ITSM

Tipu: continual service improvement as a real approach to ITSM

At the recent itSMF Australian National Conference (a.k.a. LEADit, a top conference) I delivered a keynote on Tipu, my "agile ITSM" approach to continual service improvement, which garnered some positive feedback. The same day I was interviewed by the itSMF's journalist, and we spoke about CSI as an approach from the start; processes are the wrong granularity; how we must align to the business need; ETF and pragmatism; and most of all the need for change at a human pace. Here is that interview (7 minutes):

Agile ITSM

ImageThe IT Skeptic has a day job, consulting on IT topics including ITSM (not "consulting on ITIL", oooh no, perish the thought! That's not allowed without an official OGC licence and the payment of tithe). In recent times my advice to clients has been to take a more granular - dare I say "agile" - approach to ITSM. I'm rolling this out in a formal methodology called Tipu (which I am presenting for the first time today to the local itSMF chapter).

Continual Chunky Correction

stormyWhat's with Continual Service Improvement? Hardly anyone gets to incrementally improve in this millennium. Gary and George did a good job of what they were asked to do with the fifth ITIL V3 book (CSI), but I think the whole ITIL framework misses the point. The ITIL mindset seems to be that Change is all about getting things as stable as possible, and then CSI is about tweaking and refining and maturing the result.

We need a movement

"What if..." "What if..." So many great minds, and a few not-so-great ones, are trying to "solve" ITSM right now. It's a geek thing. It's a man thing.

ITSM open content

Right now the ITSM community seems to be abuzz with suggestions for open contribution repositories for ITSM knowledge and discussion. As one who has had a few cracks at this, let me assure you that if you build it, they won't come.
[Updated: let's compile a list of sites, see below]
The ITSM road is littered with the rusting wrecks of open ITSM bodies of knowledge (BOKs). Open ITIL, the ITIL Wiki, the ITIL Open Wiki, the ITIL Process Wiki, the People's Liberation Front of Judea...

Don't run IT as a business, run it as part of the business

"Run IT as a business". What a mantra. It is of course rubbish. You run business as a business.

Binder-chuckers

ImageThe problem with too many ITSM consultants is that they are binder-chuckers. ITSM consulting is not about inventing a process. It is about enacting cultural change.

Every Cloud has a silver bullet to kill the dreaded ITIL

The Cloud is not sweeping away ITIL or IT Service Management. Every over-hyped fad claims the rules are different now and we don't have to worry about some basic fundamental that has always plagued us in the past. And every time it turns out to be crap. The rules are the same and have been ever since the Europeans over-traded tulips, probably much longer. Business needs management. Without management control, risk kills it. ITSM is the framework for management of IT. It articulates what we do for the customer. ITSM is basic IT, wherever it is running. Cloud may play on different instruments but the tune is the same. The detail of what we control changes. Even the way we control changes. but we still need the controls. So this beating up on ITIL isn't about Cloud really. It is about techs frustrated because they are not allowed to do what they like without supervision.

Some ITSM technologies are a no-brainer

So there we all were brow-beating this poor guy on LinkedIn because he asked what other Remedy options he should buy [without much idea of any business requirement]. I too put the boot in, but on reflection I realised we were all being sanctimonious and patronising.

There are a few ITSM processes that almost certainly end up needing an underpinning technology.

Rich IT Poor IT or Opposite Day?

Peter Kretzman is an active member of my Twitterati circle who I follow. Recently he blogged about a Gartner interview that I had already read. Peter got considerably more upset by it than I did ("an abandonment of common long-standing lessons in IT"), so I re-read it. I'm no more disturbed by it on second reading. The CIO is a business-facing role. Delivery doesn't matter... to the CIO.

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