Organizational change is hard, and, as is the
case with the process and technology pieces of ITIL implementations, it will
vary greatly based on your size, structure, and culture. But there are
some common threads that will enable you to get the necessary buy-in to
succeed with organizational change...
By
Leetza
Pegg
ITIL – the IT Infrastructure Library, common in
many parts of the world, is no
longer new to much of the USA. Many organizations are maturing and
moving past initial interest and awareness phases. A significant number are
actively trying to implement ITIL and other good practices like CobiT, PMI/PMBOK,
Six Sigma, and others in an attempt to improve IT service quality and reduce
costs in alignment with business requirements.
Even though they study the texts diligently, they often
come to the realization that ITIL
and most of the other good practices that ITIL requires are just books.
They read these books, take classes, earn certifications, and with the faith of a new convert, they seek to
achieve IT Operational Excellence.
But during their journey things do not go as expected.
Obtaining upper management
buy-in is always a challenge, effecting organizational change is hard, and coordinating such a massive
undertaking seems overwhelming. Welcome to the real world.
Presented below are my top five real-world challenges
to implementing ITIL and ways by which you can overcome these roadblocks.
5. Different parts of the IT organization have vastly
different priorities
Once an organization has become excited about
implementing IT service improvements, we almost always see tension arise
between those with strategic and tactical responsibilities. The strategic
thinkers typically want to focus on service catalogs and financial
management; while the tactical teams knows that the focus must be placed on
day-to-day operations like change control and incident management. If you
choose a solely tactical approach, you’ll alienate the strategists. A
strictly strategic effort, and your tactical team may see ITIL as just
another thing being pushed on them that doesn’t improve their day-to-day
operations. Say bye-bye to organizational change.
To drive success, it is vital that good energy be
focused on process improvement — not on second guessing other parts of the
organization. The best way to do this is to give as many parts of the
organization their piece of the pie. Let the tactical team tackle change
management improvement and task the strategists with developing some
meaningful key performance indicators to feed into other processes.
In other words, be prepared to support multiple
improvement activities concurrently so you can foster healthy competition
(whose process was implemented them fastest) rather than begrudging
acceptance.
4. The job gets in the way
The most common reason our ITIL projects stall is that
day-to-day business gets in the way. We see this happen even when there is
project support from all levels of IT management. In the “keep it up and
running” vs. “operational improvement” clash, the real-world activities of
the business always win — much in the same way problem management is not
done because incident management always trumps. In this case, of course,
the underlying problem with the IT infrastructure is not the technology, but
the processes themselves.
This is neither unexpected nor unreasonable; the
business needs to run, so releasing the latest business service must take
precedence over attempts to improve IT. So, how do you get process
improvement started and keep it rolling? Focus early and often on a CSIP –
the continuous service improvement program.
A CSIP approach recognizes that few, if any,
organizations are going to have the time or resources to conduct a complete,
one-shot overhaul of their IT services. The CSIP is a means of establishing
and organizing a series of agreed-upon process improvements (both tactical
and strategic), including prioritization, timeframes, and resources. The
smaller and more focused the items, the better organizations will be able to
steal time away from daily tasks and focus on accomplishing IT
improvements. We generate the CSIP as the first project deliverable and
require it to be reviewed at least monthly.
3. You already own the technology
We hear all the time, “But we already own a
tool to perform [process xyz], so that process is complete.” This
is wrong — from so many standpoints.
Remember, the big picture requires people,
process, and technology. Technology by itself is almost never an
adequate solution. What is more useful, a great tool used
ineffectively or a mediocre tool implemented intelligently? The
latter can be an important component in a mature IT Service
Management solution; the former can be a very expensive mistake.
Do not let the tool blind you to the needs of
training staff and developing workable processes. A fool with a
tool is still a fool. |
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By The Book
How to Succeed with ITIL
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Stabilization I Workshop
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Your initial focus should be on designing processes
that meet your organization’s needs and then implementing the tool to meet
the majority of the process requirements.
2. You don’t know your status quo
The first question isn’t “where do you want to go,” it
is “where are you now.” Think of it like a road trip. Unless you know
things such as your starting location, your goals for the trip, and the trip
timeline, it will be difficult to plan an effective itinerary.
The Planning to Implement IT Service Management book
has an entire chapter titled Where Are We Now?, yet many skip that important
question and try to design new process in a vacuum. There is a general
sense of “we know what we do now, we do it every day.” It is important,
however, to move beyond a general sense to a more concrete understanding.
Before embarking on a CSIP, take the time to understand
important questions such as:
- What are your
drivers (business, technology)?
- Who are your IT
stakeholders, what are their needs, and are their needs presently being
met?
- What will the impact
be — on both the IT org and the business at large — if you make no
change?
- What processes are
now in place?
- What skill sets do
you have in place?
- What technology do
you have in place?
By taking the time to understand the status quo,
you’ll have better insight into the scale and complexity of your improvement
program.
1. Organizational change is too hard
Unless you tackle the people component, your CSIP is
very likely doomed. Many organizations want to gloss over this very
important piece, either because they don’t understand its significance or it
is just too overwhelming.
Guess what? Organizational change is hard, and, as is
the case with the process and technology pieces of ITIL implementations, it
will vary greatly based on your size, structure, and culture. Are there
then some common threads that will enable you to get the necessary buy-in to
succeed with organizational change? We find the organizations most
effective in their efforts to have a multi-pronged approach:
- Training for your IT
staff and IT management. Give yourselves a common vocabulary and a
common understanding of IT service management best practices. If you
don’t have the time and budget to put everyone through Foundations-level
ITIL training, consider bringing in a trainer to conduct half- or
full-day seminars about the service delivery and support processes.
- Simulations for you
customers and management (both IT and non-IT). There are number of
simulations available that help illustrate the challenges faced by the
IT department and the value of process improvement in enhancing service
delivery. These simulations typically increase the willingness and
commitment of non-IT staff in improving your processes, and show IT
participants that improvement is possible.
- Workshops with
stakeholders to facilitate planning efforts. Involve your staff,
customers, and other stakeholders in your process development. This
will require a degree of time commitment in terms of scheduling the
workshops, and it is highly advised to bring in an outside consultant to
facilitate the workshop and keep things moving forward.
Where to go from here
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