First presented at Tech UG in Leeds, Process Hacking takes a look at how organisations can apply product thinking to processes to deliver improvement

1. Process Hacking
Claire Agutter – ITSM Zone

2. About Me
 15+ years in IT service management
 Roles include help desk, change management, project management,
service management implementation, consultancy and training
 Lead tutor and director of ITSM Zone since 2007
 Interested in anything that helps IT work better

3. Hands Up!
 Does your organisation use processes
to manage IT?
 Have you ever cheated on a process?
 Did you get caught?

4. Agenda
 Organisation for activity
 Process dynamics
 Improving processes
 People and successful processes

5. What is an IT Organisation?
System
People
Behaviours/
values
Suppliers
Process Technology

6. What is a
Process?

7. What is a
Process?

8. What is a Process?
“a series of actions or steps taken in order to
achieve a particular end”
“a documented, repeatable approach to carrying
out a task or activity”

9. Why use Processes?
 Benefits
 Problems

10. Feedback from the Room

11. Why Use Processes?
 DevOps perspective: identify and automate
simple tasks, free up time for more complex
work
 Agile Service Management perspective:
processes can provide boundaries and
guidance; helps to reduce fear when
introducing autonomous teams

12. Sluggish Organisations
 Processes evolve over time
 Errors lead to an increased desire for control
 Metrics become meaningless
 Process vision is lost

13. CSI: Organisation
 How could you identify
some opportunities for
process improvement?
 Who would you talk to?
 How would you record
them?

14. Feedback from the Room

15. Process Exploration Days
 Hack days or Shipit days for processes
 Innovation isn’t just about products
 We can all be explorers
 Rotation days also work
 Communities of practice
 Lunch!

16. Problem Boards
Our list of problems
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 When was the problem added?
 How long will it take to resolve?
 What’s the total and average
time for problem resolution?
 Inspect progress frequently
 Keep asking: what can we do
better?

17. Rewarding People
 How can you reward team
members for contributing to
process improvement?

18. Feedback from the Room

19. Rewarding People
 Use small rewards often, linked to specific actions
 Give rewards at unexpected times
 Reward the behaviour, not just the results
 Reward peers, managers and subordinates
 Reward publicly

20. Find the Purpose
 Collect stories about the process – good, bad, indifferent
 Select examples of what you do/don’t want to happen in future
 Find items that represent stories
 Compare the process purpose with the organisational and procedural
level purposes
 Avoid the management jargon

21. Reporting
 Metrics you could live without
 Essential metrics
 Business and IT perspective
 Inspect regularly
 Perception vs. data

22. Any Questions?

23. Contact
 Claire@itsm.zone
 Twitter: @ClaireAgutter
 Linkedin: Claire Agutter
 Youtube channel: the ITSMCrowd
 Reading list: #Workout by Jurgen Appelo