Averting common Problem Management problems...

Hello,

Let me share with you in this post a couple of 'issues' for want of a better word we face all the often when it comes to the invaluable and unfortunately neglected process of Problem Management...

It is vital that due consideration is given to the assignment of Roles. Keep in mind that roles are ultimately mapped over to the responsibilities that are then accorded to assigned resources for implementation. So what we come across in so many organisations today is assignment of the Incident Manager and Problem Manager being given to one and the same person.

This is akin somewhat to asking the bowler during a cricket match to also wear the hat of the wicket keeper! It might be possible for the bowler to also be a part-time fielder (by trying to catch shots that come in his direction). However, would you not agree that it would not be prudent for the bowler to also be the wicket keeper since their objectives are variant in nature?  Similarly, the roles of Incident Manager and Problem Manager should certainly not be assigned to a single person.

The misunderstanding in this regard can stem from not fully comprehending the focus of each of these processes. Incident Management is a fire fighting process whose target is in essence 'speed' and therefore the people tasked with this process focus on restoring normal service operation as quickly as possible. Acceptable sacrifices may need to be made in other areas to achieve this. Problem management however is not measured against the clock. Rather, the performance of this process in your organisation is assessed based upon preventing recurrence of Incidents. Therefore the depth of technical know-how and analytical focus of this process places it fathoms apart from Incident management. When they are combined under a single manager, inevitably over the passing of time Incident management naturally garners more and more attention consequently receding Problem management to the wayside.

Another overlooked area affecting Problem management is in respect of the Problem Manager's authority and influence with key stakeholders. If he/she does not have the visible management support, their involvement and management of major problem reviews and being involved in root cause analysis can be restricted by other support group staff (who may wrongly view the Problem Manager's involvement as an intrusion of their territory). Therefore, upon assignment of the Problem Manager, there needs to be an ongoing awareness and communication of the role of the Problem Manager and how it complements the work of Second Level Support teams, specialists from Third Party Support providers and other staff involved with problem investigation and analysis.

Another key aspect which impacts effectiveness of Problem Management is a lack of appreciation of the business value of the Problem Management. Subsequently, the requisite resources for Problem Management are not devoted to the process and implementation suffers gaps in execution. Consider the following examples of the impact of technology failure:

• Amazon suffered an outage in 2008 for a duration of 2 hours; the company lost $3.8 million and suffered a drop in stock value of 4.6% on the same day
• A Coleman Parkes Research report analysed feedback from 200 North American organisations and found the average financial impact of downtime per annum per organisation was:
• $224,000 + in lost revenue affecting Financial sector organisations
• $196,000+ in lost revenue affecting Manufacturing organisations
• $117,000+ in lost revenue affecting their Retail equivalents.

[Reference: http://www.arcserve.com/us/lpg/costofdowntime.aspx]

Therefore, it is evident that the fire-fighting process of Incident Management is not sufficient in reducing risks and maintaining a level of Availability that can serve business requirements. This is where Problem management provides a real helping hand by the following:

• Greater staff motivation as they have ready access to Workarounds and Known errors which assists in more accurate diagnosis and speedy resolution.
• Problem management gears resources on retaining support knowledge in a form and fashion that can be shared by all ITIL processes. Known Error records are made available to search for solutions at any time of the analysis and investigation stages. The result is inevitably a reduced frequency of failure and a reduced impact of failure where it does take place.
• A reduction in support cost due to a reduction in repeat Incidents.

It can be seen that placing greater emphasis on Problem management, its adoption and more focussed implementation results in the aforementioned benefits being attained along with an enhanced level of preventing or reducing the impact of failures as and when they occur.

Your comments as always are welcome on musabqureshi4[AT]yahoo.co.uk.

Best regards,

Musab Q.

My Favourite Android Apps...

Hello,

With the the relentless success of Google in the mobile space, one would be remiss to not devote a post to interesting and beneficial apps from the Android genre. Here is a list of some of the apps I would heartily recommend:

Skype: The mobile version works surprisingly well and is a wee bit simpler to use than the Windows 8 version (that links Skype accounts with Windows profiles).

WhatsApp: The concept of WhatsApp is revolutionary and yet effective - hence its success across a number of platforms. The ability to send your location using the GPS function can be so useful.

Google Navigation: A simple and yet fairly effective GPS guiding system for your car. The satellite imaginary of places you pass can help change a mundane drive around the M25 orbital into a somewhat more interesting experience.

Evernote: A fairly intuitive notes app that automatically synchronises with it's partner on the Desktop. The Skitch add-on supports handwriting which provides a more reliable service than the S Memo offering that is provided by default.

Adobe Reader: Despite a number of PDF readers available, the sleek design, annotation options and bookmarking place this app on my list of favourites.

HBR Summaries: Stay abreast of new research highlights from the Harvard Business School with the convenience of your handset.

Root Explorer: A File Manager for your Android tree structure that gives access to those hard to reach places. Integration with 3rd party systems such as Dropbox is extremely useful.

Kapersky Mobile Security: In addition to regular antivirus and other threat protection, it comes with a function for locating a lost or stolen handset.

Chrome browser: The synchronisation with your Google account combined with a fast and easy-to-use browsing experience is a God-send for both work and play.

Amazon store: The smart design helps optimise the shopping experience for the mobile user - can be a real time-saver!

Kind regards,

Musab

What is Business Process Management?

Hello,

Business Process Management or BPM as it is often abbreviated is a challenge to describe succinctly. This is because since the early nineties when the concept emerged as somewhat a fad, an entire industry has emerged around this. This includes a number of extremely powerful tool set solutions, both academic and commercial R&D and professional services.  All of these assist organisations in establishing a framework for modelling and improving business processes.Therefore formulating a definition that addresses all of these aspects is no simple endeavour.

However, the following should at least provide some food for thought and perhaps a basis upon which a more comprehensive definition may be studied and developed:

"Business Process Management may be viewed as a formal method for modelling and managing the activities of a particular organisation."

Process flows are analysed and captured visually. Once completed, these are shared with stakeholders in order to help them comprehend the 'way things work'. Thus they provide invaluable support in enhancing communication with the respective stakeholders involved.

When it comes to modelling, there could be layers of abstraction that help manage the complexity demanded, e.g. a business process layer, a technology layer and a management dashboard that maintains the requisite KPIs for reporting.

Processes may be categorised in a number of ways; one possible approach is the following:

(1) Processes associated with inputs or acquisition, these include for instance Sales or Marketing - these address how your customer or user initiates the flows, how payments are collected for instance.

(2) Processes that convert these inputs or raw materials into the final products or services according to the required specifications, for instance an expense claim process or a particular order or request fulfilment process.

Processes are never caste in stone - rather re-engineering of processes is an extremely valuable exercise. It considers aspects such as areas in the flow of duplication of effort, unnecessary tasks that may be eliminated, areas in the flow where delays take place and identifying opportunities for automation.

As a result, BPM can result in cost-reductions for the organisation through improvements in efficiency and effectiveness, increased productivity of staff, enhanced quality and a faster time-to-market.

Last but not least, keep-in-mind that new processes means a new way of working (models such as the unfreeze-change-freeze approach are needed). Mentoring and guiding staff on process updates is a necessary albeit challenging area of BPM in action.

Best regards,

Musab Qureshi

musabqureshi4@yahoo.co.uk

ITIL and ISO 20000 - Birds of a feather flock together...

Hi,

In April 2011, publication of Part I of the ISO/IEC 20000 standard was released.

Around three months following from this, the UK Cabinet Office published the update to the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL).

This post helps address a number of questions related to ISO 20000 and the 2011 update of the ITIL framework. It discusses three areas where ITIL and ISO 20000 are complementary. Questions addressed include the following:

What is the focus of each of these systems? How can value be gained from them? Are they able to operate in synergy?

If you consider that ITIL is a library of of best-practice guidance. It demonstrates guidance through which the IT organisation may plan for, design, transition, manage and improve IT services.

However, Management often want to implement a median-level of ITIL guidance (you could say 'Level 3' from a scale of Level 0 to Level 5). They desire guidance on what parts of ITIL need to be implemented to achieve such a level.

Therefore, this post suggest three areas where the ITIL Framework and the ISO 20000 standard complement one another. In other words, where the two systems may be used in parallel to achieve the greatest level of value.


1. ISO 20000 helps with ITIL scoping

Scoping of ITIL projects is a challenge to say the least. One of the key aspects to consider is that of maturity. We already discussed how many, if not most organisations can suffice with an 'average' level of ITIL process maturity.

The ISO 20000 standard provides control requirements across majority of the principle ITIL processes up to the equivalent of a Level 3 – which more than the often, suits both IT service providers and customer requirements fairly well.

An assessment of your organisation against the ISO standard and defining the requisite initiatives to close gaps provides well for clarifying an agreed scope for ITIL project scoping.


2. ISO 20000 helps maintain ITIL implementation

Process enhancement all the often executes as a project with guidance provided by ITIL Experts/Consultants.

But how does the organisation continue to maintain the relevance of the policies, procedures and processes once the project is over? Much hard work is invested within both their development and implementation, therefore there need to be smart methods of retaining process alignment longer-term.

ISO 2000 is invaluable in this regard from a number of aspects, such as the following:

• The ISO standard has Management and Governance built-in as an explicit set of controls. This provides amongst other things, a mechanism and schedule for auditing the compliance of the ITIL processes. What this does is provide assurance that IT maintains its compliance on a continuous basis.
• All updates are mandated to be approved through the Change Management process - this helps maintain the relevance of documentation.
• The controls of ISO 20000 provide management with demonstrable evidence of process compliance. The standard mandates requirements using the verb 'shall' thus stipulating mandatory activities to ensure ITIL process compliance.
• In order for the organisation to retain certification status, minor audits are mandated annually and full audits every three years. This also serves to ensure continued compliance.

3. ISO 20000 and ITIL have Unique Differences

The former is a standard - a collection of explicit controls whose implementation can be audited against, i.e. a 'what to' approach.

The latter contains tried and tested, best practice guidance for managing quality, business-aligned IT services, i.e. a 'how to' approach.

One example that demonstrates how the differences between  ISO 20000 and ITIL actually address gaps is that of the Service Reporting process.

The 2011 update of ITIL recedes Service Reporting and Service Measurement to becoming a technique or method. This runs the danger of this extremely important area being neglected over time. However, ISO 20000 bring the due focus on reporting back by devoting a section of the standard to this process.

Best regards,

Musab Qureshi

musabqureshi4@yahoo.co.uk

Three Tips on what makes a good IT Strategy?

Hello,

In this post I will be sharing some experience-based pointers on what a 'good' (for want of a better word) IT Strategy is characterised by. Disciplined implementation is crucial, however the due focus is also necessary in respect of the planning process and its maturity. As Drucker once said 'there is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all'. Following are three key aspects to look for when assessing the health of your IT strategy:

1. Ease of understanding
Reduce the usage of technical jargon, such that the C-Level suite can quickly absorb the meaningful content. This in order to grasp the linkage between the business plans, drivers and constraints and how IT will support them. The scenarios (addressing the key stakeholder viewpoints or concerns) that IT can traverse should be presented along with the pro's and con's of each of them. Justification of the selected approach and plan should demonstrate the benefits and value as it pertains to the business environment at the given time.

If you consider that the 'CIO' title is more-or-less out of date within today's more intricate corporate environment (today's CIO manages far more than mere 'information' assets). Similarly today's strategy extends beyond a list of IT applications and cost 'reduction' forecasts. It needs to be a business document that clearly demonstrates the impact of IT capabilities and delivery on business goals, targets, financial health and so on.

2. Collaboration necessary, but too much of a good thing becomes...
No strategy can be developed without key stakeholder inputs, review, collaboration, acceptance and so on. However the adage of 'too many cooks spoiling the broth' needs be borne in mind. If the planning process is overly bureaucratic  the strategy will unfortunately not reap the desired benefits. Bear in mind that Strategic planning is a process and a means to a more noble end.

3. Ease of Measure
If the strategy implementation cannot be measured, it cannot be managed! Therefore once the planning exercises have been completed, the translation of these into actionable and measurable initiatives is the next crucial stage. Progressive and SMART targets help demonstrate the value of implementing agreed initiatives and this is especially important when striving to maintain a continuum.

Your comments as always are appreciated - musabqureshi4@yahoo.co.uk

Musab Qureshi