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Interesting Links for October 14th

in General

Links that I have found interesting for October 14th:

  • Software » Service Management • Workshop
  • Try these beans: Business Service Management – The thing is, tools exist out there which claim to be able to help IT shops do this. They might not all be marketed as ‘BSM’ but they are aimed at helping you ‘manage business services’. We have no axe to grind about which tools you find are any good, but what we do want to hear about is how you, or those more senior to you are going about trying to improve things in this area
  • Alignment to the Core – Let’s start by being very clear. For any business everything must ultimately align to the success of that business, period. That being said we can now focus on how all of the various pieces that make up that business must align with each other. At a high level, it is obvious that all business activities must support each other for the business to be successful. However, what I have observed over the years is that alignment is easy to get lost in the multitude of daily pressing details that we must deal with.
  • Internal IT must extend reach beyond ITSM – When I think about the various IT Service Management, or ITSM, frameworks I am concerned that they are very heavy on a contractual mindset and very light on a relationship mindset. I am not saying that we don’t need service level agreements or any form of commitment from IT to their customers. I am saying that if a contract is all you have for a relationship with a customer that relationship is destined to become adversarial very quickly. I am saying that IT must have an informed consultant relationship with all of their customers. To do that a number of things must happen.
  • The Psychology of IT Service Management: Taylorism and ITSM’s Obsession With Process – ndeed in a large well known technology PLC, managers recently instigated a time-and-motion study of some of their ITSM procedures which felt a bit like being in a time warp. Also Taylor was an engineer. Like many of his IT antecedents he believed that applying epistemologies that have been successful in the sciences of the inanimate, to the animate (i.e. people) would yield great results for organisations. The flaws in Taylor’s approach signpost the failings of the obsession with process in the ITSM industry. Furthermore many companies in the post-modern era that have departed form the Tayloristic method have seen great success (e.g. Google, GoreTex, Semco). I am firmly of the belief that this is where differentiation and competitive advantage within the ITSM domain now lies. Companies that are brave enough to move beyond the accepted script and to implement a new paradigm may experience a quantum leap of progress over their rivals