Fusion Conference 2011 is Almost Here!

It is hard to believe that the Fusion conference is just a week away at the Gaylord National in Washington, DC. There are several innovations this year that promise to make it a standout event including the partnership between itSMF and HDI.  This relationship is particularly significant as it represents an evolving trend of unification within the industry. 

The agenda this year places a stronger emphasis on topics such as the Service Catalog, governance and organizational change management.  The tracks offer opportunities for a variety of roles, sectors and areas of interest:

• The People Factor
• Business Services and IT Processes
• Service Operations
• Service Catalog and Portfolio Management
• IT Governance and Security
• The Executive View
• The Government View
• The Beginner’s View

ITSM Academy is presenting at two sessions.  Michael Cardinal, a Senior Instructor, will be delivering Session 303: Effective Questioning for ITSM on Monday, September 26^th at 3:00 p.m.   Asking the right questions at the right time to the right audience is a learned skill and Mike will be offering practical techniques for becoming a proficient questioner. 

I am very excited to be discussing the value of having two distinct but related Service Catalogs in Session 605: The Best of Both Worlds: Creating a Business Service Catalog and Technical Service Catalog on Tuesday, September 27^th at 2:45 p.m.     Too many organizations struggle with the proper scope of service definition (either too technical or not technical enough) and I will be presenting ITIL's very flexible and practical solution.

Looking forward to seeing you there.  Please stop by our booth 720 to say hello.

New Foundation Processes - Design Coordination and Transition Planning and Support

Two of the new processes we are covering in ITIL 2011 Foundation are Design Coordination and Transition Planning and Support.

These processes have very similar activities, and those activities can be compared to the role of a conductor for an orchestra. The conductor is responsible for:

• Interpreting the piece – these processes determine the strategy for the associated lifecycle stage
• Deciding on tempos – these processes determine the rigor and therefore speed associated with performing the stage activities
• Basically getting every musician in the orchestra on the same page with every single note of the piece(s) they will be performing – these processes ensure that all of the functions and processes engaged in a lifecycle stage are on the same page with every single new service or change to an existing service that they are handling

Thanks to one of our brilliant instructors for the analogy!

The Importance of Leadership Skills

I recently led the first launch of our newest workshop, ITSM Leadership Skills.  This course was developed in collaboration with PeopleTek, a well respected and recognized executive coaching provider.

The ITSM Leadership Skills workshop addresses the softer skills that are critical success factors for continual service improvement.  Unfortunately, until now these skills were mostly overlooked in the service management classroom.

Topics covered in this workshop include

• Identifying and leveraging strengths
• Vision, Mission, Goals and Measures
• Planning projects
• Managing change
• Enhancing communication
• Managing conflict

Several of the attendees in our first session commented that they had prior experience with many of these topics.  They were grateful for the opportunity to be reminded of their importance while gaining new perspectives and appraoches for being a great leader.   It's so easy to get lost in the mechanics of designing new processes and services; it's just as easy to overlook the human factor.

PeopleTek promotes the belief that everyone is a leader. I agree.  Their definition of a leader supports that view:  To take people where they have not been and would not go on their own.  

Ask yourself:  Who are you leading today and where are you taking them?

The 2011 Edition of the ITIL Library

It was recently announced that the 2011 Edition of the ITIL Core Library will publish on July 29, 2011. Notice that I did not refer to the new release with a new version number - and with good reason. All future revisions to the ITIL publications will be referenced by the year that it was published. ITIL will finally just be ITIL.

If you regard the 2011 ITIL update as the equivalent to the revision of a college textbook, you'll understand why this is not a big deal. Academic textbooks are revised on a regular schedule without much fanfare or impact on prior or future students. Past attendees do not retake their final exams or replace their textbook. Just a normal course of continual improvement. Do you base your decision on whether to take a college course on the edition of the textbook being used? Not really. What's important is the relevancy of the topic.

The 2011 ITIL Edition was approached in much the same way - improve the inconsistencies, formalize a few processes that were referenced in the 2007 edition but did not follow the same format and flow, clarify some concepts based on reader feedback. No major new revelations. Just a normal course of continual improvement that should be introduced without much fanfare and will have no impact on prior students. Past, present and future attendees will essentially share the same knowledge.
Please do not believe anyone that advises you to retake your exam, replace your textbook, change your tool, revise your implementation strategy or base your education plan on which edition of the books are being used.

There are no plans to "bridge" anyone or anything with this release. A change log will be made available that compares the two editions. Webinars, articles and opinions on the revisions will abound. In fact, the first set of FAQs is now available at:

http://www.best-management-practice.com/gempdf/ITIL_UPdate_FAQs_Summer_2011_June11.pdf

ITIL is just ITIL.

Service Manager Bridging Options After June 30, 2011

Tomorrow (June 30) is the final day for taking (or re-taking) the V2-V3 Manager's Bridge exam as a fast track to ITIL Expert.  It is also the last day for re-takes of the ITIL Foundation Bridge exam.  

If you are an ITIL V1 or V2 Service Manager and missed this opportunity, all is not lost.  There is an ongoing bridging path for Service Managers that requires only three additional certifications and reduces the number of required credits from 22 to 10:

ITIL V3 Foundation (2 ) +

Service Strategy -OR- Continual Service Improvement (CSI) (3 ) +

Managing Across the Lifecycle  (5)

= ITIL Expert

 To qualify, you must present a valid Service Manager Certificate (both exams).  No substitutions of the above are allowed except for the choice of Service Strategy or CSI.   You cannot self-study for Service Strategy, CSI or MALC unless you are a trainer accredited through an Examination Institute. 

Since the updated bridging path has no end date, I hope that eventually all V1-V2 Service Managers will find their way to becoming ITIL Experts.

The new "Driving ITSM" Workshop Series

I am so excited aboout ITSM Academy's new "Driving ITSM" workshops.  These workshops are 'right-sized for the right-time' in that they focus on the knowledge an organization needs at specific milestones in their service management journeys. 

Driving ITSM workshops target the areas where most organizations struggle and provide grass-roots advice for meeting and moving beyond these challenges.

Classes in the Driving ITSM series will be available for corporate delivery and in our virtual classroom.  Course length ranges from 4 to 16 hours depending on topic covered.

Right now, there are four workshops in the series:

• The Building Blocks of Process Design
• Assigning Dynamic Roles and Responsibilities
• ITSM Leadership Skills
• Building Your Service Catalog

Stay tuned for news about additional courses in this series.  And, as always, we welcome your suggestions for meaningful topics.

Top CIO Priorities for 2011

Gartner recently released the results of a worldwide survey on Top 10 Business and Technology Priorities in 2011. It’s gratifying to see that IT management is number 4 on the CIO list. It’s equally gratifying to see that growth is number 1 on the business priorities list; along with continued vigilance with regard to costs and operational efficiencies.

Press Release: http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1526414

Short Video: http://www.gartner.com/technology/cio/cioagenda.jsp

One of the interesting points made in the article is that despite the downturn in the economy, many companies continued their research and development efforts in recent years, they just haven’t been implementing the results of those efforts. What this means for IT organizations is that the next several years will feature rapid change that requires a strong foundation in IT management. As an example, the study indicates that while 3 percent of CIOs currently have the majority of IT running in the cloud or on SaaS technologies, over the next four years CIOs expect this number to increase to 43 percent.

The article goes on to say that to support this growth, CIOs must reimagine IT and lead it through a process of “creative destruction.” This includes redefining the central elements of IT such as its cost structure, people and processes. The article also states that two issues that stand in the way of supporting enterprise growth are: benefits realization (the achievement of business benefits) and IT skills. Skills are an issue because CIOs rely on bringing skills in from the outside whenever they need to get work done.

Looking for more priorities and predications? The following references a number of additional articles you may find interesting. http://careerisover.com/2010/12/12-best-articles-on-cio-business-and-technology-priorities-for-2011/