Happy New Year
Somehow
I thought I would be able to write my blogs ahead, and then release them
fortnightly (or at least two-a-month). Reality has taken over and I now find
myself in January without any pre-prepared blogs. So, with this in mind and as
we’re starting a new year, I thought perhaps I should go back to the basics.
As
an ITIL zealot, I of course am strongly inclined to see ITIL as the one true
way of ‘implementing’ service management. But I am certainly not that myopic
not to recognise that there are some excellent ‘other’ frameworks around which
offer complimentary and sometimes even superior advice (I am particular enarmoured
with COBIT5 and may devote a future blog to that).
But
more than any specific methodology I find that recently I am spending more time
(in ITIL training etc.) explaining to people the basic concept of Service
Management (and then how ITIL fits in). So, the basic concept of service
management is the management of services (yes, sometimes things are THAT
simple). A service, in turn, is the value we deliver to the business, which is
not related to any specific technology used (but rather the utility and warranty,
which are a great set of concepts, although ITIL could have used them
better and more consistent).
So,
my first and possibly most basic teaching is that we (i.e. all ‘IT-people’)
need to focus on our deliverable\value rather than our delivery\technology.
This is most evident in a process like Incident Management that deals with
break-fix. ITIL provides a great objective-statement for this process which is ‘to restore normal service as quickly as
possible, and minimise impact on the business’.
I
always highlight three key parts in this statement, the first being ‘restore’.
Incident Management is not about fixing, improving or anything
permanent\long-term, but merely about restoring the normal\working situation,
sometimes using workarounds (the equivalent of taking an aspirin …). The second
highlighted part is ‘as quickly as possible’, which then leads to the
priority-setting (impact and urgency), which is driven by the customer,
business or at least the service targets of the SLA.
The
last part of the Incident Management objective that is of importance is
‘minimising impact to the business’, which brings us back to the core of
service management: delivering value. If a user can’t email, then it is
important of us to restore this service (and for future purpose perhaps do a
root cause analysis). But of immediate importance is the business process which
was trying to communicate (the value), something that perhaps can be achieved
otherwise (print & fax, phone, …). A good service desk agent will think with the user,
about the business and not restrict themselves to the service levels in place
and/or the technology used.
Once
you grasp that the basic meaning of a service is the value delivered, then the
next\second basic concept is that of the ‘management’ part: the value has to be
delivered repeatable & guaranteed. This is where ITIL (or your favourite
methodology) plays its part as it provides the structure that allows providers
to deliver services repeatable, manageable & guaranteed.
In ITIL this is
done through the processes which provide ‘structured activities’. This
is why a good methodology is also known as ‘commons sense, written down’ as
those activities are common sense and most people would do them anyway, most of
the time (I sometimes joke that there are yet undiscovered tribes in the amazon who are using Incident Management). The structure of a process makes sure that everyone does the
activities, all of the time and thus establishes repeatability. By documenting
a process (procedure manuals, work instructions etc.) and measuring activities (and
outcomes) we make the delivery manageable, repeatable & guaranteed.
But
… remember that it was not about the delivery, and thus not about the process,
but rather the outcome\value\service that is being delivered. Processes\ITIL
are merely a means to an end (even though sometimes zealots like myself get
lost in the intricacies of the means, thus forgetting the end)!
Focusing too much on process is the equivalent of declaring the operation a success, even though the patient has died! (but look at the stitching ... textbook).
So,
these are the basics of Service Management: it is about delivering value in a repeatable & guaranteed
way. Ultimately (or ideally) a service is a fixed-price, blackbox ‘thing’: as a
user\customer I don’t care how it happens, as long as I get the value, every
time I need it!
Best
wishes for 2013.
the ITIL Zealot
January 2013
January 2013