ITSM Professor

Henry Ford did not invent the car. Providers of automobiles during the 1800’s were ok creating cars as toys for the very rich. Henry Ford, on the other hand, was interested in the experience of the common man and created an automobile that was within the economic reach of the average American. Ford developed a method of manufacturing that optimized his resources and lowered the cost of manufacturing. His motto was to simplify, simplify, simplify! Henry Ford knew how to apply common sense to new ideas. His ability to simplify and to optimize solutions to otherwise complicated and insurmountable problems made him the great pioneer of his time. 
This blog is one in a series for the seven guiding principles from ITIL 4best practices. To optimize means to make the best or most effective use of a situation, an opportunity, or of a resource. Get started on your journey today! Optimize and Automate! 
The idea to “Optimize and Automate” is not new to manufacturing and the same concepts tha…

If there is a way to make something complex it seems like we as IT Service Providers have that technique down to an art. Last week an ITIL 4 Foundation student asked, “Why is that?"
The human brain is an intricate organ weighing on average about three pounds. There are about eleven billion neurons and one hundred trillion connections in your brain. The brain is the command central of everything that we think, everything you say and yes, of every solution that we might come up with. Our brain is thirsty for information. The more information we allow in the more eager our brain gets. This cycle generates a demand for stimulation. The more complex something becomes, the more stimulated our brain becomes. Hmmm, this might explain why so many become addicted to tech!    
This guiding principle “Keep IT Simple” is just that… SIMPLE! The difficult task is going
to be how do we ensure that we have “Just Enough” process and governance moving forward but also how do we take very comple…

Keeping it Simple is one step towards creating a world where people get up in the morning and are inspired to go to work and love to do the work that they do. The more complex something is, the more there are ways for it to go wrong. We as an industry of service providers must become educated and stop the insanity! Getting the education and the certification is a wonderful first step but once qualified we must adapt those learnings to make it simple and “Keep IT Simple” 

“Keep it Simple”, one of the seven ITIL 4 Guiding Principles is a topic we have written about many times over the years.  It is anything but simple. We must acknowledge that IT services are comprised of many complex systems and if there is a way to make them even more complex IT Professionals in general seem to have that idea down to an ART. 
So; How did we get that way. Business requirements are dynamic and are consistently evolving even as you read this line. Over a period of years and in many cases decades t…

These “Three Golden Keys” are powerful! They can unlock the power of your ITIL 4 Qualification and will accelerate your journey in the right direction as you achieve one goal after another!

Believe in Challenging the Status Quo With ITIL 4  Get out of the box. It is a new world. Leaders and teams will succeed by creating an environment to challenge the status quo. You are free, give yourself permission to question the status quo of your organization and invite others to join you. We must stop doing the same thing over and over again and yet expect a different result. Use the idea of a Service Value System, Value Steams and the four dimensions and apply the ITIL Guiding Principles as you “Challenge The Status Quo”. Real change begins with YOU! 
Keep The Momentum Going!  Getting your ITIL 4 Qualification is a huge milestone in your learning and career path. Once there, the real journey begins. Be sure to get the most value from your accomplishment and the best practices that you ha…

Communication has always been a key principle for service providers and this ITIL 4 Guiding Principle “Collaborate and Promote visibility” takes us to new heights. Encouraging staff and giving stakeholders the opportunity to develop this skill, will amalgamate teams in ways we never thought possible. 

This guiding principle also represents the influence of Agile, DevOps and LEAN on ITSM and best practices. A pillar of Agile is to be “transparent” and LEAN encourages making work visible in order to remove waste and increase flow. Both collaboration and being transparent are a key focus of DevOps integrated teams in order to ensure a continuous delivery pipeline. To understand this further let’s look at the two elements of this ITIL4 Guiding Principles.

Collaborate 
When we communicate, we are notifying or telling something to a person or a group. Collaboration is quite different and occurs when a group of people work together. The key word here is “together”. They work as one unit to …

Adopting the ITIL seven “Guiding Principles” for service providers could be the best way to establish a healthy organizational culture. All “Guiding Principles” are powerful but today are some thoughts on just one and that is “FOCUS ON VALUE”. 
ITIL 4 best practice guidance says to focus on value.  Getting level set on what VALUE is for your business partners, customers and consumers is critical to every strategic, tactical and operational action! To understand this better let’s start with the official definition of a service. “A service is a means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating OUTCOMES that customers want to achieve without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks". If this is so, then there is a direct correlation between VALUE and OUTCOMES. When it comes to defining “VALUE” we must get OUT of “IT”. 
An “OUTCOME” is what we deliver. It is not the activities within the value delivery stream but rather the RESULTS of all people, process, activit…