Build a Service Catalogue with ITIL: A Trial Project Story
A community member wanted real experience to show. She did not want a practice exercise. She took a Deals Colony Trial Project and built something we now use as a starting point: a draft service catalogue, shaped by ITIL practices. This is the story of that one piece of work, told without names so she stays in control of her story.
The brief
The task for the week was clear. Create a draft Service Catalogue for Deals Colony that covers the common support needs within the community. Use a coding assistant to develop a template. Work out whether GitHub or a similar platform is viable for web app development. Update a professional profile. Define her own role and add a comment.
A service catalogue is a plain list of what an organisation offers, who it is for and how to ask for it. ITIL is a widely used service management framework. She applied ITIL practices to a real organisation instead of a textbook example, which is what made the work worth showing.
What she built
She produced the draft Service Catalogue and uploaded it to GitHub as code, so it can be versioned and reused. She also worked from a service request workflow template. It follows a request from the first message to the last:
Request submitted: name, contact details, description, desired outcome, self-assessed urgency and a supporting document
Intake and triage: urgency, category and who the request goes to
Acknowledgement: a reference number and an expected resolution time
Assignment and action: share information or resources, schedule a discussion, escalate, or start a project task
Communication and updates: delays explained with revised timelines and clear next steps
Resolution and closure: the requester confirms their need was met
Feedback and improvement
The first row of the template is "Braindump your idea", so a request can begin as a rough idea and not a formal form.
The Deals Colony Service Catalogue she worked on is organised in 12 sections: About Deals Colony, Our Difference, three service portfolios (People and Wellbeing, Planet and Circular Design, Purpose and Partnerships), Circular Economy and Planet Positive Services, Social Impact and Inclusion Services, Governance, Ethics and ESG Assurance, Corporate ESG Pilots and Partnerships, Training, Education and Capacity Building, an AI Enabled Circular Impact Platform planned for 2026, Case Studies, Why Partner With Us and Contact.
Figures in that catalogue, such as 1,000+ pilots, 40+ tonnes and 1,000+ changemakers, are self-reported by Deals Colony and are not audited.
Tools she tried
She compared platforms for hosting and sharing code. Cloud and hosted options: GitLab, Bitbucket, Codeberg, Gitee and JetBrains Space. Self-hosted and lightweight options: Gitea, Forgejo, Gogs and RhodeCode. She also used a coding assistant to draft the catalogue template. Knowing which tool suits which job is experience a person can talk about in an interview.
Her profile and role
She updated her professional profile and wrote her own role statement: a data support assistant and admin and operations professional, skilled in documentation, and upskilling in ITIL and Power BI. Putting a real deliverable beside that statement gives a recruiter something concrete to look at.
What a person learns by building a service catalogue
How to describe an offer so a stranger can understand it and ask for it
How a request moves from first contact to closure, and where it can stall
How to sort requests by urgency and category
How to document work so someone else can reuse it
How a framework such as ITIL applies to a small community organisation
What Deals Colony learned
One Trial Project produced reusable material: a service catalogue and a request workflow. The same record of the work can be reused for blogs and reporting without anyone entering it twice. A real brief also showed us where our own offers were hard to explain, which is useful feedback for a social enterprise.
What you could build next
For a uni project: a service catalogue or request workflow for a student club or a local group
For a new job opportunity: a documented process or onboarding guide you can show an employer
For researching a project: a map of who needs what, and how they would ask for it
For setting up a new business: a simple menu of services with a clear way to enquire
About the figures
This story is based on what the participant reported and on a self-reported project log of 4 hours recorded for this piece of work.
It is one story, and experience may differ. It describes applied ITIL practices and alignment, and does not claim certification.
Nothing here is audited, assured or certified, and no outcome is promised. Environmental impact is not quantified: Scope 1 and 2 are not quantified and Scope 3 is not calculated.
Ready to build your own?
Do you want us to help you build your next case study, whether it is your uni project, a new job opportunity, researching a project or setting up a new business? Our zero-waste Trial Project strategy can help.
Do you want to connect and see what we can build together via the Circular Innovation Network™? You can start with the free Gift-Economy Exchange membership to access the details. 100% of profits are reinvested for the next two years.
FAQ section
What is a service catalogue? A clear list of the services an organisation offers, who they are for and how a request moves from first contact to closure.
What does applying ITIL practices mean? Using a recognised service management approach to structure requests, triage, updates and closure. This project was aligned to ITIL practices. It is not an ITIL certification.
Can a Trial Project help with a resume or uni project? It can give you a real brief and a finished piece of work to show. What you do with it is up to you.
How do I start? Join the free Gift-Economy Exchange membership, browse the Trial Projects, or share your story and we'll suggest the next step.
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