Year: 2013

I expect excellence in myself and others. Excellence is relative to my current ability; always striving for continual  improvement. Excellence is pushing the limit of my current ability, the undying belief that I can do great things, and unrelenting commitment to achieve it. ~ Greg Sanker I started ITSMTransition with one goal – to Enable …

Just because every now and then, you call an IT issue a “problem” and resolve it, does not mean you’re doing problem management! — Joe the IT Guy Problem Management Myths Joe the IT Guy recently wrote about Problem Management: No Problemo on his blog (I highly recommend stopping by. Great stuff). While writing What is …

When Devo unleashed their infamous “When a problem comes along, you must whip it”, they did more than coin an icon of 80’s pop music. Let’s move ahead with Basic ITSM Problem Management. The Problem with ‘Problem’ So, what exactly is a ‘Problem’ In ITSM, a Problem is the underlying cause of one or more …

The value of IT Incident Management is not restoring service. You heard me right. If you’re focusing on how quickly you resolve Incidents, you’re missing the point. Don’t believe me? Read to find the real value of Incident Management. Goal of Incident Management If you’ve been in IT for more than a few minutes, you’ve …

If you’ve been working on IT Service Management for some time, you’ve undoubtedly had times when you are just exhausted. Not sure you can take another step. Sound familiar? So much to do, so much opportunity; an endless uphill battle. And on top of that… …the regular job most of us in Service Management have …

Like it or not, customers evaluate IT on two things: How well you fix things that break, and how well you get me things I need. This article focuses on making happy customers through Basic IT Request Fulfillment. Incidents and Requests Incidents and Requests are often lumped together in the Service Desk as “calls” or …

Organizational Management of Change is a lot like quitting smoking.  Most of us know a current or former smoker, and how hard it is to quit. What can we learn to help us better manage organizational change? I recently saw an on-line conversation between a currently-quitting smoker and a former smoker. The latter was encouraging …

Thinking of CSI as a merely a process not only misses the point, it’s also hazardous to real improvement. CSI is NOT a process! CSI is Not a Process ITIL has a full book dedicated to Continual Service Improvement. CSI is a relative newcomer to IT Service Management. Want to know why? Because CSI is …

Thinking about IT Incident Management? You know how Incidents are handled has an enormous impact to customer satisfaction. This quick-start summary will tell you what you need to know to get started. I’ve Fallen and I can’t get up When things stop working, customers call Service Desk to get it fixed. Incident Management is the …

Have a basic IT Change Management process, or planning to implement one? Change Management should implement changes faster and reduce the risk of business impact. I’ll show you how the right metrics get you there. What does ‘Success’ look like? In IT Operations, we talk about Critical Success Factors (CSF). Which sounds grandiose, but is …

Apple has a reputation for the right products at the right time. What can IT learn from Apple about creating raving fans by reducing Time to Value? Christopher Meyer did a great piece on Apple’s Most Obvious Secret: Reducing Time to Value. Apple has built a corporate culture around customer value. It’s not how quickly …

Your boss says he wants you to implement IT Change Management. Google it (which is probably why you’re reading this now) and you get countless pages of mind numbing details. What do I do? Where do I even start? Where to Start with IT Change Management First of all, don’t panic. You’re in the right …

IT Change Management is usually thought of as a back office function that minimizes the chances of screwing things up while making changes. When done right, it does a lot more. Read how IT Change Management improves Incident Management. Added Value of Change Management In How to Implement Basic IT Change Management I talked about …

If you’re  one of the countless ITSM practitioners who  work daily in organizations large and small, in countries around the world, listen up. You know how hard, lonely, and thankless  it can be. You have friends out there. I listened to Mark Kawasaki’s presentation at this week’s Tomorrow’s Future Today 2013 conference. The guy shows …

With business moving at the speed of light, IT must match pace with implementing IT Changes. What can IT Change Management learn about going fast from the world of auto racing? On Going Fast… Race cars are designed to go fast, right? Every ounce of a race car is carefully engineered for maximum performance. Driver …

The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is arguably  the most widely known ITSM activity. It’s also widely misunderstood. Here’s the quick lowdown on CAB. What is CAB? CAB – known formally as the Change Advisory Board, is a group of people who are tasked with evaluating changes to the IT environment. It can be as simple …

 Here are my top 5 lessons learned implementing IT Change Management that will save you endless heartache. Having recently implemented a Basic IT Change Management Process, I’m sometimes asked about lessons learned implementing IT Change Management. – What would I do differently. Lots. Here’s the top 5, in no particular order:  1. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate …

As a technology powerhouse, Intel is in the perfect position to re-engineer their IT processes. Why then did they chose to adopt an ITSM framework? Intel CIO Kim Stevenson recently said that Business Executives need to have Higher Expectations of IT.  She also credits their Service Management  program with “…lean out our process, and minimize …

Implementing Basic IT Change Management is a great place to start, but eventually you’ll need a more business-value focused process. In this article I’ll tell you how to  take the next step in maturing your Change Management program. The Basic IT Change Management Process I described earlier helps get control of what’s happening in your …

You know selecting the right trainer is important, but how do you sort through the hype and get the best fit? Here’s 7 sure fire ways to pick a Great Trainer! The training Market While not all trainers are equal, the courses they teach pretty much are. All accredited courses are required to meet certain …