Introduction to Service Catalog
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Overview
The Service Catalog application is a way for customers to order pre-defined, bundled goods and services from your IT organization or other departments. It offers a consistent and intuitive online ordering experience with as much flexibility as you need. The catalog is a structured commodity with its own description, fields, price, and execution schedule.
End users will see all the goods and services they can order (a new laptop, an office desk, business cards...), grouped into categories (IT, Facilities, Office and Printing...) and subcategories (Computer Hardware, Furniture and Decor, Document Services...).
Once an order is placed, the customer can track its progress against the execution plan. Approvers will authorize the order if necessary, and Fulfillment Groups perform any tasks related to item/service delivery, based on the tickets (work orders) generated by the order.
This document is a high-level overview of the core concepts of the Service Catalog application. It is meant as background information before diving into the details of the product and its administration.
Service Catalog Concepts
The following terms and concepts are used in the Service Catalog:
Execution Plans
- Define how something gets delivered. For example, a PDA might go through procurement / activation / and installation of the desktop software.
Execution Plan Tasks
- Plan Tasks represent a step in the Execution Plan, are associated with a Fulfillment Group, and have an approximate duration.
Fulfillment Groups
- Fulfillment Groups work execution tasks. For example, one group may activate a cell phone while a different group installs the desktop software.
Tickets
- Tickets represent work done by Fulfillment Groups as part of an Execution Plan.
The Catalog
At the heart of the Service Catalog Application is the Service Catalog. The Catalog is a categorical listing of the various goods and services that you provide to your end users.
Catalog Items
The overall catalog is made up of a collection of discrete catalog items. A catalog item can be thought of as an atomic good or service. If something can reasonably be ordered by itself, it's a catalog item. If something only really makes sense as part of a greater whole, it's part of an item, rather than an item in and of itself. For example a new Dell server is a catalog item, as is a new Executive Desk.
Request
When a customer actually orders something from the catalog, a request is generated to keep track of this particular order.
Request Item
Each individual catalog item that is part of a request creates a discrete request item with the request. For example, a request for 2 PCs, 1 Chair, and 1 Desk would produce:
- Request REQ0001 -- 4 Things
- Request Item ITEM0001 -- 2 X PC
- Request Item ITEM0002 -- 1 X Chair
- Request Item ITEM0003 -- 1 X Desk
Execution Plans
A Catalog Item is a description of either a good or a service, but it says nothing at all about how that good or service is going to be procured, configured, and installed. That's where an execution plan comes in. An execution plan is a set of one or more execution tasks that together must be executed in order to deliver an item. An execution plan is a type of workflow, and can be edited in the same ways as any workflow.
Execution Plan Tasks
An execution plan is made up of one or more execution plan tasks. Each task represents work that needs to be completed by a specific group as part of the overall execution process.
For example, consider the Catalog Item "Executive Desktop". Its execution plan might include the following tasks.
- Get Managerial Approval
- Order Hardware
- Install Corporate Standard Applications
- Deliver PC to Requester
Catalog Task
Based upon the execution plan for a given item, one or more Catalog Tasks will be created for it. The distinction between an Execution Plan Task and a Catalog Task is that the Execution Plan Task is a template for catalog tasks generated for particular computers. For example, consider the execution plan for an Executive Desktop described above. In the event that one is actually ordered, we'd get four tasks, one for each plan task within the execution plan.
- Request REQ0002 -- 1 PC
- Request Item ITEM0004 -- 1 X Executive Desktop
- Catalog Task0001 -- Get Managerial Approval
- Catalog Task0002 -- Order Hardware
- Catalog Task0003 -- Install Corporate Standard Applications
- Catalog Task0004 -- Deliver PC to Requester
- Request Item ITEM0004 -- 1 X Executive Desktop
