Maintaining Groups


Overview

Tasks

Included with

Tivoli Service Desk

Overview

Groups

A group is a set of users who share the same security rights and notification methods. When you assign a user to a group, you automatically assign the user the security rights and notification methods for that group. Assigning rights and notification methods to groups, rather than individual users, saves you time and simplifies the maintenance of security rights and notification methods.

Change Control Boards

Change Control Boards are a special type of TSD group. A Change Control Board (CCB) is a corporate body or group of people responsible for approving changes. Members of each CCB must approve a change prior to its implementation. You can specify whether all members must approve the change or if a majority, quorum, or only the chairperson need to approve the change.

For example, you might have a CCB that reviews all budgetary or financial changes, while another CCB reviews all changes that deal with policies and procedures. You can assign one or more CCBs to each change. CCBs can also be assigned automatically through business rules and models.

Work with Groups dialog box

Use the Work with Groups dialog box to find groups in the TSD database or to select one or more groups to complete a data entry in a text box or list box. See Finding a group or Selecting a group.

To access the Work with Groups dialog box, do one of the following:

  • If you are using the Change Management Administrator profile, from the Demographics menu, choose Groups.
  • If you are using the Problem Management Administrator profile or the Tivoli Service Desk Administrator profile, from the Edit menu, choose Groups.
  • From the Help menu, choose Your System Profile and follow the instructions under Work with Groups.
  • Result: The Work with Groups dialog box appears.

Group dialog boxes

You use three similar dialog boxes to maintain group information: the Add Group dialog box, the Edit Group dialog box, and the View Group dialog box.

The main difference between these dialog boxes is the name in the title bar and the maintenance functions available in each. Each of these dialog boxes includes a section at the top where you maintain data common to every group in your Tivoli Service Desk database. See Adding a group.

These dialog boxes have identical tabs:

Tab Function
General Configure group membership and skills. See Configuring group membership and Configuring group skills.
Security Control group access to Tivoli Service Desk functions and data. See Configuring group rights and Configuring group organizations.
Notifications Determine which notification methods are used to contact a group. See Configuring group notification methods.
CCB Information Create Change Control Boards. See Configuring Change Control Boards.

Add Group dialog box

Use the Add Group dialog box to add groups to the Tivoli Service Desk database. See Adding a group.

To access the Add Group dialog box:

Edit Group dialog box

Use the Edit Group dialog box to change the configuration of groups in the Tivoli Service Desk database. See Editing a group.

To access the Edit Group dialog box:

View Group dialog box

Use the View Group dialog box to check information about groups in the Tivoli Service Desk database. You cannot make changes to group data in the View Group dialog box. See Viewing a group.

To access the View Group dialog box:


Tasks

Finding a group

You can locate a specific group in the Work with Groups dialog box by specifying identifying information in the boxes under Group Search. You can also use an SQL query to locate a group. See Searching for a group.

Wildcards: You can use any combination of characters and wildcards in the text boxes. For example, you can type the beginning characters of a name in the Group Name box, followed by an asterisk (*).

Tip: To display a list of all groups, leave all the boxes blank.

To search for a group:

  1. In the Work with Groups dialog box, in the Group ID box, enter all or part of the Group ID.
  2. In the Group Name box, enter all or part of the group name.
  3. In the User ID box, enter all or part of the ID for a user belonging to the group.
  4. In the Group Roles section, select any of the check boxes that apply to the group.
  5. Choose Find.
    Result: Groups that match your search parameters appear in the Groups List in the Work with Groups dialog box.
  6. Do any of the following:

    Note: Some functions are not always available in the Work with Groups dialog box, depending on your system rights.

Selecting a group

In some places, TSD displays the Work with Groups dialog box to enable you to select one or more groups to complete a data entry in a text box or list box.

To select a group:

  1. In the Work with Groups dialog box, select one or more groups.
    Note: The ability to select multiple groups is enabled only when you add groups to a list. When you select a group to complete a data entry in a text box, you can select only one.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple groups.
  2. Choose Select.
    Result: One or more selected groups are added to the list where you chose Add to initiate selecting groups or the selected entry appears in the text box where you chose Browse.

Adding a group

You can create groups of users at any time. A user can belong to several different groups.

To add a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box, in the Group ID box, type a unique ID for the group.
  2. In the Group Name box, type a name that describes the group.
  3. In the Group Roles section, select any of the check boxes that apply to this group:
    • To identify the members of this group as help desk analysts, select the Solves Problems check box.
      Result: When you transfer a call or problem to a group, this group is available in the Recipient list in the Notification Options dialog box.
    • To identify members of this group as Change Control Board members, select the Change Control Board check box.
      Result: If you select a group to approve a change in the Approvals tab of the Change dialog box, only these groups appear in the Work with Groups dialog box.
      Note: The CCB Information tab appears. To complete the configuration of the CCB, see Configuring Change Control Boards.
    • To identify members of this group as people who can be assigned to implement a change, select Change Resource.
      Result: If you select a group as a change resource in the Tasks tab of the Tasks dialog box, only these groups appear in the Work with Groups dialog box.
  4. Now you can do any of the following.

Configuring group membership

Define group membership by adding or removing people from groups. You can change group membership when you add or edit group information.

Tip: You can also add a user to a group from the Add Person dialog box or the Edit Person dialog box. See Configuring user groups.

To add users to a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the General tab.
  2. Below Members, choose Add.
  3. In the Choose User dialog box, select one or more users to add to the group.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple users.
  4. Choose Select.
    Result: The selected users appear in the Members list.

You can remove users from most groups at any time. However, you can remove members of a Change Control Board, only if the CCB is not assigned to a change or model.

To remove users from a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the General tab.
  2. In the Members list, select one or more users.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple users.
  3. Under Members, choose Remove.
  4. At the Warning message that asks if you want to delete these group members, choose Yes.
    Result: The selected user or users are removed from the Members list.

Configuring group skills

Configure group skills to enable users to transfer problems to help desk analysts with skills that match the problem SCIM. For more information, see Skill-based problem transfer.

To add a skill to a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the General tab.
  2. Below Skills, choose Add.
  3. In the Add Skill dialog box, from the System, Component, Item, Module, and Problem Type lists, make selections that describe a kind of problem the help desk analyst or group is experienced in solving, then choose OK. For more information, see Defining a skill.
    Result: The new skill appears in the Skills list.

To remove a skill from a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the General tab.
  2. In the Skills list, select a skill.
  3. Under Skills, choose Remove.
    Result: The selected skill is immediately removed from the Skills list.

Configuring group rights

You can assign the same rights to all members of a group by assigning a right to a group. You can also assign a right to an individual user. See Configuring user rights.

To add a right to a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, choose the Security tab.
  2. Below Right, choose Add.
  3. In the Choose Right dialog box, select one or more rights.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple rights.
  4. Choose Select.
    Result: The selected rights appear in the Right list.

To remove a right from a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, choose the Security tab.
  2. From the Right list, select one or more rights.
    Tip: See Selecting from a list for information on selecting multiple rights.
  3. Under Right, choose Remove.
  4. At the Warning message that asks if you want to delete these rights, choose Yes.
    Result: The selected rights are removed from the Right list.

Configuring group organizations

Organizations can be groups of customers, companies, and company divisions. If your Tivoli Service Desk installation is configured to use Multi Customer Data Support to secure data, organizations are used to define access rights and segregate data.

If the Tivoli Service Desk system is secure, then you can assign supported organizations to groups. Every member of the group then gains access to the data belonging to the supported organizations.

To add a supported organization to a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, choose the Security tab.
  2. Below Supported Organizations, choose Add.
  3. From the Organizations window, select an organization and choose Select.
    Tip: For help in selecting an organization, see Selecting an item in a hierarchy.
  4. Continue to select organizations until you select all the ones you want, then choose Close.
    Result: All the selected organizations appear in the Supported Organizations list.

To view an organization supported by a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, choose the Security tab.
  2. In the Supported Organizations list, select an organization name.
  3. Below Supported Organizations, choose View.
    Result: Details on the selected organization appear in the View Organization dialog box. For more information, see Maintaining Organization Hierarchies.
  4. When you finish viewing organization information, choose Close.

To remove a supported organization from a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, choose the Security tab.
  2. In the Supported Organizations list, select an organization name.
  3. Below Supported Organizations, choose Remove.
    Result: The selected organization is immediately removed from the Supported Organizations list.

Configuring group notification methods

Tivoli Service Desk users can send notifications to groups of users via any of their assigned notification methods.

You determine which notification methods are used to contact groups. There are two ways you can assign notification methods to groups:

  • You can maintain the list of groups and assigned notification methods from the Groups tab of the Notifications Options dialog box. See Maintaining Notification Methods for Users or Groups.
  • You can maintain the list of notification methods assigned to a selected group in the Notifications tab of the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box. See the following instructions.

To assign a notification method to a Group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the Notifications tab.
  2. Choose Add.
  3. In the Notification Method dialog box, from the Method list, select a notification method.
    Note: This list contains all the notification methods defined for Tivoli Service Desk. For more information, see Configuring Notification Methods.
  4. In the Address box, type the address of the group exactly as it is defined in the external messaging system.
    Examples: Type an e-mail address, pager telephone number, or fax machine telephone number.
  5. Select the Default check box if you want to make this the default method for notifying the group.
  6. Choose OK.
    Result: The notification method appears in the table in the Notifications tab of the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box. In this list, Default is set to TRUE if you designated this notification method as the default for the group. Groups may have only one default notification method.

To remove a notification method assigned to a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the Notifications tab.
  2. From the table, select a notification method.
  3. Choose Remove.
    Result: The notification method is immediately removed.

To designate the default notification method for a group:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or the Edit Group dialog box, choose the Notifications tab.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • If all the notification methods in the table have Default set to FALSE, go to the next step.
    • If any notification method in the table has Default set to TRUE, select that notification method, then choose Default.
      Result: Default is set to FALSE for the selected notification method.
      Note: All notification methods must have Default set to FALSE before you can designate a new default notification method.
  3. From the table, select the notification method you want to make the default.
  4. Choose Default.
    Result: Default is set to TRUE for the selected notification method.
  5. Choose OK.

Configuring Change Control Boards

You can create Change Control Board groups to approve changes in Tivoli Change Management. You can also designate a member as the CCB chairperson.

To configure a CCB:

  1. In the Add Group dialog box or Edit Group dialog box, select the Change Control Board check box.
  2. Choose the CCB Information tab.
    Note: Each CCB must contain at least one member. Before you can select an approval method for the CCB or indicate a chairperson, you must add members. If there are no members in this CCB, see Configuring group membership before continuing.
  3. Select one of the following options to specify the type of approval required by the CCB:

    Option Description
    Single Member Approval from only one member of the CCB is required.
    Chairperson Approval is required from only one designated chairperson.
    All Members All CCB members must approve the request.
    Majority Approval is required from more than half of the CCB members
    Quorum Approval is required from at least two-thirds of the CCB members.
  4. Designate one or more CCB chairpersons, if necessary.
    • To select a chairperson, select a name from the Members List, then choose Designate.
    • To remove the chairperson designation, select a name from the Members List, then choose Remove.
      Note: The designation of chairpersons is optional, unless you select the Chairperson approval method. You can designate multiple chairpersons. However, approval is required from only one chairperson.

Editing a group

To maintain data integrity, you cannot change a group ID. You can make changes to membership, defined skills, security rights, supported organizations, and notification methods for a group at any time.

To edit a group:

  1. In the Edit Group dialog box, make any necessary changes to the group name or check box selections under Group Roles. For further instructions, see Adding a group.
  2. Make any necessary changes to information on the tabs in the Edit Group dialog box. For further instructions, see:
  3. Choose OK.

Viewing a group

You can make changes to group information only if you have the appropriate security rights. However, you can check the details of group information by viewing a group. You cannot make changes to group information when viewing a group.

To view a group:

  1. In the View Group dialog box, view the information on the selected group. For details on the information displayed here, see:
  2. Choose OK.

Deleting a group

You can delete any group except those that have outstanding notifications or alarms or those that appear in an escalation rule. Deleting a group does not affect user records.

To delete a group:

  1. In the Work with Groups dialog box, select a group and choose Delete.
  2. At the warning message that asks if you are sure you want to delete this group, choose Yes.
    Result: The group is immediately removed from the Work with Groups dialog box.

Searching for a group

If you cannot easily locate a specific group in the Work with Groups dialog box, you can perform an SQL search.

To search for a group:

  1. In the Work with Groups dialog box, choose SQL.
  2. In the Search dialog box, set the search parameters, then choose OK. For additional information, see Performing an advanced search.
    Result: Groups that match your search parameters appear in the Work with Groups dialog box.

Refreshing the Groups List

You can update the Groups List in the Work with Groups dialog box with the most current information. This is helpful if other users frequently add new groups to the database.

To refresh the Groups List:

  • In the Work with Groups dialog box, choose Refresh.
    Result: Any new groups added since you opened the dialog box, and which match any search parameters you enter under Group Search, appear in the Groups List.