ITSM Platform Requirements & RFP Development
Federal Government, Department of Fisheries & Marine Services
Overview
A federal department responsible for fisheries and marine services engaged Codeview Digital to lead the business analysis and requirements gathering for a major ITSM platform replacement. The department's existing ticketing system was a 12-year-old on-premises installation that could no longer be supported, but previous attempts to define requirements had stalled twice due to conflicting stakeholder priorities and insufficient documentation rigour.
The Challenge
Two previous attempts to replace the legacy ITSM platform had failed at the requirements stage, and the department was under increasing pressure to move forward before vendor support expired:
- Legacy ITSM platform 12 years old with vendor support expiring in 14 months. Previous two requirements efforts had stalled and produced no usable documentation
- 8 business units with fundamentally different service management needs ranging from scientific research support to marine vessel operations to regulatory enforcement
- 1,200+ service catalog items accumulated over a decade with no rationalization. An estimated 40% were redundant or obsolete but no analysis existed to confirm
- Previous requirements documents written in technical jargon that business stakeholders couldn't validate and vendors couldn't accurately price
- No documented integration requirements for 6 enterprise systems that would need to connect to the new platform
- Federal procurement requiring bilingual documentation, accessibility compliance evaluation criteria, and Canadian data residency requirements in the RFP
The Solution
Stakeholder Interview Program
Designed and conducted 32 structured interviews across all 8 business units, using a consistent interview framework that captured both documented processes and undocumented workarounds teams had developed around the legacy system's limitations.
Service Catalog Rationalization
Analyzed all 1,200+ service catalog items, classifying each by usage frequency, business criticality, and redundancy. Rationalized the catalog to 380 active items and documented the consolidation logic for stakeholder approval.
Requirements Documentation
Produced a Business Requirements Document with 186 functional requirements and 47 technical requirements, written in plain language that both business stakeholders could validate and vendors could accurately estimate against.
Integration Specifications
Documented integration requirements for all 6 enterprise systems including data flows, frequency, directionality, and error handling expectations. This filled the critical gap that had contributed to previous requirements failures.
RFP Package Development
Developed the complete RFP package including evaluation criteria with weighted scoring, mandatory and rated requirements, vendor demonstration scenarios, and proof-of-concept requirements, all compliant with federal procurement standards.
Bilingual & Compliance Requirements
Ensured all requirements documentation and evaluation criteria addressed bilingual (EN/FR) functionality, WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance, Canadian data residency, and Protected B security classification requirements as mandatory evaluation criteria.
Tech Stack
Project Details
Timeline
8 weeks (July to August 2025)
Market Value
$65,000
Results
- RFP attracted 6 qualified vendor responses, the highest response rate in the department's IT procurement history
- Service catalog rationalized from 1,200+ items to 380 active items with documented consolidation logic
- Zero RFP amendments required during posting period, a first for major IT procurement in the department
- All 8 business units formally signed off on requirements, resolving the stakeholder alignment that stalled two previous attempts
- Vendor evaluation completed 3 weeks ahead of schedule due to clarity of evaluation criteria and demonstration scenarios
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