This blog is part of a series of general comments and clarifications on some key ITIL exam concepts, terms and definitions that might not be so clear by definition. This week’s topic is about technology references and support for successfully executing an ITIL approach to Service Management.

ITIL promotes IT as being a critical business success driver and competitive advantage in today’s world. Simply put – business can not function without IT technology as part of the business model. It follows that if ITIL is critical to the business and ITIL promotes an approach to manage IT as a “business within a business”, then ITIL itself can not function without IT technology as part of its business model.

All areas of Service Management will benefit from technology. One of the primary goals of technology within ITIL is to support the use of standards and norms that deliver services with effectiveness, efficiency, and in a business aligned manner. A key objective of technology within ITIL is to support consistent delivery of services through automation. Service automation is necessary to:

• Improve both the utility and warranty of services by removing variation in the performance of processes and services
• Assist with integrating Service Management processes

The following is a list of technology tools discussed within ITIL:

Databases

• Service Portfolio
• Service Catalog
• Service Management System (SMS)
• Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
• Configuration Management System (CMS)
• Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
• Asset Management Database
• Known Errors Database (KEDB)
• Human Resources Database
• Availability Management Information System (AMIS)
• Capacity Management Information System (CMIS)
• Security Management Information System (SMIS)
• Supplier and Contract Database (SCD)

Libraries & Stores

• Definitive Media Library (DML)
• Definitive Hardware Spares (DHS)

Tool Types

• Simulation
• Analytical modeling
• Hardware design
• Software design
• Environmental design
• Process design
• Data design
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Audit, Inventory, and Discovery
• Deployment, and Licensing
• Testing
• Mapping
• Workflow and Scripting
• Service Desk
• Building Management
• Support and Logging
• Remote control support
• Diagnostic
• Correlation
• Job Scheduling
• Self-Service
• Monitoring, System Management, and Event/Alert
• Network management
• Intrusion Detection
• Directory Services
• Presentation and Reporting
• Survey

This blog is part of a series of general comments and clarifications on some key ITIL exam concepts, terms and definitions that might not be so clear by definition. This week’s topic is about the Service Lifecycle and its stages.

The Service Lifecycle is designed as a “closed-loop” approach to Service Management. By “closed-loop”, we are referring to the outputs of the Lifecycle being targeted towards a business goal, and utilizing feedback at each step for taking reinforcing and corrective actions that will repeat the loop continually. Each repetition has an objective to be more efficient, effective, and aligned to the business goals.

The promoted Service lifecycle flows in the standard promoted closed-loop system beginning with Service Strategy to Service Design to Service Transition to Service Operation and back to Strategy through Continual Service Improvement. While generally a linear flow, ITIL is clear to emphasize that the lifecycle is well integrated and all phases can flow in any direction.

As another and perhaps more practical way of viewing the lifecycle, consider the following table of lifecycle phases and primary goals. The primary goals of Service Design position it in the center of the table. Service Design must turn strategic plans into agreements and contracts on what is to be achieved and is achievable, and must draft blue-prints for developers to achieve these agreements and contracts. Once developed and operational, Service Design then has a goal to ensure achievement of its agreements and contracts.

This version of the Service Lifecycle highlights the importance of Service Design in achieving success when implementing a Service Management initiative. If targets are not defined and managed, then you’ll miss them every time. If targets are not linked to strategy, you’ll focus on trivial activities over the long run.

To continue what I discussed in my last post, “learning at the speed of change” is a reference to the fact that change is the only constant and the speed of change is increasing. The speed with which an organization learns collectively and individually will determine their fate in the coming years.  Information overload is only going to get worse for everyone. We need to find a way to ensure that our focus in learning is on two things: quality of communications and our ability to extract value from massive amounts of information. Learning is not so much about pouring massive amounts of information into our brains all at once. It is about optimizing our social/professional networks and accessing new information JIT/JET – Just-in-time/Just-enough.

Does your learning strategy incorporate enough focus on innovative tactics for training people JIT/JET? I often find that many academics frown at the simplicity of this concept. Yet the Gen Y’ers are demanding only a JIT/JET learning strategy and have very little patience for the information dump that occurs in sessions that last much longer than 20 minutes.  They want to know, what they need to know, as they recognize the need to know it.  Get it?

ITIL is about constant and never-ending improvement.   ITIL “depends”.   Your ITIL/ITSM education strategy needs to focus on JIT/JET blended approaches through internal community sharing, eLearning nuggets or “coursels”, mentoring, classroom “coursels” and job sharing.  Sending your IT team to consecutive classroom training sessions is not the answer.   Don’t fall for the “bums in seats” marketing of classroom training.

Find out what the learner group needs now, deliver it rapidly in an educational and fun way, and determine when the learning modules have outlived their usefulness.  Store all of the learning assets centrally, maintain version control, seek collaboration with as many relevant subject matter experts as possible and continuously improve. You can do all of this and fast. Reducing costs and improving learning delivery. Find the right systems and put the processes in place.

When researching Blended Learning, I have come up with several different definitions, but my favourite comes right from Wikipedia:

Blended learning gives learners and teachers an environment to learn and teach more effectively. Learners can select the best activities to suit their own pace, learning style and level of understanding, as well as time and place. Learners can be more independent and self-reliant in their own learning. They can also be more able to make decisions, think creatively and critically, investigate and explore as well as solve problems they face in learning and real life. Meanwhile, teachers can be facilitators, supervisors, assessors, organizers and managers of learning activities, and so should be creative and able to support learners and provide various learning materials in different formats.

Blended learning increases the options for greater quality and quantity of human interaction in a learning environment. Blended learning offers learners the opportunity “to be both together and apart.” A community of learners can interact anywhere, anytime because of the benefits that computer-mediated educational tools provide. Blended learning provides a ‘good’ mix of technologies and interactions, resulting in a socially supported, constructive, learning experience; this is especially significant given the profound affect that it could have on distance learning.

The  most difficult thing about educating a team that is culturally, geographically and skill diverse is  coming  up with the exact formula that is perfect for each person. Why not offer a blended approach that allows your team to get the most out of their learning style and the content you are presenting as well as still being able to collaborate with others? Gone are the days when educators are looking to fill seats. This economy calls for and perhaps even demands that we become more creative in the way that we share knowledge and teach. There are many organizations that do a good job in helping IT Professionals know what they should be doing in the context of ITIL and ITSM…but most folks leave trying to plug theory into their organizations without any real place to meet and collaborate after the class is over.

In my next post, I’ll look at learning strategies and how to make them effective.

This blog is part of a series of general comments and clarifications on some key ITIL exam concepts, terms and definitions that might not be so clear by definition. This week’s topic is about the use of models in ITIL that support process models discussed earlier.

The list of models referenced below from the ITIL publications shows that Models and Modelling play an important part of ITIL best practice. ITIL identifies the creation of models and of modeling as part of the science to successful ITSM.

In my opinion, IT Service Management is part art and part science. Models add some predictive science, but we all know that IT isn’t predictive. It requires a lot of subjective assessment and direction (called management).

The remainder of this blog is some basic ITIL definitions and then the list of models taken from ITIL publications.

The ITIL definition of a Model is:

A representation of a system, process, IT service, configuration item etc. that is used to help understand or predict future behaviour.

The ITIL definition of Modelling is:

A technique that is used to predict the future behaviour of a system, process, IT service, configuration item etc. Modelling is commonly used in Financial Management, Capacity Management and Availability Management.

Models identified from ITIL publications include:

–    Business Model

–    Kano Model (for value-added service offerings)

–    Service Model

• Service Funding Model
• Financial/economic/cost Model
• Service Provisioning Model
• Performance Model

–    Service Design Model

• Demand Model
• Capacity/Resource Model
• Outsourcing Model
• Chargeback Model
• Use-Case Model
• Data Model
• Monitor Control Loop Model
• Analytical Model
• Baseline Model
• Simulation Model

–    Service Transition Model

• Change Model
• Change Authorization Model
• Service-V Model
• Test Model
• Build Model
• Support Model
• Change Authorization Model
• Configuration Model

–    Service Operational Model

• Service Delivery Model
• Staffing Model

–    Continual Service Improvement Model

• Deming’s PDCA Model
• Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
• Governance Model
• Service Gap Model
• Service Measurement Model
• Service Management Model
• DIKW Model

–    RACI Model

–    Application Lifecycle Model

–    Service Lifecycle Model