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Anatomy of an XLA

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That is not a typo!  Alan Nance of CitrusCollab recently spoke about The Anatomy of an XLA in an ITSM Academy webinar.  I learned that the days of SLAs are behind us and the future lies with digital experience and eXperience Level Agreements (XLAs). 

If this is the first time you have heard of XLAs then this is a sticky-note moment.  

 By that I mean; find a sticky note, and write down today's date.  Now write down XLA.  Remember that this is the day that you heard it and you heard it here! 

 XLAs are the foundation of a fresh and optimistic approach to managing the business of technology. Research for yourself and staff members. Learn and explore more about XLAs!

 A little history:
“Service Management exists to guarantee a valuable experience to customers and colleagues. Despite years of implementing best practices, the reputation of most technology departments is below par in the eyes of business leaders. Consider that 90% of CEOs feel they aren’t meeting their customer needs. 85% of CEOs don’t think technology is performing critical functions. One of the core reasons is that technology teams are often trapped into measuring output rather than outcome, and KPIs on activities rather than XPIs that guarantee experience.” LEAN stresses the voice of the customer, ITIL4 has a focus on the co-creation of outcomes with the customer, and all best practices stress the importance of customer experience and customer satisfaction.  All of us know how important our customers are and yet our measurements do not align with their outcomes.  The internal siloed metrics of the past must go. Even Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) measurements of the past did not give us the real story.

XLAs go beyond tradition and beyond CSAT Scores.  Think about this idea for a moment and focus on “Shared Context”. Shared Context is a concept and principle that is POWERFUL.  When considering how to measure performance for the customer we as an industry must consider the shared context of the XLA with our customers, consumers and other stakeholders within the value stream.  It is only now that you can begin to realize the Dream-Discover-Design phases of XLA, and how these are supported by Ecosystems with automation. The link to business transformation is made through the Patterns-Possibilities and Pathways approach.  We must consider human-centric measurements and we as an industry should do so now.

 Educate & Inspire…





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