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Showing posts with the label ITSM tools

IT Service Management - Tools

In today’s world where demand for up to date services has grown and the lead times for delivery has continued to be shortened I am often asked, what is the best tool? The answer is, of course, “it depends!” Every organization has different needs, budgets and resources, however the requirements for automated building, testing and delivering new functionality has never been greater. Every organization must be able to look at the list of requirements for tools from both the operational and development sides of the IT organization as the functions become more and more integrated. The starting point is a list of generic requirements. An integrated suite is preferable and should include options such as: Service Portfolio Service Catalog Service Design Tools Discovery/Deployment/Licensing Technology Workflow or process engines CMDB’S Configuration Management Systems (CMS) Self Help for Users Remote Control Diagnostic Utilities Reporting Tools/Dashboards Service K

You Can’t Automate Chaos

In a recent DevOps Foundation Certification class one IT executive said “You can not automate Chaos”! Another learner spoke up and said “Yes you can… that is what we are doing”!   Although that was meant as a LOL moment, it is true that when it comes to velocity and improving cadence all too often service providers jump the gun and look at automation as the silver bullet.  While recognizing that tools, technology and automation are key elements, process and governance must also be considered. Automating before we get management control of these is likely to lead to bigger and faster CHAOS! Executive buy in and support is rewarded when the business and IT are integrated to the point that IT alignment with the business is a given.  Properly designed and well governed process will enable any automation initiative.  Remember we are talking about “Just enough process” and “Just enough governance”.  If your process is the roadblock then you might have created exactly what you are t

The Best of Service Operation, Part 2

Tool Selection Criteria Originally Published on February 1, 2011 Service management technology plays a major role in our support of the business. There are enterprise wide tools that support service management systems and processes. There are also tools which support the specific lifecycle phases. You should define your process before selecting a tool. Countless organizations have purchased a tool prematurely, only to find that it does not match the workflow of their newly reengineered process. Defining one or more processes first will help to narrow down the requirements and selection criteria and make it easier for the supplier to demonstrate how their product can complement your new process. Match tools to the process, not the other way around. Wading through all the options, vendors, suppliers can often be a daunting task. Let’s discuss a technique for evaluating tools and finding the product which will support our goals and objectives. What Requirements? Meet with th

Narrowing Tool Selection Criteria Based on Stakeholder Requirements

One of our followers recently asked about how to handle the CIO's concern about security in a cloud environment when evaluating tool solutions.  To my mind, the CIO is expressing a potential requirement that should be considered and that may narrow your selection criterion. Your selection criteria should assist in achieving two outcomes. One is to narrow down the list of providers and their products to a workable number so that you are not spending undue amounts of time evaluating too many vendors. The other is to ensure that the products you have selected to evaluate really do meet 80% of your stated requirements out of the box. You will need to develop three criteria sets. The first list is a set of criteria of what you would like the tool to do in terms of supporting your documented and defined processes (call these functional requirements). Functional requirements are those things that help you to achieve utility of your processes and services. You will also need a set of c