Category: ITSM

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.

What are we supposed to talk about at CAB? What should be on the CAB agenda?

 “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.

Misunderstandings make for good TV entertainment, but in ITSM, it’s not so funny. A RACI chart is a quick and easy way to create clarity. I have no clue who first created the RACI chart, but like most common sense, it likely was born out of necessity. I picture a  struggling team trying to figure …

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 …

Feeling like the lone IT Service Management prophet, without honor in your home town? Knowing how much Service Management can help, but feeling it will never happen because of the huge gap between ‘here’ and ‘there’? Been there. Why IT’IL never work You’ve been to training. You know how it’s supposed to work. But there’s …

CAB is arguably the most widely adopted ITSM process, but its value goes far beyond Change Management. CAB rallies people  around a common cause; the perfect antidote for silos and fragmented service delivery. Didn’t see that one coming In What is an ITSM CAB: A Simple Explanation I talk about CAB evaluating changes for business …

Calls are not all created equal.  Read how Basic IT 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 …

Often times people confuse ‘Standard’ and ‘Normal’ Change in IT Change Management. There’s an important concept that gets missed when they’re mixed up. This article will help you keep them straight.  Scope of IT Change Management First things first. IT Change Management is a control process. In addition to its widely understood role of evaluating …

Keeping your IT infrastructure stable while making necessary changes feels a bit like walking a tightrope without a net. A near-impossible feat requiring nimble balance The art of Tightrope Walking Nik Wallenda recently walked a tightrope over a quarter mile chasm near the Grand Canyon on live television  He did it with no safety harness; …

If you’re in IT, fixing the same issues again and again may not mean you’re insane, but it’s definitely driving your customers crazy! Stop the Insanity with Problem Management! Most organizations start looking at formal Problem Management when there’s a highly visible problem that they just can’t seem to fix. Customers are frustrated and complaining. …

Looking for a working definition of an ITSM Service? Is it Customer Service, or something more? Read on for a straight-forward explanation. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve seen a lot of “Service Management” discussions lately where it’s clear those talking don’t share the same understanding of “service”. Unfortunately, it’s more than simple semantics. Service …

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 …

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 …

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 …