OGC had recently released a document around planned updates for ITIL V3 books, and has now requested for authors to bid for the refresh. Read the detailed pdf here.
I would have written a summary myself, however I think this summarizes the document well!
In continuation with some definitions of Data Analytics and Analysis here, the following graphic came up after a small discussion of how and when the Analysis and Analytics components play a role.
Will write more about various methodologies and tools as I learn more!
I had first heard of Ishikava diagram in the Analyse phase of a Six Sigma project, and wondered about its usage in IT because at time I had learnt only about the manufacturing side of the usage. Over time, I used this diagram very effectively in technical support and service desk process improvements. The key benefit of using this diagram was to be able to identify all impacting factors and then eleminate the not so important ones to reach the vital few. (It of course required more than the Ishikawa, but it sure was the starting point). A very practical usage of this diagram/technique is visible while doing RCAs in the Problem Management Process. I am also going to use this to develop a CoD model in near future!
Click here to read through some simply written instructions of Ishikawa usage in ITIL space by Hank Marquis or click here to download the pdf.
Another good link to read through would be this from isixsigma which has an overview of the Ishikawa
Click here for a high level overview of the steps required to create a Service Catalogue, from the art of service. The steps mentioned in the pdf are :
- Definition of Service Families
- Definition of Services within Service Families
- Mapping Services to existing customers
- Mapping expectations and dependencies to services
- Establish Operational Level Agreements
- Establish Service Level Agreements
- Establishment of Cost of Services
- Steady Stage
By the looks of it, these sound very logical steps, however in my opinion these are very very high level steps and tell you what to do, but honestly not in its complete entirety…
I like the fact that ITIL V3 differentiates between a Technical Services Catalogue and a Business Service Catalogue, however what I do not like is that it uses IT Services in both the definitions. In my opinion, Business Services Catalogue would be for only business services, things which do not have IT Users in its audiences, and IT Services Catalogue would purely focus on those services which are used by IT Users (including Business Users)
BSC could have services related to business applications or similar, services that lead to generation of money for the company
TSC could have services related to IT applications or similar, services that facilitate the use of IT in the organization.
More on this sometime later…
Rob England in a recent post brought up the topic of distinction between a Call and Incident in the ITIL V3 Books! I then went to the book and started reading through the IM Process and did not really find a classification there, which Rob also confirmed in his update on the post here.
Now if I look at it closely, ITIL V3 book in a way achnowledges that the source of an Incident can be more than one places, e.g. Event Management, Web Interface, User Phone Call, Email technical staff, but really does not talk about where a call or an event would become an Incident (Fig 4.2 in the Service Operations book)
In my experience with two IM Processes here is how it worked
1. The User Interfacing process was Call Management (based off IBM EOPs) and it determined where the call should go and be tracked. In case of an Incident, it would trigger an incident management process for service restoration and incident resolution, for the rest, it would either end at the Service Desk as a question which was answered or a first contact resolution or would trigger a request fulfillment process. This was based on IBM EOPs, which I felt were much more comprehensive and implementable than ITIL recommended processes.
2. Everything that comes to the Service Desk is a Service Management ticket, and becomes an incident ticket only when its determined that it is an interruption to service and has an SLA impact
In both the cases, there was a many to one relationship between the calls/SM tickets to Incidents… multiple calls could be logged or multiple SM tickets could be logged for the same issue if there were multiple users calling or logging tickets themselves using a web interface, however these tickets would be associated with one single master incident which would then be published and pursued for resolution and service restoration.
From an ITIL V3 perspective, I think one would have to leverage on the Event Management process to be able to log events and then classify them into Incidents, however leaves the How-To questions, and Service Requests aside, and does not tell how to deal with them.
San Jose based IT company ZL Technologies, recently filed a case against Gartner challenging the very popular Gartner “Magic Quadrant”.
As per ZL Technologies website,
ZL Technologies, a San Jose-based IT company specializing in cutting-edge enterprise software solutions for e-mail and file archiving, is challenging Gartner Group and the legitimacy of Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant.” In a complaint filed on May 29, 2009, ZL claims that Gartner’s use of their proprietary “Magic Quadrant” is misleading and favors large vendors with large sales and marketing budgets over smaller innovators such as ZL that have developed higher performing products. The complaint alleges: defamation; trade libel; false advertising; unfair competition; and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.
Read more here.
Read some detailed points of view and analysis of this situation here on the ZDnet blog.
Whitepaper from Jack Probst and Gary Case from Pink Elephant about integration of Six Sigma and ITIL.
Click here to download the pdf.
Its always nice and refreshing to go read the basics of processes every once in a while… The benefit it does to me personally is that
1. It makes me feel good that I still remember the basics
2. Over a period of time various flavors of implementation tend to take one away from the core, and refreshing the memory can be like cleaning off the dust at times!
Here is one link that has some very basics of Change Management and interesting links to read through! This article from SeachCIO has 4 FAQs for IT and Organizational Change Management
- How are organizational change management and IT change management different?
- Where does ITIL change management fit in?
- What are some examples of change management models?
- What types of change management software and tools are available today?
Two personally interesting and important links that this page has are
2. PinkVerify V3 toolset. The link has both ITIL V3 and V3 aligned tools mapped by processes. Click here to go through the complete list.
Was reading through an interesting article by Stephen Hirsch from SAP Education… he in this article talks about building and maintaining ROI through performance management. What I like about this article is that it does not talk about typical performance management of an application or a system, but is talking about a whole cycle of organizational change management to ensuring that the organization achieves what it set itself up for through this change.
The phases that Stephen has stressed on are
- Change Management
- Assessment, Strategy and Development
- Knowledge Transfer
- Operations
- Performance Management
My view on this
Knowledge transfer and Performance Management would be two very very important steps that would prove instrumental in the success of a project/organizational change!
Like Stephen also mentioned in the article that most users would rely on quicker methods to gain information and not the large documents or LMS modules post implementation, there is a requirement for consistent and crisp information flow and availability of that simple information to do the job well!!!
What is mentioned as performance management in this article is something that I percieve as process adoption… and without well built checks (not controls as yet) one would not know how well the organization is doing! Do going back to the Strategy and Development phase, one of the key things is to identify
You can read the detailed article here (Requires registration).
Image source : End-user Performance : Building and Maintaining ROI article from SAP
I have been reading this website “How Stuff Works” for a very long time… at times to figure out things related to work and at times just to know more! This time around I decided to read through for both reasons… To read more about things which are related to work 
. Have heard a lot about Cloud computing and its application, however wanted to go through a structured reading to build my views on how ITSM and Cloud Computing align to each other.
While I am on my way to do that, here is the link the “How Cloud Computing works” from How Stuff Works and some reasons why it makes sense.
- Clients would be able to access their applications and data from anywhere at any time. They could access the cloud computing system using any computer linked to the Internet. Data wouldn’t be confined to a hard drive on one user’s computer or even a corporation’s internal network.
- It could bring hardware costs down. Cloud computing systems would reduce the need for advanced hardware on the client side. You wouldn’t need to buy the fastest computer with the most memory, because the cloud system would take care of those needs for you. Instead, you could buy an inexpensive computer terminal. The terminal could include a monitor, input devices like a keyboard and mouse and just enough processing power to run the middleware necessary to connect to the cloud system. You wouldn’t need a large hard drive because you’d store all your information on a remote computer.
- Corporations that rely on computers have to make sure they have the right software in place to achieve goals. Cloud computing systems give these organizations company-wide access to computer applications. The companies don’t have to buy a set of software or software licenses for every employee. Instead, the company could pay a metered fee to a cloud computing company.
- Servers and digital storage devices take up space. Some companies rent physical space to store servers and databases because they don’t have it available on site. Cloud computing gives these companies the option of storing data on someone else’s hardware, removing the need for physical space on the front end.
- Corporations might save money on IT support. Streamlined hardware would, in theory, have fewer problems than a network of heterogeneous machines and operating systems.
- If the cloud computing system’s back end is a grid computing system, then the client could take advantage of the entire network’s processing power. Often, scientists and researchers work with calculations so complex that it would take years for individual computers to complete them. On a grid computing system, the client could send the calculation to the cloud for processing. The cloud system would tap into the processing power of all available computers on the back end, significantly speeding up the calculation.
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