Ivanka riding Ovitz B, a 12 year old Arabian Warmblood gelding

Last week somebody commented to say that there is a blog entry in every experience that you have, so when I posted this photo on my Facebook page I was challenged to make it into an ITIL blog. More specifically: an article about Continual Service Improvement.

Is there something that ITIL CSI can learn from the centuries old discipline of Dressage?!?! HA! You betcha!

Dressage is a sport (some say art form) that evolved from the military “in the olden days” when soldiers needed to be able to rely on their mode of transportation at any given point in time. Their horses needed to be 100% aligned to their rider’s needs and requirements so that in times of danger the horse and rider stayed safe. (just like the IT department needs to be 100% aligned to the business to be agile enough to manoeuvre with the business moving forward).

“Battle Movements

Dressage began as battle movements and Xenophon’s men only rode stallions into battle because they were thought to be braver, showing more aptitude for pirouetting, leaping, turning, and moving sideways. The Piaffe could be used to trample an adversary; a Levadewas useful if you needed to make a slash with your sword; a Pirouette could turn you, to or from, the enemy; a Capriole could leap over an enemy; a Courbette could bring you high above the enemy, an advantageous place from which to reach down and slay them, and Flying Lead Changes were necessary to maneuver around in battle.

Unfortunately, during Medieval times, the art of Dressage was lost when the soldiers resorted to wearing heavy armor and also covered their horses with anywhere from 50 to 150 lbs of armour. Dressage returned to popularity during the Renaissance period, (originating in Italy and across Europe) when pistols and rifles became a common part of battle. The armour was reduced and with a rifle or gun a soldier could take aim from further away.”  [http://www.classicalriding.com.au/historyofdressage.html]

What best Practices can ITIL CSI learn from Dressage?

1. Perfection takes time – improvement is about taking small steps on the right track

Dressage uses a maturity level scale on which you measure the level of training and development of a horse. Although you touch on all areas during a training session, you don’t ask a top level movement on a young horse as it won’t be ready for it both physically and mentally.

The dressage training scale follows the following steps: Rhythm and regularity (takt), Relaxation (losgelassenheit), Contact (anlehnung), Impulsion (schwung), Straightness (Geraderichtung) and finally Collection (Versammlung).

This training scale has developed over hundreds of years and has proven itself over and over again.

ITIL Professionals - When we educate and train our clients or employees in organisations, do we use a proven method of gradual improvement? Do we know the ground rules that are needed and required to achieve the next level in a positive and supporting manner? How do you know that the first step has been achieved? What do you measure and report on?

2. Learn from your mistakes – did the horse make the mistake? Or was it you?

In dressage you work with a living animal. Both the animal and the rider are guided by hormones and other chemical interactions in our bodies. We all suffer from “bad hair days” and we respond differently in different situations. Every ride is different and even when you think you did the exact same thing, the outcome may be totally different. Some days your horse simply doesn’t feel like working so you’ll have to make it more fun. Other days you feel stiff and your muscles ache so you need to do more stretching exercises. Be creative…

ITIL Professionals - Do you ever take note of the people around you? When things go wrong, could it be that you asked for things in a different way that you normally would? What is happening in the organisation around you? Take time to analyse those incidents that come in – is there a trend visible? Can you pinpoint where things go ‘off the rails’? And how can you change your approach to CSI processes to achieve a better result? Perhaps your team need to stretch their measurement muscles? Or perhaps it’s time to be more creative and do a brainstorming session on ways to improve the proactive problem management activities?

3. Don’t just rely on feeling – be effective AND efficient.

When you train in dressage you go through the same exercises over and over again until both rider and horse fully understand what is needed. The aides you give as a rider have to be effective -the horse understands and does what you want it to do- and efficient  -you only use the amount of pressure to support the horse just enough to bring the message across. The aim is to become more and more subtle in your aides so the horse listens intently to your “whispers”.

While you go through your training program – continually improving how you deliver your aides as well as the outcome and results- you MUST measure on a regular basis. Some people have mirrors so they can check how things look. Other riders have a second person on the ground to give instant feedback on what they see. And the official tests and competitions are a wonderful way to check how your understanding of your performance is in line with what independent expert judges (auditors) think.

ITIL Professionals – How do you rely on your continual improvement? Are you happy with the way it makes you feel? Are you doing the same things over and over again, or are you changing your approach based on external input?

What do you measure on a regular basis, and do you use automated self-measurement methodologies or do you engage external experts to help you see what you can’t? Can you accept what other people say, or do you criticise everything because it doesn’t agree with the picture you’ve built up in your mind of the performance of your IT department, your team or your project…? And what do you measure against? (tip… read point 1 again: the training scale. If the top level is what you want to achieve you need independent and objective measurement points along the line). And perhaps you are not able to measure everything that you want to measure – well, then simply start with what CAN be measured. It’s really that simple – measuring something is better than measuring nothing.

For example: I dont’ have mirrors in my arena so I can’t measure every time I ride – but every couple of weeks I go to a clinic to have an expert professional give me feedback on my riding. And my husband makes photos and videos every now and then… you think other people are critical?? Wait until you see yourself on video!! 

You’re smart enough — I am sure you can come up with ways to take these 3 best practices from the art of Dressage and turn this into the Art of ITIL CSI to make the IT world a more elegant and battle ready industry!

And don’t forget to have fun while you do it! Nobody wants to ride a cranky horse….. trust me.  ;-)

Full disclosure:  I am blatantly and very openly stealing from a friend of mine – Declan Rowan owns the wine label  ”Reservoir Range” and the tagline is “it’s wine- get over it” -so perhaps you can have a look at his website and spread the word about his business? That way I won’t feel so guilty??

So – why did this phrase come into my mind? Well, it was Chris Dancy who called out earlier this week about the fact that everybody seems to jump on the “ITIL is rubbish” band-wagon. That got me thinking.. is ITIL rubbish? Why do people feel they should start talking negatively about ITIL?

How do I feel about it? After 15+ year working with the framework, do I still see the merit in it?

And truthfully – I must answer with “I don’t know”

The framework in itself, the guidance and the philosophy behind the framework still stands strong. Every day I hear from people who have accomplished great things for their organisation, simply by implementing the processes, procedures and functions that follow from the framework. And to be honest – it doesn’t matter if it is ITIL version 1,2,3 or 4/2011. The writing and editing of the 2011 edition is clearly much improved in comparison to earlier versions, but it also seems to cover a lot of textual ‘bloat-ware’. Still – as IT Professional, you’ll find enough valuable information in the books to help you improve the service creation, maintenance and delivery in your organisation. So from that point of view I fully stand behind the framework.

Showing IT Professionals (especially technical content experts) that what they produce has value to the business, and that it is usually not just a ‘nice to have’ is important. Teaching IT Professionals to create structure and discipline in their organization is important. After all, structure and discipline are the foundations of any military operation and business that needs to operate under high levels of precision and agility so I see why this is so important to IT organisations.

Documented and repeatable processes and procedures are the lifeblood of business continuity – to enable the business to continue, even when the human resources leave the business. It helps with recruitment of quality IT staff and it helps with the design of disaster recovery and business continuity strategies.

So why did Chris’s comment struck such a chord with me.. to the extend that for a full day I kept thinking “It’s ITIL – get over it” ?

It basically comes down to a feeling that has been building up over the past few years. The feeling that too many people make more of ITIL than it really is. Turning it into an establishment that needs to be protected and policed. It’s almost like religion, where everybody has a different view on what the one and only truth is.  Different groups of people getting together and coming up with rules and regulations on how one should behave and act if you want to be a faithful follower of this dogma. And then start building institutions to support their particular point of view – passionately and sometimes aggressively. When people agitate against religion, it’s usually against the way people have interpreted the delivery and use of the teachings of that religion.

Perhaps it’s time to go back to basics and think about the period where the ITIL framework was gaining momentum in the global IT arena. Who were the ‘evangelists’ who spread the word across the globe and what was it about the framework that made it so successful? Was it the fact that it was non-proprietary? That the framework stimulated free creative and entrepreneurial thinking? That consultants and training organisations could use the concepts of the framework and turn it into products and services that make a difference to their client’s company? That using the framework was a win-win for every party involved? Or was it the fact that the framework and structures around it were transparant and open?

If that made ITIL exciting and a global success – turning it into the ‘goto’ framework for the design, delivery, maintenance and support of IT services … what changed? Why do people feel they have to jump on the anti-ITIL bandwagon like Chris implied in his tweet?

Taking the analogy with religion further – perhaps rather than talking negatively about ITIL, it might be time for a reformation. Rather than there being a single authority, have a look at what people want and need. Are there alternatives? Do we want to create an alternative? And don’t get me wrong: building an alternative way of practicing doesn’t mean the original is bad. It just doesn’t fit with your ways anymore.

In about a 1000 years we won’t even know any different. It will be normal that there is one institute that has a single pope as the single authority, there will be another institute that is intrinsically connected to the country’s government and there will be others who work on a democratic / committee basis. Different executions of the same basic beliefs. And there will probably also be some  fanatical splinter groups who shout really loud and use different media to spread their ideas and opinions. Just let’s hope we learn from the past and learn to live together in peace.

After all – it’s ITIL, get over it!

Originally posted 2012-02-27 06:10:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Today was a very exciting but also very sad day for me… Our development team showed us the alpha version of the new ITIL V3 Foundation course material which is developed based on the new APMG/EXIN syllabus. This new course and the new exam is going to be launched on the first of May 2009 – so that is less than 15 days away!!

The material looks amazing! Very clear and easy to follow, with new diagrams and new illustrations. It is not just a ‘tweaked’ program, but basically an entire new course. We used the updated syllabus, but also input from our accredited trainers, partners and students to create this new material. So that was the exciting part of it. I think it will be a lot better for our students as a lot of the controversial material has been scrapped to make more room for discussion, debate and exercises.

But the sad part is that I will no longer experience the joy of discussing Service Validation and Testing during the Foundation program! I think I am going to be rebellious and discuss the V-model for service testing anyway.. HA!
To me the process of Service Validation and Testing together with the V-model is one of the most valuable additions to ITIL V3 in comparison to ITIL V2. Should there ever be an ITIL V4 I would really like to see even more of a stronger emphasis on testing and general Quality assurance and Quality control mechanisms in the framework.

I really enjoyed discussing the reasons for testing and validating your Service Design packages as part of this process… to give people at a Foundation level a sneak preview of the amazing value that this process gives to the overall framework. But I guess that cutting it from the syllabus will make the follow up training (like the intermediate program for ‘Release Control and Validation’ ) more  desirable. 

Why would APMG have made the choice to delete the process of ‘Service Validation and Testing’ from the syllabus? I really don’t know, but would love to find out!

Originally posted 2009-04-15 18:28:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Since I am going to South America next month I have entered the wonderful world of visas again…. AARGGHH  - and it is driving me crazy!

Why do visas still exist in the first place? Isn’t it enough to have a checkpoint when you enter the country so that people know where you are and for how long you are staying? Why are there 5 million different visa types with an equal amount of paperwork to be filled in before applying for said visa? (OK – 5 million might be a slight exaggeration, but I am not far off…. ). Is it to discourage people from going to your country to do business / work / entertain? (Oh – this person is coming over to bring knowledge to our IT Professionals so that our businesses run more efficiently and provide better value for money… oh no – we can’t have that! We need to place a hurdle in this person’s path…)
 (sorry, I am feeling very frustrated at the moment – can you tell???)

OK – so here is the story: I am going to Brazil for 10 days to do some keynote presentations at a conference and to do a Train the trainer program for the trainers of our new reseller of ITIL Service Management programs in Brazil. This TTT is one of the compulsory requirement for any reseller we have so its not like I have never done this type of assignment before…

Normally I apply for a business visa for the country that I am going to as clearly I am not going to the country for leisure… And applying for a tourist visa would be cheating and lying and I prefer not to do that.

This time I am getting very close to it though.. as the Brazil visa system is driving me insane!
We applied for the business visa and within 24 hours received a very polite email  from the embassy in Sydney that since I will be training Brazilian residents I have to apply for… (wait for it…) A WORK PERMIT!!!

WHAT THE..?!!!

Oh, and to apply for the work permit the first phase has to be done in Brazil and the second phase in Australia. Oh yes,… and get this: it is TWICE the price of a normal busines visa… I am starting to get seriously annoyed by now. 

So – if I would have lied and said I was a tourist I would get a FREE visa for 90 days….(at least I think it is free – to be honest, I haven’t looked into it because it is not my intention to do this).
If I would have lied and told the embassy that I am attending a conference as a delegate and did some business meeting I would have been able to apply for a visa in Australia for $90 and a 5 day turnaround. But because I chose to tell the truth I am now penalised with a temporary work permit visa which costs approx. $160 (+ birth certificate copy + other formal documentation that I need to find somewhere and ‘certify the copy’ at an extra expense) oh – and it takes 30 – 60 days processing time!!!!

I honestly don’t understand the system – I can sell training courses online to Brazilian residents (who BTW live and work and study in Brazil) without a work permit but the moment I enter the country to do the EXACT same course face to face I need a work permit???

This is a system that is NOT from this day and age anymore… I’m sorry but I fail to see where the benefits are (except for the government who can pocket a nice revenue for each visa that they process…

And don’t think I am singling out Brazil… Australia is just as bad (or equal) and I can’t comment on the USA but I am sure there are plenty of stories about that country and its rules and regulations…

End of the story is that I might NOT be going to Brazil after all… it’s too short notice for the visa process to clear.
Would be a shame and a missed opportunity for the development Brazil’s IT industry.

Originally posted 2008-10-25 13:04:59. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

July issue TAOS magazine

Originally posted 2010-07-02 10:58:01. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Remember how I was talking about the holograms that CNN used during the election coverage? 

I wrote about it in my blog on November 5th. 

Well – the story continues as yesterday I found an article on the CBC news website that these holograms weren’t even the real deal!

Have a look at the article.

So, why would CNN say it is a hologram when it isn’t? I don’t get it.. I mean: just say what it is. The viewers are going to find out anyway!.. it’s not like we live in the 1930′s anymore.

I feel sorry for CNN as this type of stuff impacts on their image and credibility and I am sure that this is NOT what they were trying to do.

There is a lesson in this for all of us business people. Your customers are smarter than you think!

Originally posted 2008-11-16 07:57:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

On my flight back from Los Angeles to Sydney a few weeks ago I sat next to a lovely person named Martin. As he is also working in the IT industry (surprise, surprise…) we started talking about mobile applications and cloud computing in general. Martin mentioned that he had a fantastic experience on his flight from New York to Los Angeles early December… he flew with Virgin  and they offered wireless Internet connection for $9.99.

Sounds almost too good to be true, but it got me thinking…:

1. Are we being ‘played’ by the airline industry?
   What happened to the old “please switch off all mobile phones and electronic devices with wireless connectivity.. at no point during the flights are they allowed to be turned on again”.
   We are led to believe that the wireless capability in your mobile phone (or furby) will interfere with the plane’s navigation system. So, what does that mean for the Virgin flights? Is it more of an adventure when you fly Virgin? “Yes, I know you booked a New York – Los Angeles flight but we ended up in Seattle… isn’t it cool?!”…
    
2. Über Cloud Computing?
   Having wireless connectivity in a plane is Cloud Computing to the max! It really takes Cloud Computing to a new level; you can now send your emails and upload your photos at 30,000 feet. Is this what will give us the ultimate technological edge?! And will the charges be part of your global roaming plan?? This will probably only be on domestic flights as I can’t imagine the legal battles you will have to fight in relation to sales taxes when you start offering this to international flights… or would this be part of the on board duty free shopping?!
    
3. Is switching off a bad thing?
   What will happen to our emotional state? I must admit that I enjoy the fact that in a plane I can’t log onto the Internet, I can’t check my emails and I can read a girly novel without feeling guilty.. I don’t have to do any business related activities and I can switch off my brain because I have an excuse! It is my ultimate relaxation… but when there is the option of wireless Internet I know I will take it and I continue to answer emails, write blogs, articles etc…

So even though with my company we educate our clients on the benefits of hyperconnectivity, cloud computing and IT Service Management in general, I must admit that sometimes I feel that it is better that there are times where you can not work on your laptop, you can not get connected to the Internet, and not be in touch with other people. (and usually I don’t talk to the people who sit next to me on the plane… hence the girly novel!)
As business people we all need time to reflect, time to completely distance ourself from our business, our clients and partners… we need time to recharge our business battery and to take a helicopter view on everything that is happening. 

And reading a trashy girly novel can give you some amazing business ideas… trust me! It is a great strategy to build your business. (but that is a different blog entry altogether!!)

Originally posted 2009-01-03 17:16:46. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

After all the discussion about the refresh of the refresh of ITIL V3 you can imagine the surprise I got this morning when I saw this in an online bookshop:

ITIL Version 4 (itil)

Not everybody might find this funny, but it made me laugh!

Oh, and when you look back in the list they have for sale – there is also an itil version 5 and 6 if remember correctly.

But seriously – The current version of the ITIL framework is ITIL V3  which consists of 5 core volumes:

- Service Strategy

- Service Design

- Service Transition

- Service Operations

- Continual Service Improvement

OGC (the owner of the framework) has just announced that a refresh of this version will take place to rectify some mistakes, but the current version is still version 3.

Originally posted 2009-09-23 20:00:18. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

This morning I attended a presentation by Mr. Peter Sharp, Snr. Vice President of Wal Mart in Asia and one of the things I picked up from him is this list on how to do business with a large company:

1. Don’t become over dependent
   Never rely on 1 customer for more than 40% of your total revenue. (I also heard in other presentations a number of 10% – so basically each company should have at least 10 customers).
   The risk of becoming over dependent is that anything could happen to that one customer and you lose a significant source of income! Not a risk that savvy business people would like to run.
2. Profile your customers
   Now that you are going to do business with this large customer – where might this path lead? What could happen in the future, what are the growth plans – both for you and your customer-  and how do you fit in there as the supplier.
3. Keep an open book mindset.
    You don’t just get trust handed to you on a silver platter – you have to earn it. And earning trust takes time. But this goes for both sides; win-win situations go both ways. You will need to become a trusted partner for the other organization so you can share future plans etc.
    
4. Integrity
   Not just for you as the owner of the company or the entrepreneur. But also for all your staff in the company. Integrity has to be top down and bottom up. This is pretty must an extension of point number 3 because without integrity it is really difficult to start trusting you as a person and as a company.
5. Share best practices to deepen the partnership
   Nobody is an island and you can’t do business on your own. It is always about building partnership with your clients, building bridges and learning from each other. Sharing the things you’ve learned and experienced deepens the partnership and this can only be to the advantage of both parties. 

I think there is something in here for all of us – entrepreneurs, managers, sales executives and business owners. We never stop learning and we never stop improving the relationships we have with our clients; large or small.

And to be honest – these 5 guidelines are just as valuable for doing business with large companies as they are for dealing with small companies.

Originally posted 2008-11-06 19:58:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

This week has been a bit of an eye opener for me and I have learnt a lot about myself, my values and what I expect from the people around me. And at the same time it makes me wonder about the Australian education system.

Basically, what happened was that my ten year old son came home with a lower than normal school result. Normally he enjoys schoolwork and he works hard to get an A or a B for most subjects. His strong point is mathematics (must get that from his dad…  ) So when he came home with a C and a C- for some of his mathematics work I was a bit surprised and started asking questions to find out if he struggles with this subject, or if there was anything he would like some extra help with to make him understand. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t really had an issue with the actual C itself, until he mentioned “it’s ok mummy – my teacher says a C is enough”

This made me wonder… since when do we teach our children that a C is sufficient? Don’t get me wrong.. if the student does his or her absolute best and the result of all their hard work is a C (which is at grade level) then this is an amazing result! But what really got to me that his teacher starts the year and every day of the week with the work ethic of “a C is sufficient”. What effect does that have on the hunger to learn?

What happened to ‘reach for the stars’?

When I read the book “Waiting for Superman” a few months ago, one of the things I took away about the American education system is that it is in a bad place and that the flaw appears to lie within the attitude of some of the teachers. A child that has an average or below average teacher for one year has a major setback in their joy for learning and their ability to self motivate to improve.

So rather than giving my son a hard time, I asked him one question:

“When mummy says to the staff in the office that it’s ok to deliver a C-level service to our client, what do you think would happen?” He didn’t even had to think about it and straight away answered: Nobody would buy it because it’s only just good enough and there are other places where people can get better products and services.

• As consumers we look for A-grade products
• As an employer I look for A-grade employees
• As a sports fan we look to support A-grade teams

But how will we be able to continue to enjoy the company of people with an A-grade attitude when our kids are taught in school that a C is sufficient? (irrespective of capability and natural ability).

Call me old fashioned, but that thought scares me…

Originally posted 2011-05-05 20:07:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter