Relationships

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Just like in our personal and professional lives, the CMDB is only as good as its relationships.

The value in a CMDB is in the relationships reflected. Think of how a CMDB is consumed. It is to

1. Aid the assessment of changes,
2. Speed up the resolution of incidents
3. Help understand the health, performance, and compliance of the configuration items (CIs)
4. And, much more including service costing, service levels, and many other aspects of managing an IT environment

Like in our lives, invest in the CMDB relationships. They are key to understanding your environment.

Focusing on the “Why”

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Honing in on the “why” we are doing something is the most important aspect.

If we know the business drivers, it is much easier to identify the best solution.

Far too often, a solution is implemented poorly because it is focused on the “what” without realizing the “what” and the “how” are only acceptable when aligned with the “why”.

For example, building out an Asset Management program was easier once I knew the drivers (“why”) were a failed audit and a desire to save money.

Another example is understanding the “why” of continual improvement so we can prioritize improvement opportunities.

Bottom line: there should be a direct link between the business drivers and the desired outcomes. Those desired outcomes should be the deliverables.

Helping Others

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This Monday, remember that we each are “drinking from wells we did not dig” in our professional lives.

Consider the wells you can dig today that will help others in the future.

Someone must “dig those wells”.

I believe strongly in this concept.

Knowledge Management

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I often talk about Knowledge Management.

I do so because so few do and it has TWO key benefits:

1. Experience – The majority of the workforce prefers looking up the answer in a quality knowledge base than calling the service desk.

2. Cost Savings – Knowledge articles are cheaper to create and keep current/relevant/accurate than service desk agents.

Every organization should be INVESTING in their Knowledge Management.

If your organization needs help in this or another Service Management or Asset Management area, let me know. Service Management Leadership would love to help.

Software Asset Management

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The Flexera 2022 State of ITAM Report had several great nuggets, including:

Barely one-third feel that SAM functions at an advanced level. While SAM processes have been defined for more than a decade, only one-third (34 percent) of respondents feel their SAM processes are functioning at an advanced level, where they’re proactively optimizing the use of software licenses.

Thirty percent of organizations are at the beginner stage of maturity, where they’re just getting started with SAM and employing an ad hoc approach to discovery and audit.

Thirty-six percent are in the intermediate phase, where they’ve implemented ongoing tracking of software use and license positions, a precursor for optimization activities.
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This is unsurprising. Most organizations struggle with the Asset Management processes. If your organization needs help saving money and reducing risk, contact me today.

Service Management Leadership can help your organization save money that should be going to provide innovative outcomes.

Leadership

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Have you ever noticed the relationship between integrity and accountability.

This thought started yesterday as I was reflecting on the people who I revere as great leaders.

For leaders, you cannot have one without the other. Integrity cannot exist without accountability. Neither can accountability be present without integrity.

These two qualities bring transparency into all relationships. In today’s world of collaboration, it’s all about relationships.

In this time of employment turmoil, great leaders are needed.

Costs

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In almost everything, there is a cost of doing something that must be balanced against the cost of doing nothing.

Everything we do in Service Management and Asset Management must be weighed on this scale.

The scale helps determine the “why” we are doing it.

For example, we do Change because the cost of outages and risk of disruption is greater than the cost. The same goes for Incident, etc.

So, since you are doing something (like Change) because it’s a worthwhile endeavor, we need to do it well. Very well.

The scales get messed up when we don’t do things well. The reason for doing it becomes less obvious.

Every CMDB Needs Improvement

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Imagine a scenario where you check your online bank statement and it is off.

You dive in deeper and realize it is only 61% correct.

You then think of all the automated payments/withdrawals about to hit the account.

That 61% will fluctuate.

How confident are you in making decisions based off this data?

Well, this exact scenario plays out across CMDBs around the globe ???? every single day.

Leaders are expected to make great decisions based off data that is 61% – or worse – correct.

My research shows most CMDBs to be in the 55-65% range on average. Some are higher. Some lower.

If your CMDB needs implementing, improving, or remediating, Service Management Leadership can help.

Advice for Leaders

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There is so much noise in our respective worlds.

We hear many voices, see many metrics, and are left not knowing what to believe.

We hear definitive statements that are really opinions or best guesses.

For any of us to become the leaders we want to be, we must narrow down our inputs.

We need to get better at discerning wisdom from idle noise.

This is especially true in service management and asset management.

Any deviation in focus will cause us to take missteps.

We Do Not Need More Data

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Many times, we don’t lack for metrics or data.

In fact, we have too much and cannot sort out the “signal from the noise”.

We usually only need a small subset of the metrics and data we collect.

The irony is that it costs money ???? to collect, mature, and protect each metric or data.

The issue, like most things, is that we collect each without a stated goal in mind.

Each metric and piece of data should be tied to measuring a business problem or solution. Even those tied to IT performance should be rooted in the “why” of the business.