Updating and improving Confluence and ServiceNow documentation

Abstract

The issue being discussed and resolved in this thesis was discovered during a strike in the early 2020s. Employees who stayed in the office could not rely on other coworkers for assistance. Instead, they had to rely on documentation in Confluence, ServiceNow and the ticketing system. This is where the main problem surfaced: the documentation was missing or too vague in the information repository. If the available documentation system did not include the information needed, the employees had to find other similar tickets and hope that they contain the necessary information in work notes or resolved messages.

This thesis aims to standardize documentation practices by utilizing qualitative research methods, collecting internal and external data and validating internally that it follows the company’s desired accuracy for information included in the tickets. The solution involves improvements and standardized guidelines for collecting and storing information. These improvements are also implemented to the current documentation in Confluence and ServiceNow. The scope is limited to the author’s own IT service desk team.

The qualitative research methods provided insights and patterns that were both desirable and undesirable. Based on the results from the research conducted in this thesis a set of standardized guidelines were provided, which were validated internally. The results show promise in key performance indicators and ticketing accuracy and are expected to improve further. A standardized documentation guide is recommended to be established based on the guidelines provided in this work.