Research IT primarily does software development for new services, but there is more to commissioning a new service than just writing code. Behind the scenes, Research IT takes new services through the University’s governance processes, which include the new service process and several change-management steps.
The new service process is an important part of governance in IT Services, demonstrating a service is ready for production use. The process provides assurance that a service meets the University’s needs in terms of fitness for purpose, data protection, privacy and security. It also checks the service will be maintainable over its expected lifetime and that service levels are agreed and support contracts in place.
Completing the new service process involves documenting the service using several multi-page forms. Once documented, approvals are needed from several managers in different areas in IT Services. When approved, the whole lot needs to be taken to at least two meetings of the University’s Change Advisory Board before the service can be recorded in the service catalogue and made live.
The whole process takes a few days of staff time over several weeks of elapsed time. Completing the forms takes a day or two. Coordinating approvals can take more than a week. Steering the new service through the Change Advisory Board usually takes another week or two.
It is quite an undertaking! But it is another area of expertise which Research IT provides to researchers, on top of software development, as part of our offering.