Your customers are changing (is your Service Desk keeping up?)

Your customers are changing (is your Service Desk keeping up?)

Michael Billimoria of Lucid IT (UXC Consulting) has just released an interesting whitepaper on the challenges of dealing with a new wave of customers, Gen-Y.

Anyone who has been in management in the last 5 years will have noticed a dramatic increase in the attrition rate of employees that fall within the late Gen-X and Gen-Y category.  Quite simply, if we do not specifically cater for their individual needs, they will move on.

This usually results in a drop of service levels and an increase of training costs whilst we onboard their replacements.

What can we do to keep them happy (and loyal)? 

Take a read and let me know your thoughts.

Your customers are changing

itSMF - Achieving Operations Excellence with Knowledge Management

itSMF - Achieving Operations Excellence with Knowledge Management

Attended an interesting talk this evening by Henrik Savia (Microsoft) regarding a practical solution to the mystical SKMS (Service Knowledge Management System).  For the uninitiated the SKMS as described by ITIL is:

"The Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS) is the central repository of the data, information and knowledge that the IT organization needs to manage the lifecycle of its services. Its purpose is to store, analyze and present the service provider's data, information and knowledge. The SKMS is not necessarily a single system – in most cases it will be a federated system based on a variety of data sources."

In IT we have to manage multiple data sources which underpin the delivery of our Services to the Business.  Typically these data sources are managed independently i.e the network team focuses purely on the network, the server team looks after our servers, application specialists focus purely on their apps etc etc.... but who 'really' is coordinating 'end-to-end' service??

Despite what we may be led to believe the silo culture is still very much alive in IT departments around the world (the right hand does not know what the left is doing) and whilst this is a commonly shared issue, it should not be accepted.  Quite simply, the silo mentality does not foster the efficiency and effectiveness that is expected by our Customers.

The 'good-practice' framework ITIL and others have long since touted the risks associated with such segmentation however, few organisations have 'found the time' to address it.  Partly because our beloved frameworks are purposely generic i.e they do not reference any vendor specific (real-life) solutions.  Whilst we can appreciate the unbiased nature of our beloved frameworks, it does leave a significant gap for the ambitious CIO, on how to transform the theory into action.

If we refer again to the ITIL books (Service Transition), a clear picture is presented on the scope of the SKMS:

All of our tools: Service Management (Incident, Request, Problem, Change, Service Level Management), Technical (Network, Server, Desktop, Application), Policies/Procedures/SOP's and everything else need to be managed as one 'source of truth'.  The ultimate purpose being to ensure that our data/information/knowledge is stored, maintained and re-used with maximum efficiency.  In doing so, we remove duplication of effort, ensure integrity and have confidence in the decisions we make.

The solution proposed by Henrik, was to use Microsoft SharePoint as a central repository to store/track all of the various data sources we use to manage IT.  Thinking about it, it does seem like an ideal platform.  Almost all organisations nowadays use the Microsoft suite to store and manage data, add to this the built in support for standard communication protocols (SNMP etc) and you can easily visualise all of your tools supplying a live feed of relevant data to a common SharePoint portal.

Whilst this is not a complete solution to Knowledge Management i.e as an organisation we still need to define our own Corporate Standards (templates, gui formats, access permissions, process workflows etc), it does give us a clear picture on how we can easily access and use our information from a single integrated portal.

Framework = Solution (or not)

Framework = Solution (or not)


Best-practice frameworks are aptly named.  They are not complete solutions and as long as they carry the name 'framework', they never will be.

If we just had a framework for a house, could we live in it?  What about the walls, the furniture, the fittings, a door...?

Then, what is their real purpose?

These frameworks have been established with one common goal:   Guidance!

Let's say I was a busy IT Manager facing a particular challenge with projects that have been deemed failures because they do not meet customer expectations, even though they were delivered on time and on budget. 

How would I approach this situation?

Firstly I would begin by talking to the business and asking questions such as: 

1. Who is happy? (to determine what we are doing right)
2. Who is unhappy?
3. What are their expectations?
4. Did we identify the correct project stakeholders?
5. Were they involved in the project?
6. Did we define the correct project deliverables?
7. Did we ensure changing requirements were captured and met?
8. Did we perform user acceptance testing?

Through my investigations, I may have discovered that although the project deliverables were defined at the start of the project, by the time the project product was delivered, business requirements had changed.   I conclude that the project team needs a formal process for capturing changing business requirements and adapting the project scope accordingly.

If I had the time (which I don't), I could host various meetings and ensure that my project team came up with an appropriate solution.   But how long would that take?  Would we get it right first time?

Instead, I decide to refer to the appropriate frameworks for guidance (PRINCE2, PMP, P3O, MSP etc).  I look up the Change Management process and compare with my current solution.  After identifying the gaps, I create a suitable plan to revise my current process utilising the guidance from the framework.

Next, I would perform scenario-based tests with the business to ensure that the revised process meets the objective before going-live.

Once the process has been implemented and run for a predetermined amount of time (say a month), I would perform a post implementation assessment of relevant KPI measures and compare with my original baseline figures (to quantify the level of improvement).

Finally, I would report these measures to the business and confirm if their expectations had been met by the improvements.

So there you have it.  A practical approach as to how we should be utilising frameworks.  Be wary of staff or consultants who proclaim a framework is a solution in itself; or else you’ll be in for a few cold nights. ..

ITIL Intermediate Exams (or lack thereof)

ITIL Intermediate Exams (or lack thereof)

ITIL intermediate pass-rates are worryingly low, for Service Strategy, Continual Service Improvement and Managing Across the Lifecycle it currently stands at around 50-60%.  Think about that, of all the students that invest many thousands of dollars on those courses, 50% will likely fail the exam.  Would you be happy if it was you?  And that’s not all, quite a substantial number of students fail these exams multiple times.  I am a member of an ITSM LinkedIn forum where it is common to see posts from ‘ITIL Experts’ who have crashed and burned in an intermediate exam:

(http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1932454&trk=anet_ug_hm)

So what’s going wrong?  Surely the course material should be sufficient to pass....

It’s interesting to note that all ATO course material is designed according to an official syllabus and approved by APMG (the private examination company which is responsible for accrediting the ITIL Qualification Scheme). 

If every Accredited Training Organisation (ATO) teaches approved material, why are pass rates are so low?  

Quite simply, there is a considerable gap between the academic syllabus and the practical examination. That’s right, the exam on the 4th or 5th day, tests you on the practical implementation/usage/tailoring of those processes you have just learned about.... If you ask students who have sat these exams, they will tell you that; even if the exam was open book it would not have provided any benefit.

APMG does recommend 21 hours of personal study before taking the exam, this is on top of the 21 contact hours you need for a 4-day course.  Unless you plan on not sleeping for 4 days, is this realistic?

Let’s talk about the exam itself:

8 Scenario- based Questions, Multiple Choice (ranked answers) within 90 Minutes. What is a ranked answer? The structure of an intermediate question asks you to choose the BEST solution from a choice of four. If you get the BEST answer (in ITIL’s view, not usually the real life answer) you are awarded 5 points, 2nd best is worth 3 points, 3rd best 1 point and a ‘Distracter’ for which you do not score.

To pass an ITIL intermediate exam requires a student to analyse a case study and determine the BEST approach for the given situation.  And this is where students are falling short.  The answers given are remarkably similar; sometimes there is only a one word difference between them.  The student has the daunting task of trying to identify the BEST one.

There is no practical element in the official syllabus (although ATO’s do add their own exercises, based on individual experience).

So what’s the solution?  Well without a drastic change to the official syllabus, success really seems to depend on the experience of the instructor.  It is therefore wise for students to request background information of an ATO’s trainers to determine if their experience matches with the course.

For Foundation level courses this is not an issue, as they are purely academic in nature, however Intermediate and above absolutely require specific expertise in the subject.

My recommendation therefore is not to simply choose the ‘cheapest’ option. Research the available options and make your selection based on:

1. The credibility of the ATO
2. The experience of the instructor
3. The number of practical exercises 

This approach is no guarantee of success however but will serve to reduce your risk of failure considerably.

Best of luck!

PRINCE2 versus PMP (PMBOK)

PRINCE2 vs. PMP (PMBOK)

As a practitioner and instructor of both Project Management methods I am often asked by my students “Which framework is better?”   This is an easy question to answer...neither

Let’s compare the basic principles of each framework side-by-side.

Image rights belong to:  Jay M Siegelaub (PMI Westchester Chapter, 2004)

The PRINCE2 vs. PMP debate is like comparing red/green apples.  Both serve their purpose and it’s really just a matter taste.

Key point to remember is that the framework does not make the Project Manager.  Only through repeated practice and learned lessons can any individual hope to become successful.