Managing the service catalogue

Managing the catalogue

The service catalogue is the structured “menu” requesters use for repeat-pattern requests. Catalogue management is curatorial work — adding new items as patterns emerge, retiring items nobody uses, and keeping the forms tight.

When to add a new item

The bar for adding a catalogue item:

• Three or more requests for substantively the same thing in the last 90 days
• The request is structured — there’s a finite set of fields you’d ask for every time
• The fulfilment is repeatable — the team knows roughly how to action it

If the request is one-off (“we need a new finance system”), it’s a project, not a catalogue item.

What a catalogue item carries

• Name + short description — for the catalogue grid
• Long description — what gets shown on the item detail page
• Category — IT / Estates / HR / Finance, etc.
• Department — who actions it (drives queue routing)
• Form — the custom-fields schema (text, dropdown, date, etc.)
• Default priority — what priority the resulting ticket starts at
• Delivery time — typical turnaround, in working hours
• Cost — optional; shows on the item detail page
• Visibility — all users / role-restricted / school-restricted
• Approval — does it need approval before fulfilment? Configured per-item.

Building the form

Same custom-fields builder as ticket templates. See the Custom fields & ticket templates article for the field types and tips.

Visibility

Use visibility to scope catalogue items to particular roles or schools. Examples:

• “Sixth-form study room booking” visible only to Sixth-form staff
• “Trust IT director purchase request” visible only to that role
• “Primary kitchen equipment” visible only at primary academies

When a user can’t see an item, it’s not just hidden from the list — visiting its URL also returns a 404. We never confirm-by-error that a catalogue item exists.

Retiring items

Twice a year, sort the catalogue index by last requested. Items not requested in 12 months are usually safe to retire. Click → Archive (not delete; archived items keep their history but disappear from the catalogue).

A noisy catalogue is worse than a tight one — requesters scroll past everything if there are too many similar items.