Hello,

With this post I want to explain how you can adjust the codeplex SCSM Service Request mgmt pack to fit your needs. This codeplex mgmt pack provides a Work Item class model for Service Requests and a form for creating/editing service requests. The project itself is fully usable, but is rather difficult to change when the requirements for the classification of the Service Requests are changing:

• Service Request Classification is not a console editable list, I need to hack xml to change the classification.
• If you need additional properties in this work item class than you need go back to the VS project, add the required properties to the class.

The following procedure will guide you to the steps that need to be done in order to get some flexibility in the work item class.

NOTE: SCSM 2012 will have this additional functionality included, out-of-the-box. Service Catalog, Service fulfillment & Request fulfillment are items that are available in next version of SCSM.

Clean-up the codeplex xml file:

• Download (http://scsmservicerequest.codeplex.com/releases/view/46716) the SCSM Service Request mgmt pack from codeplex and extract the zip file to your SCSM Authoring folder. In there you can find the xml file – Microsoft.Demo.ServiceRequest.xml
• Open this file in you favorite xml editor and search for following entries in the xml file:

• Remove the <Property ID=”Classification” line.
• Below the </ClassTypes> you can completely delete the  <EnumerationTypes>
• You <TypeDefinitions> should look like this after the delete of the different items.

• The  <Categories> section can be deleted.
• The same you can do with the  <Forms>. We are going to create our own form later.
• The <Views> & <Folders> is something we keep in the mgmt pack.
• Browse further in the xml file to  <StringResources> and delete this section.
• In the <LanguagePacks> section, delete the different references to our deleted items:
  • <DisplayString ElementID="Microsoft.Demo.WorkItem.ServiceRequest" SubElementID="Classification">
  • All <DisplayString ElementID="Microsoft.Demo.ServiceRequest.Form.Label. DisplayStrings.
  • All <DisplayString ElementID="ServiceRequestClassificationEnum entries in this section.
• Delete the <Resources> section completely.
• The last thing you need to do is to update the <References> section. These reference have older versions listed in the reference. (<Version>7.0.5244.0</Version> – Change to <Version>7.0.6555.0</Version> for example)
• If you like to change the naming of the mgmt pack, replace the “Microsoft.Demo.ServiceRequest” entries in this mgmt pack and save the xml with your new name.
• Save the xml file.

Recreate the properties and from for the Service Request work item class:

• Now you have a clean xml file and we need to recreate the Service Classification list and a new form. This is known procedure, just open your customized xml file in the SCSM Authoring tool and you have a base for building your own Service Request solution.
• Links that can help building your solution
  • Overview of the Forms Infrastructure and the Generic Form
  • Extending Incident properties and forms
  • Other info can be found on my overview blog: System Center Service Manager information(blog) overview
  • You may want to include some Image References for the Views so that they show pretty icons that look consistent with the rest of the Service Manager console. For this you need to update the <ImageReference ElementID= section of the xml file. This is explained on following blog – Custom Icons for Views and Folders from Marcel Zehner.

An example – the form I have created in this solution.

In this way you can start logging Service Requests in your environment. The further handling of the Service Request work items can be done like any other work item, you can build workflows behind it and notify people when needed. This is only a temporary solution until SCSM 2012 is available, there we can fully configure/Automate/Measure service/request fulfillment.

Have fun with it!

Kurt