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Focusing on the Fundamentals

By Donna Knapp Have you ever done business with an organization that liked to brag about all the extras that it provides, but doesn’t get the basics right? To some extent, the accelerated innovation that was sparked by the pandemic fueled this need to focus on the new and shiny. And for some organizations, it is what’s needed to stand out in the crowd, or to compete, or simply to survive. But here is what we know. All the new and shiny in the world can’t make up for a poor customer experience. You cannot sacrifice quality for speed. And a perk here and there can’t overcome the lack of trust that builds up when an organization fails to get the basics right day in and day out. So, what we’ve got to do is strike a balance. A feat that is easier said than done. According to the 2022 State of CIO report, 76% of CIOs say that it’s challenging to find the right balance between business innovation and operational excellence. And yet it is exactly what organizations today need to do… C. All of

How Can the ITIL® Maturity Model Benefit Our Organization?

Written by Greg Smith , originally posted in OwlPoint News , September 14, 2021 What is the ITIL ®  Maturity Model? The ITIL Maturity Model is a tool used to objectively and comprehensively assess an organization’s service management capabilities and the maturity of the organization’s   Service Value System (SVS) . AXELOS is about to release the new ITIL Maturity Model which OwlPoint – the most tenured AXELOS Consulting Partner in the US – will use to assess clients’ service management capabilities. Why would an organization need an ITIL assessment? There are three main reasons an organization would want to have an ITIL assessment performed: To achieve a desired level of certification and/or meet contractual obligations, they must meet a pre-defined level of maturity and capability. They have undertaken a Service Management implementation or improvement initiative and need to validate the project goals have been met. They are preparing to undertake a Service Management implementation

Who Moved My Process?

There are some misconceptions about ITIL ® 4 and its use of the term ‘practice’ vs. ‘process’ as a component of its recently introduced service value system. One misconception is that processes aren’t important anymore. Another is that organizations think they must completely redesign their tools in order to accommodate this change. Neither is true. Let’s begin by taking a look at how ITIL 4 defines these terms. Process: a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs [to accomplish an objective]. Processes define the sequence of actions and their dependencies. Practice: a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. Practices include resources based on the four dimensions of service management which include: organizations and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and – wait for it – processes.   Both processes and practices focus on achievin

Agile / DevOps: Value Stream Mapping for IT Services – Some Thoughts

Value stream mapping  originated a s a   lean -management method.  Today this method along with Agile, ITSM and other LEAN practices is utilized to understand and improve the delivery of products or services for all industries.  Being able to analyze the current state for the series of events that take a product or service from concept all the way through to value realization by the customer is a powerful tool. A tool necessary for designing an efficient future state and for strategizing continual service improvement.  Below are some thoughts on how the approach to value stream mapping can be applied to service management. Getting Started: Beginning with the formal proposal or request from the customer and then documenting what takes place throughout the lifecycle is always a good starting point.  Value Stream Mapping requires a gradient approach including the following elements: ·          Define physical flow of events – If you are just starting out, it might prove helpfu

Business Relationship Management (BRM)

Business Relationship Management (BRM) is the process and role that allows us, as a service provider, to establish a strategic and tactical relationship with our customers. This will be based on ensuring we understand the customer and the business outcomes they are trying to create and how and what services are engaged by the business to meet those defined goals and objectives. A key activity of the BRM process is to ensure that as business needs change over time, we as a service provider, are able to translate these needs into requirements through the use of a Service Level Requirements document (SLR) which then manifests itself into the portfolio in the form of defined services.  The BRM will assist the business in articulating these requirements and the value of these services that the business places on them. In this way the BRM process is executing one of its critical success factors, which is to safeguard that the customer’s expectations do not exceed what they are

Service Management - Education vs. Training

Although these terms are frequently used synonymously, “Training” is not “Education”.   This is not to say that training is not important because without training, education would be incomplete.  When investing your capital to increase performance and change behavior it could be beneficial to understand the distinction. Education When we are educated we learn facts, theory or required details about the who, what, where, when and why of a particular subject.  Sometimes education will build on a foundation of knowledge so that you may become more expert in that area.  A simple example is given with the idea of a language.  You may know how to speak it.  When you go to school and are educated you learn what a verb is, and how adjectives are used.  We learn the syntax and constructs of the language.  Some move on to be expert linguist. They become educated and highly skilled in the subject of language. When you are attending a Service Management or DevOps course you are learning

Service Vs. Project

A question arose recently concerning the relationship between Service Management and Project Management. This is a topic of interest to many people since on the surface both approaches seem to be fighting for some of the same work space in organizations. When we go back to the basic definitions of each we can see that the two are not in conflict, rather are very complementary. However, the relationship may not be as many people expect. I have found that the relationship is one of time: short term bursts of creation activities (outputs) inside a larger ongoing management lifecycle (outcomes). Let us start with the definition of service and service management (according to ITIL ® ): Service : A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks Service management (SM) : A set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services.  Both of these de

The Beginning of Good Process Implementation

Many organizations that I meet with often are struggling to implement best practice processes into their environments.   They sound completely overwhelmed and often I hear “Where do we begin?”   I smile and usually respond with “At the beginning of course”.   The beginning of good process implementation of course is “defining and analyzing your customer’s requirements”.   I once read that to provide good services a service provider must have good customers.   I think this statement also holds true for processes as well.   Good customers / employees must: Understand the process Understand the expected results of the process Know where they fit into the process Understand how they and others contribute to produce the expected results When your employees understand the processes within your environment they can easily identify new customer requirements and positively respond to rapidly changing customer needs.   This is the basis for making it part of the service culture within you

The Question

One of the most important tools in the toolbox for implementing Service Management is “ The Question ”. Effective questioning can help make both a new and existing implementation more successful. Good questioning techniques take practice and knowledge like many other skills. It can take years to move questioning from a skill to a talent. But learning how to ask and answer questions is a valuable instrument. Questions go beyond just the closed (specific answer) and open (subjective or broad answer). Questions can fall into several other categories and each should be approached in different ways: INDUCTIVE : there are designed to aggregate information and will be used effectively in Incident Management; Problem Management and Change Management. How do a set of Incidents correlate? DEDUCTIVE : these are designed to break down or decompose information and will be used effectively in Problem Management and Service Level Management. What are the elements that make up an existing service? ABD

Welcome to ITSM Professor

Allow me to introduce myself - I am Professor Wise, the ITSM Professor. I have committed my academic research to IT Service Management including ITIL , ISO/ IEC 20000, Microsoft Operations Framework and other resources. As I discover interesting and relevant concepts within best practices frameworks and standards, I will highlight them with you through this blog. I will also share insight and practical application from organizations and individuals who are implementing and improving their Service Management processes. And I also encourage you to join into the conversation. I want this to be a positive place for sharing IT Service Management tips, tricks, challenges and successes. Please email me at itsmprofessor@itsmacademy.com . I will add your question to the blog. Happy Reading!