit tickets, reply to tickets, and receive ticket status via email -- even have people login to check the status of all their tickets, close tickets, etc.)
It ALSO has a full command-line suite of utilities, the system is completely object oriented (read: easily extended) and it's overall one of the best most complete perl / mod_perl projects I've ever seen. Jesse did a great job with this one.
This thing is gold.
Request Tracker (Score:2)
As for phone or in-person requests, all you need is the discipline to capture the request in RT, or perhaps a policy that all requests must be entered into the system either via the web interface or by e-mail. Perhaps my only complaint with RT i
DCL (Score:3, Informative)
'Nuff said.
If they ask me via phone, email or IM, I ignore them until they add the task to DCL. Backed by a simple, yet effective agreement between management and staff to which all people can understand that if its not in DCL its not a trackable problem.
Of course it helps to pitch the idea of what DCL can do for the organization, but past the agreement, let DCL be set in stone.
Re:DCL (Score:3, Informative)
Depends in what real world you live. I would fire they guy ignoring the request to put it into DCL/RT for the third time.
But of course you can continue to work on CMM level 2 or below for the rest of your life
angel'o'sphere
ticket system? (Score:2)
Remedy (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Remedy (Score:3, Insightful)
OTRS is maybe what you want (Score:2, Informative)
they also provide an online demo.
looks very nice, very versatile and seems to be what you want/need.
Try This (Score:2, Funny)
I wrote one (Score:2)
There are a TON of problem tracking databases . . (Score:2, Informative)
We use Blue Ocean's Track-IT [blueocean.com]and have for a few years now. It has pretty much every major bell and/or whistle you could want available for it. Blue Ocean was recently purchased by Intuit and they haven't managed to mess up the package yet.
It also depends on what support model your company uses. We had a HUGE culture shift from stopping-IT-person-in-hall to call/web/e-mail-the-help-desk but it has
Help Desk / Centralized Mailbox (Score:3, Informative)
Additionally, requests for updates to the website get sent through our communications department to us, or directly to us using a common email address that goes into a folder the web team shares.
The ServiceCenter works well, but the entire web request method just is horrible.
Modifying existing helpdesk application (Score:2, Informative)
www.liberum.org
BOFH console (Score:4, Funny)
Sticky Notes! :) (Score:3, Interesting)
Little, yellow, different, better.
Our system (Score:3, Informative)
It includes workflow management. We setup problem types that indicate the functional area that is addressed, and the current team status (for instance, a bug in this sytem will go from Project - Defect to Project - Fixed (indicating fixed but not ready to promote) to Project - QA (indicating ready to be confirmed))
Of course it doesn't apply just to bugs. Everything from "reset my password", to "install service pack x on server y", to "Change the border of the website to green" goes through it...
users file requests either by phone (we have a small call center to log incidents and route appropriately) or by e-mail (in which case the call center representative still takes care of routing, but the incident itslef is logged automatically by the system). A new incident can be assigned to a specific person, or a queue that represents a team of people.
Project Managers, QA Testers, and Programmers can log incidents themselves and route manually, bypassing the call center stage entirely.
It has lots of nice reports and automatic time tracking by incident, as well.
Check out Remedy... (Score:3, Informative)
It's not really hard to use either, it's a fairly low learning curve, and can tie easily into existing knowledgebases (a Lotus Notes DB, for instance)
Behold the power of Google (Score:4, Informative)
Use what's there (Score:3, Insightful)
When in doubt, use what you've got.
Here's an unlikely idea... (Score:3, Funny)
Allow each requestor to post his request on something like a bulletin board.
Allow some persons the ability to commend or denigrate a limited number of these posts, making the commended posts more visible and the denigrated posts less visible, by adding to or subtracting from, the post's "priority" points.
Occassionaly award a small number of (say, five) "priority points" to those posters who gain the most priority points from others, allowing these points to be assigned to yet other persons' requests.
Designate different types of "priority points" to distinguish types of requests, but make sure there's some ambiguous overlap: you might include points for requests that are, e.g., "Insightful", "Interesting", "Funny" as positive points, and "Overrated", "Troll", and "Flamebait" as negatives.
Make sure you patrol the request board for goatse.cx posts, and try to limit the number of posts that comapre popular requests to Natalie Portman covered with grits.
IRM (Score:3, Informative)
Many Failed, Mantis Prevailed (Score:4, Informative)
Mantis is actually getting me some contract work on the side, from Free Software developers on our projects who brought the notion of Mantis to their employers, who are talking to us about doing deployments of Mantis in their enterprise for customers and internal use.
The second-runner up out of the 15 we tried was a product called "Round-Up", written in Python. The reason it didn't win out over the top was the fact that it was written in Python (no flames, just that Python is more resource-hungry than PHP itself), and that the web-based interface wasn't anywhere near as mature as the Mantis interface.
Give it a try, you will most-certainly be impressed. I was, and still continue to be, to this day.
Demand the requests be sent via email (Score:3, Insightful)
Another segment hates email. Face it, they hate ANY technology. I call these the 12 O Clock crowd because that is what is blinking on their VCR and microwave all the time. These are the people who call Tech Support to change their background once a month when their son sends them a new baby picture. They would never dream of simply doing what they were instructed last time they called. And if you send them written instructions, you are wasting your time. When you mention that an email is required, they will get the Stunned Bunny look and simply decide their request is foolish anyway.
Also, make sure the requestor signs off on test results. That shakes a WHOLE lot of people. You will eventually be reduced to working on truly important matters rather than time fillers.
Re:Applix and Track (Score:2, Funny)
Re:e-mail (Score:5, Funny)
Well, we hear from from management that you won't be needing that computer for too much longer anyways, so the monitor's definitely out.
It's been nice working with you!
--Your company's computer guy
Parent
Re:HelpSTAR (Score:3, Interesting)
We didn't even finish the evaluation period because we got so much negative feedback from users.
It's mostly stupid UI crap, like you can't send a request with "Fwd" or "Re" in the subject line (wtf?) - they say it's to prevent loops.
Attachment handling is awkward - have to click about three levels deep if you want to save it as a file rather than execute it.
There's no way to see all currently open tickets (well, the
Re:HelpSTAR (Score:3, Funny)
Unfortunately everything we ran into had one of the following responses:
- one of our engineers has been begging for that for a long time(!)
- that's planned for a future release but we don't know when
- nobody's ever mentioned that before, send it to our suggestions email box and we'll consider it
One amusing conversation went something like this (after I noted that none of the emails back and fo