Elements of Business Service Management Part 2: A “Recipe” for Business Service Management- Key Ingredients of Business Service Management Success

[Originally posted on IBM Tivoli’s IT Service Management – Practical Insights Blog here.]

In my first posting in this series last year I started with a goal of establishing a better working definition for Business Service Management. This was my new working definition, not IBM’s or an analyst’s. My encouragement for you was to take it for what it is and use it as a reference as you define what Business Service Management is for your company.

Making sense of what Business Service Management is has to come from within your own unique environment. You’ll need to define what Business Service Management is within your organization and how you’ll use the concepts of Business Service Management to help your company be successful. Use this specific definition as your mission statement and catalyst to help define where you are and where you want to be in your Business Service Management journey and how Business Service Management will help more closely align IT with the Business and Business with IT. If you just take what your vendors, partners or consultants are telling you as “the only way”, you’re setting yourself and your company up for disappointment in the future. Spend considerable time coming up with what Business Service Management is for your company!

Let’s look at some of the things I’ve heard over the past few years.

• I’ve got all the right capabilities in the new Business Service Management technology, product or solution that I’ve just bought or am evaluating.
• I thought our proof of concept and pilot was a success, why wasn’t my Business Service Management project funded?
• Why aren’t my Business Service Management solutions being used?
• Why was my Business Service Management technology, product or solution maintenance renewal cancelled?

These may be some of the things you’ve dealt with as one who has implemented or is planning on implementing Business Service Management solutions. You’re expectations for successes were very high, but the reality that set in was something very different. What went wrong? Was it me or my team? Was it our technology, product or solution choice? Was it my dashboards or reports? The facts are that it could have been any of those things that turned your vision of Business Service Management success into “just another tool” or “eye candy” with little to no real value.

The key here is that successful Business Service Management solutions are much more than the technology, products and solutions on the market today. Success with Business Service Management requires significant commitment, dedication and being able to work within the organizational and political forces that exist in most organizations towards the agreed upon goals and objectives defined for Business Service Management.

Here’s a high level “recipe” for Business Service Management success:

10 Parts “Commitment and Buy In”

• Established based on Business Value – not necessarily ROI, but the tangible and intangible things that provide the company, lines of business and management value
• Maintained by having a measurable and results oriented strategy and road map
• At the right levels to ensure success in all of the items described below

8 Parts “Understanding What’s Important and Why”

• To the business, customers, partners, IT, competitors, financial community, investors, board of directors, etc.
• Linked to Business Value- everything must be tied back to the value drivers you’ve identified
• Your solution may appear to be very IT centric to those who are unfamiliar with it, but that focus should exist only to DELIVER SOME MEASURABLE VALUE for the goals and objectives of the business to be met
• If this doesn’t exist or isn’t well understood by everyone – you’re likely to see the solution treated as just another tool

6 Parts “Transparency”

• Willingness to ‘lay it all on the table’
• Able to break down or minimize the impact of organizational silos, kingdoms, fiefdoms
• Everyone recognizes what they’re good at and what they’re not good at

5 Parts “Having a Service Mentality”

• Understanding business and IT services and the service delivery chain
• Common service oriented goals and objectives are established company wide
• Everyone understands the role they, their organization, their technology plays in delivery of services – it’s not just about “my servers” – it’s about “our services”

4 Parts “Visibility”

• It doesn’t matter if you’re an enterprise, SMB, global service provider or telecommunications company, you’ve got to have visibility into what’s happening within your environment and the environments of everything you depend on for business and IT service delivery
• Indicators, metrics and measures from both the IT and business perspectives
• A well established solid foundation in the fundamentals of network, system, application and service management and monitoring

These are just some of the “ingredients” you’ll require for being successful with Business Service Management. These items will undoubtedly lead to more questions like:

• What does this “BSM Recipe” deliver? What does it look like?
• What’s the value of this “BSM Recipe”? Are there other approaches?
• Do I have the right ingredients? People, Tools, Processes, Sponsorship?
• Do I need to forklift everything I have in place already?
• What do I need? How much will it cost?
• How do I get started? How long does it take to …
• How do I assess where I am right now and where my gaps are?

Follow on postings within this series will be focused on helping you get there. Where? That’s what you’ll be determining – your own Business Service Management Maturity Model, Strategy and Roadmap. I’ll continue to share my thoughts and ideas on what a Business Service Management maturity model looks like aligned with the Gartner IT Maturity Model. Using this, you’ll be able to determine where you are today and learn about practical steps you can take towards maturity with Business Service Management in your company.