Posts Tagged ‘framework’
Internal IT must extend reach beyond ITSM
When I think about the various IT Service Management, or ITSM, frameworks (a collection of best practices) 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.
What are the roles?
The diagram above summarizes the major components of a successful collaborative relationship between IT and its customer base. First, we must be clear on our definitions. Customers are simply those people who consume IT services delivered over some IT infrastructure. IT simply refers to that group responsible for providing for the IT needs of their customers. The business domain skills pool is a little less simple. It is a group of domain experts, either dedicated to such a pool or contributors to that pool virtually. These people are also IT customers themselves. Of course, the IT group is also their own customer. The diagram shows each group overlapping with the others. That is intended to reflect the close working relationships which require sharing some common vocabulary and concepts.
Cross training
I believe this to be core to success. In order for communication and collaboration to happen, everyone involved must share at least some core vocabulary. There is always a challenge to get hard core IT folks to learn business topics, whether it’s manufacturing, service, or consulting skills. It’s also always a challenge to get hard core business folks to understand enough IT vocabulary to have informed conversations about new topics like cloud computing, virtualization or security. Neither of these groups needs to be experts in the other’s field. They just need to be able to have intelligent, informed conversations and collaborate.
Those customers not involved in the domain expert pool also need some education but at a much higher, more general level. They primary obligation is to be able to clearly articulate their needs to IT support staff. The domain experts also need a high level understanding of Web 2.0. They will also need to have a general understanding of Web 3.0 as it occurs.
BPI consulting
This brings us to the discussion about the basic behavior of IT staff as they collaborate with their customers. Those “front line” IT folks must earn the trust and respect of their customers. They must be good partners and team members as the business works to improve their business processes (BPI), using IT tools to their best advantage in a way that makes business sense. I have always liked the analogy of an artist. It is the responsibility of IT to understand a broad range of IT tools (the palette) but also how they can be applied to solve business problems (painting on a canvas). Not all IT people need to be able to do this but a few must have that level of understanding.
Conclusion
The preceding discussion is above and beyond the formal notions of IT operations required by the ITSM frameworks. My point is about relationships, not just contracts. We need IT to make and keep their performance commitments to their customers and to employ best practices where ever it makes sense. However, we should extend our vision of IT’s responsibilities beyond formal contractual and procedural constraints. At the end of the day, success ultimately comes through relationships between people.
Thanks to being here. Stay tuned…
Supporting IT and Business Alignment
MOF alignment diagram
IT infrastructure, applications and data storage have become inseparable from the implementation of business process for any modern business, regardless of size. Any company that wishes to improve their business processes must work with whoever supports their IT infrastructure very closely. As a result, there has been an increasing emphasis in the IT world to be more responsive to their customers. Several “frameworks” have emerged in recent years to help IT organizations do just that. A framework is a set of policies and business practices that forms the basis for the business processes of the IT organization. These standard frameworks can then be extended or modified to suit the needs of each specific company. Collectively these frameworks are referred to as the field of IT service management, or ITSM.
While our SLRSM methodology is not an IT framework it needs to accommodate the client’s IT organization and any ITSM framework or business practices it is using. To accomplish several ITSM frameworks were reviewed as to how they would interact with our methodology. They were COBIT 4.1, Val IT, ISO 20000, ITIL version 3 and the Microsoft Operations Framework version 4. We will be writing a white paper providing a comparison of these frameworks from a pragmatic, mid-size manufacturer’s perspective sometime in the future. For this post we will limit our perspective how the SLRSM methodology should map to them.
Cobit alignment diagram
The most obvious touch point is the alignment of IT and business requirements. That alignment is core to all of the frameworks. We have included several examples of diagrams shown in documents provided as part of each framework. In each framework, business alignment and collaboration are emphasized repeatedly as foundational elements. This illustrates that the IT world has become much more sensitive to their customers in recent years. That wasn’t always the case. For years, IT organizations isolated themselves from their customers. While CIOs and senior IT management were certainly sensitive to their business counterparts, the IT organizations as a whole did not have a culture which focused everyone on their customers. I remember first hand a number of resignations which occurred after I asked some developers to spend more time with their customers and understand their business issues (not StrAIT Advisors and a long time ago). Some of these islands of isolation still exist. Unfortunately, that will probably be true for some time to come.
So how does the SLRSM methodology address this alignment issue? The keys are in the team formation and the phase reviews. First, the team must be formed to include both manufacturing and IT staff. The simulator and collaborative tools used to execute the project force a structured approach to identifying and quantifying opportunities for business process waste reduction. The phase review process forces that team to articulate details about the identified opportunities and how to address them to the senior management sponsors of the project.
ITIL alignment diagram
As the SLRSM methodology winds down and the “torch” is passed to the client’s continuous improvement team (which should be most of the same people) that alignment is also continued. As a result, the alignment of IT to the client’s core business issues becomes a greater, ongoing part of the company’s culture. It’s important to remember that the client’s continuous improvement process includes both business groups and IT groups, each using the appropriate business processes. For example, the business operations group may find that a Six Sigma DMAIC methodology is best suited for them and the IT groups may find that business process built around ITIL works best for them. Both of those approaches require communication and collaboration with the other.
The relationship and collaboration between IT and the client’s core business groups is a key requirement for any project to be successful regardless of what project methodology is used. It’s our intent to encourage and enable that aspect of our client’s culture.
I hope that you found this post useful. Until next time…