As we talk more and more about Experience Management, please keep in mind that it is a complement to Service Management and the current SLAs and metrics.
It will not replace them. Rather, it offers context from the consumer’s perspective.
The topic of Critical Success Factors is not discussed enough. We need to understand the criteria for success before embarking on the initiative.
Below is another excerpt from my book, ITIL4: The New Frontier.
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In every part of our lives, we have Critical Success Factors (CSFs). A CSF is a leadership term for an element that is necessary for an organization or project to achieve its mission. As the name might suggest, CSFs are things that must happen for the initiative to be successful. When considering whether an ITIL4 initiative is successful, there are a few CSFs relevant to every organization and a few more that are organization-specific. If we think of ITIL4 from a business standpoint, what got us this far (in terms of processes and metrics) will not get us to where we want to be. ITIL4 enables new and different capabilities. We then must find a way to measure the new capabilities and outcomes.
Here are a few broad CSFs to consider. There are many more we could include, but these are the ones that are consistent across most organizations.
· Is there organizational and leadership support?
· Does leadership understand the value gained by adopting ITIL4?
· Are goals in place for the initiative?
· Are the goals measurable?
· What other measures are in place?
· Are viable metrics and measures in place to measure improvement?
· Are adequate resources (personnel, monetary, and technology) available throughout the life of the ITIL4 initiative?
· Is there a good balance of people, process, and tools?
· Is the culture receptive to the change?
· Is there enough in-house expertise to be successful long-term?
· Are you able to identify and assess the current state as a starting point and measure growth against it?
· Is there a “front door” to IT services (e.g., Service Desk, ITSM tool, etc.)?
· With the focus on iterative improvement, is there a culture for improvement?
· Is scope defined (e.g., practices, CMBD configuration items, and future scope placed on a roadmap)?
· Are all stakeholders identified and engaged?
· Is there a mechanism for stakeholders to provide feedback? Is it accepted and considered?
· Is Customer Experience and Satisfaction measured or will it be in the near future?
· Will training be developed for all stakeholders?
· Does the Service Management organization have the appropriate level of Governance?
· Do all service providers – internal and external – use the same processes and practices?
· Is the organization able to pivot and alter course as business objectives change?
As I learn more about the applications and implications of Experience Management – and its potential impact on IT Service Delivery – the Return on Investment is unmistakable.
It has been proven that improved experience drives better services which brings money savings and increased funding in the future.
The secret is understanding the service delivery from the consumer’s perspective. This should permeate the entire breadth of IT services.
Let me know if you want to learn more about Experience Management.
If an airplane crashes, it is usually on either take-off or touch-down. Once up in the air, we take safety for granted. Sure, there might be turbulence, but it is not too big of a deal.
The same is true for your Asset Management – both software and hardware. If there is an issue, it usually occurs during onboarding or decommissioning. Once in the middle of the lifecycle, there may be turbulence, but not that big of a deal.
If you are wanting to improve your Asset Management program, focus on the processes to onboard and decommission.
These are the places where issues like technical debt, audits, compliance, and low return on investment occur.
I started in the Asset Management world in 1994. That was a LONG time ago and the problems then are the same as now.
I think we all have seen Service Management organizations that were too bureaucratic.
This was not the goal but it just happened over time. Rigidity was bountiful.
The cure for bureaucracy is consumer focus.
Whether through the use of Experience Management, or not, Service Management organizations must consider the end (consumer’s view of value) at the beginning.
This is also addressed in ITIL4’s “Engage”.
The vision must be on outcomes.
I once worked for a CTO who did not talk to a main business stakeholder. In fact, this stakeholder was one of two customer-facing groups served by IT.
I tried to bridge the two.
It was a strange predicament for me.
The stakeholder appreciated my involvement as I tried to align my group with his group’s needs.
The CTO was unhappy with my involvement. I never could understand why.
He liked to control the situation. He was important.
So, the stakeholder spun up their own shadow IT group. Over time, they needed fewer and fewer of the CTO’s services, making his role and organization less important.
This is a true story.
The rates (or cycles) of change are picking up speed.
When we look back over the past two years, it’s almost unbelievable. Things we thought would never change were disrupted.
However, the next two years will have even more disruption and change. Let’s look at some potential changes to what we do and how we do it:
– Machine Learning and chatbots combined will become the first touch for most Service Desks. If so, organizations must get their Knowledge in tip-top shape and shift resources accordingly.
– With so many Changes coming through automation (e.g. CI/CD), Configuration Management (CMDB) + Change Management must be strong.
– More and more non-IT assets/CIs will be included in Asset and Service Management programs that transparency must increase as non-traditional business stakeholders become more strategic.
– Redundancy is everywhere because of the low tolerance for outages. The recent outages from Microsoft, Facebook, etc , have shown that outages occur more from Changes than technology failure. However, the complexity is increasing. We need to improve our change risk assessment abilities. We will see this trend increase due to the increasing complexity.
The San Diego release for ServiceNow should change how many organizations do Service Management.
A couple of examples …
With innate DevOps capabilities, Change Management will evolve and needs updates on the process and people side of things. This one is big.
With the updated interface, and great chat capabilities, Knowledge Management will need major improvements to be successful. Also, user and process training may be required.
As business needs and tool capabilities evolve, so do the need to update how you do things.
Was asked if Agile and ITIL can coexist. The answer is a resounding “yes”.
Agile is a great way to deliver software, iteratively. The ITIL frameworks are so much more. The dictate hoe to run IT
Further, the organizations who integrate frameworks best have gained efficiency which is a competitive advantage.
The need to do IT Asset Management well has increased exponentially in the last two years. This has occurred for two main reasons:
1. There are more technology assets in every organization that need to be treated as investments than ever before
2. The risk of doing ITAM poorly is increasingly costly