UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
School of Computing
⋄
ASSIGNMENT 2
Year Module — 2026
⋄
Module Code: IRM4720
Module Name: Principle Concepts of IT Service Manage-
ment
Assignment No.: Assignment 2
Due Date: 2026
Semester: Year Module 2026
Unique Number: 185206
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for IRM4720
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
Section A: Workplace Case Study
Question: Discuss the ITSM framework(s) implemented in the organisation you
identified. The discussion must cover: (1) the framework and specific components
implemented, (2) how the components are implemented and their objectives, and
(3) a critical analysis of whether the components achieve their objectives, includ-
ing potential solutions or improvements.
For this section, a South African commercial bank — referred to here as “TechBank SA” — is
used as the fictional case study organisation. TechBank SA is a mid-sized retail and corporate
bank operating across South Africa, with an IT department of approximately 400 staff sup-
porting digital banking platforms, core banking systems, and internal enterprise applications.
1. Framework and Specific Components Identified (2 marks)
TechBank SA has implemented the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 framework as its
primary ITSM model. ITIL is a best-practice framework that aligns IT services with business
needs through a lifecycle approach (Brewster, Griffiths, Lawes and Sansbury, 2016). The bank
has specifically implemented the following framework components:
• Service Desk (Service Operation function)
• Incident Management (Service Operation process)
• Change Management (Service Transition process)
• Problem Management (Service Operation process)
• Service Level Management (Service Design process)
These components were selected because they address the bank’s most pressing operational
concerns: unplanned outages affecting digital banking platforms, uncontrolled changes causing
system instability, and the absence of formal service quality targets.
2. Implementation of Components and Their Objectives (4 marks)
Service Desk
The Service Desk at TechBank SA operates as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all IT-
related queries from internal staff and, indirectly, for escalated customer-impacting incidents.
Page 1 of 41
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
It runs on a 16-hour basis (06:00 to 22:00) and uses a ticketing tool (ServiceNow) to log, cat-
egorise, and route incidents and service requests. The objective is to restore normal service
operations as quickly as possible and to provide a centralised communication channel between
IT and the rest of the business (Brewster et al., 2016).
Incident Management
TechBank SA’s Incident Management process uses a four-tier priority classification system (P1
to P4), with P1 incidents covering outages affecting core banking or internet banking services.
Major incident teams are assembled within 15 minutes for P1 events. The process objective
is to minimise the negative impact of incidents on business operations by restoring services
within agreed timeframes (Brewster et al., 2016).
Change Management
All changes to production systems must go through a formal Change Advisory Board (CAB)
review, which meets weekly. Emergency changes follow a separate fast-track process with
post-implementation review. The objective is to ensure that changes are assessed, approved,
implemented, and reviewed in a controlled manner — reducing the risk of failed changes caus-
ing unplanned incidents (Brewster et al., 2016).
Problem Management
TechBank SA uses a reactive problem management approach. After every P1 or P2 inci-
dent, a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is completed within five business days. Known errors
and workarounds are documented in a Known Error Database (KEDB). The objective is to
identify the underlying causes of incidents and to prevent recurrence (Brewster et al., 2016).
Service Level Management
The bank has negotiated Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with internal business units and
Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) with IT support teams. Monthly SLA performance re-
ports are distributed to senior management. The objective is to ensure that agreed IT service
levels are defined, monitored, and reviewed (Brewster et al., 2016).
Page 2 of 41
, UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
3. Critical Analysis, Gaps, and Potential Improvements (4 marks)
What is Working
Incident Management has reduced the average resolution time for P1 incidents from over four
hours to under 90 minutes over an 18-month period, which reflects genuine process maturity.
The Service Desk has successfully centralised communication, and the CAB process has elimi-
nated a class of incidents previously caused by unreviewed emergency changes.
Identified Gaps
Despite these gains, several shortcomings are evident. Problem Management remains largely
reactive. RCAs are completed after major incidents, but there is no proactive problem iden-
tification programme scanning trends across the full incident dataset. As a result, patterns
of recurring low-priority incidents go unnoticed until they escalate. Blumberg, Cater-Steel,
Rajaeian and Soar (2019) found that this reactive posture is common in early-stage ITIL im-
plementations and represents a ceiling on further maturity.
Service Level Management is also inconsistently applied. While SLAs exist, the OLAs between
internal IT teams are not formally measured. When an SLA is breached, it is often unclear
which internal team was the root cause, making accountability difficult to enforce.
Change Management suffers from a different problem. CAB meetings cover too broad a scope;
minor low-risk changes sit in the same queue as major infrastructure deployments. This cre-
ates bottlenecks and encourages teams to misclassify changes as “standard” to avoid the queue,
which defeats the control objective.
Recommended Improvements
• Proactive Problem Management: Introduce weekly trend analysis of all incident
categories, not just P1/P2 events. Assign a dedicated Problem Manager role to drive
proactive identification.
• OLA Formalisation: Define and measure OLAs for all internal support teams. Link
OLA performance to team scorecards so that SLA breaches can be traced to specific deliv-
ery units.
• Change Model Tiering: Adopt a three-tier change model (standard, normal, emer-
Page 3 of 41
School of Computing
⋄
ASSIGNMENT 2
Year Module — 2026
⋄
Module Code: IRM4720
Module Name: Principle Concepts of IT Service Manage-
ment
Assignment No.: Assignment 2
Due Date: 2026
Semester: Year Module 2026
Unique Number: 185206
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for IRM4720
at the University of South Africa.
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
Section A: Workplace Case Study
Question: Discuss the ITSM framework(s) implemented in the organisation you
identified. The discussion must cover: (1) the framework and specific components
implemented, (2) how the components are implemented and their objectives, and
(3) a critical analysis of whether the components achieve their objectives, includ-
ing potential solutions or improvements.
For this section, a South African commercial bank — referred to here as “TechBank SA” — is
used as the fictional case study organisation. TechBank SA is a mid-sized retail and corporate
bank operating across South Africa, with an IT department of approximately 400 staff sup-
porting digital banking platforms, core banking systems, and internal enterprise applications.
1. Framework and Specific Components Identified (2 marks)
TechBank SA has implemented the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 framework as its
primary ITSM model. ITIL is a best-practice framework that aligns IT services with business
needs through a lifecycle approach (Brewster, Griffiths, Lawes and Sansbury, 2016). The bank
has specifically implemented the following framework components:
• Service Desk (Service Operation function)
• Incident Management (Service Operation process)
• Change Management (Service Transition process)
• Problem Management (Service Operation process)
• Service Level Management (Service Design process)
These components were selected because they address the bank’s most pressing operational
concerns: unplanned outages affecting digital banking platforms, uncontrolled changes causing
system instability, and the absence of formal service quality targets.
2. Implementation of Components and Their Objectives (4 marks)
Service Desk
The Service Desk at TechBank SA operates as a single point of contact (SPOC) for all IT-
related queries from internal staff and, indirectly, for escalated customer-impacting incidents.
Page 1 of 41
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
It runs on a 16-hour basis (06:00 to 22:00) and uses a ticketing tool (ServiceNow) to log, cat-
egorise, and route incidents and service requests. The objective is to restore normal service
operations as quickly as possible and to provide a centralised communication channel between
IT and the rest of the business (Brewster et al., 2016).
Incident Management
TechBank SA’s Incident Management process uses a four-tier priority classification system (P1
to P4), with P1 incidents covering outages affecting core banking or internet banking services.
Major incident teams are assembled within 15 minutes for P1 events. The process objective
is to minimise the negative impact of incidents on business operations by restoring services
within agreed timeframes (Brewster et al., 2016).
Change Management
All changes to production systems must go through a formal Change Advisory Board (CAB)
review, which meets weekly. Emergency changes follow a separate fast-track process with
post-implementation review. The objective is to ensure that changes are assessed, approved,
implemented, and reviewed in a controlled manner — reducing the risk of failed changes caus-
ing unplanned incidents (Brewster et al., 2016).
Problem Management
TechBank SA uses a reactive problem management approach. After every P1 or P2 inci-
dent, a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is completed within five business days. Known errors
and workarounds are documented in a Known Error Database (KEDB). The objective is to
identify the underlying causes of incidents and to prevent recurrence (Brewster et al., 2016).
Service Level Management
The bank has negotiated Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with internal business units and
Operational Level Agreements (OLAs) with IT support teams. Monthly SLA performance re-
ports are distributed to senior management. The objective is to ensure that agreed IT service
levels are defined, monitored, and reviewed (Brewster et al., 2016).
Page 2 of 41
, UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — 2026
3. Critical Analysis, Gaps, and Potential Improvements (4 marks)
What is Working
Incident Management has reduced the average resolution time for P1 incidents from over four
hours to under 90 minutes over an 18-month period, which reflects genuine process maturity.
The Service Desk has successfully centralised communication, and the CAB process has elimi-
nated a class of incidents previously caused by unreviewed emergency changes.
Identified Gaps
Despite these gains, several shortcomings are evident. Problem Management remains largely
reactive. RCAs are completed after major incidents, but there is no proactive problem iden-
tification programme scanning trends across the full incident dataset. As a result, patterns
of recurring low-priority incidents go unnoticed until they escalate. Blumberg, Cater-Steel,
Rajaeian and Soar (2019) found that this reactive posture is common in early-stage ITIL im-
plementations and represents a ceiling on further maturity.
Service Level Management is also inconsistently applied. While SLAs exist, the OLAs between
internal IT teams are not formally measured. When an SLA is breached, it is often unclear
which internal team was the root cause, making accountability difficult to enforce.
Change Management suffers from a different problem. CAB meetings cover too broad a scope;
minor low-risk changes sit in the same queue as major infrastructure deployments. This cre-
ates bottlenecks and encourages teams to misclassify changes as “standard” to avoid the queue,
which defeats the control objective.
Recommended Improvements
• Proactive Problem Management: Introduce weekly trend analysis of all incident
categories, not just P1/P2 events. Assign a dedicated Problem Manager role to drive
proactive identification.
• OLA Formalisation: Define and measure OLAs for all internal support teams. Link
OLA performance to team scorecards so that SLA breaches can be traced to specific deliv-
ery units.
• Change Model Tiering: Adopt a three-tier change model (standard, normal, emer-
Page 3 of 41
