Utterly Surprised

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It’s amazing to me how many organizations claim to have an Enterprise Service Management program but either have a poor CMDB or only have IT configuration items in the CMDB.

In order to have a legitimate Enterprise Service Management program, you must have a quality CMDB with enterprise configuration items. Plus, all stakeholders must be represented making it an “Enterprise CMDB”.

It’s that simple.

If your organization needs help becoming a true Enterprise Service Management program, let me know. Service Management Leadership can help.

Culture

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When people talk about the topics of governance, overcoming bureaucracy, continual improvement, etc, there is one key factor rarely discussed …

company culture.

We do not like to admit it, but we can have the best governance initiative and it will fail if the culture is not willing.

Going against the corporate culture will feel like running up the down escalator.

One important note: many times, there’s a disconnect between how leadership views culture and the actual culture.

As leaders, we must ensure all initiatives include addressing culture, in addition to the normal Organizational Change Management activities.

Outside-In

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If we are truly seeking “Enterprise Service Management”, we will need to take an “outside-in” approach where all stakeholders are engaged and support the initiative.

With every organization now a technology-focused organization, an enterprise view of service management is needed.

Do not let a tool define what is – and is not – Enterprise Service Management.

It should be defined by your stakeholders.

Governance

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Everyone wants technology innovation but few desire governance.

Consider the broad stakeholders represented in every Service Management and Asset Management program.

Each one requires specific data from the tools.

This data is why you have ITSM and ITAM tools.

The data is leveraged to solve business problems.

The data needs to be current and accurate.

The answer is governance.

This is one main reason stakeholders are unhappy with the ITSM and ITAM tools.

Types of Outcomes

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Have you noticed how our society has turned every perspective into binary outcomes, “it’s great” or “it stinks”?

In reality, everything is on a spectrum.

This is true for our Service Management & Asset Management programs. With an iterative approach – filled with continual improvement – we should always be getting better.

This is why metrics are so important. They tell us how we are doing and illustrate the improvement opportunities.

As we move toward an enterprise-wide view of technology, the focus should be on improvements and outcomes, not the current state.

Blindspots

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I freely admit it, I have blindspots.

We all do.

The solution is to have people in your life to see what you don’t AND to listen.

Sure, it takes trust. We’ve all listened to people we shouldn’t have, but those should be seen as learning opportunities.

As we start the week, try to find your blindspots and people who excel in those areas.

Reducing Outages

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We are in – or entering – the most important time of the year for most companies.

IT outages are painful.

Two things to reduce outages if your organization needs maximum uptime:

1. Implement a “Change Frost” where changes are discouraged but there’s an escalation path for approval that includes senior leaders.

2. Spend extra time looking at Incident metrics for Proactive Problem Management.

Almost every organization has a time of the year where outages are extremely costly.

Cause of Outages

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Earlier this year, I was researching some of the largest IT outages of 2021. They all, the ones which stated the cause, were due to a configuration change.

Think about that for a moment.

Large companies with everything redundant were brought down by a configuration change.

This tells me 2 things:

1). Those organizations need to invest in a better Service Management organization, especially CMDB. They had no idea of the change risk or relationship between CIs.

2). Billions of dollars were spent on redundancy and hardening the infrastructure without a true view of risk. In the same way, many organizations have experienced security breaches from third-party partners.

Enterprise Service Management

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When we think of what Enterprise Service Management will look like five years from now, it will include a tool with workflows, but will also include:

1. All enterprise Assets and configuration items (CIs) in the same tool
2. Common set of processes throughout the enterprise, regardless of the type of technology
3. Group leadership will move toward strategy and business-focused instead of technology-focused
4. Focus will be on limiting risk and maximizing the investment in technology
5. People will become the most valuable differentiator for success

Conflict

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It might be unsaid, unmet, or unfair expectations.

I have found this axiom true in 3 distinct (among others) ways in the ITSM and ITAM worlds ???? .

1. Leadership thinks there’s an understanding of licensing within the ranks, then comes a software audit.

2. Lack of a RACI with persona-based training so everyone knows what is expected of them.

3. Lack of understanding regarding segregation of duty for changes.

These types of situations cause conflict within an organization.