A Need Will Always Find A Way!

From the earliest days of speaking and teaching about ITIL around the world a common question has always been asked of the bright-eyed ITIL champion, trainer or consultant.

“That’s really interesting but what tools support this model?”

It’s not surprising really! Apart from the fact that we who work in IT are generally enamored with our gadgets and technologies, there really is no getting away from the very real need for integrated IT Management tools. Lets face it, to even get close to the level of process integration, measurement and workflow that ITIL processes hint at you need some serious automation.

It is for this very reason that 10 years ago Pink Elephant developed an independent ITIL software assessment method called PinkVERIFY, which owes its birth and invention to necessity.� Simply put – PinkVERIFY does two things:

1. Describes the requirements for tools to support good IT service management, on a process-by-process basis.
2. Lists tools we have “verified” to meet those requirements for each process.

However it was not our initial desire to tread this path alone, we first approached both the OGC and ITSMF about providing this service but at that time they showed no interest. David Ratcliffe describes the drivers and history well in his blog post “Why PinkVERIFY?”

For the last decade it has been a lonely road and as you can imagine we have received our fair share of praise and critique from our advocates and detractors but a key point is that we continued to develop PinkVERIFY, always publishing everything openly so that anyone could see how the method worked and suggest improvements.� The value of PinkVERIFY is attested by the fact that today we have over 30 IT management vendors, who have voluntarily submitted their tools for “verification”; and presence on the PinkVERIFY list has become an essential requirement for tools to make the short-list on many organizations RFPs.

However as ITIL itself has matured over the last 20 years the value of what PinkVERIFY promises has now been acknowledged by the bodies that govern the ITIL framework. The big news is that on May 1st 2009 the OGC launched a program to officially recognize that there’s value in assigning an “ITIL badge” to software assessment services such as PinkVERIFY. Note that OGC has NOT developed a software assessment service itself, but has simply established criteria and requirements for how software assessments should be done by organizations which offer this service. (This is exactly how the “official” ITIL education programs are promoted – OGC sets standards and training organizations apply to be accredited to deliver programs that meet those standards). So, organizations, like Pink, who have an interest in conducting software assessments for IT Management tools can now apply to be officially recognized as licensed assessors under this new software accreditation scheme and the vendor and practitioner communities can then have confidence that OGC has undertaken some diligence on their behalf, ensuring that the software assessment scheme has some merit.

Well, we always knew that PinkVERIFY was useful – the vendors and practitioners have been telling us so for over 10 years! – but it will be nice to also have OGC’s blessing too, and so Pink Elephant has submitted an application to OGC to become accredited under the new software assessment scheme. I look forward to posting again in a few weeks with an announcement that PinkVERIFY has been recognized by OGC and that Pink Elephant has become a Licensed Software Assessor.

ITIL Software Scheme

1st May 2009, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK… The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) are announcing The ITIL® Software Scheme - a new software endorsement scheme which allows software tool vendors to submit their ITIL based software tools for assessment to a Licensed Software Assessor....

In order to become a Licensed Software Assessor, an organisation must successfully pass an audit. They can then assess tools and forward recommendations to The APM Group. Licensed Software Assessors must meet eligibility criteria and include certain core assessment criteria within their assessment models.� They are monitored to ensure they are working to standards set by OGC.�

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” Arnold H. Glasgow

“The Service Catalog - Cornerstone of IT Service Management”

Having just landed from our 3 week PinkPERSPECTIVE tour (and boy my arms are tired) I would like to comment about the exciting news on the ITIL education front that broke on Monday of this week.

Since the launch of the ITIL v3 certification model two years ago we have heard of the coming introduction of accredited course offerings recognized by the owners of ITIL as “complementary guidance.” The concept of recognized and accredited courses that provide specific and targeted knowledge on key subjects makes a lot of sense for individuals who have a specific role to play within an IT Service Management context or are tasked with the design and deployment of a focused element of ITSM practices.

It seems fitting and right that one of the first courses to be recognized under this new model would focus on the service catalog which stands at the heart of any IT Service Management program. Pink is proud to be a part of the group of companies that participated in the development and launch of this new certification announced by APMG this week.

As an organization we have been teaching a course on the Service Catalog for several years. ITIL Practitioner: How To Create A Service Catalog According To ITIL Best Practices based on ITIL and a book on the subject I co-wrote with Rodrgio Flores and Bill Fine of newScale. “Defining IT Success Through The Service Catalog”

As lead of our consulting practice I know that this subject is the most frequently requested service we get ask to help organizations with in 2009 so the timing is right for an ITIL accredited course on this important subject.

Here is a part of the Press Release from APMG’s Website:

Link: APMG-International to launch new Complementary Qualification

15 June 2009, APMG-International, High Wycombe, UK announces the release of a Qualification for Service Catalogue. The qualification initiated by market leaders newScale, headquartered in San Francisco and Pink Elephant in Toronto, Canada, has been developed over the last several months and is the second complimentary qualification for the ITIL Qualification Portfolio.

The Service Catalogue qualification was subject to independent review and scrutiny by the International Qualifications Committee of itSMF International, the leading Service Management movement with 52 different Chapters.

Colin Rudd, itSMFI Director of Professional Qualifications and Certifications said, “The importance of an accurate Service Catalogue cannot be underestimated. Candidates can now gain a recognized qualification in this discipline whilst working towards their ITIL Expert Certification.”

Service Catalogue is a new qualification that looks at new ways to control demand, publish and track service pricing and cost, and automate service request management and fulfilment. Service Catalogue also looks at ways to help reduce cycle time. Implementing workflow can reduce the time it takes to fulfil services, saving numerous hours per request. Organizations can thus reallocate precious staff time to more strategic initiatives.

Rodrigo Flores, CTO and Founder of newScale says “The Service Catalogue is the engine that drives IT Service Management and we are delighted to support the launch of a global certification programme establishing professional credential for this core process. Based on our experience, organisations are saving millions of dollars a year through effective Service Catalogue and this will be critical for organisations as we move out of recession.”

AVP of Product Strategy at Pink Elephant, Troy DuMoulin says, “Having spent many years teaching and assisting organizations in adopting IT Service Management, we’re pleased to be associated with the launch of this new certification. Our experience and client feedback confirms that the Service Catalogue is the cornerstone of any ITIL initiative. We’re encouraged by this exciting development in the professionalism of Service Management.”

Richard Pharro, CEO of APM Group says, “We are thrilled to have been chosen by newScale and PINK to take over the Service Catalogue Certification and to create an international standard for one of the key tools in service management.”

Sharon Taylor, ITIL V3 Chief Examiner says, “qualifications which help further promote specialized knowledge from within ITIL practices will be a welcomed addition to the overall Qualification Scheme. We are pleased to continue to offer more choices for ITIL certification.”

To see Pink’s Press Release with more detail around the certification and the number of credits awarded to the new certification visit our site: Pink Elephant Press Release

These are exciting times and I am looking forward to seeing other key topics recognized in the ITIL model for Complementary Guidance.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

”Change does not necessarily assure progress, but progress implacably requires change. Education is essential to change, for education creates both new wants and the ability to satisfy them. ~Henry Steele Commager”

“Changes In the Wind For the ITSM Tool Community”

As I prepare to join my fellow Pinkers on this years multi-city PinkPERSPECTIVE Roadshow, my thoughts wander to the many technology changes that are impacting the collective lives of those of us who are involved in IT Service Management. Aside from the obvious impact of the economic climate there are several disruptive technologies that are changing the rules of the game we have known until now.

The Impact of Software As A Service: (Sometimes it make sense to rent versus own)

The growing popularity of Software As A Service (SaaS) models and the maturing of the concept of Cloud Computing as an alternative model for purchasing IT Services is driving many changes in the options available to ITIL project managers looking for an ITSM solution. Whether it is a short term or long term strategy SaaS has many compelling arguments to consider such as speed to implement, limited capital investment in infrastructure, predictability in costs, etc..

In the ITSM Tool space vendors such as Service-Now have pioneered this model and many of their traditional client server based competitors are now following suit by offering their tools in a hosted model. This is particularly true of those tools which are based on Web and browser technologies versus a traditional installed client model. I have been watching Service-Now’s development with interest over the last few years as they have grown their client base with many impressive wins and have driven change in the rest of the ITSM Tool space with an innovative solution that has been developed based on ITIL best practices from day 1. In a recent article posted by Rhett Glauser “An expensive compliment from a friend” Rhett describes Service-Now’s challenges with and thoughts on the question of Tool Certification and their upcoming engagement with our PinkVERIFY service.

The Growing Popularity of Living In The Clouds

On a related topic my friend Rodrigo Flores of NewScale has launched a new blog called “Cloud Front Office” where he discusses the concepts of public and private cloud computing strategies as a powerful tool to support the rapid deployment and provisioning of IT services in a virtual environment. The concept of Cloud Computing combined with SaaS has been gaining in popularity and maturity for several years. With the emergence of private clouds where you can contract with a provider to create a Cloud environment within the safety and security of your own IT walls many of the last resistance factors are quickly fading away. When the average metric for a hosting service is around 12 cents a CPU hour and the added pressure of not having the same latitude as in years past to spend on IT infrastructure without constraints, the concept of turning to cloud based solutions for both development and production environments is coming of age.

The Emergence of Open Source ITSM Tools

One of my personal rants for the past several years as been about the lack of movement towards an open data model or architecture for ITSM tools. We have had the CMDB Consortium around for years, The World Wide Web Consortium (W3) has been working on a Service Modeling Language (SML), and recently another group was formed to develop a standard Service Portfolio and Catalog Language (SPACL).� Lots of action but little movement if you know what I mean! In my view this is largely due to a general lack of an Open-source tool community in the ITSM space. It is my perspective that only when the vendor community is faced with a strong open alternative will they move to adopt open standards. At our conference in February I was delivering this traditional cry of frustration when I was approached by a person claiming to have worked on the development of one of the first Open Source ITSM Tools sets. OTRS stands for Open source Ticket Request System and is available for free for those who are of a mind to try their hand at its configuration. I realize it is early days in this category but it is nice to see the emergence of Open Source alternatives.

We plan to talk about these interesting developments at our PinkPERSPECTIVE events over the next two weeks and look forward to dialoging with those of you whom I meet on our 8 City Tour.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

”Disruptive technologies: These are wild and unexpected technological breakthroughs that require corporations to radically rethink their very existence.” ~Christensen

When Defining IT Service Start From A Top Down Perspective

Knowing where to start is half the battle and when it comes to defining IT services it is even more important. One of the frequently asked questions I hear when talking to people about defining IT Services in preparation for a service catalog project is “Where do I start”?

Left to our own devices we will often start with what we know best, “Technology” and struggle to articulate IT services from a bottom up approach. The challenge with this approach is that very rarely if never will a service be limited to a specific technology or component. Even a basic IT Service Offering such as Desktop Productivity which is usually manifested to the customer as a desktop or laptop computer is not solely comprised up of just the laptop itself. As the last blog post establishes any service is usually a combination of service elements (intangible) and products (tangible).� The tangible laptop product is only one component of the Desktop Productivity service which has bundled into it other key service elements such as security, virus management, image management, service desk support, etc.. This is the reason that the laptop down at the local Big Box technology store costs only $400.00 while your laptop has a unit cost of $1800.00.

To mix things up a bit I have put together podcast on the Service Definition Process which represents a summary of one of the sections out of the Pink Elephant book “Defining IT Success Through The Service Catalog”

Defining IT Services

In summary when defining IT Services break away from the mode of starting with technology and first seek to understand the business you support.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. “ ~ Douglas Adams

I Say Apple you Say Orange - not exactly the same thing but they are both fruit.

The debate over terminology rings on as the IT Service industry grapples with an agreement of terms and the gradual settling on a Lingua Franca. One such dialog that I and my follow Pinkers have been engaged with more than once is the difference between the concept of an IT Product versus Service. This debate is further heated due to the fact that many organizations have people whose title includes the word product (e.g.: Product Manager, Product Analysts).

With the release of ITIL V3 and its focus on the Service Lifecycle, this clarity has not been improved, with some books such as Service Strategy using the word ‘Product’ and others (almost every other book) focusing on the concept of an IT Service. Sadly, the official ITIL glossary does not clarify the confusion, since it uses the term multiple times but neglects to shed any light on the definition of what a product is versus a service.

Some may argue (which they do) that a product and service are synonymous and should be considered interchangeable as expressions of what IT delivers to its customers (users, business unit, other IT groups and the external consumer). However, I am uneasy with this approach and unsatisfied with this vague answer. Since the ITIL books do not shed light on this confusion of terms we need to look at other sources for this particular question.

We don’t have to go far for clarity on these concepts. You can reference marketing and product management text books if you wish, but I particularly like the definitions found in a book titled “Reaching The Goal” by John Arther Ricketts (IBM) Theory of Constraints for Services Organizations

The overall premise of this book is how to apply the concept of Goldratt’s Theory Of Constraints (TOC) to IT Services and Processes, which is a subject worth its own discourse that I have written on in the past:
The Theory Of Constraints and Continual Improvement

I have taken the liberty to quote a few choice paragraphs from John’s book for your consideration. Also, for the purposes of this post, substitute “products” for “goods” in the first paragraph. I trust you will find them as useful as I have. Thank you John for your wisdom here.

“Basic differences between goods (products) and services are easy to see: Goods (products) are tangible and can be consumed now or later, while services are intangible and cannot be produced in advance. Of course, many purchases consist of a mix of goods (products) and services. Restaurants are roughly balanced. Gasoline purchases are 99 percent goods if you count the occasional once-over with a squeegee as a service. Airline flights are 99 percent services if you count refreshments as goods (products). So pure goods (products) and pure services are just end points on a continuum of possibilities.”

As a services enterprise moves from services as available to services on demand, many things have to change, including the way people perform their jobs. To appreciate roles, however, it’s helpful to understand a few other terms:

• Project— A set of finite-duration tasks that must be performed in a specified sequence to produce a desired result within a prescribed time and budget, such as building an information system.
• Deliverable— Things created by projects, such as consulting reports or computer software.
• Process— A set of activities performed continuously or on a frequently recurring schedule over an indefinite period, such as preparing paychecks.
• Service Level— The results of a process, such as its cycle time, quality, and cost.
• Client— A customer of a service provider.
• Solution— A combination of products and services that solve a client’s problem.
• Engagement— An agreement (contract) between a client and service provider to deliver solutions.
• Practice— A unit within the service provider that specializes in delivering particular solutions or serving particular clients.

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

One fundamental difference between industry and services is that services cannot start until the customer arrives. Of course, some preparations can be made without a customer, but the service itself can’t. For example, a restaurant can prepare certain foods in advance, and perhaps even distribute dishes to multiple venues from a central kitchen, but the core service doesn’t start until a hungry customer shows up. This contrasts with industry, where many workers rarely if ever meet consumers of their products.

Another difference concerns inventory. In industry, inventory issues are pervasive: Figuring out the right amount of raw material inventory to hold, the right amount of finished goods inventory to manufacture, and where it should be distributed are core problems. In contrast, there can be no inventory of completed services because as soon as there’s something to ship, it’s more like a product than a service. For example, when a manufactured product breaks under warranty, manufacturers often prefer to exchange it for a remanufactured unit instead of performing a repair service because such services require different management. Even when manufacturers do offer repair services, those services may actually be provided by subcontractors, business partners, or a separately managed services unit within the manufacturer’s enterprise.

A third difference between industry and some services is less often discussed: customization. In industry, customization of products makes it harder to manage constraints, so a preferred TOC strategy is to serve as many distinct market segments as possible with as few product variations as possible. Many services, such as health care and education, also benefit from standardization for constraint management and other purposes, such as quality control.

On the other hand, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (PSTS) are always customized to some degree. When a client engages an advertising firm to devise a new campaign, hires a research firm to conduct a scientific study, or utilizes an information technology services firm to build a website, it’s counting on those service providers to meet its unique requirements. So at the very least, the deliverables have be different from previous deliverables. But the projects or processes the service providers use to produce those deliverables often have to be customized, too. This customization makes it hard for service providers to find one constraint, marshal the nonconstraints around it, and keep the constraint from floating. This has largely kept TOC out of PSTS.

For me John’s approach to the concept of Product and Services provides clarity around two terms which are integral to understanding and applying the principles of Service Management, since what we provide to our customers is a solution which is a mix of products and services. Understanding this helps us to better define and publish IT’s value proposition.

For those of of you who are fans of the Theory Of Constraints or are looking for an interesting way to evaluate and measure the delivery of IT Services at a very detailed level I recommend John’s book, which can be purchased on Amazon but is also available through our agreement with Books 24-7 in our PinkBOOKCASE product.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

”Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” ~Chinese Proverbs

The Long Sustained Road To Success

Another successful Pink ITSM conference is now a few weeks behind us but we are already hard at work developing the schedule for next year’s event. One of the sessions that I am looking forward to delivering next year is a review and reflection on the well known business book “Good To Great” by Jim Collins.� Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap...And Others Don’t

It seems like the message is already getting out there since I received an excellent question in my inbox the other day:

“Troy, I was checking out the Pink 2010 conference website and saw you were doing a session on “Good to Great.” I would agree the book has some good concepts, but was curious how you would address the authors selection of Circuit City as one of the key companies, considering that Circuit City no longer exists. It would certainly contradict his “Build to Last” concept.

Just looking for your thoughts.

Rob”

Rob you ask a fair question and here is a considered response based on the opportunities I have had to work with many organization on their ITSM journey over the last 12 years. The most difficult challenge that companies face over the long haul is the ability to sustain momentum for their initiatives. I have seen time and time again that something well started falters over time based on leadership changes (which changes culture and values) or leadership focus. The principal of sustainability is a major deliverable of governance that is often lacking in many companies.

I recently wrote blog post on this very subject: 7 Enablers for ITSM Expanded - Program Momentum

In order to sustain “greatness”, the principles/best practices discussed in the books need to be implemented over and over again (Continuous Improvement and Process Maturity are key to ongoing success). The reason Circuit City (and a couple of others in Collins’ book like Fannie Mae) ran into major trouble is they STOPPED practicing the principles that made them “great”.

I think what his book (and other best practice business books – including ITIL) imply is that there are some principles that can help a company/department succeed, but future success is dependent on the condition that these companies/departments continue to follow the same practices and that they implement continuous improvement best practices.

I have seen this played out time and again in organizations that have adopted IT Service Management. They literally spent hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more on their goals only to abandon their objectives due to a shift in leadership and or leadership values. I suppose the average CIO retention rate in North America of 18 months does not help this challenge much.

So perhaps companies like Circuit City forgot their own recipe of success, or took some risks that were not in line with their principles. We need to remember that companies/departments are constantly evolving and therefore liable to change their leadership/personality/culture/vision that got them to the place they were before they changed. The Home Depot case study is a prime example of this culture switch. Initially a family oriented culture established by the founders of the company, but very different now with the introduction of new leadership with very different values.

Best selling business books provide examples of organizations at a point in time. Look at all the books that reflect on GE under Jack Welch’s leadership but very little is written about that organization today if you catch my meaning. If you can manage to replicate the philosophy of what made an organization great in your business/department and then sustain it with the good old Dr. Deming’s (Plan, Do Check, Act) circle of continual improvement a company has a better chance at “Long Term” success.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“Leadership is the wise use of power. Power is the capacity to translate intention into reality and sustain it.” Warren G. Bennis

You Can Only Afford Bad or No Processes When You Have Lots of Cash!

A couple of years ago during the height of the Dot-com tech bubble I remember an interesting conversation I had with a Sr. Manager of an online investment firm. We were discussing (I was selling) the need for formal and repeatable processes for IT Management in light of the obvious dependency of their business model on robust, secure and reliable IT services. Thinking that this gentleman of all people should understand this requirement in that millions of dollars of financial transactions a day were supported by the services he managed I expected him to readily agree with a hearty Amen.

However, to my surprise he looked me in the eye and said “We don’t have time or money for bureaucracy. We have built our IT systems with plenty of excess capacity and with fail over redundancy at all points of potential failure.” It was at that moment in my career that I realized that an organization can buy themselves protection/insurance from bad or total lack of process!

Over the years I have seen this fact represented in many ways:

• Multiple Service Desks all with their own tools and separate processes
• Massive amounts of wasted server capacity due to a lack of capacity and demand management
• Redundant and duplicate IT Management tools being purchased by various IT departments in the same organization
• Shadow IT groups and stealth data centers being built by “independent” parts of the business
• Multiple Change Management Processes due to political boundaries
• A willingness to solve the same incidents 1000’s of times without looking at the root of the problem
• Losing track of 10’s of thousands of dollars of IT assets due to poor tracking controls and inventory processes
• Supplier contracts expiring without knowledge until an incident occurs
• A willingness to supply multiple / duplicate versions of the same services
• The loss of massive amounts of business productivity due to Incident tickets which disappear into the IT back office black hole until someone shouts loud enough
• The total lack of ability to provide visibility into the cost of an IT Service
• The list goes on.......

The sad truth of the matter is that when times are good we don’t really look at waste in the same way. The concept of “Green” only becomes important when we run out of the resources we have taken for granted. History shows us that during times of duress and general lack of disposable funds we look hard at where we can trim the fat and find inefficiencies. (We don’t have to look too far)

We have only to look back at the last deep recession to see the very same pattern. Many of the readers of this blog may remember when quality was the buzzword of the day in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Significant effort was put into quality initiatives and the study of the Japanese manufacturing model that was eating the lunch of the US Auto and Electronics industry. (Another déjà vu)

Many organizations established quality/efficiency departments and Tiger Teams to address the issues facing the failing economy and days of double digit interest rates. So where was IT during this time of cost cutting and head count reduction? We were safely ensconced in the glass room with our lab coats and pocket protectors secure in the knowledge that we represented the future hope of the business. At this point in our history IT controls and processes were deeply entrenched and no one touched the mainframe without filling out paper work in triplicate.� Costs were clearly understood and visible to all concerned.

Of course it was shortly after this that we saw the rise of the distributed IT empire when everyone and anyone could buy their own mini-mainframes (servers) and personal computers. With this new found freedom from the glass room culture went most of the controls and processes. The IT buying spree reached its pinnacle in 1999 with the Y2K party and with the dawn of the new century the economy got even stronger. Throughout the last two decades we have continued to build, buy and hire without strong governance structures, long term plans or financial goals other than “spend your budget or else you won’t get as much next year.”

Now however we have come full circle, resources are scarce and cost savings is once again the primary topic around the office water cooler. Perhaps it is time to realize that we can no longer afford excess capacity, redundancy and inefficient processes. If this is true, I predict a rise of interest in quality, Continual Service Improvement and a realization that going “Green” also means reducing waste in delivering IT services and the processes that are critical for their efficient delivery.

For a related article on this topic take a look at the post: Balancing Process Formality With Innovation

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

”Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything.” ~ Benjamin Franklin

ITSM Program Momentum & Sustainability

Adopting ITSM practices is never a short-term activity.� For many companies, this means an ongoing improvement program that spans multiple years in order to make any significant progress in adopting ITSM practices.� The very fact of the long-term nature of these initiatives is in and of itself problematic.� Combine the fact that IT folk typically don’t have patience for any project that lasts longer than six months, and the other interesting statistic that the average CIO retention rate in North America is only 18 months, and you will see that many organizations adopting ITIL have very little appetite to go beyond a few processes.� Maintaining momentum over a term of just a few years is a significant challenge most companies face.

If your organization is like most of the companies I have worked with, you have begun your ITIL journey by finding the funding in an existing operational budget, and without going to your business customer for any capital funding.� This reason this often occurs is due to the fact that it is difficult to ask your customers for money for what they believe you are already doing.

For most organizations, this means that they will begin their ITIL program in what I like to call stealth mode.� They will typically establish modest projects to improve their support processes, such as Incident, Request and Change Management, out of existing operational funds.� Other processes that are typically launched early without much fanfare are Service Catalog and the start of Service Level Management.

However, most companies will not get much further before they realize they now need to address their ITSM tool strategy.� They will certainly realize this when they tackle Service Asset and Configuration Management.� At this point of the program lifecycle, it will become necessary to go public with their initiative, as capital investment will be needed to purchase a tool to support multiple integrated ITSM processes.� To go public, the ITSM initiative will need a marketing strategy that capitalizes on all the wins and benefits realized by the improvement efforts during the period of ITIL by stealth mode.� This next phase of your ITIL journey will be funded based on your marketing prowess.

At this point, the following elements are critical to keep the ITIL program rolling:

1. The recognition of the ITSM program as a top IT strategic initiative.
2. The submission of the ITSM program into the annual Project Portfolio process for prioritization and funding.
3. The execution of a stunning marketing campaign highlighting all the improvements that have been realized while during stealth mode.
4. The ITIL business case has to be linked to the provisioning of IT Services and their support of business value. Process improvement messages will not be sufficient.
5. The formal ITIL education of all key stakeholders.

In short, it is possible to start your ITIL project in a low key approach; but, to keep it alive and healthy over the long term, it has to be formally recognized as a top IT initiative in support of business goals.� It has to gain a profile so important that it outlasts the key stakeholders who start it.�

SERIES CONCLUSION

The goal of this series of posts is to provide insight into what makes ITSM programs successful and sustainable over the long term.� I am very aware that the scope of all the elements I have listed in 7 Enablers research can seem overwhelming and make the journey seem too difficult and the potential issues seem insurmountable; however, I assume you would prefer to be well informed rather than be unaware of the dangers that can distract you from the goal at hand.� My intention here is to share with the readers Pink’s years of lessons learned from projects that have gone well and others that have died an early death due to constraints that were sometimes avoidable or at other times outside the control of those who were managing them.

Remember that these enablers represent the heart and lifeblood of your initiative.� As long as there is a small trickle of movement and capacity through each one, there is hope for a successful conclusion to your efforts.� Even the constraints should be seen as positive, in that they provide insight into what should be the scope of your initial efforts.� Working within your constraints and not over-extending on your promises and objectives can lead to successes that allow you to expand each enabler over time for greater and greater achievements.

My best wishes on your ITSM journey.

For those of you who wish the full Paper including the research results you can download it at the following link. The 7 Enablers and Constraints of ITSM

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping” ~Chinese Proverb

Getting People To Actually Follow Process Is A Managed Activity Not Luck!

So you have designed a great process, have invested in a slick ITSM tool and paid your consultants for the best advice you could purchase.� What makes you think anyone is actually going to follow the new processes after you close up the project and take down the posters?

To change from a previous to a new set of behaviors and eventually change the culture of the organization, there are certain critical success factors that need to be considered.

Focus On Behavior – Not Cultural Change

Culture change is beyond your ability or the project’s ability to modify and should not be the goal of the organizational change strategy.� Culture in an organization is defined as a self-reinforcing set of beliefs, attitudes and behaviors and is one of the most resistant elements to change.� To be successful, ITSM projects must understand and work within the boundaries of current culture in order to change these beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors effectively.� That being said, culture will not change without the following ingredients.

The new behavior must be reinforced by:

1. IT leadership messages and actions.
2. Changing personal measurement and reward systems to establish personal accountability and compliance.
3. Establishing permanent ITSM governance and management roles.
4. The implementation of a continual service improvement framework of dashboards and assessments focusing on value but also compliance.

If you get all these things right and actually show that life has gotten better over the long term, you will have anchored the change into the organization, which will result in a changed culture.

IT Leadership Messages & Actions

Messages conveyed from senior management in the form of performance rewards, messages, attitudes and symbols continually reinforce current culture for the positive or negative.� These messages provide people in the organization with unspoken guidelines for the direction of acceptable behavior patterns.� People quickly determine what is “good and bad behavior” or what should be accepted or rejected from the message received from their leadership culture. In governance terms, culture is significantly influenced but what is referred to as “The Tone From The Top” – in other words, the spoken and unspoken messages sent from the IT executive leadership, which in turn influences managerial behavior and directly influences company plans, policies, and organizational direction.�

Changing Personal Measurement & Reward Systems

Based on classical organizational design, the average person has a unique set of department or silo-specific tasks and activities defined within his or her job description; however, there have always been three types of work each person performs on a daily basis.� But, only one type of work is typically documented in the formal HR job description.� For argument’s sake, let’s call the specific set of tasks within a silo “functional work”.

The reality is that each IT professional has always been involved in three types of work (Functional, Project, and Process) long before ITIL or Service Management came along.� What is new is that what was before undefined and unmeasured is now being formalized.� Moving to an ITSM approach and changing behavior over the long term requires the opening of job descriptions in order to adjust individual key results areas and annual performance measures for process as well as functional activities.

Establishing Permanent ITSM Governance & Management Roles

IT services, as well as the ITSM processes that support them, inevitably span multiple organizational structures.� In essence, IT services and their supporting processes can be understood as horizontal management structures, which are established and managed on top of the traditional vertical silos.� As these services and processes are defined, a need becomes apparent to establish governance and ownership roles that don’t seem to fit well in the traditional technical domains.

A critical success factor for permanently changing behavior is the creation of new service and process roles to support the governance, oversight and management of the ITSM processes.

For more information on this subject check on the following link to “The Evolving Service Organization”

The Implementation Of A Continual Service Improvement Framework

One of the critical success factors in achieving process compliance and changing behavior is creating a sense of personal accountability through measurement and, yes, an audit.� Another factor of human nature is that we often take the path of least resistance when under stress.� The fact of the matter is that we behave better when we know we are being measured or held accountable for our actions.� I am sure you have heard the quote: “What gets measured gets done!” By planning for, executing and publishing the results of your key performance indicators and the results of process assessments, you are buying insurance on the increased likelihood of deployment success, not to mention continual service improvement.

For more information on this subject check on the following link to ”Why Bother with ITSM Process Assessments” and “Employee Compliance A Key Factor For ITIL Process Implementation”

One more post to come in this series “The 7 Enablers and Constraints OF IT Service Management” on the subject of sustaining momentum for your ITIL projects and then we will be on to other subjects.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“People’s behavior makes sense if you think about it in terms of their goals, needs, and motives” ~Thomas Mann

Designing An ITIL Process Is The Easy Part

Up until now, the enablers we have discussed relate primarily to the design, build and test phases of the project; however, by the statement “Ability To Deploy” I am specifically referring to the political will and authority to deploy / impose a new method of working and new tools across the scope of the organization that now must comply with these new ITSM processes.� In our experience and research, this is a primary point of failure for many companies (it all looked great until others were required to change the current behaviors).

While it takes significant effort to design, document and test your ITSM deliverables, it is at the point of actually rolling out changes to the functional groups and departments that many ITSM projects hit the proverbial brick wall.� Whether it comes in the form of open rejection of the new process and tools or it rears its head as a delay tactic, many ITSM projects find themselves mired in the quagmire of inter-company politics and fail at the point of delivery without ever having realized any value to the organization making the investment.

Typical Deployment Challenge Scenarios:

• The Filibuster: One or more of the groups you are deploying to find some urgent reason to put off changing to the new way of working based on a whole series of excuses (either real or imaginary) not related to the project directly, as this would appear as if they were not supportive.
• The Never Ending Pilot: Based on the principle of a pilot rollout to a designated group, the testing of process and tools generates dozens of critical improvement requirements that somehow did not come up during the months of design and review by the very same group.
• The Perfectionist Syndrome: The primary stakeholders responsible for signing off on the design and characteristics of the process and tool requirements refuse to accept that improvement – not perfection – is the goal, and that certain improvements can come later.� This scenario is very typical for an organization that has had difficulty managing changes in scope during the project lifecycle.
• The Tool Development Backlog: For ITSM programs, the process automation tool/suite is often used by several processes that have already been deployed or are being so while other processes are being designed.� The challenge that often arises at this point is the fact that the developers / administrators become the primary bottleneck in that they cannot cope with all of the demands for configuration and customization they are receiving from multiple process groups. This becomes even more of an issue if request for tool enhancements are not approved, prioritized and scheduled through a strict Change Management process.

These are the typical scenarios that come painfully to my mind. I am sure you have your own and I would love to hear them.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“Experience has taught us that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures the best calculated for their own good without the intervention of a coercive power” ~George Washington

When You Are Not Integrated You Are Isolated

It is no secret that to even get close to the process integration that ITIL suggests as good practice, it is critical to consider workflow automation and tool requirements; however, that being said, have you also considered that underpinning these processes is data?� Data is passed back and forth between processes as tasks, workflow records, approvals, SLA time frames, costs and configuration item details.

Invariably, the activities, inputs and outputs of ITSM are represented in a digital form that is shared by many processes at various times and for various reasons.� This digital web of information flow is ultimately represented by an ITSM tool and data architecture that supports the over all vision and strategy of an enterprise IT function, fulfilling the role of a key business partner and service provider.

Underpinning the integrated ITIL process model must be an integrated ITSM tool strategy that is supported by a shared data model.

In the ITSM community we are very comfortable talking about the IT governance and process levels of service management; however, we often fail to consider the tool and data definition that is required to make it real.� In my personal experience it is always the tool element of the ITIL project that takes the longest time – not the process design!

At the heart of this challenge is the silo or domain approach to how we purchase IT management tools.� The fact is that one of the most significant challenges to a service management approach is the cultural and organizational focus on IT silos to the detriment of enterprise IT management issues.

To explore this concept further from a tool perspective, consider your own organization and the following questions:

1. Is there a defined enterprise IT tool strategy and architecture model?
2. Is there any function or group in your organization that has a mandate to create and govern an enterprise tool strategy?
3. Do you have a group in your organization that manages and supports IT tools that are used by IT functions across your organization?
4. Are IT management tools budgeted for and purchased at a domain / departmental level, but are required to fit within a predefined enterprise strategy?

If you are like the majority of companies I have worked with, all of these questions would most probably be answered with a no and the resulting tool landscape would be filled with multiples and duplicates of various types of tools that do not integrate.� It is also very common to find tool decisions for ITSM programs being made in isolation without the consideration of integrated tool requirements.�

Lets face it we love our IT Management tools and each IT group want’s to have its own specialized set which they have exclusive control of and access to. This is true even though half a dozen other IT groups could benefit from its use given the opportunity. But for the most part we treat each other on a need to know basis and guard our departmental resources like misers, after all knowledge is power!

As a former geek I do love my Sci-FI and Star Trek has been part of my life since I was young. There is a famous quote by Spock in the movie “Wrath Of Khan” 1982 that comes to mind. “The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few or the one.” Wouldn’t it be nice if this philosophy was a guiding principle for buying IT Management tools.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” ~Bill Gates

A Little Knowledge Can Be A Dangerous Thing

If you understand knowledge to be the collection, absorption and internalization of facts and information, the application of that knowledge takes skill, which is a capability and proficiency based on experience, or better yet, wisdom.�

It all boils down to the concept that your ability to accomplish something worthwhile is typically directly proportional to your knowledge and skill related to your goal. For ITSM projects this means you know about ITIL and have experience in designing, documenting and deploying enterprise processes in a silo based culture.

Even though ITIL is celebrating its 20th birthday in 2009, it was just a few years ago when most people would tell you they had never heard of ITSM or ITIL.� Today, awareness has improved and most IT people you ask will tell you they have heard of ITIL and have a simple understanding of what it is.

That being the case, the people charged with project tasks, deliverables and the ongoing management of the process need to seriously consider more advanced education and learning.� This blog post lists a recommended level of ITSM education by role and involvement in your projects.

General ITIL Overviews

It is highly recommended that each person within the IT organization receive a high-level overview of ITIL as part of the project communication plan and for the ongoing training of new IT employees.� The level and detail of overviews can be customized in accordance with their level of participation in service management processes.

The ITIL overview is designed with the intention of providing an introduction to the ITIL framework, the processes and their goals and is a must for anyone who is even remotely involved in these processes going forward to understand the new and strange language everyone is starting to speak. It’s kind of like the language lessons tourists take before they travel abroad. They may not know any details but at least they can order a beer and ask to use the washroom. “Two very critical skills in any country”

Foundations ITIL Education

It is highly recommended that anyone involved in managing or executing daily ITIL process activities attend an ITIL Foundations class.� This is a prerequisite course for further ITIL study and certification, and should be made a mandatory requirement for those individuals tasked with the coordination, management, ownership or governance of your service management processes.

Key Roles:

• Process Sponsors
• Process Owners
• Process Managers
• Process Staff
• Project Managers
• Process Customers
• ITSM Tool Owners / Administrators
• ITSM Consultants

Intermediate ITIL Education

The Intermediate level courses are intended for individuals tasked with the implementation, ongoing management and continuous improvement of a specific or a collection of closely related processes. In the new ITIL v3 scheme this comes in two separate flavors. 1) Life Cycle Courses: A course based on a the management elements of a specific part of the Service Life cycle. e.g.: Service Strategy, Design, Transition, Operation, Continual Service Improvement.� 2) Service Capabilities Courses: A series of courses based on a logical grouping of processes with a strong connection with each other and a focus on practical execution. e.g.: Release Control and Validation.

For this reason, it is highly recommended that the following roles be identified for intermediate level education and certification.

Key Roles:

• Process Owners
• Process Managers
• Program / Project Managers
• ITSM Tool Owners
• ITSM Consultants

Advanced ITIL Education – “ITIL Expert Designation”

The advanced education courses and certification such as the those that focus on the full Service Life-cycle, e.g.: Managing Across the Lifecycle and the attainment of the “ITIL Expert” designation are intended for those who have overall ownership of a service management improvement program and are responsible for the ongoing governance and improvement of multiple processes. Some have argued that the Expert Certification is now a basic entrance requirement for ITSM consultants.

This level of certification is recommended for the following key roles.

Key Roles:

• Service Managers
• Service Delivery Managers
• ITSM Consultants

So in summary whatever your involvement in the ITSM world some level of education and certification will be a necessity at some point in your IT career. Of course it does not hurt that a recent survey by ZDNet’s Tech Republic listed 2 ITIL certifications as part of the top 15 paying IT Certifications. If knowledge for personal improvement does not get your interest maybe money does.

For more information about ITIL courses you can check out Pink’s website. Yes a bit of a shameless plug but what do you expect, I am Pink and proud to be!

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which.” ~Douglas Adams

Resources Fuel The Fire Of Execution

It was a very wise person who first said that nothing in life is free.� This is of course true for ITSM projects as for anything else.� Sitting down with the right people from across the organization to define new policies, processes and tools takes a significant resource investment (time, people and money).� That being said, one of the most frequent statements I hear from people when I speak to them at conferences or in courses is that they are expected to implement ITSM practices without any formal investment in any of the above other than perhaps their salaries.� They are expected to change organizational behavior and pull the ITIL rabbit out of the hat, so to speak, because they have ITSM somewhere in their title.

While for the purposes of the research we recently conducted I aggregated time, people and money under the single title of “resources”, these are in fact three separate enablers / constraints.

Time

Several respondents in our research said that they had all the leadership and organizational will they could wish for; but, they were swamped with an IT project portfolio that was overwhelming, with half a dozen initiatives being perceived as more urgent than their ITSM projects.� There is only so much time in the day and they are already running at max speed and doing their email at 10:00 pm each night after they feed the kids and put them to bed.� Sadly, the urgent always takes precedence over the good and necessary.� Survival always trumps strategy.

People

If your organization is like many we have worked with, year after year of focusing on cost reduction has reduced your IT operational staff to what feels like a bare minimum to keep the lights on.� What people you do have are very hesitant to commit to what appears to be the latest management fad and set of acronyms floating down from senior management.� The key stakeholders that are critical for you to involve in the ITSM initiative are busy fighting the daily fires (often caused by immature processes) and are too busy to come to your process and tool design meetings.�

This general lack of people is a very crucial issue for ITSM in general.� After years of cost reduction and containment, there really isn’t a lot of bandwidth for people to get involved in the project, let alone manage the ongoing processes once they are deployed.� While you can hire consultants to help alleviate the resource crunch for the project, who gets to run them after the consultants leave?�

Money

A lack of available funding is often a constraint that is shared by many organizations, and while money cannot buy happiness it can get things done!� However, in our research we discovered that there are some organizations that have the money, but lack of time and internal people were their most serious constraints.� One respondent from the Calgary Pink Perspective event stated that that the issue was not money (thanks to the oil boom in western Canada), but skilled people and affordable housing to attract talent to the region.

Meanwhile we still face the challenge of having to change the wheels on the bus as it travels down the highway. This reminds me of that EDS commercial “Building Aircraft In The Air” that came out after the super bowl a few years ago.

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours

”Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.” ~Douglas Adams

”Leadership is not something you do to people, it’s something you do with people.” ~Ken Blanchard

Life seems to come at you in a series of waves. At times you feel like you are surfing the crest balanced between the forces of change and the quiet pools of serenity. However, there are other times when you have the impression the wave is breaking over you or that you have been left stranded and forgotten in a stagnant pool. Wherever you find yourself today the good news is that each phase is transitional and that life really is a series of dependent and connected events that bring you to new horizons and views of reality.

My own life is no different than yours and recent changes in leadership scope have broadened my responsibilities at Pink Elephant and I am learning a whole new definition of busy. It is for these reasons my writing as of late has slowed down a tad. However, I have finished writing the research paper that I promised you a few months ago and I will now provide that to you following these series of articles which expands on the initial concept we discussed earlier this spring.

Last time I wrote on the 7 enablers I presented a model of critical success factors needed to be successful on your ITSM journey.� These past articles set the stage for this model:

7 Enablers & Constraints of ITSM
ITSM Enablers Getting You To Work On Time
Perspectives From The Pink Perspective Tour

The following list represents these 7 Critical Enablers:

1. Leadership: Executive and senior level support and sponsorship
2. Resources: Access to necessary project and ongoing process resources (time, people, funding)
3. Knowledge: Your level of information, knowledge and skill related to ITSM
4. Integrated Tools: Availability of integrated ITSM tools to support process workflow and automation
5. Ability to Deploy: The organizational capability to deploy new polices, processes and tools across silos
6. Ability to Effect Behavioral Change: Changing organizational behavior/culture and ensuring compliance to new practices over the long term
7. ITSM Momentum: Maintaining momentum, priority and funding for the ITSM programs

The basis of this model was substantiated with research we successfully completed with over 300 participants. You can find the research posted on the Pink President blog and it will also be imbedded in the full paper I will share with you following the next series of articles.

The Results Are In!

My intent with this new series on the topic of the 7 enablers is to provide more detail and context for each one.

The first and arguably the most important enablers is:

Leadership & Vision

Many hundreds of books have been written on the subject of leadership and the role a leader plays in providing the vision, direction and the compass that a project needs to be successful.� Without a leader’s blessing, passion and direction, very little is accomplished that has lasting effect.� This is true of all major endeavors, and it is certainly true with ITSM projects.�

We live in a time when the vision of the IT Executive is changing from one traditionally focused on technology optimization and cost reduction to an evolution towards service delivery and value generation; however, many IT shops still struggle with the value of ITSM principles when they are still firmly entrenched in a purely technology mindset.� For an ITSM project to truly succeed, the executive sponsor needs to understand what it means to be a service-focused organization and support the establishment of the processes that make this concept a reality.

However, many organizations are challenged with a CIO and executive IT team that have not bought into the principles of ITSM.� This proves to be very challenging when you consider that ITIL is a Service Management framework that has as its primary goal the delivery of services.

“Service Management is a set of specialized organizational capabilities for providing value to customers in the form of services.” Source:� ITIL® V3

In my experience very few organizations understand the concept of an IT service and even fewer organize themselves around the delivery of IT services.

To be effective, the leadership of an ITSM program must profoundly understand what an IT service is and wish to establish the disciplines that make the delivery of services possible.

What we often see is that the ITSM program sponsor has agreed in principle that the project represents a set of positive goals and has agreed to fund some initial efforts, but is still largely unconvinced of the exercise’s strategic nature.� The green light has been given, they have agreed to stand up at key meetings and say positive things, but little effort is made on ensuring that the remaining six enablers are in place and managed in a proactive manner.

It has been argued that the true skill of a leader is not just the shaping of vision and direction, but also the task of execution.� Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan make a very powerful statement in their book, Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done:

“A high proportion of those who actually rise to the top of a business organization have made their mark – their personal brand as high level thinkers. They aren’t interested in “how” of getting things done; that is for somebody else to think about.” Source: Chapter 2 – The Execution Difference

The concept of Execution is a discipline worthy of discussion in and of itself. This is a topic I will be speaking on at our upcoming ITSM Conference in February when I review the principles of Execution in terms of ITSM projects.

Rather that pointing toward the hill and saying “Make It So”, true leaders must take the point and lead the ITSM charge.

Several of you have pointed out in previous comments that without a healthy enabler in Leadership then the rest of the 7 are moot. (Read The Comments)

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

”It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.” ~Adlai Stevenson

I Call It A Trunk and You Call It A Boot

The strange thing is that neither word does a particularly good job of describing a luggage compartment in a car and yet within our cultural boundaries people know very well what we mean by either one. However, leave the comfort of your current cultural context and you cannot be totally sure that people understand your intent by the vocabulary you use.

Language is a diverse and rich tool by which we express ourselves. However, it can also be a stumbling block and a subject over which we are confused, disagree or at least misunderstand each other. It is bad enough when we use completely different words such as trunk and boot to mean the same thing. However I feel truly sorry for the poor traveler who is caught unaware and is embarrassed by the use of a common word that has a totally different meaning in a different place. For example asking someone if they like your pants has a very different context in North America versus the United Kingdom.

George Bernard Shaw’s quote about the Americans and English: “Two Peoples Separated By A Common Language” is very true.

Don’t get me wrong, living in Canada I admire and respect cultural richness and diversity. However, when it is necessary to work at a common purpose and process across organizational boundaries such as local IT departments, geographical regions and dealing with multiple external suppliers, a common language is a Critical Success Factor.

While the poets and writers such as Shakespeare may disagree there is a time and place for a common language with shared definitions.

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” ~From Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

A key benefit the ITIL library provides is a neutral (non partisan) common vocabulary and set of definitions for global IT Service Management. Lets face it, if you put 10 IT professionals in a room from different organizations and ask them what a service is, you will get at least 12 answers. While I value creative flexibility as much as the next person I would prefer to avoid confusion where people cannot understand each other due to an issue of communication. The challenges of implementing IT Service Management are already daunting enough without having to argue over terms and definitions.

Common Terminology and PinkVERIFY

As many of the readers may know Pink Elephant provides a service called PinkVERIFY(TM) to the ITSM community where we will assess tools on request by the vendor for ITIL compatibility. The criteria we use for this assessment comes from a collection of ITIL guidance, vendor, practitioner and Pink experience that you can download for free from our website.

As part of this service we have written a white-paper where we define ITIL-compatible as:

Compatible = The software tool supports the PinkVERIFY criteria and ITIL terminology “out of the box” as part of its standard commercial offering.

ITIL Terminology is referenced from the official ITIL glossary hosted by the OGC’s “Best Management Practice” website.

A recent post on Dovetail Software blog has taken issue with this stand.

While I respect that not all organizations and individuals may share this view and have every right to disagree, I believe a common language is foundational to good and effective communication within the context of a process.

Pink also acknowledges in the PinkVERIFY whitepaper:

”Note: There are many excellent tools available on the market and practitioners should not exclude any tools from their selection process just because they do not have the PinkVERIFY certification;”

Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true. ~Samuel Johnson