Good preparation can make the difference between a successful implementation of
a process and an unsuccessful one.
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Roles and
responsibilities
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The first step is to identify the process participants and assign roles
and responsibilities. We recommend for initial implementation you
involve as few people as possible in the process so that it can
become familiar with minimum impact on the day-to-day workload of
the school.
Further details of the roles and responsibilities can be viewed in
Roles and responsibilities.
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Training
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After you have assigned roles and responsibilities, it is important to
ensure that those participating in the implementation and
subsequent operation of the process understand what is required of
them. Use this website as training material.
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Start date
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Set a start date. A 'go-live' date is important in any implementation.
Make sure that you allow enough time to do all the other preparatory
tasks before your go-live date.
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Communication
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Communication must take place within the implementation team, to
agree plans, schedule dates and so on, but it is also important to
communicate externally and inform the user community of the new
process and its benefits to them.
The implementation of a process can be seen as a change just like
the upgrading of a server and the impact on the user community
should be communicated to them clearly in advance of the change.
They will more readily embrace it if they are not taken by surprise.
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Materials
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Before you can go ahead with the implementation, you will need all
the materials required for the process. Make sure that you have
downloaded the templates you need and that everyone involved has
access to them.
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Pilot
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Carry out a pilot implementation as a test first.
Create a dummy configuration management database and enter a
couple of records. Use the incident/request process and the
Change Management process to generate a test update to the
dummy database.
Before gathering the initial data and populating the live database,
check that the incident/request and change management processes
work as a means to update the CMDB. The mechanism for
maintaining the configuration management database is vital to its
value - if the update processes don't work, the CMDB will soon
become out of date.
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Prerequisites
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The implementation guide links closely to the operations guide in
that the operational processes required to maintain the configuration
management database must be in place before the CMDB is
populated. Failure to do so will result in a CMDB that becomes
quickly inaccurate. The only solution to this is to do a complete audit
of equipment and recreate the CMDB.
For further information about the relationships between processes
and a recommended order of implementation and be found in
recommended path for established technical support and/or ICT
functions and recommended path for new ICT and technical support
functions
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Assigning roles and responsibilities in Configuration Management
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Role
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Suggested representative(s)
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Comments
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CMDB
administrator
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An administrative or technical
person with access to the
configuration management
database, eg:
- technician
- ICT co-ordinator
- secretary/administrator
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- You can have one or more
administrators. You may wish to
centralise this role or require
anyone involved in movement or
change of configuration items to
be responsible for their own
CMDB administration.
- It is vital that responsibility for
updating the CMDB is clear to
make sure that it is kept up to
date.
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- Person with overall
responsibility for Configuration
Management or ICT in general,
eg:
- ICT manager
- ICT co-ordinator
- network manager
- technician.
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- This may be delegated to
someone in the ICT team but
there should be only one
configuration manager for the
sake of accountability.
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- Person responsible for
carrying out technical changes,
eg:
- technician
- ICT co-ordinator
- network manager
- supplier
- teacher.
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Anyone who is authorised to
effect changes to the
configuration is an implementer
by default.
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