Kotter's Principle - Head to Heart Originally Published on April 5, 2010 The other day I was researching John P. Kotter’s Eight Steps for Transforming your Organization. This approach for organizational change is discussed in Chapter 8 of the Continual Service Improvement (CSI) book. While I was exploring his website: http://www.kotterinternational.com , I came across one of his principles which discusses how to present your vision for strategic change. Communicating the corporate vision for change out to an organization is a critical success factor for the adoption of IT Service Management. I agree with Kotter’s principle that not only do you have to speak to the “Head” but you have to speak to the “Heart”. I am extremely passionate about ITSM and the benefits of CSI. The following quote from his website really spoke to me: “People change because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings, not because they were given endless amounts of logical data. When changing...

Creating a Metrics Program Originally Published on November 30, 2010 Every organization should create a metrics program to ensure that business and process improvement goals are being achieved. We need to have the ability to show that processes achieve results and we must review and schedule process audits. A metrics program describes the measurements needed to achieve business goals. It also identifies how to collect the data and how to use the information to continually improve performance. An effective program focuses on what you should measure to achieve business goals, individual process performance and process interfaces. Each of the best practice frameworks stress metrics as a way of assuring continual improvement. ITIL defines the "7 Step Process" for identifying, collecting, analyzing and using data.  The Deming Cycle's "Check" stage requires that we have methods for monitoring and measuring processes.  The Balanced Scoreboard looks at performa...

Sustainment Originally Published on August 21, 2012 Performance (noun): The capabilities of a person, process or system, esp. when observed under particular conditions How long can you hold your breath? How fast can you run? How long can you go without food and water? Each of these questions is tied to an understanding of your personal ability to perform. The same holds true of processes and systems. Ultimately a person, process or system can only perform to a peak or optimal level for so long. Energy wanes, process steps get skipped and system elements and components wear down or break. So how do we improve our ability to sustain peak performance? The key is to understand how the person, process or system functions, and understand its limitations and “breaking point”. Once we understand the limits and boundaries of peak performance we can implement Continual Service Improvement approaches to help improve the individual performance of a person, process or system within th...

  We conclude our "Best of" blog series with Continual Service Improvement.   CSI and the 7 Step Improvement Process Originally Published on January 24, 2012 I would like to revisit the 7 step improvement process from the perspective of CSI, since there has been a slight (logical) modification to it.   The concept of measurement, what we measure, gathering the data , processing it into understandable formats and then being able to analyze it, is fundamental in our ability to perform (CSI)   Continual Service   Improvement as an overall vision and in support of the business need and the underpinning of tactical and operational goals. 1. Identify the strategy for improvement: (Plan) Talk to the business, to your customers and to IT management.   Utilize your service catalog and the associated service level requirements to define a starting point.   The question “What is important to the business?” must be answered.   Look to the corp...

I have often been asked about how to implement a good design coordination process.   My response is have you ever thought of implementation of a new process from a CSI approach?   First let’s understand what the purpose and objective of a design and coordination process should be.   Ensuring that the goals and objectives are met by providing and maintaining a single point of coordination and control for all activities and processes within the design stage of the lifecycle.   If we approach this from a Continual Service Improvement perspective the first question to ask is: What’s the vision?    Come to an accord among key stakeholders about what it is you want to create and what the underpinning critical success factors should be in support of the defined goals and objectives of the organization.   Will they ultimately support the long term mission and vision of the business leadership? Where are we now? Set that baseline starting point about...

I often get asked when discussing operational activities or event management about how we should monitor our environment.   There are several methods to accomplish this depending on what you’re monitoring, what resources you have available and the criticality of what you’re monitoring.   Defining these elements will then help you choose one or more of the following methods. Active monitoring: Ongoing device interrogation to determine its status. Resource intensive. Usually used proactively for critical devices or systems Passive monitoring: Transmits event to a listening device. Most commonly used method Requires good definition of events and instrumentation of systems being monitored. Reactive Monitoring: Requests or triggers action following an event or failure Used for exceptions and normal operations Can be used to diagnose which device is causing the failure and under what conditions. Proactive Monitoring: Used to detect event patterns that can...

Many of you have probably heard of Dr. William Edwards Deming. But how many of you really know who he was and why he is so important to IT Service Management and ITIL? I mean going beyond the contribution of the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle to Continual Service Improvement? What was the most important contribution of Dr Deming and why should we care so much about his other efforts? According to Wikipedia, Dr. Deming (1900-1993) was a statistician, professor and consultant by trade, hailing originally from Iowa. He went on to earn degrees from the Universities of Wyoming and Colorado, and a Ph.D. from Yale University. One interesting fact of which most people are not aware was his relationship to Walter Shewhart, the originator of the ideas of statistical process control. In fact the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle was originally an idea generated by Shewhart (and is sometimes referred to as the Shewhart Cycle, rather than the Deming Cycle). We must remember though, Dr. Deming’s contributions go m...

Several key individuals played a significant part in the creation of the movement to develop the ideas and usage of quality in the production of goods and services. Joseph Juran was one of these main contributors. His main efforts came in the form of the Quality Trilogy and the Quality Roadmap. Each of these approaches helped to set the foundational concepts and practices of achieving quality for customers. Juran began with a basic definition of quality: “Quality is conformance or fulfillment of customer requirements” The Quality Trilogy states that there exist three basic stages or aspects of achieving quality: Quality Planning: quality does not happen by accident Quality Control: checks and balances, structure and governance ensure quality Quality Improvement: we must always seek a better way to do things Once we have our basic aspects laid out we can then create a “roadmap” or plan for attaining quality. For the delivery of goods and services we could try to create this r...

I was recently asked to elaborate on a previous blog that discussed reducing metrics and reporting on those that matter to customers. In terms of any metrics, especially those that are important to customers, you should always think about or add the phrase “with quality”. Remember that the term “quality” is defined as “conformance to customer requirements”. So all metrics and measurements should ensure the work or actions you perform remains focused on the customer and their needs. Also in terms of how you phrase a metric it can often be more beneficial to measure in terms of increases and decreases rather than specific quantities. Given that, here some metrics that you might think about using: Increased Customer Quality Satisfaction %--perhaps the most important of all metrics Increase First Line Call Resolution [with quality] %--helps reduce costs but also builds perception of preparedness and knowledge in the eyes of the customer Decreased Mean Time to Restore Serv...

The Continual Service Improvement publication describes the Continual Service Improvement model. One of the questions asked in this model is “How do we keep the momentum going?” This question becomes especially important when your ITSM implementation efforts have been in place for a significant amount of time. The question then becomes more one of “How do we stop from losing the momentum and effort invested up to this point?” Or perhaps “How do we avoid from returning to the old ways?” For all our efforts to become efficient, effective and economical there is a potential danger that we will fall into comfortable, yet poor habits. So how do we ensure that we do not fall into bad habits such as taking shortcuts, pushing aside process, and just “getting things done” instead of following established methods and processes and doing proper planning? We must begin by being confident in the strides we have made to this point. If we have followed the Continuous Improvement Model faithfully ...

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 ...

I had a recent chat with a coworker of mine that used the CSI Model at home in a funny yet very practical way. I have her permission to use this and I hope you find this as interesting as I have. In her own words…. “In addition, to my career responsibilities I have the honor and for the most part the pleasure of being a Mom to two teenage girls. As we all have experienced in life, our work demands sometimes spill over into our home life. On occasion, I have been accused by my girls that I am NOT their boss, and to leave my work demeanor at the front door. Being so entrenched in striving for continual improvement, I figured, this model works at the office, why not see if I can improve things at home? I know – this has trouble written all over it! The CSI Approach – Using the CSI Model Step 1 - What is the vision? (Define your vision, your goals, your objectives) My vision is that my 17 year old high school junior has straight A’s on her report card for the third marking period – ...

You can’t always go home again, but you can use Continual Service Improvement (CSI) to meet the changing needs of your customers. 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 that was asked 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. What services that we were providing was creating the most value to them 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 focused list was developed. The overriding objective...

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...

Interesting. The Wall Street Journal today (FEBRUARY 17, 2009), published an interview with Allstate's CIO Catherine Brune . The topic is "What IT should -- and shouldn't -- do in a recession." In the article, entitled Shifting Priorities , Brune discusses the importance of having a Process Improvement Program (they use ITIL ) in place, especially in a down economy. She is quoted, "Don't ever take your eye off continuous improvement." To read the article... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123447763114179467.html