What is DevOps?

Lisa, Donna, Chantell and I recently attended a DevOps Days event in Austin, Texas.  To learn more about the growing DevOps cultural movement, check out Donna's video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=vsb9fiTw2aM

Which Class is Right For You - Lifecycle or Capability?

Check out Donna and Chantell's awesome video discussion clarifying the difference between ITIL Intermediate lifecycle and capability courses.  This short video also provides good insight into which stream may be appropriate for specific roles and goals.  Great job, ladies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-zikCgBssg

Fusion 13 Speaker Selection

I am happy to announce that ITSM Academy has been selected to deliver three sessions at the Fusion 13 conference in Nashville in October.

Donna Knapp, our Curriculum Development Manager and a frequent conference presenter, will be discussing The Service Desk State of the Future in Session 106 on Monday, October 21st from 10:14 to 11:15 am.

Michael Cardinal, a Senior Instructor and another frequent presenter, will be presenting Measure Twice, Cut Once: Improving your Improvement Through Better Metrics in Session 302 on Monday, October 21 from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m

We are very excited about the new Expert Track . This track will be particularly valuable for those that have been involved in service management for a while and are looking to go to the next level.  I have been invited to join some of my favorite industry colleagues (Gene Kim, Lisa Hodges and Hank Marquis)  to provide Expert Insight on DevOps, Agile and ITSM at Sessions 404 and 504 on Tuesday, October 22 from 10:00 am to 12:15 p.m.  

Hope to see you there.  Promises to be the best conference yet!

 

Game On! An Interactive Learning Experience

From our earliest days, play is a key aspect of learning.  In fact, learning is the basis of every game – in order to progress, we must obtain knowledge about the system upon which it is built.  Some of our most significant critical thinking, teamwork, strategic and tactical skills are cultivated on the playground, chess board, basketball court, poker table and/or video game console.    Games are fun, improve retention, encourage healthy competition and allow us to be part of the action, instead of passive bystanders.    

Game On!  An Interactive Learning Experience^SM is ITSM Academy’s new game based learning (GBL) approach that is being introduced into our physical and virtual classrooms.  According to Wikipedia, GBL is defined as:

“a type of gaming that has defined learning outcomes. Generally, GBL is designed to balance subject matter with gameplay and the ability of the player to retain and apply said subject matter to the real world.”    

Our games are based on the formats of familiar game shows and are interspersed throughout the courses to target specific learning objectives.   Initial response from learners has been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.

Game On! leverages two emerging trends:  gamification and bite-sized learning.    Role-playing modules that put learners into a simulation environment have long been offered in the service management space.   They encourage learners to apply concepts in a neutral environment by graduating from uncontrolled to controlled processes.  The simulations are not focused on specific learning objectives, but take a more broad-based, practical perspective.   ITSM Academy classroom games are bite sized opportunities that reinforce examinable concepts in a fun, relaxed and interactive way.  

At the outset, ITSM Academy games  are being used in our classrooms to harness the power of play for exam preparation and knowledge application.   Someday soon, we will take Game On! An Interactive Learning Experience to the next level of a recognition-based gamification strategy.   Stay tuned!

Ready to play?  Our monthly webucation presentations now include a sample game. To play

If I Knew Then What I Know Now:  Incident Management - LaunchGame

If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Problem Management - Launch Game

For fun, we’ve also introduced games into our monthly newsletter.  Join Newsletter  or See Archives

Game On!!

The ITIL Joint Venture Partner Has Been Announced

The Cabinet Office has officially announced their selection of Capita, plc as their partner in a joint venture that will oversee the ITIL and other Best Management Practice schemes and intellectual property.    The joint venture release is available at http://www.best-management-practice.com/?DI=637050.

Why a joint venture?   ITIL, Prince2 and the other “swirl” products have taken on a life of their own, way beyond the expectations of the British government agency, the Cabinet Office.  The global uptake of the frameworks requires a stronger infrastructure than that which is currently in place.  The joint venture is more than a supplier or partner relationship:  Capita and the Cabinet Office will form and invest in a separate commercial entity.  The new company will be formed in July with it’s own leadership team.  They take over the reins of the portfolio on January 1, 2014.

For ITSM Academy learners and clients, the transition to the joint venture should be seamless.

There are no planned dramatic changes to the exams, qualification scheme or publications.  In their announcement, Capita clearly places value on the current ITIL ecosystem and provides assurance that any disruption will be minimal.  Learners will still have their exams delivered, marked and certificates issued.  While the issuing party may (or may not) change, the value of the qualification will not.

Mostly importantly, Capita stressed their commitment to investing in and enhancing product quality through continuous improvement and innovation.     Capita is a very large, successful British company with access to significant resources.   I expect better industry alignment,  stronger quality standards,  improved communication and leveraging of the latest technologies.

 ITSM Academy is and will continue to be an active contributor and voice of the customer in industry groups such as the ATO Sub-group, ITIL Qualification Board and Examination Panel.    I will continue to update this blog as more tangible information becomes available.

ITSM Academy Helps Organizational Maturity

This is great insight from a guest staff blogger, Leslie Kapocius:
 
Since 2003, ITSM Academy has focused exclusively on service management education to help clients start, enhance or mature their service management initiatives. We have trained tens of thousands of individuals and helped hundreds of clients, primarily Fortune 500 clients, in all verticals, and a wide array of government and education clients.

Recently, we were asked, "How have you helped clients mature in their service management initiatives?”  That is a very good question. As an education company, we cannot make people apply the knowledge they gain in classes, workshops, mentoring or simulations. We can only "educate and inspire", a core principle that is at the heart (and tagline) of our organization. Why do people need inspiration? Because in order to apply what is learned, individuals need to change either what they are doing or how they are doing it. If nothing changes, nothing alters and intentional maturity cannot take place.  

One of the first steps would be to work within a best practice service management framework (e.g., ITIL)  that creates a common vocabulary and common definitions. Misunderstandings regarding the difference between a process, a procedure and a work instruction or between an Incident and a Problem have affected efficiency and wasted time and resources.  ITIL Foundation or ITIL Overview courses help to get people saying the same thing and meaning the same thing.

Many companies have already succeeded in instilling a general understanding of service management and have designed and deployed specific processes. They are now ready to move to the next level. However, in order to increase maturity, an organization should first benchmark their current level using one of the process maturity models. 

 

The assessment may demonstrate a need to focus on breadth. One department may be “service management mature” but another is not. Education can help cross-pollinate general knowledge and common vocabularies between departments. An internal resource can be trained to deliver ITIL courses, thereby reducing training costs and increasing the ability to train more staff. Once a service management initiative has gone broader, better efficiencies are achieved.

Another way to increase breadth is to focus on better business and IT alignment.  The more buy-in and understanding a service management initiative has, the better chance of streamlining service throughout the entire organization. Lifecycle courses such as Service Strategy or Continual Service Improvement introduce higher level thinking in processes that affect the business such as service portfolio management, financial management, demand management and metrics.

In addition to breadth, organizations may also need to increase their depth of knowledge by advancing the skills of process owners and managers.  Capability courses such as Release, Control and Validation or Planning, Protection and Optimization improve the ability to design, execute and mature critical processes such as Release and Deployment or Capacity Management.   The complementary Certified Process Design Engineer is the only course in the ITIL scheme that provides prescriptive knowledge for designing, improving and re-engineering processes. Having at least one ITIL Expert on staff will also significantly add depth of knowledge through a resource that can "manage across the lifecycle".  

Opportunities exist for topic-specific knowledge to increase depth.  We are the only service management education provider that continues to offer free monthly "webucations".  This month, the US Navy shared their process improvement story through service management education. Click here to download.  Our course catalog also includes non-certification workshops.

So, what does it ultimately take to reach the next level of maturity?   Education and inspiration.

FUSION12 Wrap Up

To those of you who were able to join the #ITSMCrew at FUSION12, it was great seeing you all!  And for those of you who were not able to attend, we’ve put together our Annual Wrap Up.  The team all contributed their conference highlights, which we’ve mixed all together and voila - it’s the ITSM Academy TOP11 of FUSION12.  View Now and Enjoy!