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...

When one thinks about how things work in the world, the word paradigm might come to mind. Paradigm (n.)-- A system of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality. As the definition shows, a paradigm represents “how things are” in our current world. Another way I like to think about the idea of a paradigm is to use the term “culture.” Culture (n.)— The known environment in which a person, thing or idea exists. If you know a foreign language or how to play an instrument it is part of your own personal culture, or paradigm. If you do not speak a foreign language or cannot create music, those capabilities are not part of your culture or paradigm. And just as an individual has a culture or personal paradigm, so can an organization. Often it is this culture or paradigm that wreaks havoc with our ability to understand and implement IT Service Management. So how do we understand and use the knowledge of our cultures or paradigm to our advantage when...

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 ...

Organizations looking for help defining standard changes will find it in the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). A white paper Using Standard Changes to Improve Provisioning describes what standard changes are in relation to other changes as well as in relation to service requests; along with guidelines for establishing standard changes. The MOF Action Plan: Standard Changes offers a more succinct step-by-step look at how to create standard changes. There are a also a number of “MOF Reliability Workbooks” in the MOF Technical Library (e.g., Reliability Workbook for Active Directory® Certificate Services) that describe proposed standard changes for the given system or service presented in a checklist-like fashion that allows the proposed change to be verified as a standard change. The MOF Reliability Workbooks are Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that also look at things such as Monitoring Activities, Maintenance activities, and Health Risks. This and other tools such as an in...

What does it mean to “adopt and adapt” an ITSM framework like ITIL? This question has come up recently in several of my classes. It is not an easy question to answer but one that needs to be addressed early on in any ITSM implementation effort.   The first consideration is the adoption of a framework or perhaps even more than one. Yes, with an ITSM implementation we are not limited to taking on the advice and best practices of only one approach. When we “adopt” a framework, we make a commitment to use the methods, means and approaches laid out within a given framework. This commitment includes being willing to go as far as redesigning how and why we undertake activities and efforts within our organizations. If we want to “adopt” and ITSM framework, but we do not change the fundamental way we approach things, then we have not really adopted an ITSM framework. Adoption requires a fundamental willingness to see things from a new perspective. If you want to redesign your living space ...

Component Failure Impact Analysis (CFIA) is a proactive availability management technique which was developed by IBM in the 1970’s. This technique allows us to predict the impact on our services if any of the individual components fail. It points out our vulnerabilities to single points of failure. Doing a CFIA is a pretty simple exercise. Here are the steps: Take certain key Configuration Items (CI)s in the infrastructure and identify the services that they support by researching the Configuration Management System (CMS).  If you do not have a CMS, look for paper diagrams, network configurations, any available documentation and general knowledge. Create a paper or electronic table or spreadsheet.  List the CIs in the first column, and the Services in the top row.  For every CI, place an “X” in the column below the service if that CI's failure would cause an outage.   Mark an “A” when the CI has an immediate backup (hot start) o...

Throughout the ITIL classes that I teach many students have asked about other frame works and how they differ from and work in conjunction with   the ITIL framework.   The framework that I will be comparing with ITIL today is eTOM (Enhanced Telecom Operations Map)   The Enhanced Telecom Operations Map is a business process model framework intended to define a common language and a complete activity mapping and classification for use by service providers within the telecommunications industry.   eTOM provides the enterprise processes required to properly run the business of a telecom service provider and break them down to different levels of detail. eTOM is intended to be more formal when compared to IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) since it specifies a process framework composed by processes typically necessary for service providers to plan, deploy and operate their services. The eTOM Business Process Framework has been widely accepted by the telecommunication ...