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Showing posts from January, 2011

Component Failure Impact Analysis

Availability Management balances business availability requirements against the associated costs. So, should we consider availability requirements before the service has been designed and implemented or after?  The Availability Management process should begin in the Service Strategy stage of the lifecycle and continue in each stage of the service lifecycle. Availability Management ensures that the design approach takes two distinctive but related perspectives. Designing for availability focuses on all aspects of the technical design of the IT service. Designing for recovery ensures that in the event of a service failure, the business can resume normal operations at normal as quickly as possible. One of the techniques that can be invaluable to both perspectives is the Component Failure Impact Analysis (CFIA). The CFIA can be used to predict and evaluate the impact a component failure can have on its related IT service. This activity identifies areas of weakness or fragility within

MOF's Question Based Guidance

During a discussion in a recent Intro to MOF class, we talked about some of the best practice guidance from MOF that we would use in our ITSM improvement initiatives.  We had an enthusiastic “YES” that the MOF question based guidance will be a most welcome addition in our toolkit.  Let’s talk a little bit about MOF and what this guidance entails. MOF is a Microsoft Solution Accelerator that helps integrate IT best practices, governance and risk, compliance, and team accountabilities for managing key functions across the IT service life cycle. In the documents, MOF provides scripted questions to help organizations drive service improvements by process or stage or activity. For example, the MOF Reliability Accelerator offers direction on understanding, setting targets and measuring IT service reliability. It addresses creating plans for the following areas:  Confidentiality Integrity Availability Continuity Capacity Here is an example of the question based guidance from MOF 4.0 w

Accountable or Responsible?

I was recently asked,  "From an ITIL standpoint, what’s the difference between Accountability and Responsibility?"   That's a g reat Question! There is a big difference between Accountability and Responsibility.  The ITIL Continual Service Improvement (CSI) book provides the following definitions: Accountable: Ownership of a process, and/or activity. The person who is held accountable and ensures that the goals and objectives of a process are being followed. Responsible: Performer of a task. The person responsible for getting the task/activity done. This person gets the work done and does not necessarily have the authority to ensure that others are getting their tasks completed. Accountable roles oversee or "own" the process or task; responsible roles execute or perform one or more aspects of the process or task. For example: A CIO is accountable for the quality of all IT services, including the results produced by the IT staff and supplier

The Consumerization of IT

How many of our colleagues use their own personal devices for business purposes? Now, here’s the burning question. How many employers are aware that they are using those devices? Employees using personal devices at work are part of a growing revolution known as the consumerization of IT, or bring your own technology (BYOT). According to a recent Unisys-IDC study, workers reported that they are using smart phones, laptops and mobile phones in the workplace at nearly twice the rate reported by employers. This disconnect between what workers are doing and what IT leaders believe is happening is echoed in a recent survey of IT security professionals which highlighted the security and management threats posed by the growing use of personal devices like smart phones on corporate networks. About 40 percent of IT security decision makers in the Cisco-sponsored survey said they had experienced a breach or loss of information due to an unsupported network device. So what’s an IT organization t