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Adding Value - GIVE EM THE PICKLE

Recently I was having a discussion with a colleague. The discussion centered on value, what it means and how we deliver it to customers and users of IT Services. One particular part of the discussion focused on how you can easily add value in small increments that combine to bring satisfaction to customers. My colleague mentioned an interesting idea from a restaurateur named Bob Farrell, the founder of a chain of Ice Cream Parlors. He sold the chain and became a motivational speaker based on what he learned from the restaurant industry and how to drive better value and customer satisfaction. Bob had once received a letter from a customer indicating loss of satisfaction when the server was going to charge him for a single pickle slice to go with his burger. From this letter Bob Farrell derived the importance of the small things we should do for customers and users of our goods and services to ensure satisfaction.  Providing value to customers does not have to arrive in large portio

MOF Management Reviews

Let’s continue our discussion on IT Service Management Frameworks. Recently, we talked about the question based guidance in the MOF Solution Accelerators. Now, I would like to offer you additional information on the MOF Management Reviews. MOF Management Reviews will help organizations ensure that their technology services are on track to deliver expected business value. They offer guidance to help management set goals, evaluate progress and confirm results. The MOF Layer/Phase and the aligned Management Review is listed as such: Manage Layer Policy and Control MR) Plan Phase Service Alignment MR Portfolio MR Deliver Phase Project Plan Approved MR Release Readiness MR Operate Phase Operational Health MR The Management Reviews can be used as checklists to ensure we have completed tasks correctly. For example, the Release Readiness document offers a comprehensive review of the deliverables produced. It delivers an assessment of the readiness of the business to employ the solut

Service Level Management Relationships

One of the most important goals of Service Level Management (SLM) is the need to build strong relationships between the customers and users of IT Services. It is incumbent on the roles of the Service Level Manager and Business Relationship Manager (a role defined with Demand Management) to serve as the Voice of the Customer. SLM must act as an agent on behalf of business customers, since those individuals or groups must focus on executing business processes or serving further the end-users of a company’s goods and services. The business should not have to spend its time worrying about the value they need from IT Services. SLM needs to create a strong bond with the business and end-user customers. This bond needs to be a familiar and personal link that shows the customer that IT truly cares about the needs and success of the business. Good Service Level Management cannot be conducted solely through emails or phone calls. A good Service Level Manager knows they must meet their customer

Accountable and Responsible

I was recently asked about the accountabilities and responsibilities of the Service Level Manager and Service Owner.  Let’s start with Service Level Manager . Responsible for gathering Service Level Requirements from the customer. Responsible for negotiating and maintaining SLAs with the customer. Responsible for developing and maintaining OLAs. Responsible for understanding underpinning contracts as they relate to OLAs and SLAs. Responsible for producing, reviewing and evaluating reports on service performance and achievements on a regular basis. Also for conducting meeting with the customer to discuss service performance and improvements. Responsible for initiating appropriate actions to improve service levels (SIP). Conducting yearly reviews of SLAs, OLAs and underpinning contracts. The success of SLM is very dependent on the quality of the Service Portfolio and the Service Catalogue and their contents. They provide the necessary information on the services to be managed w

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

Process Maturity Assessments

I recently gave a workshop outlining the basic ideas and steps needed to design and implement ITSM processes. During the workshop we discussed the importance of knowing the maturity level of your processes. You determine the maturity of your processes by conducting a maturity assessment. Using a maturity assessment model will allow you to know where your processes currently reside in terms of usability, effectiveness, efficiency and economy. You can also determine what level of maturity you want your processes to achieve as a future state. Finally a maturity assessment will show you what steps you need to take to close the gap between your “as is” process and your “to be” future state. There are three maturity assessment models you might think about using. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO/IEC 15504 and the ITIL Process Maturity Framework (PMF). All three use a multi-level approach to identify the maturity of your processes. Each also uses a set of assessment criteria

Knowledge Management and Social Networking

I was recently asked a very thought provoking question about the importance of social networking to knowledge management? Social networking is having a wide and varied impact on ITSM as a whole. As with all new and emerging technologies,  organizations must develop strategies on how social networking will be incorporated into their environment. Policies must be established that define what will and will not be allowed in the corporate arena. Within the knowledge management process,  many organizations are embracing the use of social networking technologies but doing so with caution. Once knowledge is posted on the web, it can take on a life of it’s own. There must be internal security policies that insure that proprietry knowledge does not become available to the public. These policies should address the appropriate use of the technology as well as appropriate staff behavior.  Policies and procedures should also be defined for filtering, validating and controlling any knowledge tha

Event Management Reactive to Proactive

I have been asked by many students, how do you move from that role as the fire fighter resolving incidents to the role of being able to prevent them from occurring in the first place? Much of this has to do with good design and a strong proactive problem management process, but a solid event management process is an excellent offensive weapon in the prevention of impacting incidents in your environment. Event Management is the process that gives IT the ability to detect events, make sense of them and determine the appropriate control action. It is the basis for our operational monitoring and control. This gives us a way to compare actual performance against what was designed and written in SLAs. What is perfect about event management is that we can apply it to any aspect of our environment from delivery of a service, monitoring an individual CI, environmental conditions to software license usage. In conjunction with the other Service Management processes, along with both passive an

Conducting a Needs Assessment

In order for IT organizations to be successful, we must align ourselves with our business partners. Business and customer requirements must drive service and process continual improvement activities. As a service provider, we must ask ourselves if we really understand our customer’s needs and expectations. When was the last time we checked with our business to determime if we are delivering value? When was the last time you asked the business, “How are we doing”? One of the gathering techniques we learn in the Certified Process Design Engineering (CPDE) course is how to conduct a needs assessment. Here are the steps for conducting a successful assessment: 2 to 4 weeks prior to the assessment: Establish a high-level interview schedule Identify interview participants Develop a detailed interview schedule Contact each participant to determine availability Develop a list of interview questions/solicit feedback Refine your list of interview questions  1 to 2 weeks prior to the ass

The Components of a Process

I often get asked what goes into a Process Definition Document (PDD).  Certified Process Design Engineers (CPDE) learn that PDDs should  include: Policies A process overview Roles and Responsibilities Process Maps Activities Vocabulary Policies Policies specific to a process should be included in the Process Definition Document.  A policy is a formal document that describes the overall intentions and direction of a service provider, as expressed by senior management. Company policies are used to guide actions toward a specific outcome. They must be specific, measurable and underpinned by the process.  Overview The overview section contains the process description, objectives, goals, owner boundaries, triggers, supplier data, inputs, high level activities, outputs, customers and metrics. Roles and Responsibilities Roles and responsibilities define and describe the active participants in the process, including the process owner, process manager, suppliers, customers and sta

CPDE and Six Sigma

I was asked recently how Certified Process Design Engineer® (CPDE) and Six Sigma might work together. I was also asked to clarify the value of holding a Certified Process Design Engineer® certification. To deal with these questions we must first clarify the difference between CPDE® and Six Sigma. First CPDE® is a role and a set of methods and approaches for that role to use in defining, designing and implementing strong IT Service Management processes. Six Sigma is a quality framework based on the work of men like W. Edwards Deming, Joseph Juran and Philip Crosby (the Big Three of the quality movement) and developed out of Motorola’s efforts to improve quality. The two are not at odds, rather they complement each other. A CPDE has the skills to look at an organization, understand its culture, its approach to process and quality and its need for improvement. Once this assessment is done (using tools like the ITIL Process Maturity Framework, or CMMI) the CPDE would identify which el

ITSM Learnings from Fusion 2010

I recently attended a great opportunity to connect, learn and grow at the itSMF USA Fusion 10 Conference in Louisville, Kentucky. It was a wonderful chance to see old friends and acquaintances, to meet and make new friends and learn from some of the most articulate and impressive speakers on ITSM and ITIL available in the industry. I came away with some key points that I thought I would share with you so you can also gain the benefit and value of the data, information, knowledge and wisdom presented at the Conference. Here are my key take0aways: Service Management is alive and well. A new wave of users and supporters has emerged and were present at the show. I saw and met so many new people. I was impressed that ITSM and ITIL has not simply remained in the hands of a core group of users but has found continued life among new industries and implementers. ITSM and ITIL seem to be growing especially among colleges and university IT departments and in the medical and scientif

Why Use a RACI Matrix?

Not too long ago, I was involved in a post implementation meeting for a change that was not very successful. During the meeting there was a very heated discussion, some of the comments I heard were:  ‘I thought you were going to do that’ ‘That is not my responsibility” ‘Why wasn’t I informed that this was occurring’ 'I have the responsibility, but not the authority to get the job done' ‘I knew how to fix the issue, but no one ever asked me’   It occurred to me that having a RACI chart would address these comments. The RACI model is a straight forward tool used for identifying activities and relating them to roles and responsibilities, thus avoiding confusion over who does what and how people are involved. The acronym RACI stands for:  Responsible : This role is responsible for the correct execution of process and activities. This person or persons do the work to achieve the task. Accountable : This role has ownership of the quality and the end result o

The Need for Speed

Trends such as virtualization, cloud computing, and agile development have all prompted the need for leaner, more efficient, and more highly automated ITSM processes. Probably one of the things that is most misunderstood about ITIL is that it is a highly scalable framework. Organizations need to understand that if their processes are bureaucratic, it’s most likely because they have made them that way. So in the spirit of continual improvement, what’s an organization to do… throw out ITIL and start over? That’s what the DevOps folks would have you think. If you haven’t heard of DevOps, according to Wikipedia the term refers to the emerging understanding of the interdependence of development and operations in meeting a business' goal to produce timely software products and services. DevOps has been referred to as (1) a movement, (2) an approach, and one blogger went so far so refer to it as (3) a “framework of ideas and principles designed to foster cooperation, learning and coo

Strategic Thinking

What is strategic thinking? This question often crosses my mind and those of my students, especially when I am teaching the ITIL Lifecycle classes. Just as often as the question arises, a variety of answers are put forth as well. One definition of strategic thinking holds that “the role of strategic thinking is ‘to seek innovation and imagine new and very different futures that may lead the company to redefine its core strategies and even its industry’ ". This implies that the definition and use of strategic thinking are related but different from strategic planning—putting into action or executing the ideas developed using strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is just that—postulating or thinking about what the future holds and what the future looks like. Strategic planning is action based. A good organization recognizes they need both. As a Professor who attempts to provide learners with theory-driven practical data, information, knowledge and wisdom, I particularly like th

The Four Ps of Service Design - It’s not all about Technology

People ask me why I think that many designs and projects often fail. The most common answer is from a lack of preparation and management. Many IT organizations just think about the technology (product) implementation and fail to understand the risks of not planning for the effective and efficient use of the four Ps: People, Process, Products (services, technology and tools) and Partners (suppliers, manufacturers and vendors). A holistic approach should be adopted for all Service Design aspects and areas to ensure consistency and integration within all activities and processes across the entire IT environment, providing end to end business-related functionality and quality. (SD 2.4.2) People:   Have to have proper skills and possess the necessary competencies in order to get involved in the provision of IT services. The right skills, the right knowledge, the right level of experience must be kept current and aligned to the business needs. Products:   These are the technology managem

Application Cost Models

The Professor was recently asked about Application Cost models.  While ITIL does not speak specifically about “Application Cost Models,” there is information about how to create a service cost model using ITIL’s Financial Management process.  From ITIL’s perspective, an application is one part of an end-to-end service. Developing a cost model involves: Identifying all costs attributed to the service (hardware, software, salaries, accommodations, external services, transfer costs (e.g., from other internal units) Determining which costs can be directly tied to the service Deciding how to fairly apportion indirect costs (e.g., infrastructure, technical staff time) Adjusting the total to allow for unabsorbed overhead costs (e.g., administrative or managerial salaries, building/accommodation costs such as a data center or IT office space) A spread sheet can be used to break each cost down into a unit cost.  Overall cost for the application (or service) can then be calculated based