by Gerry Geddes in IT Service Management on October 23rd, 2009
In my last 3 part series “Selling ITIL Internally to Management” I made the following statement:
“At the end of the day an IT Service Management (ITSM) implementation is an exercise in organizational change enabled by process and technology. What this means is, work that typically moves up and down 
organizational “silos” will now be moving across the departments spanning the IT organization. This is how you create end-to-end products and services. In this case “hand-offs” between IT departments will happen in real time and not need to go up the chain for scrutiny. The rules for such hand offs are agreed in advance at a senior level, documented in process guides and then automated by tools.”
In this 4 part series I am going to focus on the role of organizational change to your ITSM implementation and how you can successfully leverage this to ensure success.
Part One: ITSM/ITIL Success and What We Have Learned
In Part one I will discuss the key factors for success and how getting the balance right is critical.
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by Gerry Geddes in ITIL V3 on February 27th, 2009
In Part 2, I talked about the importance of a champion, the business case for ITSM and leveraging pockets of excellence to create the preconditions for selling the proposal to senior management. In this third and last installment we will cover how to seal the deal.
Planning
Every business case is basically a promise. If you do “X” then we promise “Y” will happen. In this case we are promising efficient and effective IT delivery that will directly contribute to business value in a cost effective and transparent way.
This means that there must be a plan and part of your plan must include a promise to ensure the plan works. Getting the buy-in from the top will hinge on how your plan goes about ensuring success. For this reason the plan will need a risk analysis with a mitigation strategy. Equally as important will be the Communications Strategy to manage the people side of the equation, which is accountable for 60-70% of your probability for success. As tools and processes are enablers to the organizational change they only account for 30-40% of your success.
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by Gerry Geddes in ITIL V3 on November 21st, 2008
OK. Now that we know if and why we need senior management buy in, how do we make it happen?
An undertaking such as this will require a champion; typically a CIO direct report and you may be this champion or report to them. This person will build consensus in the management team and be able to articulate the ITSM value proposition in both IT and business language. Not only do the IT managers need to accept the business case, but they must then collectively be able to make this case to their CIO. For this reason, if you are the champion and are not a CIO direct report, you need someone at that level to become your champion. Don’t worry, you will still do most of the work, but it is key that you have support at the management table. Once a senior champion has been identified, this person will be accountable for the successful implementation. John Kotter, author of Leading Change states that a successful champion of a major organizational change will primarily need leadership skills (75%) versus Management skills (25%) to be successful. Read the rest of this entry »
by Paul Rice in ITIL V3 on October 3rd, 2008
For a long time, IT professionals were apt to believe that ITIL and project management certification (PMP) were conflicting frameworks, and you were either certified in one or the other, but rarely both. The ITIL framework and project management framework both serve different purposes to be sure, but when combined within an organization, they ultimately create great synergy. The ITIL framework, a lifecycle that addresses the way an IT organization operates, is first and foremost business driven and answers the question “Are we doing the right things?” The project management framework addresses the implementation of projects throughout the organization, requiring that companies ask “Are we doing things the right way?” Read the rest of this entry »
by Paul Rice in Education on September 22nd, 2008
ITIL Capability Classes will begin to roll out in the coming months and they offer an excellent way to extend your ITIL knowledge. The capabilities courses offer a role based approach to service management. Each class spans multiple stages of the service lifecycle.
These classes are appropriate for anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the activities, tools and techniques. These classes also provide an avenue to achieve ITIL Expert status.
Fruition Partners will begin to offer two capabilities classes in the fourth quarter of 2008 and two additional classes in the first quarter of 2009.
The four capability classes are:
- Planning, Protection and Optimization
- Service Offerings and Agreements
- Release, Control and Validation
- Operational Support and Analysis
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by Gerry Geddes in ITIL V3 on September 22nd, 2008
This is part 1 of a 3 part series by Gerry Geddes. In part 2 of this series, we will examine how you use a business case to get senior management on board. To be notified when part 2 is published, please subscribe to our feed by clicking here.
Hello. My name is Gerry Geddes and I have recently joined Fruition partners as an Executive Consultant and Trainer. My background is twenty three years in IT where I started working with ITSM best practices followed by another eight years in consulting roles leading and advising ITIL projects globally. Throughout this time I was fortunate to assess and manage many successful implementations and take away some key learning’s. For organizations who have not done this successfully before, the stories of what works, and what doesn’t, will be of interest to you. These lessons learned in the form of blog entries will help to reduce your learning curve and give you a jump start on your ITIL journey. Please provide comments, ask questions and suggest future topics that would be of interest to you.
Do You Need It?
One of the most common questions I get asked by customers and conference attendees is: “How do I get management buy in?” Whenever I hear this question, the first thing I ask is “Why do you really need Management buy-in?”
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by Paul Rice in Education on July 25th, 2008
Are you having difficulty getting your head around the extensive ITIL foundations concepts?
Try creating context! Look for processes at work in everyday life.
As you study the ITIL foundations materials choose a business that you know something about and apply the ITIL concepts. Choose something you experience frequently, like a restaurant or a grocery store and try and draw parallels where the processes are demonstrated in the organization.
When it comes time to take your exam, you will have a mental picture of the processes at work.
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by Paul Rice in Education, ITIL V3 on July 23rd, 2008
Now that you have your ITIL Foundations certificate, consider becoming an ITIL Expert.
ITIL’s Version 3 accreditation program outlines a couple of paths to Expert certification. Let me see if I can make it easier for you to decide which approach is best for you.
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by Marc Talluto in ITIL V3 on July 7th, 2008
As we work through ITIL implementations with our clients, we’ve seen this scenario all too often: a portion of a company would like to implement ITIL, but they face challenges in getting the rest of the organization on board. It’s common for there to be political and cultural hurdles that are created by misperceptions about ITIL.
This article has two purposes: First, we hope to clear up some of the common “myths” surrounding ITIL. And second- we want to assure you- you are not alone! There are plenty of healthy organizations that face growing pains with ITIL. Our work has led us to the conclusion that many of your hurdles have been faced and overcome by other companies, large and small.
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