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Service Continuity vs. Incident Management

According to ITIL 4 best practice, Service Continuity focuses on events that would impede business operations so drastically that it would be considered a disaster. Other events that have a less significant impact on the business might be considered incidents to be managed through the Incident Management Practice or the Major Incident Management Practice. This means that there are different levels of importance and that the distinction between what is a normal incident, major incident, or one that might require disaster recovery must be predefined and agreed upon. Documentation then must include clear thresholds and triggers to provoke the appropriate response and recovery into action without delay and additional risk.  There is no question that your organization is increasingly dependent on services that are tech-enabled. The need for resilient solutions is critical to success. A combination of business planning as well as being proactive with security, incident, and problem mana

ITIL 4 – Why and Why NOW?

To Understand Why and Why NOW, I will use some of the “Guiding Principles” that are the golden chords steaming through all practices defined in ITIL 4. These guiding principles are themes throughout the concepts and precepts that were discussed in a recent ITIL 4 Foundation certification class. Practitioners and thought leaders gathered together from all over the world to discuss and learn more about ITIL 4 best practices There are seven guiding principles discussed in ITIL 4. I will begin with these three to answer the question: Why and Why Now? Focus on Value ITIL 4 is a holistic approach to managing value. Based on the Service Value System and the integration of dimensions that tie together practices, ITIL 4 enables speed to value for all service providers. Value is the result of all of our people, practices, and technology. Value is what we deliver. ITIL 4 stresses the need to co-create value with all stakeholders none more important than with the customer. If we are going

The Four Dimensions of Service Management

For every system that is utilized to provide a service, there are four dimensions of service management. If we are to think and work holistically that means that every practice, and every aspect of service management for services need to be considered in light of these four dimensions. Organizations and People The aspects of the organization and people dimension are all related to the creation, delivery, and improvement of services. To improve these aspects, everyone in an organization must understand its objectives and how they contribute to those objectives. It is not uncommon to see organizations restructuring in an effort to reap the benefits of Agile, Lean, and DevOps practices. Organizations are increasingly forming cross-functional teams or product teams in an effort to break down silos and enable more effective collaboration. None of this can be accomplished without understanding how powerful the culture is in terms of its influence on organizations and individuals. Fo

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group .   As a service provider, we can’t stop there!   We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer.     Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include:     Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods.   Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you.   You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you.               Note: Goods may not always be provided for every Service Offe

Transform to Excellence with ITIL4

Digital and Cultural transformation is survival.   Every living breathing moving service provider today is challenged to innovate and radically rethink the way that they deliver value.   All services that create value are supported by technology.   Creating, expanding, and improving IT Service Management is not only beneficial but is critical for our future.   ITIL 4 has improved upon and modernized an approach to service management with proven best practices that support a systems approach to the entire value system.   As service providers, we must be able not only to deliver a product at the speed of light but must also be capable of ensuring a resilient and anti-fragile environment. These improved-upon best practices for all aspects of service management give organizations the ability to balance the need for stability and operational agility with increased velocity. Shatter the silos, get real support from your DevOps, Agile, and Lean investment .   Ensure service managem

ITIL 4 and VeriSM

I was recently asked about VeriSM and ITIL4, and how they fit together... VeriSM aims to elevate service management to the enterprise level. Like ITIL 4, it advocates leveraging Agile, Lean, DevOps, ITSM, etc. as needed to achieve enterprise goals. It also emphasizes understanding emerging technologies and their influence on business and service management. VeriSM introduces the management mesh as a way to bring those concepts together and determine what is required to achieve organizational goals. As the focus is on enterprise service management, the aim is to take service management principles and concepts out of IT and extend them to other parts of the enterprise; specifically in the context of digital transformation. VeriSM introduces a value chain but does not introduce any specific service management processes. ITIL 4 also aligns with Agile, Lean, DevOps, SIAM, etc., and aims to modernize IT service management in an effort to enable digital transformation. To quote the book,

10 Types of People Who Need to Understand DevOps

If your organization hasn’t adopted DevOps approaches yet, it probably will soon. In the InteropITX 2018 State of DevOps Report , only 9 percent of the business technology decision-makers surveyed said that their organizations had no DevOps plans. A third said their organizations had already adopted DevOps principles and another 46 percent had plans to do so within the next two years. As DevOps spreads, many IT leaders have questions about which types of employees should get basic training on the fundamentals of the approach. We recommend that at least the following ten types of people get a foundational education about DevOps: 1. Developers In many organizations, DevOps begins with the application development team adopting Agile methodologies. DevOps begins to spread as those in the operations team start to follow some of the same principles. 2. IT operations professionals DevOps is all about closer integration between development and operations, so it stands to r