Maximizing your investment in itsm

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Maximizing your investment in ITSM

Adopting a Survey, Design, and Verify approach to your ITSM processes

By David Mainville - CEO & Co-founder

Table of Contents

Introduction 1
Understand the Gaps 2
Getting the Maximum Value 3
Why is it so Difficult to Get Value? 4
What Contributes to a Good Process? 5
Being Faithful to Process is Key 6
About the Author 7
About Navvia 8

Introduction
Most organizations embark on IT Service IT organizations that practice strong Service
Management (ITSM) programs with the goal of Management principles are, by default, better
improving IT efficiency and overall service delivery. aligned to the business and much more effective in
servicing their clients, whether they are internal or
One of the first things asked by management is external.
“What will be the overall return on investment?”
Just take a moment and reflect upon the companies
Measuring the value of an ITSM program is often in your life that provide services to you. Think about
very subjective. People use words like “quality”, an organization that consistently disappoints.
“service improvement” or “customer satisfaction” Now think about an organization that consistently
to justify the program. exceeds expectations. What’s the difference
between the two?
The main reason for this subjective view of ITSM
is that few organizations do a very good job I’ve observed that well run service organizations
of measuring the outcomes of their IT Service have simple, effective and well governed processes.
Management initiatives. They also have a culture of accountability and
continual service improvement.
The problem with this situation is that it becomes
very difficult to identify and communicate the The poorly run Service Organization may claim to
tangible benefits of the program, especially if have processes – but more often than not they
you are trying to get support from your executive hide behind process to deflect any criticism of their
management. service – “I’m sorry sir, but that isn’t the process.”
So how do you start
Over my 32 years of Service Management
experience, I have come to have faith in the
The benefits of ITSM are much more than a matter
of faith. Those organizations that practice effective
maximizing the value of
benefits of ITSM because I’ve seen it work time
and time again.
governance, complete with metrics, accountability
and continual improvement, will have no trouble
your investment in
identifying and communicating the real benefits. IT Service Management?

Maximizing Your Investment in ITSM / 2012.11 1

Understand the Gaps

Start with Understanding the Gaps in Your Existing Processes
Before you spend any more time and money on your One approach to measuring process maturity is A thorough survey requires you to reach out to
ITSM program, it is important to understand where the Capability Maturity Model (CMM), developed by your stakeholders in a systematic manner through
the real opportunities lie. Carnegie Mellon University and made popular by the questionnaires, interviews and workshops.
Software Engineering Institute (SEI).
One of the best ways of doing this is by surveying The results of these activities become the
your ITSM processes. This model has been adopted by many in the ITSM observations from which you can measure maturity,
community as the de-facto standard for measuring develop recommendations and create an action plan.
A survey will help you uncover organizational, process maturity.
process and tool gaps in your ITSM program. It will In addition to identifying gaps, a survey allows
also help you to better understand the perceptions CMM measures process on a scale of you to establish a baseline from which future
held by the stakeholders in your ITSM processes. improvements can be measured - an important
1 to 5 component in communicating the value of your ITSM
From an organizational perspective, a survey program.
will uncover gaps in authority, accountability, 1 = Starting point (for a new process)
governance, communication, training and skills.
2 = Managed
From a process perspective, a survey will identify 3 = Defined
issues with how your processes are constructed 4 = Quantitatively Managed
including inputs, outputs, activities, tasks,
procedures and metrics. 5 = Optimized
When it comes to ITSM tools, a survey will point out
issues with integration, ease of use, overlapping
technology or areas where no tools exist at all.


Getting the Maximum Value
Getting the Maximum Value from Your Processes
Requires Good Design

It has been my experience that far too many process This is a good thing, especially in these times of
design projects become an exercise in bureaucracy, shrinking budgets and reduced staffing.
resulting in nothing more than high-level documents
that sit on the shelf – which doesn’t help anyone. Effective, well-managed processes will help you
resolve incidents faster (and for less cost), improve
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think people purposefully the quality of applications you roll out, minimize re-
embark on a process improvement project because work, improve “time to market” for new IT services
“there isn’t enough bureaucracy” in the company. and even help you provision service requests faster
– and who doesn’t see the value in that?
They do it to
●● Streamline activities
●● Improve communication
●● Eliminate waste
●● Automate repetitive tasks
●● Improve allocation of resources
●● Provide better management information


Why is it so Difficult to Get Value?

“Most process improvement projects fail
because they stuck at 50,000 foot level.”

I believe that most process improvement projects It needs to encompass the following: You can usually boil down what IT
fail because they stay stuck at the 50,000 foot level.
does to these two simple things:
●● A clear definition of duties down to the detailed
The funny thing is that many process designers (or work instruction level
best practice advocates) will explain that processes ●● Provisioning quality services quickly and
●● Tool and data requirements for automating the accurately.
are meant to be high-level and independent of any process
technology or specific toolset. I couldn’t disagree ●● Resolving incidents with those services.
●● Agreement on how the process will be governed
more. ●● Established accountability for the process Make sure you are focused on the basics (i.e.
●● Defined metrics and reports for measuring the Incident and Change Management) before spending
We live in the real world. A world of tools, with success of the process
human interactions, and very specific tasks for time and energy on processes that are less
●● A plan for rolling out the process – including “customer facing”.
getting things done. training

A good process design needs to go much further If you take these design considerations to heart, you
You also need to make sure that the focus and effort are well on your way to improving service delivery at
than a high level description of activities and tasks. is on the right process. Take the time to assess your company.
what your organization does well and what needs
improving. Determine what will have the biggest
impact on your user base.


What Contributes to a Good Process?

A good process design engages the stakeholders, Assign ownership and accountability Ensure the process can be
clearly identifies requirements, and drives
automation. and a method for measuring success automated in a tool
Designing the process is the easy part. The hard More than once, I’ve seen a process architect
work is in making sure the process is adopted, hand off a process to someone responsible for
When designing a process managed and measured. You will get absolutely implementing a Service Management tool without
no value from your process if people choose or are providing any detail on what the data fields are,
consider the following allowed to circumvent it. what the workflow is, what integrations need to be
done, and what exact reports need to be produced.
Never design a process in a vacuum Make sure everyone is clear on, and They leave it entirely up to the tool implementation
I once had someone say to me - “You know, I spent team and then wonder why the tool doesn’t support
all this time designing and documenting the process.
agrees on, what they have to do the process.
One of the biggest fears people have regarding
I emailed it out, but nobody seems to be following
process is “I already have too much on my plate – I
it.”
don’t have time for this process stuff.” What they Develop a training and
Why would anyone buy-in if they weren’t included in
fail to see is that lack of process often results in communication plan
duplication of effort, plus re-work and last minute A manager once told me “I have smart people – they
the design? You will get the best buy-in for a process
changes, etc. They are already doing the work – a can figure it out.” Why leave your process up to
if you bring together the stakeholders in a facilitated
good process will simplify it. Use process design to interpretation? Let people know why you are doing
manner.
identify activities, tasks and work instructions. it, what’s in it for them, and how they should do it.
Training and communication is critical to the success
of your process initiative.


Being Faithful to Process is Key

“When it comes to maximizing the value
of your ITSM investment, nothing is more
important than good governance”

When it comes to maximizing the value of your IT Organizations routinely spend significant time and Good governance makes sure you are getting the
Service Management investment, nothing is more money designing processes and implementing them real value out of your ITSM program while effectively
important than actually following the processes you in an IT Service Management tool only to leave the positioning you for continuous improvement,
designed and implemented. execution of the processes to chance. passing an audit, or obtaining an external
certification such as ISO20000 or SAS70.
That may strike you as being obvious but, actually, Verifying that people are being faithful to the
it is the lack of IT Service Management governance process through an effective governance program
that is at the heart of most ITSM program failures. that lays out the ground rules, assigns accountability
and responsibility, and – most importantly -
To put it simply -“say what you do then do what you measures and tracks compliance right down to the
say”. individual, including evidence, is critical to success.


About the Author
David Mainville
Navvia CEO & Co-founder

David is a 33-year ITSM veteran with a unique and
practical perspective on Service Management.

As a Field Engineer, David was on the front line of
Service Operations.

As a Customer Service Manager he developed
a knack for the customer facing processes. As
a Solutions Architect he designed and deployed
Systems Management solutions.

As the CEO & co-founder of Consulting-Portal
he has built an ITSM consulting practice and has
architected and launched an innovative SAAS based
Process Management Software product.

David is a frequent speaker at ITSM conferences,
as well as on webinars and podcasts, where he
promotes the practical side of ITSM. David’s ITSM
articles have been published on a variety of industry
websites and magazines.
Connect with David

Twitter - @Mainville
David lives in Toronto Canada with his wife Tonga
and their two Jack Russell terriers Al and Savvy.
or
He enjoys running, cycling, camping along with
practicing his Bass Guitar and Drums.
LinkedIn - David Mainville


About Navvia

Process Management This new name reflects our guiding principle
Made Easy of simplicity, as well as the broader process
management capabilities of our product and
We are people passionate about helping companies services beyond ITSM.
improve business outcomes. Since 1999, our parent
company Consulting-Portal has proven this ambition Derived from the roots “navigate” and “via”, it
by assisting countless organizations design and illustrates how Navvia empowers businesses with
implement effective IT and business processes with clear roadmaps to steer their ships to the desired
the goal of improving business outcomes. destinations.

Passion to help becomes passion to empower. Navvia, simply, is an online toolkit designed to
Combining our ITSM success with a desire to strip away complexity from process practices and
simplify process management, we built the first ultimately improve business outcomes.
cloud-based collection of process tools to aid IT
Service Management (ITSM) practitioners. We called Learn more at navvia.com
it ITOptimizer.

Today, ITOptimizer has evolved and become Navvia.


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go@navvia.com

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Maximizing your investment in itsm

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