At B Wyze, we regularly go on half-day outings during work hours, volunteering our time for different charities. But the company decided to take this social responsibility policy one step further: back in September 2008, B Wyze presented their employees with a competition for a Social Responsibility Vacation.  One employee would be given the opportunity of a life-time to take a paid vacation to volunteer in a third world country for up to 3 weeks.

I turned out to be the first person to make this trip. I went to Vietnam, to help orphans and street children. You can see more about this powerful chapter in my life by visiting my blog: christiesvietnamtrip.wordpress.com

I am so proud to work for a company that wants to make a difference beyond pure financial results.  It makes coming to work every day more meaningful. I’m not exaggerating when I say this experience changed my life, and I owe it all to B Wyze for giving me this opportunity.

I really believe initiative shows the company’s commitment to helping employees become good global citizens by encouraging them to give back to society.  It is my hope that other companies will follow the standard set by B Wyze.

We put together this little video describing the policy, and my experiences:

Related posts:

1. Work Life Balance
2. My Social Responsibility Adventure – Volunteering in Vietnam
3. B Wyze eLearning making music as MindMuze Services

The prize is a whopping $4,000 gift certificate for Gap Adventures, the adventure travel specialists. They’re the ones who let you hike Everest, cruise Antarctica, spot lions in Africa, visit hill tribes in northern Thailand, and so much more.

Best of all, if you refer friends, you increase your odds of winning. Bring one friend, and you’ll be entered twice; bring two friends, and you’ll be entered four times. Every added friend doubles the number of entries you get!

It’s a fitting way to celebrate the upcoming launch of Thought Rock a fully loaded learning service with resources for IT professionals, from ITIL v3 Foundations eLearning courses to online conferences and seminars to eLearning course creation tools to forums staffed by industry experts.

So get over to Thought Rock. There’s traveling to be done!

Related posts:

1. B Wyze eLearning to Operate under the MindMuze Brand
2. My Social Responsibility Adventure – Volunteering in Vietnam
3. B Wyze Announces the Hiring of Seasoned Technology Expert Judi Paré

ITIL promotes IT as being a critical business success driver and competitive advantage in today’s world. Simply put – business can not function without IT technology as part of the business model. It follows that if ITIL is critical to the business and ITIL promotes an approach to manage IT as a “business within a business”, then ITIL itself can not function without IT technology as part of its business model.

All areas of Service Management will benefit from technology. One of the primary goals of technology within ITIL is to support the use of standards and norms that deliver services with effectiveness, efficiency, and in a business aligned manner. A key objective of technology within ITIL is to support consistent delivery of services through automation. Service automation is necessary to:

• Improve both the utility and warranty of services by removing variation in the performance of processes and services
• Assist with integrating Service Management processes

The following is a list of technology tools discussed within ITIL:

Databases

• Service Portfolio
• Service Catalog
• Service Management System (SMS)
• Configuration Management Database (CMDB)
• Configuration Management System (CMS)
• Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS)
• Asset Management Database
• Known Errors Database (KEDB)
• Human Resources Database
• Availability Management Information System (AMIS)
• Capacity Management Information System (CMIS)
• Security Management Information System (SMIS)
• Supplier and Contract Database (SCD)

Libraries & Stores

• Definitive Media Library (DML)
• Definitive Hardware Spares (DHS)

Tool Types

• Simulation
• Analytical modeling
• Hardware design
• Software design
• Environmental design
• Process design
• Data design
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Audit, Inventory, and Discovery
• Deployment, and Licensing
• Testing
• Mapping
• Workflow and Scripting
• Service Desk
• Building Management
• Support and Logging
• Remote control support
• Diagnostic
• Correlation
• Job Scheduling
• Self-Service
• Monitoring, System Management, and Event/Alert
• Network management
• Intrusion Detection
• Directory Services
• Presentation and Reporting
• Survey

Related posts:

1. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Models Referenced in ITIL
2. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Process Models
3. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Another Way to Compare and Understand the Service Lifecycle

The Service Lifecycle is designed as a “closed-loop” approach to Service Management. By “closed-loop”, we are referring to the outputs of the Lifecycle being targeted towards a business goal, and utilizing feedback at each step for taking reinforcing and corrective actions that will repeat the loop continually. Each repetition has an objective to be more efficient, effective, and aligned to the business goals.

The promoted Service lifecycle flows in the standard promoted closed-loop system beginning with Service Strategy to Service Design to Service Transition to Service Operation and back to Strategy through Continual Service Improvement. While generally a linear flow, ITIL is clear to emphasize that the lifecycle is well integrated and all phases can flow in any direction.

As another and perhaps more practical way of viewing the lifecycle, consider the following table of lifecycle phases and primary goals. The primary goals of Service Design position it in the center of the table. Service Design must turn strategic plans into agreements and contracts on what is to be achieved and is achievable, and must draft blue-prints for developers to achieve these agreements and contracts. Once developed and operational, Service Design then has a goal to ensure achievement of its agreements and contracts.

This version of the Service Lifecycle highlights the importance of Service Design in achieving success when implementing a Service Management initiative. If targets are not defined and managed, then you’ll miss them every time. If targets are not linked to strategy, you’ll focus on trivial activities over the long run.

Related posts:

1. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Models Referenced in ITIL
2. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Technology is Critical for ITIL Success!
3. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Process Models

Does your learning strategy incorporate enough focus on innovative tactics for training people JIT/JET? I often find that many academics frown at the simplicity of this concept. Yet the Gen Y’ers are demanding only a JIT/JET learning strategy and have very little patience for the information dump that occurs in sessions that last much longer than 20 minutes.  They want to know, what they need to know, as they recognize the need to know it.  Get it?

ITIL is about constant and never-ending improvement.   ITIL “depends”.   Your ITIL/ITSM education strategy needs to focus on JIT/JET blended approaches through internal community sharing, eLearning nuggets or “coursels”, mentoring, classroom “coursels” and job sharing.  Sending your IT team to consecutive classroom training sessions is not the answer.   Don’t fall for the “bums in seats” marketing of classroom training.

Find out what the learner group needs now, deliver it rapidly in an educational and fun way, and determine when the learning modules have outlived their usefulness.  Store all of the learning assets centrally, maintain version control, seek collaboration with as many relevant subject matter experts as possible and continuously improve. You can do all of this and fast. Reducing costs and improving learning delivery. Find the right systems and put the processes in place.

Related posts:

1. Rapid Learning – Too much talk about tools (Part 1)
2. Blended Learning and what it can accomplish
3. ITIL Blended Virtual Learning - The “Green, Cost Saving, Time Saving, More Effective Way”

Historically we have had to choose between the devil’s triangle of Quality, Price and Time. As the sign in the butcher shop says, “Pick any two out of three:”

With the economic downturn, I’m sensing a shift in the conversation. Now we are hearing clients say, “Not good enough figure it out!  We need the same Quality, Faster and at a lower Price!”

The answer lies in innovation. The only way to change the shape of the triangle  is to innovate and automate. That’s where the concept of an ecosystem comes in. If you break down the components required to build a quality eLearning program you uncover the answers. We partnered to build an ecosystem that drives down the total cost of ownership for each eLearning course.

How?

Automation:

We automated the development cycle so that when the Instructional Designer is finished the storyboard, most of the development is done, including flash animations, audio, and graphics. This includes custom flash components, screen layouts and interfaces.

All the files are stored in one place and review comments are tagged to specific screens.

Innovation:

We created the option to request development work from central location to be done at the best prices available worldwide.

• Pricing models are based on performance. Go ahead, get into the ecosystem, produce a product. Don’t pay until you publish it.
• Access state of the art support resources and link to other ecosystem members to help enable productivity.

The SHIFT eLearning ecosystem is the culmination of over 10 years of learning, continuous improvement and automation.

Related posts:

1. Rapid Learning – Too much talk about tools (Part 1)
2. Rapid Learning – Too much talk about tools (Part 2)
3. Creating an eLearning Module in No Time is Easy!

Blended learning gives learners and teachers an environment to learn and teach more effectively. Learners can select the best activities to suit their own pace, learning style and level of understanding, as well as time and place. Learners can be more independent and self-reliant in their own learning. They can also be more able to make decisions, think creatively and critically, investigate and explore as well as solve problems they face in learning and real life. Meanwhile, teachers can be facilitators, supervisors, assessors, organizers and managers of learning activities, and so should be creative and able to support learners and provide various learning materials in different formats.

Blended learning increases the options for greater quality and quantity of human interaction in a learning environment. Blended learning offers learners the opportunity “to be both together and apart.” A community of learners can interact anywhere, anytime because of the benefits that computer-mediated educational tools provide. Blended learning provides a ‘good’ mix of technologies and interactions, resulting in a socially supported, constructive, learning experience; this is especially significant given the profound affect that it could have on distance learning.

The  most difficult thing about educating a team that is culturally, geographically and skill diverse is  coming  up with the exact formula that is perfect for each person. Why not offer a blended approach that allows your team to get the most out of their learning style and the content you are presenting as well as still being able to collaborate with others? Gone are the days when educators are looking to fill seats. This economy calls for and perhaps even demands that we become more creative in the way that we share knowledge and teach. There are many organizations that do a good job in helping IT Professionals know what they should be doing in the context of ITIL and ITSM…but most folks leave trying to plug theory into their organizations without any real place to meet and collaborate after the class is over.

In my next post, I’ll look at learning strategies and how to make them effective.

Related posts:

1. Blended Learning and what it can accomplish, Part 2
2. ITIL Blended Virtual Learning - The “Green, Cost Saving, Time Saving, More Effective Way”
3. Using Social Communities to support Learning Initiatives

The list of models referenced below from the ITIL publications shows that Models and Modelling play an important part of ITIL best practice. ITIL identifies the creation of models and of modeling as part of the science to successful ITSM.

In my opinion, IT Service Management is part art and part science. Models add some predictive science, but we all know that IT isn’t predictive. It requires a lot of subjective assessment and direction (called management).

The remainder of this blog is some basic ITIL definitions and then the list of models taken from ITIL publications.

The ITIL definition of a Model is:

A representation of a system, process, IT service, configuration item etc. that is used to help understand or predict future behaviour.

The ITIL definition of Modelling is:

A technique that is used to predict the future behaviour of a system, process, IT service, configuration item etc. Modelling is commonly used in Financial Management, Capacity Management and Availability Management.

Models identified from ITIL publications include:

–    Business Model

–    Kano Model (for value-added service offerings)

–    Service Model

• Service Funding Model
• Financial/economic/cost Model
• Service Provisioning Model
• Performance Model

–    Service Design Model

• Demand Model
• Capacity/Resource Model
• Outsourcing Model
• Chargeback Model
• Use-Case Model
• Data Model
• Monitor Control Loop Model
• Analytical Model
• Baseline Model
• Simulation Model

–    Service Transition Model

• Change Model
• Change Authorization Model
• Service-V Model
• Test Model
• Build Model
• Support Model
• Change Authorization Model
• Configuration Model

–    Service Operational Model

• Service Delivery Model
• Staffing Model

–    Continual Service Improvement Model

• Deming’s PDCA Model
• Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
• Governance Model
• Service Gap Model
• Service Measurement Model
• Service Management Model
• DIKW Model

–    RACI Model

–    Application Lifecycle Model

–    Service Lifecycle Model

Related posts:

1. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Process Models
2. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Technology is Critical for ITIL Success!
3. ITIL ® Version 3 Foundation Exam Study Nugget: Another Way to Compare and Understand the Service Lifecycle

Some kids in Vietnam

Back in September, B Wyze presented their employees with a competition for a Social Responsibility Vacation.  One employee would be given the opportunity to volunteer in a developing country for up to 3 weeks.  I was fortunate enough to be this individual.

I will be volunteering in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam for two different programs: an orphanage for children with disabilities and a shelter for street children.

The Orphanage For Children with Disabilities cares for abandoned children with mental or physical disabilities as well as children who are victims of Agent Orange. The orphanage helps to educate them to the fullest extent of their capabilities, both physical and intellectual. Finally, the orphanage helps them to learn to live independently. There are about 400 children at the orphanage.

Volunteers can talk and play with the children, help the physiotherapists when they do the therapies for the children, feed the children and teach some children to feed themselves and take them on their wheelchairs for a walk in the orphanage’s front garden.

The shelter for street children provides accommodation, education, recreational activities and opportunities for street children and orphaned children so they can get a job when they grow up and go back home to integrate with their own families or build their own lives. There are 20 children at this shelter from the age of 6 years old.  Volunteers at this project offer valuable support and education to the children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.  I will be teaching conversational English to the children and offer support to the children while being a positive role model for the children.

I will be updating my blog along the way so I can keep you up to date with my travels. I look forward to sharing this journey with youJ

Related posts:

1. Making the world a better place - the B Wyze way
2. A $4,000 travel adventure up for grabs, courtesy B Wyze!
3. Using Social Communities to support Learning Initiatives

Michael:  When organizations consider which ITIL process will make the biggest ROI impact, Change Management is usually chosen as a top priority.  However, anyone that’s managed people before knows how difficult it can be to get them to change their behaviors and habits.  Perhaps that’s why Change Management has been impossible for most organizations to implement effectively.  Most people think (whether they admit this or not) that they don’t have to work in partnership with the people that will have to change their behaviors.  They assume that their staff will simply do their bidding!

Bill:  You’re right; Change Management is a common starting point for an ITIL initiative. I worked for an organization that had an informal Change Management process that can be described as follows:

• Effective?  Yes.  Kind of…
• Documented?  No.
• Enabled in an ITSM tool?  No – email was used.
• Continuously improving?  No – lack of data/metrics meant it was impossible to manage and improve.
• Scalable?  No – recent organizational growth demonstrated that it was not going to be able to effectively support the organization moving forward.

Putting up a Resistance

As you’ve alluded to, while I realized that while we needed to implement a ‘formal’ Change Management process that was followed by the key stakeholders in the organization, the existing process was so deeply embedded in the culture that suggestions on improving the process had to be done extremely tactfully. 

When we mentioned that we wanted to mature the process, there was immediate resistance, particularly from the middle managers who ran it, to modifying the process. They were comfortable with how they had done things. They were afraid of over bureaucratizing, and they were a little nervous over the prospect of giving up some of their power.

Getting Everyone on The Same Page

We included the stakeholders (in particular, resistant middle management) into an analysis of the current process and the design of the new way we wanted to do things.  When the team began by making a model of the existing process, we quickly identified a level of Change that required the managers to coordinate with several other units. It was proposed that these complex and potentially high impact Changes could be more efficiently handled with a centralized Change Advisory Board.

Let’s Just Get The CAB Going!

The process of analyzing/designing the Change Management process in and of itself led our stakeholders to form a Change Advisory Board.  Keep in mind that this CAB was formed in the absence of a formal, documented Change Management process. 

We began with a very narrow focus. The CAB was formed to make an immediate improvement in handling high impact Changes. Initially, it was composed primarily of the functional managers who previously were responsible for coordinating the Changes their units undertook.

The Proof is in the CAB

The initial meetings were met with some skepticism, and there was much to learn and figure out as we moved along. However, it was not long before the CAB came to be appreciated and embedded into the culture of the group. It provided a structured place to bring Changes and ensured proper discussion and coordination.

But it didn’t happen overnight.  It took about six months before the CAB became the obvious way of doing business. In short, it made preparing for complex and high-impact Changes much easier and more predictable.  The CAB also provided a layer of legitimate ‘cover.’ If a manager was unsure of something she now had a predictable place to vet the issue. The CAB would discuss and bring to senior management if necessary.

The Spirit of Change Management Drives Enthusiasm for Formal Change Management

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the CAB’s relatively quick success provided a proof of concept that drove the adoption of a full, mature Change Management process.

The formation of the CAB allowed everyone to get used to the idea that approval for complex and high impact changes was necessary and formal. Therefore, it was a natural next step to extend the process and to define ‘Normal’ Changes (changes that needed formal approval but didn’t need to be on the CAB’s formal agenda).  It was still hard work, but the path had been cleared for the definition of Normal and pre-approved Changes and to enable the process in ITSM software.

MJ:  I love it!  What you’ve described is adopting Change Management best practices in a way that builds momentum for all stakeholders.  Instead of becoming mired in process definition and the bickering that inevitably ensues about who owns what, you focused on implementing the spirit of change management, which is letting everyone know what’s changing so that any red flags can be brought to light! 

Do you have any other suggestions for anyone else trying to adopt Change Management?

Bill:  Most organizations have some level of change management, or change coordination. If you have more than one server in your machine room, or even if you manage more than one application on your one server, there must be some level of communication to avoid conflicts and collisions. Think about whether and how you can leverage the existing patterns of behavior. Rather than start with a radical overhaul, the path to a complete mature Change process may be shorter if you begin by formalizing what you currently do. There will still be bickering, but you just might be able to minimize it and make faster progress.

Bill Cunningham (PMP, ITIL Practitioner) is an organizational change agent focused on improving operations through ITSM.  He is on the board of the itSMF Higher Education SIG and frequently presents on ITIL/ITSM.

Michael Jagdeo (SCM, ITIL v2/v3) has an extensive background as an ITSM/ITIL enthusiast.  He has worked on placements in Singapore, Dubai, London, and across North America.  As Director at B Wyze Solutions, he manages relationships with clients like Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Maple Leaf Foods, and the Government of Ontario.  Follow him on Twitter!

Related posts:

1. Implementing ITIL - Insight from Head of ITSM (Part 1: Education)
2. Implementing ITIL - Insight from Head of ITSM (Part 2: Outsourcing)
3. Implementing ITIL - Insight from Head of ITSM (Part 3: Tool Implementation & ITIL Adoption)