One of the things that troubles me at times is how often people try to make the world more complex than it needs to be. The world is really a rather simple place if you take the time to step back and avoid complexity. I recently read a statement that made think upon this problem again. The opposite of “simple” is “elaborate”, not “complex”— Dan Roam, The Back of the Napkin What people call complex, may in reality be elaborate. They confuse the two ideas. This can lead to issues in the delivery of Business and IT Services to customers. If someone believes a service is too complex they can often be less willing to make the effort to provide the service, or support it or improve it. Most likely the service is just elaborate (having lots of underpinning elements and components), not really complex (being of a nature that is difficult to understand). So how do we move away from complexity and towards seeing Service Management in terms of simplicity and elaboration? Here are several tech...

I recently posted a blog about returning to a service desk I had managed and spoke about how the changing business environment had impacted management’s ability to sustain the current list of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance indicators (KPIs). The 1st question was “What should we measure?” Within the new business reality, we reviewed how the corporate vision, mission, goals and objectives had changed. We spoke with service owners, business process owners, business analysts and customers and asked what was critical to them.  We could then determine the services that were creating the most value  and enabling them to meet these new goals and objectives. Management then identified the gaps of “what we should measure”, to “what we can measure”. From this, a more customer-centric list was developed. The overriding objective of these new service measurements was to provide a meaningful view of the IT service as experienced by our customers. The thre...

Thinking about ISO/IEC 20000 certification? Here are the steps involved. 1. Questionnaire : The service provider contacts one or several Registered Certification Bodies (RCBs). Each RCB will send a questionnaire with information needed to submit a quotation. Based on the quotations, the provider can select a RCB. 2. Application for assessment : An application form is completed and returned to the chosen RCB. A lead auditor is assigned and an initial visit scheduled. The auditor will explain the assessment process, an audit program will be agreed and the assessment date selected. 3. Optional pre-audit : This is a high-level evaluation to determine where the company stands in compliance with ISO/IEC 20000. The auditor will point out any areas of concern to give the provider an opportunity to improve before the initial audit. 4. Initial audit : In this session the scoping statement is agreed upon and the auditor plans the certification audit. Documentation and evidence of com...