In 1999 the US Federal Government took a step toward improving the quality, performance, delivery and support of IT-based services. This step was the creation of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF).  This framework consists of five reference models. A reference model is an abstract or logical framework or structure that describes the interconnections between ideas, concepts, elements or components that make up a whole system. We can look to the FEAF reference models as a guide for how we might approach an ITSM implementation regardless of industry or organizational structure. Performance Reference Model : Used to measure the performance of major IT investments  This equates to a CSI or Metrics Program  Business Reference Model : Process-driven structure that describe business operations regardless of the organization that performs them This equates to a Service Portfolio framework Services Reference Model : Classification of service...

Before my life as an ITSM professor, I was responsible for delivering the monthly reports on IT at a large specialty retailer organization with multiple remote locations in several states across America.   I delivered many of the standard reports for Service Desk, Change Management and System Availability.   System availability was a standard report that reviewed from a system / hardware perspective just how available the systems and their supporting components were throughout the month.   This was delivered in percentages and the goal was to maintain 100% infrastructure availability. Even though many of the individual systems and components were meeting their required SLAs, our customers were still not satisfied with the availability and performance of critical services.   W e needed to re-address what should we be measuring and how should we be reporting achievements back to the business and customers. W e decided to report on the end to end delive...

The world record for the 100 meter dash is 9.58 seconds. The world record for the mile is 3 minutes 43 seconds. The record for running a marathon is 2 hours and 3 minutes. The 100 meter freestyle swimming record is 44 seconds. The world land speed record is 760 miles per hour (1223 KmH).   And the list goes on and on. So what do these records have to do with ITSM? First these records are metrics: results of measurements. They measure the performance of processes (structured steps or actions undertaken to achieve an objective) and indicate the level of performance of people and vehicles doing the process. Second these data points reveal the myth of metrics. This myth is the belief that a person or organization can pick a data point or metric (desired result) before doing a process and through sheer willpower or force of action achieve that point. For example a person could not pick a time such as one (1) hour and say they are going to run a full length marathon in one hour. The on...

When it comes to processes, W. Edwards Deming stated that there are only two choices: execute the process or improve the process. When it comes to improving a process we have three basic paths we can follow: develop the process (if it does not exist), redesign the process (if it is sore need of fixing) or improve the process (tweaking it in incremental ways). So let’s explore each of these paths in a little more depth. Develop the Process: This path occurs when you really do not have a process. You might have some loosely followed procedures or perhaps steps that people follow in their heads. There is no formally defined, developed or documented process. This path allows you to start from the beginning by gathering requirements for the process, creating a process definition document and then implementing the process. This path takes the longest time and in some ways the most work. Redesign the Process: This path occurs when the process you have in place just does not provid...

C hris Argyris is one of the most important and influential thinkers in the last 100 years. Yet, few people are aware of his efforts in organizational development and human behavior. Argyris wrote about a number of different areas of organizational change management. Perhaps one of his most important contributions has been in the area of Single-loop and Double-loop learning for individuals and organizations. Single-loop learning is when an individual or group undertakes an action and the result is not what they expect or believe be the result should be. So they go about “correcting” their approach on the assumption that they must have done something “wrong” the first time. As a result of the “correction” they expect a different result. Some of you may recognize this as the classic definition of “insanity”. Others have called these “self-fulfilling” prophecies. Doing the same kinds of things over and over and expecting different results. Single-loop Learning results from creating what...

The Professor was recently asked about the following very interesting situation. In my organization, we have a service desk that is not part of the main IT department.  Since we are a service desk solution provider, it is actually in one of our businesses units.  So our IT department has chosen to take advantage of that in-place service desk to effectively also be the service desk for internal employees.   Is this a situation where an operational level agreement (OLA) applies?    Or are the “parts” of the internal organization too far apart and a service level agreement (SLA) is more appropriate? I think the idea is that the OLA applies to different internal groups within IT?   Is that true? Let’s first define these terms and then apply them to this situation. An SLA is an agreement between a service provider and a customer. In the case of the service desk that is in one of the company’s business units, that service desk is a Type I (int...

Trends such as mobile computing, consumerization (also known as bring your own device (BYOD), and cloud computing are having a dramatic impact on the service desk. These trends are prompting many organizations to evaluate and improve their existing service management processes , or implement new processes where needed, and to rethink the role the service desk plays in implementing, executing and improving these processes. It would be easy to look at these trends and think of them only as the deployment of new technologies but there are bigger considerations at stake. What services are these technologies enabling? What business processes do these services underpin? How is the business impacted when these services are interrupted? An important key performance indicator (KPI) for service catalog management is whether the service desk has the information that it needs about those services and their associated interfaces and dependencies. This is because the service desk plays ...

When I teach ITIL foundation classes and we start talking about aligning IT strategy with business strategy, I usually see some puzzled looks on the faces of my students.   So I thought I would give some basics on what we are trying to establish here. The purpose of strategy management for IT services is to create a process for defining and maintaining an organization's perspective, position, plans and patterns related to its services and the management of those services.    The purpose of a service strategy is to communicate how a service provider will enable an organization to achieve the desired business outcomes and establish the criteria and mechanisms to decide which services will be delivered, to whom they will be delivered to and to establish the most effective and efficient way to manage these services. The objectives of strategy management for IT services are: Analyze the internal and external environments in which we (the service provider) exist and to...

Designing and documenting a process enables an organization to move from the initial level of the ITIL Process maturity Framework (PMF) through the repeatable level to the defined level.   To undertake this task without adequate resources can be quite daunting especially given the fact that it must I dentify needed changes to job descriptions Develop and document work procedures Identify work requirements Establish the data to be collected and the format to report accomplishments D ocument the necessary vocabulary to be utilized within the process The following ten process design and improvement steps can be used to create an easy to use and repeatable approach to help move your organization from one level to the next.   The ten steps are grouped into four phases.   Each phase will produce a deliverable that serves as an input to the follow phase. Phase: Requirements Definition.    Output: Requirements Definition Document. 1.     Dete...

Service Level Management (SLM) is the process that is responsible for the overall agreeing and documenting Service Level Targets (SLT) and the responsibilities within Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Service Level Requirements (SLRs) for every service and related activity within IT. The SLA is effectively a level of guarantee or warranty with regard to the level of service quality delivered by the service provider for each of the services supplied to the business.   The accuracy of the SLAs, SLRs and SLTs and the overall success of SLM is very dependent on the quality of the service portfolio and service catalogue and their contents because they provide the detailed information on the services to be managed within the SLM process. With that said the purpose of the SLM process is to certify that all current and planned IT services are delivered in accordance with agreed achievable targets.   This is normally accomplished by SLM through a continuing cycle of negotiation...

I was recently asked "Do you have an average for the service desk of first call resolution?  We are trying to set a target for the team and I cannot find any data which gives me any indication what a good target would be."   First call resolution (sometimes called "first contact resolution" or FCR) is an industry recognized metric for the performance of the Service Desk.   Analysts are measured on their ability to restore service to a user and close an incident during the first call or contact.     This is a difficult metric to benchmark across all organizations and all incidents.   Factors such as incident complexity, service desk skills and empowerment,  outsourcing and remote control capabilities can influence the ability (or inability) to restore service during the first contact. While ITIL acknowledges FCR as an important Service Desk metric, it steers clear of offering a target or benchmark....

The Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) is a well written, meaningful, asset-rich framework that is often overlooked in favor of its higher profile cousins ITIL, Cobit and ISO/IEC 20000.   Unfortunately, the big "M" that stands in front of the framework has created the perception that MOF is only relevant to Microsoft environments.  Nothing could be further from the truth - Microsoft has invested a great deal of resource and effort in creating MOF intellectual property and assets - giving it all away for free for anyone, in any environment, that is interested in learning more.  In fact, Microsoft considers you a Microsoft customer if you are working at a desktop or laptop running a Microsof operating system. Microsoft's goal in developing MOF was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of IT service providers, thereby enabling those providers to get a better return on their infrastructure, applications and tools.   Here are six good reas...

When we think about ITIL® we think about being able to manage the delivery of value-laden IT services to customers. But are there other, less obvious ways we can use and gain from the best practices and ideas contained within ITIL®? One of the areas that ITIL® and ITSM can help us with is by making conversations and meetings more effective and efficient. One of the ways that ITIL can help us with meetings is by using the concepts embedded in RACI. Traditionally the ideas of being responsible, accountable, consulted and informed have been for use with process activities and levels of authority and accountability. However, once we identify those levels and assign them to roles we can use them to help us establish the proper attendance at a meeting. When sending out a meeting announcement or invite we can indicate that the meeting is for those roles holding particular levels within the RACI models. In this way we have the appropriate roles and individuals at the meeting. Another wa...

Part 1 of this series introduced the idea that a community of practice (CoP) is group of people who are bound together by similar interests and expertise . CoPs are an extension of the blended learning strategy being adopted by many organizations that combines formal, informal and social approaches to learning. Like service management, communities have lifecycles – they emerge, they grow, and over time they become institutionalized. Also like service management, the plan-do-check-act cycle can be applied to each of these stages. Plan involves identifying the audience for the CoP and defining its purpose. It is also critical to ensure the needs and goals of its members are understood and that its purpose and goals are tied to the vision, mission and values of the greater organization. For example, you could have a service management CoP that brings together all of the practitioners in your organization, or you could have CoPs that focus on individual lifecycle stages but occasi...

What do you think would happen if everyone who attended an IT service management (ITSM) class – ITIL, ISO/IEC 20000, MOF – went back to work and talked to the person who sits next to them about how their organization could apply best practices? Or, what if everyone shared their ideas with just the people in their work groups. Those organizations would see tremendous benefit. Even small steps – think plan-do-check-act – can reap large benefits over time. But why stop there? Many organizations have people in different departments and locations, perhaps even in different parts of the world, who must work together to realize the true benefits of a consistent, integrated approach to ITSM. A community of practice can be used to bring these people together. A community of practice (CoP) is group of people who are bound together by similar interests and expertise. Members are active practitioners who come together to share information, experiences, tips and best practices. Members prov...

Techniques used to measure employee satisfaction include informal one-on-one discussions, focus groups and periodic surveys. As with customer satisfaction surveys, for accurate and reliable results, employee satisfaction surveys should be created with care by people who understand how to develop questions that produce unbiased information. In other words, ask your HR folks for help! So what questions should you ask? "How satisfied are you with your job?" is a good place to start. A question such as: "Compared with a year ago, how would you describe your overall job satisfaction?" can provide additional insight.  You can also ask employees to rate their satisfaction with areas such as: Reward and recognition programs Career development and advancement opportunities Education and training  Supervision, coaching and feedback Teamwork Availability of resources needed to do the job Ability to contribute to organizational goals  And in the spirit of co...

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...

Implementing the guidance provided by ITIL is very much like cooking. If you have ever cooked something using a recipe (even if it is the directions from the package) you know that although you can vary somewhat from the recipe or directions, you cannot change the recipe substantially and expect the stated results. When cooking cakes or sweets, if you add too many eggs or too little oil or too much sugar or leave out an ingredient, what will result will probably not be what you intended. Recipes (and package directions) are best practices just like ITIL. Package recipes especially have been formulated to achieve the optimal results each and every time you make the food. But we must follow the recipe to get the results. This is not to say you cannot adjust (or “adapt”) the recipe based on your own tastes or even serving suggestions from the package. Adjusting or adapting does not mean rewriting the recipe or completely ignoring the package directions because you do not agree or like...

ITIL has always emphasized the need for clearly defined roles for Process Owners and Process Managers. ITIL also speaks to the role of Service Owner, an individual who is accountable for and represents the the end-to-end service.    Within each process, there may also be roles that are designed to carry out certain process activities. Successful service management dictates that specific individuals are assigned to specific roles with specific responsibilities for one or more processes.     But what about the rest of us?      Where do we fit into the service management program?   What role do we play?   ITIL defines a key role for anyone that executes any activity within any process – the Process Practitioner.         The Process Practitioner Carries out one or more process activities Understands how his or her role adds to value creation Works with other stakeholders to ensure contri...

In order to create a successful foundation for our implementations of ITSM and ITIL® we can take lessons from the study of languages. The foundation of the service management best practices is a language that needs to be understood, mastered and used, just like you would learn a foreign or native tongue. When learning a new language there are two basic approaches one can take. You can study the grammatical theory and structure or you can do immersion learning. Language experts tell us that both are necessary actually to master or become fluent in a language. Immersing yourself in a language (such as ITIL) provides a conversational or daily usage basis. Think of this as having insight as to “how” the language works. Studying the theory and structure of a language (such as ITIL) provides for an understanding and knowledge basis. Think of this as having insight as to “why” the language works. Without theory there would be no usage since you would be unable to form new sentences, only...