Business & IT Objectives – Service Management Alignment

Service Management  / ITIL Focus – Align with business needs

IT organization service delivery must insure that their objectives are in line with business objectives. What is important to the business. IT must insure that the core of its service delivery strategy are the key components of what is important to the business? The IT organization must continually seek to understand and align its activities with business needs.  In this way IT will continue to add value to the business by stayingin synch with business needs. Continue reading “Business & IT Objectives – Service Management Alignment” »

How Can Service Management Ease the Transition to Cloud Computing?

One of the newest developments in IT is cloud computing. According to the Finance New Mexico site, cloud computing is “a new generation of computing that utilizes distant servers for data storage and management, allowing the device to use smaller and more efficient chips that consume less energy than standard computers.” So where does service management fit into this brave new computing development?

In the article, “IT Service Management Can Ease Cloud Transition,” the issues surrounding IT departments and the move to cloud computing are explored. There is some question about what roles will be played by internal resources and what roles will be played by offshore resources. Even the very function of an IT department is in question about how it will metamorphasize in this new environment. How can these shifts in role, purpose, and thought be made easier for IT resources?

According to the article:

This shift could provide a boost for the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and other IT service management methodologies. …One of ITIL’s key recommendations is establishing a service catalog, which should make it easier to determine which internal services are good candidates for migration to the cloud and help ensure a smooth transition for those that are selected. Read More>>

Have you been affected by cloud computing? Has anyone in your organization tried to apply ITIL’s service management methodologies to this radical shift in thinking? We invite you to share your experiences with us on our blog.

Application Support, ITIL, and Measurement and Metrics – How Can I Learn More (and Get PDUs in the Process)?

As a sister organization to Computer Aid, the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute’s (ITMPI’s) main goal is to promote best practices in the areas of Software Process, Software Metrics, Software Estimation, and IT Governance. One of the ways it does this is by offering live webinars and maintaining an archive of previously recorded webinars.

In keeping with the spirit of this blog, we’ve reviewed the upcoming live webinars and would recommend you try to catch the following

• Planning and Managing your Maintenance & Support Budget
• Governing Your ITSM Implementation
• Understanding Process Data Enough to Improve It
• Metrics that Motivate Behavior
• Introduction to Project Estimation
• Using Benchmarking to Drive Improvement Initiatives

And when you can’t attend, we record the webinars and provide them for free viewing for the first week after the webinar has aired. After that time, you can purchase access to the webinar for a nominal fee.

These webinar recordings are stored in our webinar archives. There is a search feature that allows you to search either by category or by speaker. There are several categories you can search, including Application Support, ITIL, and Measurement and Metrics. Some of the more interesting results from these searches include:

• Productivity of Software Maintenance (Application Support)
• What Are You Getting for Your Software Maintenance Dollars? (Application Support)
• Using ITIL to Improve Application Support by 20-30%, a four-part series (ITIL)
• Enterprise Measurement: What Makes it Useful to All of Us (Measurement and Metrics)
• Measuring the Immeasurable: What is Your Real Performance Capability? (Measurement and Metrics)

Look over the full list of webinars and maybe purchase some. Then chat with us about what you’ve learned, the topics you’d like to see us offer, and suggestions for improvement.

IT Process Standards build on each other

IT Standards Overview

Software maintenance is defined as (IEEE, 1990): “The process of modifying a software system or component after delivery to correct faults, improve performance or other attributes, or adapt to a changed environment”. The four types of maintenance are: Continue reading “IT Process Standards build on each other” »

2 – Developing Meaningful SLA’s: How does IT demonstrate “Value” to the business?

Service management methodologies encompass a wide variety of processes and desired service outcomes, however, here we will focus on one very critical element of service management, the Service Level Agreement (SLA). The SLA is the glue that holds together the relationship between the IT service provider and the business customer. Ultimately all other service processes and outcomes support the customer SLA. 

IT organizations provide a wide variety of support services to the business from infrastructure (networks and Help Desk) to business application software support.

 As service providers IT organizations must demonstrate “value” to business customers. In this case, demonstrating value means delivering support services that meet or exceed the needs of the business at a cost that represents value. Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) help demonstrate value by clearly identifying the service responsibilities of the IT organization and performance expectations of the business customer.

Fundamentally the SLA is a contract between the IT service provider and the business customer receiving the service.