IS170_AM9 GROUP 3:
Apolinar, Maria Shaina
Mandario, Dion Karl
Panes, Devon Earl
Regala, Michael
Rio, Shaun Given
Introduction and Background of the Case Study
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, government's Innovation and Performance (I&P)
department provides technology services and support to approximately 3,500 city
employees. The services and support offered by the I&P department include and are not
limited to geographic information systems, IT services for the cable team, civic innovation,
cybersecurity, performance improvement, data analytics, project management services,
and handling of Mayor's 311 lines. With that being said, the department's role in IT core
services is crucial to the local government. However, the IT services and support supplied
by the I&P department needed better quality. Several concerns caused the department
to be viewed as dysfunctional, and as a result, city workers had little faith in its abilities.
A significant change was required within I&P, implementing ITIL 4 service management
best practices. This was one of four I&P enhancements. It sought to provide the highquality IT services and support that the City of Pittsburgh's employees and citizens need.
With the implementation of ITIL, key concepts were identified referring to the I&P
department of Pittsburgh.
The following key concepts of ITIL identified in the case study were:

Services of I&P towards Pittsburgh City

Servicers of New Horizons towards I&P Department

Value perceived by I&P Department from adopting ITIL

Value perceived by Pittsburgh City from the improvement of the I&P Department

The stakeholders of the I&P department

Product offered by the I&P Department

Output and Outcomes of the I&P Department

Risks involved

Utility and Warranty of I&P Department’s Services
Problems of the I&P Department
The following problems were identified when Sylvia Harris, the City of Pittsburgh's
CISO, evaluated the old I&P department.

There were separate I&P teams. Previously, IT staff members were integrated into
other departments and were versed in outdated IT techniques like the waterfall
methodology.

The I&P department occasionally agreed to things but lacked the resources to
follow through, and other times they easily could have assisted but chose not to.

The assistance and service quality was inconsistent.

Lack of communication. There was no shared language among the many teams,
which complicated communication.

For many requests and issue kinds, no shared duties existed. As a result, requests
and problems were needlessly forwarded between several I&P teams and staff
members.
In addition to the issues already mentioned, the I&P department lacked
consistency, which caused their clients to lose faith in their capacity to provide services.
Because of this, the department's knowledge to perform their own IT solutions before
expecting the I&P department to implement them. They must find innovation and
improvement, which may entail obtaining IT equipment and using other services. But this
was merely the internal effect of the many problems in the I&P department.
Services of I&P towards Pittsburgh City
More than 3,500 city employees are served by the Innovation and Performance
(I&P) department's technological services and support. The Mayor's 311 Line, GIS, Cable
Team, Cyber Security, Citizen Innovation, Performance Enhancement, Data Analytics,
and Project Management Services are all included in the I&P team's core IT services.
The I&P department's IT services and supports up until recently were of subpar quality.
City officials had little faith in their talents because of several issues that depicted the
department as dysfunctional—the I&P industry needs significant adjustment. This
necessity prompted the adoption of the ITIL 4 Best Practices for Service Management.
The I&P enhancements consist of four acquisitions. The objective was to offer
Pittsburgh's residents and workers the high-quality IT services and support they need.
The adoption of ITIL has changed their culture, improving their productivity and saving us
time and money. City officials will now receive service from the I&P department as
customers, not only as users of IT services.
Services of New Horizons towards I&P Department
New Horizons was essential in cultivating ITIL 4 practices within the I&P
Department of Pittsburgh. To clarify, New Horizons is, from their official homepage, an
"online and in-person technology and business development course provider for team
optimization or career advancement" that immerses practitioners in guiding principles,
dimensions, and practices of ITIL 4.
The leading trainer for this course was Adam Griffith, who was subsequently a
member of the City's ITIL team. With Adam acting simultaneously as an advisor, coach,
and champion and New Horizons providing the necessary learning modules, they
consistently supported the ITIL 4 implementation process for Pittsburgh's I&P
Department.
Value perceived by I&P Department from adapting ITIL:
The department's ITIL adoption greatly exceeded leadership's expectations and
they are:

The level of participation inside and outside of I&P was more significant than
expected.

The I&P staff is the same people as before the commencement of ITIL
training. Still, The team now perceives the leadership to be more supportive,
enabling them to take the initiative to come up with solutions independently.

The ITIL framework has established effective departmental and customer
communications. The staff now has the resources necessary to test ideas,
establish reliable procedures, and cooperate.
Regarding concrete advantages, the City of Pittsburgh's implementation of ITIL 4
and the associated process enhancements led to time and money savings. Continuous
improvement was a key plank of the I&P leadership team's 2020 planning in the latter
part of 2017. This was because it would help the department's job and customer service.
Since Heidi Norman, Deputy Director, introduced the "Gold Belt" process improvement
workshop in July 2018, workshops have been held once or twice each month until early
March 2020, with participants being invited from all across the City.
The enhancements achieved by the 23 gold-belt-certified employees are worth
more than $230,000. 56% of this total is the responsibility of the I&P team. The Mayor's
Office was informed of these advantages, which aided in demonstrating the benefits of
adopting. The implementation of ITIL helped other I&P improvement projects, such as the
departmental reorganization, network upgrades, and technology upgrade of the Windows
7 IT endpoints, in addition to the immediate benefits of ITIL adoption.
Value perceived by Pittsburgh City from the improvement of the I&P Department
It is not an understatement to say that the I&P Department of Pittsburgh raked in
massive benefits, if not wholly overturning its past status, from the integration of ITIL 4. It
had culled a considerable sum of both time and financial expenditures. Apart from that,
another notable milestone that was conceived was the launching of the Gold Belt process
improvement workshop spearheaded by Heidi Norman. This had become a massive
attraction, with participants across the City encouraged to procure a gold belt certification.
The improvement value of 23 gold-belt-certified staff totaled over $230,000, with the I&P
team responsible for 56% of this total. The Mayor's Office was informed of these
advantages, demonstrating the worth of ITIL adoption and the continuation of Pittsburgh's
ITIL journey.
The introduction of ITIL aided other I&P improvement initiatives in addition to the
immediate advantages of adoption. Including the departmental restructuring, network
upgrades, and Windows 7 IT endpoints' technological upgrade. When the Deputy Director
was in charge of the departmental reform project, which involved adopting a common
language for creating job descriptions that made it clear who was in the order of what.
Stakeholders in Service Management
IT services interact with stakeholders at all levels of the ITSM (IT service
management) organization and in nearly every process. Stakeholders are the service's
human component and include anyone interested in IT services. Sponsors, suppliers,
Users, and consumers are considered stakeholders. Even though they are frequently
overlooked, stakeholders are critical to attaining the organization's goals. An IT service
does not exist in the absence of stakeholders. They carry out the primary activities and
provide the resources needed to maintain business continuity.
Users and Customers:
Users: 300,000 citizens of Pittsburgh & I&P Department (from New Horizons' service)
Customers: City workers/citizens & I&P Department
Users and customers of the I&P department are divided into two categories: the external
customers and users, the 300,000 citizens of Pittsburgh, and the internal customers and
users, the city workers. To be more specific, they offer their support and IT services to
the 3,500 city workers of different departments such as:
● Citi parks
● Citizen's Police Review Board
● City Council
● City Clerk's Office
● Controller's office
● Department of Mobility and Infrastructure
● Ethics
● Finance
● Humans Resources & Civil Service
● Law
● Mayor's Office
● Municipal Pension Fund
● Office of Equity
● Office of Management and Budget
● Permits, Licensing, and Inspection
● City Planning
● Public Safety, Police, EMS, and Fire
● Public Works, which covers pavements and environmental services.
Sponsor: Sylvia Harris, the CISO for the City of Pittsburgh
The sponsor identified from the case study would be Sylvia Harris, the Chief
Information Security Officer (CISO) for the City of Pittsburgh. After assessing and
identifying the problems surrounding the I&P department, it was realized that the staff
needed to undergo ITIL training. Therefore, with her support, she assembled an ITIL team
so that all IT staff could take the ITIL 4 Foundation training offered by New Horizon. The
ITIL team will also address employees' questions about the implementation and discuss
how ITIL can be utilized.
Supplier:
The supplier identified from the case study would be New Horizon which provides
services to the I&P Department, such as conducting numerous training initiatives. One of
the services they offered was the City's adoption of ITIL. Spearheaded by Adam Griffith
of New Horizons, the lead trainer for the ITIL 4 training, I&P department staff were able
to take a test, pass the exam, and obtain an ITIL 4 Foundation Certificate, which later on
was utilized to find solutions for existing problems and improve the overall performance
of the department.
Product:
The identified Product by the City offered to the external customers and users
(citizens of Pittsburgh) includes many components that need to be visible to them. In this
modern age, the core of the services offered by the City falls upon the responsibility of
the I&P department. For example, to prevent unauthorized access to information from
different departments, the I&P department is involved in cybersecurity. Another example
would be the I&P department offering data analytics to the City's Finance department to
make high-quality business decisions. As such, more people are involved in creating this
product/service for the users and customers.
Output and Outcome
Below is the list of outputs and outcomes of the implementation of ITIL 4 in I&P,
summarized and listed in bulleted format.
Outputs

Transformation of IT operations within the department following five key
improvement objectives.

ITIL 4 training involves both I&P staff and employees from the city department.
Training events occurred in dates September, October, and November 2019. The
training utilized various management tools and techniques

New Horizon collaboration with the ITIL training of I&P.

Launching of the Gold Belt process improvement workshop by Heidi Norman. This
workshop provided techniques that its practitioners utilized, further branching
outputs below.

Creating a framework that will enable all City departments to create and maintain
their own web pages.

Streamlining the City Cuts Programme to make it easier to enroll citizens.

Utilizing GIS to plan routes and the amount of personnel required daily to evaluate
the equipment requirements in more than 100 locations for the migration to
Windows 10

Establishing standard SLA, SOP, and SOW templates to simplify contracting and
enhance business ties with all city departments.

Assessing the training room using the 6S methodology (sort, set in order, shine,
standardize, sustain, and safety) to improve the user experience.
Outcomes

The I&P personnel is the same as before the start of ITIL training, but the team
now feels more supported by leadership, and as a result, they are more willing to take
the initiative to solve problems on their own.

The ITIL framework now influences customer and departmental communications.
The staff now has the resources necessary to test ideas, establish reliable procedures,
and cooperate.

Exponential boon following gold belt workshop launch with the Value of
improvement of 23 gold-belt-certified staff totaling over $230,000, and the I&P team
being responsible for 56% of this total.

Departmental restructuring, network enhancements, and technological upgrades
of the Windows 7 IT endpoints were the result of the implementation of ITIL.

ITIL has also changed the I&P department's service delivery and support
approach.

The ITIL training also played an essential role in disaster risk reduction brought
about by the recent COVID-19 pandemic (Example: enabling WFH procedures).
Risks

Silos, which are viewed as a potential risk to successful service management

The inability of city workers and the I&P Department to continuously use ITIL
Frameworks after solving the issues stated in the case study

Application of ITIL during Covid-19 Pandemic
These are the risks faced by the I&P department's adoption of ITIL. The I&P
department demonstrates that there is space for growth and that there is risk involved.
Silos constitute a significant risk for the business since it has teams of experts divided by
departments who work toward departmental objectives rather than business objectives.
The second is that employing ITIL Frameworks assists in resolving departmental issues
that pose a risk to the I&P department. Application of ITIL during the COVID-19 Pandemic
is an absolute risk. However, despite the chance, they developed procedures for receiving
requests and responding to them because of their experience with ITIL. Additionally, ITIL
has undoubtedly impacted how the I&P department approaches providing support and
services.
Utility and Warranty
Utility- Utility perhaps answers 'what the service does or whether a service is 'fit
for purpose. These activities further help the City in terms of being more innovative and
assisting the City's citizens with their businesses.
● Constructing a framework for the departments across the City
● Optimizing the City Cuts Program (which assists qualified citizens with maintaining their
lawns)
● GIS will be used to optimize routes, and the number of workers needed each day.
● Normalizing SLA, SOP, and SOW templates.
Warranty- Warranty explains "how the service functions" or "fitness for use."
Service levels like availability, capacity, security, and continuity that align with service
consumers' demands are frequently covered by warranties.
● So, they can create and take control of their pages on the City website
● To make it simpler for people to sign up for services
● To examine the equipment requirements in more than 100 locations for the conversion
to Windows 10.
● To make contracting easier and strengthen commercial ties with various city agencies.
Conclusion
The I&P department is the focus of the case study, and the level of IT services and
support offered was substandard. The department deals with specific issues. The senior
staff in the I&P department had been working through these problems for a while,
attempting to figure out how to resolve them. The department started a training program
that was required of every employee. The case study also states that 4 ITIL will guarantee
to assist the department in improving and innovating and that there are five primary
improvement objectives for the department. Due to the mandated nature of the training,
ITIL was initially viewed as nothing more than a new training obligation rather than
something beneficial for society.
Furthermore, the department's adoption of ITIL went well beyond the goals set by
the leadership. The departmental rearrangement, network upgrades, and technical
upgrades were other I&P improvement projects that benefited from the introduction of
ITIL in addition to the immediate benefits of adoption. As a result, I&P wishes to resume
ITIL training for new hires and current City employees across all departments and City
authorities because of the ITIL training and implementation's success. New Horizon
participates in planning the training, its delivery, and the execution of the improvement.
The department also aims to purchase an IT service management solution to improve its
operations and results.