Request Tracker 4 (RT4) Implementation

Project

Lisa Tomalty, ltomalty@uwaterloo.ca

Information Systems and Technology

Background: RT Investigation Project (2012-13)

• Recommended RT4– Open source; support available from Best

Practical Solutions LLC – Existing expertise for RT exists on campus– Well liked, stable solution– Many new features, customizable and expandable– Active user community – Many issues identified can be addressed via

• Process changes/leveraging existing RT functionality

RT Investigation Project• Recommended RT4

– Meets critical requirements identified– Works with browsers/operating systems used on campus– Ability to integrate with asset management and other

systems– Request Tracking Investigation Project Recommendation

Campus Wide Involvement• Members from each IT area on campus to

provide input/participation– In implementation – In on-going use and development

• Consistent user experience • Key success factor:

– adoption of common request tracking system

• Continue to provide an ongoing, reliable RT system

• Meet the most important request tracking needs of the IT areas on campus

• Implement a knowledge base• Integrate with the service catalogue • Enable processes to improve IT support

RT4 Implementation Project

Benefits of Campus Wide System• Efficiency

– Shared tool, one installation– Share administration and development

• Improved IT service support through– Collaboration between and within IT units– Improved communications, support– Increased functionality– Enable/automate improved IT service processes – Shared knowledge base– Common tracking and metrics

Program of Projects

• Program of related projects will include:– RT4 Implementation Project – IT Best Practices Project– Asset Management Project– SLA Project– Possibly other projects

• Dependencies between projects will be defined

Objectives/Goals-1

• Work together with IT areas on campus to leverage the many benefits of RT4

• Enable IT units to share and collaborate on requests• Upgrade to the most recent version of RT4• Update user request forms • Import existing data • Provide training, documentation and communication• Expand the use of RT4 to other IT units on campus

Objectives/Goals-2• Implement new functionality and configure the new

system based on:– Requirement information gathered in the RT Investigation

Project – Requirements that will come out of the IT Best Practices

project (TBA)– Other requirements that are deemed necessary for IT

support on campus

• Non-IT areas use of the system:– Non-IT areas may continue to use the system– Focus will be on meeting IT needs of campus for request

tracking

New functionality/features-1• Reporting/metrics• Knowledge base (“Articles”)• New user request forms (linked from

service catalogue)• Shared queue administration• Customizable workflows - per queue• Customizable email templates – per queue

New functionality/features-2• Recurring tickets• Escalation• Better tools for synchronizing

accounts/groups with Nexus/LDAP• Improved user interface (including ability

to hide quoted text)• Improved searching/canned searches• Supposedly significantly faster. :-)

Timeline• Phase 1A (late Dec 2013)

– Planning, clean up user accounts in RT3– Install and configure newest release of RT 4.2 and necessary plug-ins

• Phase 1B (Jan-Apr 2014)– Configuration/development– Testing– Permissions– Documentation, Training, Communication– Some new features

• Phase 2 (May-Aug+ 2014) – More new features– Migrations and continual improvement– Make recommendation for maintaining and keeping RT current– Training/documentation of changes

Questions?

• Inquiries and requests for RT access/queues can be directed to: – Lisa Tomalty ltomalty@uwaterloo.ca

• RT4 Project documentation Web site:https://uwaterloo.ca/it-service-asset-management/request-tracker-4-rt4-implementation-project