New Line of Business ticket field available in ZenDesk

-- Gray Carper (gcarper@med.umich.edu)

You may have noticed a new Line of Business field in ZenDesk tickets…

...and wondered what it is (or wondered if you’re supposed to do anything with it). We have basic functional documentation of the field, but allow me to explain further...

Lines of Business?

The products and services we deliver are organized into 7 Information Service Portfolios, each of which are further subdivided into one or more Lines of Business, and accountability for each Line of Business is granted to a Service Manager. Take a look at our draft map to get a better sense of how this is organized.

Why a New Field?

As we mature our Service Delivery Model, categorizing our Tickets (and Projects) by Lines of Business not only allows us to ensure that an accountable party presides over everything within them, but also allows us to better model the demands placed upon our resources, then balance those demands with the priorities of the School.  With this field, we can very easily support Dave Roberts and Susie Moore in portfolio conversations by sharing facts and data about what our operational activity is across their investments.

Who Will Use It?

At first, we’re only going to require the Line of Business field for Problem tickets. That will allow us to associate a Service Manager who will be accountable for coordinating the completion of that Problem with their on-going Projects. Beyond Problem tickets, our PAMs and Service Managers are encouraged to incorporate this field in the standard work and Zendesk macros we define as part of any projects implementing or improving our products and services, or as a non-standard change to an existing piece of standard work.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact PIM.