A Word from the International Chair Shari Brunette
Back to school … In the US , we are starting to see signs of the turn of the season - towards the end of summer . School is around the corner . It is time to get back to learning - time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones .
This is a great time to reconnect with other parts of your IT organization . Rekindle those relationships with others by reaching out to understand what is happening in each area and finding out how your ITSM Program can continue to add value for the needs of your business .
Engaging your IT Colleagues Speaking of business … what is important to your business ? What are the strategies , goals , and objectives that are important to your business ?
Have you spent time with your PMO ? What are the pain points in the PMO ? Can you help them provide information regarding who is requesting work from IT ? Is your Catalog positioned to be able to provide a view of requested work from IT ? By Business ? By Service ? How are the PMO Stage gates utilizing artifacts from your Service Design , Service Transition , and Service Operations capabilities ?
Speaking of Catalog -- have you been out to see Human Resources , Facilities , Media Services , or Finance to help them leverage already existing processes for organizing their repeatable requests ?
When did you last meet with your Business Relationship Managers ? How have you helped them recently understand what new information is available from your process improvements ? What are their customer pain points and how can areas of Service Improvement provide better insights ?
What ' s new with App-Dev ? Are they moving toward DevOps and Agile methods ? Do your processes support the needs of the teams ? Have you looked at the end-to-end and helped identify areas to ' lean up ' areas of ' muda ?' that sit on the production network ? Your processes have tremendous value to them !
With your Financial Management area ? Have you had discussion with them on how Asset and Configuration Management can provide valuable input for better understanding of financial assets in IT ? If you are in a chargeback organization , have you talked about how your capabilities can provide better insights into usage for better overall planning ?
Share your Service Management capabilities with others Service Management capabilities encompass many frameworks - it is not just about ' ITIL !' You would be surprised at how much redundancy you can find by meeting with these groups and using a simple SIPOC format to show the various interdependencies of IT processes . This also enables a conversation about where the ' sources of truth ' are for the various processes and how to harmonize the many measures used in IT . This presents opportunities to ' lean ' up the processes , leverage artifacts , and share key information .
As a Service Management professional , your value is in being able to see over these ' silos ' and across the many frameworks used in various parts of your IT organization . It ' s an amazing discovery ! Trust me - I ' ve done this and the discussion is often met with surprise at how well your Service Management capabilities can provide help .
Now is a great time to reach out and meet with other areas in IT - showing the opportunity that IT Service Management can offer each area !
What ' s a good way to get this started ? Pick an area at a time and create your ' discovery conversation .' The result - in the form of a SIPOC , a list of sources of truth , and a discussion on key measures is often met with appreciation . You can offer the value of seeing it from the lens of the IT staff -- who feel the redundancy and complexity of these many interdependent processes ! Try one area ! See what it brings !
What discussion have you had with Information Security ? Have you had conversations about cyber-resilience and how the CMDB can help support your organization become more ' defendable '? Have you had any discussions with those parts of your organization owning assets that are not traditional IT assets
3 itSMFI Forum Focus — September 2016