Category: ITSM

I’ve seen several articles recently railing against the very idea of best practices. In this article, I’ll take a closer look at where this criticism is coming from and take it head on. I recently read a classic executive-targeted article article from CIO.com by Bob Lewis, Why every IT leader should avoid ‘best practices’. His …

Here we go again. Announced this week – Axelos – the company who owns ITIL is being sold to PeopleCert. Industry response varied greatly, but nearly eclipsed another significant announcement.  IT Revolution quietly published A Framework for Incident Response. How these two relate and what it means is the subject of much industry chatter presently. The words of …

There’s been a great deal of discussion recently about the phrase “Change Control” – especially  with ITIL4 switching from Change Management to Change Control in the initial release of the foundation book. I wrote about it in What’s with Change Control in ITIL4. But shortly thereafter, it somewhat unceremoniously changed to Change Enablement. Akshay Anand …

“IT is becoming more integrated into the business of organizations, and more integrated with the work of their staff and customers. As a result, the pace and frequency of change – changing requirements and IT service changes to address the requirements – is increasing. We are also in a period of rapidly changing technology. At …

IT has been calling Change Management by that name for decades. In the latest update to the de facto ITSM framework – ITIL®, the practice has unceremoniously been renamed to Change Control. A move that some feel hearkens back to the worst elements of bureaucratic, command-and-control that many attribute to ITIL to this day. Nothing …

Everyone knows a Configuration Management Database ( CMDB ) is a good idea. We’ve known that for years. And yet, in many years of ITSM practice, I’ve rarely seen a good one.  CMDB and Change Management There’s a big difference between the ability to automatically scan for devices and a functional CMDB (or the broader …

Every year there’s a flurry of predictions for the coming year. This year, I decided to make my own list, from the neutral vantage point of an ITSM practitioner. I have no ulterior motive, or financial stake in these predictions – they’re simply my perspective at this point in time. 1 – Year of the …

Ever see a “low risk” change cause major issues? “We’ve done it before and never had any problems” doesn’t cut it in the aftermath of a business-impacting incident caused by a “low risk change”. Let’s be clear – all IT changes have risk. Some more than others. Effective Change Management ensures change risks are analyzed …

In this third and final installment in the Killing CAB series, I’ll be talking about Change Models – perhaps the most widely overlooked method of streamlining IT Change Management. It’s only a model (If you landed here, consider going to the first article in the Killing CAB series.) Many IT people hate ‘traditional IT Change Management’ …

What if I told you there’s a way to effectively manage changes without CAB reviewing each one? Would you be interested? Yeah, you and everyone else in the IT world.

Forgone IT maintenance comes at a cost. For most companies, it’s a never ending battle. Here’s five tips for getting out of technical debt.

Ever wondered who’s ‘doing ITIL’? Who has a successful ITSM program leveraging the ITIL framework guidance? ITIL in the real world A while back I started a list of “who’s doing ITIL“. My intent was to create a resource that could be used by ITSM practitioners to help in their case for ITIL. Sometimes skeptical …

Everyone’s heard that IT causes the majority of incidents when changes go wrong, but is it really true? Are 80% of all incidents change-related?

Far too often the first question when changes go bad is “did it go to CAB”. The question is not only the wrong one, but reveals some poor thinking behind the question.

Knowing you need a service catalog and getting your organization to have one are two very different things. Here’s some practical advice for getting started with a basic service catalog (even if you don’t have a full ITSM program!)

Fusion 15 is the premier ITSM conference – Part HDI conference, part ITSM conference, and new this year, DevOps Fusion. So much opportunity; so little time. Without a plan it’s easy to miss out on something important!.

But there is no joy in Mudville- mighty Casey has struck out. Ernest Lawrance Thayer penned those infamous words to describe the shocking strikeout of the odds-on favorite of The Mudville Nine.

 “Best practices can only make you average. They stifle creativity and encourage ‘inside the box’ thinking.” I hear this all the time. But the truth is, best practices are what makes excellence possible, and I’ll tell you why.

Trying to implement ITSM processes “by the book” is destined to fail. Practitioners must adapt best practices to meet the organization’s unique challenges. The Practitioner’s Dilemma Many newly trained and highly motivated folks head back to the office intent on trying to implement ITSM processes. Makes sense, right? But I’ve seen a wake of disaster …

Calls are not all created equal.  Read how Basic ITIL Request Fulfillment can help you  stop ‘taking tickets’ and start actively managing excellence in  customer service. Life is like a box of chocolates Every Service Desk analyst can tell you; answering the phone is a bit like the box-of-chocolate effect – you can get a …