Disclaimer: I contracted at Numara Software as an Implementation Consultant in Professional Services from July 2007 to June 2010. Chris Dancy said it best: this is about as close to J-Lo and Marc Anthony as we get in the IT industry. On January 30, 2012 BMC Software announced the acquisition of Numara Software. My initial …
Category Archive: IT Service Management
Jan
05
One Step Backward, Two Steps Forward
I am proud to announce that I have started a new position in November 2011. It is a one-year contract in Tokyo to help transform the local, shared IT service provider to a global infrastructure utility provider. My position involves the discovery and implementation of processes based on good practices from ITIL. The project involves …
Nov
13
Should Incidents Be Re-Opened?
Should Incidents be re-opened? The simple answer is: yes, if it was Closed incorrectly. Incorrect closure may include incorrect or incomplete testing or failure to confirm service restoration with the customer or user. However, IT environments are complex and reality is seldom so simple. I advocate instead against reopening Incidents, after a 2-3 day Resolved …
Apr
18
The Problem of CSFs
If you are unable or unwilling to appoint a Problem Manager, you are not ready for Problem Management. That’s what I said. Or at least I think that’s what I said. The venerable and ubiquitous Chris Dancy quoted me this January 2011 on episode 1 of the re-formed Pink Elephant Practitioner Radio podcast. He quoted …
Dec
30
Rethinking the CMS
I first started this post in response to the IT Skeptic’s CMDB is crazy talk post about 2 weeks ago. My own position derives from several observations in the real world: Few organizations are willing to perform a full spectrum CMDB implementation, due to cost constraints. (In my opinion few organizations actually require this.) Observation …
Nov
08
OBASHI and the CMDB
In September 2010 APMG unveiled its new OBASHI Certification based on the OBASHI methodology developed in 2001 in the gas & oil industry. I won’t go into detail here, but there is at least one book available at the APMG-Business Books but apparently not on Amazon, and least of all not in Kindle format. There …
Sep
29
The Problem of Revealed Preferences
Consumers express their rational interests through their behaviors. Economists call these revealed preferences. IT Service Management trainers and consultants tell other companies how they should run their businesses, based on industry best practice frameworks. We seldom examine revealed preferences, but perhaps we should. One of my first engagements as an ITSM consultant involved the planning …
Sep
15
Implementing a Service Desk Application, Part 1
In this multi-part series on planning and implementing a Service Desk application, I start with identifying the characteristics of the tools. Tool Characteristics Service Desk applications usually support at a minimum the ITIL® V3 processes of Service Request Fulfillment and Incident Management, Problem Management, and Change Management. They frequently also support Release Management, Service Catalog …
Aug
30
Are Standard Changes “Good”
ITIL practitioners commonly assume that standard changes are good, and that a high percentage of standard changes vs. normal changes indicates a mature environment. Is this maturity “good” by definition with respect to Change Management? The answer is mostly yes, but not always. Let’s look at some ITIL definitions. ITIL defines a change as: The …
Aug
29
Not a Review: SCSM 2010
At heart I am a hands-on geek. When I learned that Microsoft finally released its Service Center Service Manager 2010, I was excited to try it. I logged into my partner account and signed up for the 90-day trial. Then reality set in. As is so frequent with Microsoft’s business applications, initial enthusiasm gave way …
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