Event Management Activities Originally Published on November 9, 2010 In an earlier blog I was asked how to move from a reactive organization to a proactive one. My answer was through the use of Event Management, along with good design and proactive Problem Management. In this installment I would like to speak to the activities within Event Management and the impact they play in our ability to deliver a consistent level of services and a stable infrastructure to deliver them across. By definition an event is any detectable or discernible occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure or the delivery of IT services. Event Management is the process that monitors all events that occur through the IT infrastructure to allow for normal operation and to detect and evaluate the impact any deviation might cause to the IT infrastructure or delivery of IT services. Event Management has several activities that we engage when implementing this process.  Even...

The Value of Known Errors and Workarounds Originally Published on December 7, 2010 The goal of Problem Management is to prevent problems and related incidents, eliminate recurring incidents and minimize the impact of incidents that cannot be prevented. Working with Incident Management and Change Management, Problem Management helps to ensure that service availability and quality are increased. One of the responsibilities of Problem Management is to record and maintain information about problems and their related workarounds and resolutions. Over time, this information is continually used to expedite resolution times, identify permanent solutions and reduce the number of recurring incidents. The resulting benefits are greater availability and less disruption to critical business systems. Although Incident and Problem Management are separate processes, they typically use the same or similar tools.    This allows for similar categorization a...

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...