SCSM Apps

Install: Group Assign

Overview

The Cireson Group Assign app aligns an organization's natural business requirement of grouping IT staff to IT groups within System Center Service Manager (SCSM). This app allows for Analysts to be associated with Support Groups, exposing an intuitive task within the Console for Work Item group assignments.

Please ensure you have a Product Key and the Cireson Licensing installed before installing this app. If you do not have a Product Key for your environment, please request this through our portal request offering. Please read more about Cireson Software Licensing here.

Note: A Product Key is designed for use with a specific environment only.  If you require additional Product Keys for use with TEST/DEV/STAGE environments, you can request these through our portal request offering.

Step 1: Configure Active Directory

The following set of instructions will walk you through how to configure the Group Assign app.

The Group Assign app needs to understand which Analysts are associated with which Support Groups.  It must match both the “Incident Tier Queue” List (for Incident Management) and “Service Request Support Group” List (for Service Request Management) specified Support Groups with the Active Directory (AD) Global Groups populated with the relevant AD Accounts.

As an example, let’s say you have the following Support Groups listed within the SCSM Incident “Incident Tier Queue” List

If you wanted the Group Assign app to retrieve only Analysts of each Support Group when performing group assignments, there must be a matching AD Global Group (or you can provide a prefix for Group Assign to parse as outlined in the Admin Settings below) populated with each relevant AD account

In this example, if an Analyst were to initiate the Group Assign app and select the “Service Desk” Support Group when assigning an Incident, they would receive a filtered list with only Alan, Felipe, Greg and Tony.

This behavior would act the same way for Service Request Management and matching the “Service Request Support Group” List with AD Global Groups. In general, the “Incident Tier Queue” List and “Service Request Support Group” List are usually setup as mirrors within SCSM, and you only need to define one set of Global Groups with associated Analysts for the Group Assign app to reference.

You will also need to create an AD Global Group that contains all Analyst Accounts in your organization. This will be utilized as a default Support Group to provide you a filtered list of all IT Analysts when you are performing assignments.

Step 2: Install Group Assign app

To install the Group Assign app, import the provided licensed Management Pack (MP) into SCSM. To complete this installation, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to Administration \ Management Packs
  • Select “Import” on the Tasks menu
  • Import the provided Management Pack

Step 3: Configure Group Assign app

After importing the Group Assign app, you will need to configure the application settings within the Administration section of the SCSM Console.

  • Navigate to Administration \ Settings
  • Select “Cireson – Group Assign Settings” and select “Edit” in the Tasks menu

Populate the following fields within the Administration settings

Default Group: (domain group with all Analysts) - AD Group that has all Analyst Accounts to provide a filtered list of all IT Analysts

If one item is selected, automatically select the current Support Group and Classification/Area - Group Assign Task will automatically select the current Support Group / Classification for Incidents or Area for Service Requests

Show Classification or Area - Show Classification or Area on the Group Assign to change for the respective Work Item(s) selected

Comment is required for Incidents and Service Requests - Require Comments during re-assign of Work Items

Process sub-group memberships (can greatly affect performance and excludes groups) - Allow processing of AD sub-groups when retrieving Analysts for the selected tier. This option will exclude actual groups from being returned.

Show "Assign Group By Analyst" option - "Assign Group By Analyst" functionality can be enabled by selecting this option, which allows the support group list to be populated by selecting an analyst from the default group. The support group that the selected Analyst belongs to are then available for selection.

Step 4: Using the Group Assign app

Following the configuration of the Group Assign app, Analysts within SCSM will be able to perform group assignments through the Task menu within the Incident Management and Service Request Fulfillment areas of the Console. To initiate a Group Assign task, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to Workitems \ Incident Management or Service Request Fulfillment \ and select an appropriate Incident or Service Request View
  • Select one, or multiple, Incident or Service Requests
  • Select the “Assign Analyst by Group” Task in the Task menu
  • Select a Support Group
  • Select an Analyst
  • Type Comments (placed in “Action Log” of Incident)
  • Select “OK”

The Incident(s) or Service Requests(s) will be assigned per the selections, and the action log updated accordingly.

Install Update for Group Assign app

To install a provided update for the Group Assign app, you have to import the new licensed Management Pack. To upgrade the Group Assign app, perform the following steps:

  • Navigate to Administration \ Management Packs
  • Select “Import” on the Tasks menu
  • Import the provided new Management Pack

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