UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
School of Computing
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
IRM4720: Principle Concepts
of IT Service Management
Assignment 2 — First Semester, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
IRM4720
Module Code:
Principle Concepts of IT Service Manage-
Module Name:
ment
Assignment 2
Assignment:
185206
Unique Number:
2026
Due Date:
150
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for IRM4720 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
Section A: Workplace Case Study (Fictional Organisation)
Note: The organisation used below is a fictional South African company named TechServe So-
lutions (Pty) Ltd, a mid-sized managed IT services provider based in Johannesburg. This fic-
tional case study has been constructed to demonstrate real-world ITSM framework application,
as permitted by the assignment brief.
1. Framework and Specific Components Identified
TechServe Solutions has adopted the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Li-
brary) version 4 as its primary ITSM framework. ITIL 4 provides a flexible, end-to-end op-
erating model for creating, delivering, and continually improving technology-enabled products
and services (Brewster et al., 2016). Within this framework, TechServe has specifically imple-
mented three components: the Service Desk function, Incident Management process,
and Change Management process. These three were selected because they address the
most immediate service disruptions and operational risks that a managed services provider
faces daily.
2. How the Components are Implemented and Their Objectives
Service Desk
The Service Desk at TechServe operates as a single point of contact (SPOC) between the IT
department and business users. It is staffed by a team of twelve agents working in two shifts,
supported by a ServiceNow ticketing platform. The objective of the Service Desk is to handle
all user communication, log incidents and service requests, provide first-line resolution where
possible, and escalate unresolved issues to second- or third-line support teams (Brewster et al.,
2016). In practice, the desk resolves roughly 60% of tickets at the first point of contact, which
reduces pressure on specialist teams.
Incident Management
TechServe’s Incident Management process follows a structured lifecycle: detection, logging,
categorisation, prioritisation, escalation, resolution, and closure. An incident is defined as any
unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service (Brewster et al., 2016).
Page 2 of 35
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
The objective is to restore normal service as quickly as possible while minimising the business
impact. TechServe uses priority matrices based on urgency and impact, so a system outage
affecting a client’s payroll system is immediately classified as Priority 1 and escalated within
15 minutes.
Change Management
The Change Management process governs all modifications to the IT infrastructure and ser-
vices. TechServe operates a Change Advisory Board (CAB) that meets every Thursday to re-
view and approve normal changes. Standard changes follow a pre-approved workflow, while
emergency changes follow a fast-track route requiring the Emergency CAB (ECAB). The ob-
jective is to ensure that changes are risk-assessed, authorised, tested, and implemented with
minimal disruption (Brewster et al., 2016).
Implementation Insight
South African managed services firms like TechServe often start ITIL implementation
with these three components because they directly reduce unplanned downtime, which
affects client SLAs and therefore revenue.
3. Critical Analysis: Success, Gaps, and Improvements
The Service Desk has generally succeeded. The 60% first-contact resolution rate is a reason-
able benchmark, and user satisfaction scores average 3.8 out of 5. That said, ticket backlogs
build up on Mondays and during month-end periods, suggesting that staffing levels are not
adjusted for predictable demand spikes. A potential improvement is to implement workload
forecasting using historical ticket volume data to deploy additional agents during peak win-
dows.
Incident Management shows stronger results. Priority 1 incidents are resolved within the agreed
four-hour window in about 82% of cases. However, there is a recurring problem: incidents are
sometimes closed without a confirmed root cause, meaning the same fault recurs weeks later.
This points to a weak link between Incident Management and Problem Management, which
TechServe has not yet formally implemented.
Change Management has introduced some friction. Developers sometimes bypass the CAB by
classifying changes as “standard” when they do not meet that threshold, a behaviour known
Page 3 of 35
, UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
as change evasion. This has caused two significant outages in the past year. A practical rem-
edy is to implement automated change classification rules within ServiceNow and to conduct
quarterly audits of how changes are categorised, with consequences for misclassification.
Critical Consideration
The absence of Problem Management is the most significant gap. Without it, Inci-
dent Management operates reactively, and permanent fixes are rarely implemented.
Introducing Problem Management as the next ITIL component would reduce recurring
incident volumes and improve overall service quality.
Page 4 of 35
School of Computing
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
IRM4720: Principle Concepts
of IT Service Management
Assignment 2 — First Semester, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
IRM4720
Module Code:
Principle Concepts of IT Service Manage-
Module Name:
ment
Assignment 2
Assignment:
185206
Unique Number:
2026
Due Date:
150
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for IRM4720 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
Section A: Workplace Case Study (Fictional Organisation)
Note: The organisation used below is a fictional South African company named TechServe So-
lutions (Pty) Ltd, a mid-sized managed IT services provider based in Johannesburg. This fic-
tional case study has been constructed to demonstrate real-world ITSM framework application,
as permitted by the assignment brief.
1. Framework and Specific Components Identified
TechServe Solutions has adopted the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Li-
brary) version 4 as its primary ITSM framework. ITIL 4 provides a flexible, end-to-end op-
erating model for creating, delivering, and continually improving technology-enabled products
and services (Brewster et al., 2016). Within this framework, TechServe has specifically imple-
mented three components: the Service Desk function, Incident Management process,
and Change Management process. These three were selected because they address the
most immediate service disruptions and operational risks that a managed services provider
faces daily.
2. How the Components are Implemented and Their Objectives
Service Desk
The Service Desk at TechServe operates as a single point of contact (SPOC) between the IT
department and business users. It is staffed by a team of twelve agents working in two shifts,
supported by a ServiceNow ticketing platform. The objective of the Service Desk is to handle
all user communication, log incidents and service requests, provide first-line resolution where
possible, and escalate unresolved issues to second- or third-line support teams (Brewster et al.,
2016). In practice, the desk resolves roughly 60% of tickets at the first point of contact, which
reduces pressure on specialist teams.
Incident Management
TechServe’s Incident Management process follows a structured lifecycle: detection, logging,
categorisation, prioritisation, escalation, resolution, and closure. An incident is defined as any
unplanned interruption or reduction in the quality of an IT service (Brewster et al., 2016).
Page 2 of 35
,UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
The objective is to restore normal service as quickly as possible while minimising the business
impact. TechServe uses priority matrices based on urgency and impact, so a system outage
affecting a client’s payroll system is immediately classified as Priority 1 and escalated within
15 minutes.
Change Management
The Change Management process governs all modifications to the IT infrastructure and ser-
vices. TechServe operates a Change Advisory Board (CAB) that meets every Thursday to re-
view and approve normal changes. Standard changes follow a pre-approved workflow, while
emergency changes follow a fast-track route requiring the Emergency CAB (ECAB). The ob-
jective is to ensure that changes are risk-assessed, authorised, tested, and implemented with
minimal disruption (Brewster et al., 2016).
Implementation Insight
South African managed services firms like TechServe often start ITIL implementation
with these three components because they directly reduce unplanned downtime, which
affects client SLAs and therefore revenue.
3. Critical Analysis: Success, Gaps, and Improvements
The Service Desk has generally succeeded. The 60% first-contact resolution rate is a reason-
able benchmark, and user satisfaction scores average 3.8 out of 5. That said, ticket backlogs
build up on Mondays and during month-end periods, suggesting that staffing levels are not
adjusted for predictable demand spikes. A potential improvement is to implement workload
forecasting using historical ticket volume data to deploy additional agents during peak win-
dows.
Incident Management shows stronger results. Priority 1 incidents are resolved within the agreed
four-hour window in about 82% of cases. However, there is a recurring problem: incidents are
sometimes closed without a confirmed root cause, meaning the same fault recurs weeks later.
This points to a weak link between Incident Management and Problem Management, which
TechServe has not yet formally implemented.
Change Management has introduced some friction. Developers sometimes bypass the CAB by
classifying changes as “standard” when they do not meet that threshold, a behaviour known
Page 3 of 35
, UNISA | IRM4720 Assignment 2 — IT Service Management
as change evasion. This has caused two significant outages in the past year. A practical rem-
edy is to implement automated change classification rules within ServiceNow and to conduct
quarterly audits of how changes are categorised, with consequences for misclassification.
Critical Consideration
The absence of Problem Management is the most significant gap. Without it, Inci-
dent Management operates reactively, and permanent fixes are rarely implemented.
Introducing Problem Management as the next ITIL component would reduce recurring
incident volumes and improve overall service quality.
Page 4 of 35
