The responses vary among: 1. This guy is incompetent and should be fired (fairness seeking). 2. This guy is incompetent and will be fired anyway (realism). 3. This guy is incompetent and you should help him to acquire the skills he needs for his job (compassion). 4. Talk to your manager (practical). 5. It depends […]
Category Archives: IT Service Management
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs agreed on little
But both agreed that healthcare was ripe for disruption. That is still true, but the pace is slower than we envisioned a decade ago. One reason is the high cost of certification. Consumer-grade equipment produces interesting data for casual self-analysis. Producing data to be used in medical diagnoses requires greater confidence in the accuracy of […]
Analytic Hierarchy Process
AHP Background One model I want to explore today is the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) that was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970’s as a tool for choosing an option using a set of weighted criteria. For example, we may choose a software package on the basis of criteria such as supported features […]
Models in Service Management
For the time being I am focusing my attention on the use of models in service management (more here). Models are useful because they help us understand correlations, understand system dynamics, make predictions, and test the effects of changes. There are few, if any, models in regular use in service management. There may be valid […]
DevOps Changes Everything
…and DevOps changes nothing. I was holding off writing about DevOps because: I don’t work with customers who implemented it successfully. I have nothing new to offer. Both points are still true. There isn’t anything new to say about DevOps except that the hype machine is still in overdrive and the loop machine is wearing […]
IT Isn’t Broken
It’s just a hell of a lot harder than we are given credit for. Enter FiveThirtyEight Science on Science Isn’t Broken (“It’s just a hell of a lot harder than we give it credit for”). Science is messy by design. Scientific methods are adversarial. Scientists are competitive for mind share as well as funding. Science […]
Change Types
Introduction Changes to an IT production environment come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Industry practices have converged on types of that have served us well for several years as a starting point for discussion. However, they are insufficient and require further elaboration. Historically, these Change Types are: Standard: a pre-authorized change that is […]
Rebooting ITSMinfo
Wow, 2016 is upon us already. Sadly, 2015 passed me by without a single post on ITSMinfo. To some extent I was just busy. As an independent consultant I am paid by the hour and I have to watch billable hours closely. Fortunately, I stayed busy in 2015. I also exercised regularly, running and lifting […]
The Secret of Change Management
The secret is there isn’t one secret. There is no single aspect of Change Management that makes it successful. There is no right or wrong way design your Change Management process. I have worked with two dozen customers on Change Management, and I have found few consistent threads. Every organization is different. It’s important that: […]
Validating Configuration Management Uses
Two weeks ago I discussed how the value of Configuration Management activities are derived from the improvements made to other processes. I want to suggest another way that this can happen, borrowing concepts that recently starting to surface in Project Management communities. That concept is called PRUB and was introduced last year by a professor […]