Tag: Aprill Allen

Fresh Links Sundae – January 12, 2014 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. Often they are from the people whose work I admire or resonate with me. I hope you will find these ideas thought-provoking at the minimum. Even better, I hope these ideas will, over time, help my fellow IT pros make better decisions, be awesome, and kick ass!

With business’ dependence on technology, Robert Stroud recommends that today’s CIOs need to make more focused choices that are aligned with the business. Speed to Execution is Critical for the Modern CIO (CA Service Management)

Bob Lewis believes that trying to fix a problem with an organization is a lot like going on diet and trying to lose weight. Neither one works, but he recommends a better goal is to live the weight you want. A diet of lasting change (IS Survivor Publishing)

In collaboration with 3Gamma’s CEO, Peter Wahlgren, Aprill Allen and Mr. Wahlgren discuss the knowledge management approaches in a multisourcing environment. Service integration and knowledge management Service Integration in a Multisourcing Environment Document (Knowledge Bird)

In a two-part blog, Vawns Murphy recommends ten tips for a sound SAM practice. Software Asset Management – Tips From The Trenches (Part 1) Software Asset Management – Tips From The Trenches (Part 2) (The ITAM Review)

In a four-part blog, Jenny Juliany discusses an approach for managing the lifecycle of corporate data. The Four Seasons of Data Management – ‘Spring’ Inception The Four Seasons of Data Management – ‘Summer’ Primetime The Four Seasons of Data Management – ‘Fall’ Retirement The Four Seasons of Data Management – ‘Winter’ Removal (Intreis)

If you are a manager with direct reports on an Agile team, Len Lagestee believes that a set of expected behaviors should apply to you. He outlines what would make the interactions productive when managers attend Agile team events. A Managers Guide to Attending Agile Team Events (Illustrated Agile)

Stakeholders play a critical role in a business analyst’s success. Laura Brandenburg explains how to turn every meeting and every deliverable into an opportunity to invest in your stakeholder relationships. How to Build Better Stakeholder Relationships in 2014 (Bridging the Gap)

When working with customers, Marshall Goldsmith talks about the importance of being authentic and genuine. Dear Yet to be Born Grandchildren (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

While it’s debatable how much self-esteem contributes to one’s success, Scott Adams believes that having a clear sense of one’s own self-esteem has helped him. The Glorious Advantages of Low Self-Esteem (Scott Adams Blog)

When dealing with the uncertainty of future, all of us take different approaches. Seth Godin talks about three general approaches and the mistakes people often make. Accuracy, resilience and denial (Seth’s Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 17, 2013 Edition

When tackling a very large initiative, most of us will attempt to divide up the effort into multiple smaller projects to reduce complexity. When large projects get divided into chunks, it’s possible to lose coherence. Bob Lewis suggests ways to keep the projects coherent and focused. When organizing large programs, don’t be incoherent (IS Survivor Publishing)

Deploying and managing IT in the developing countries can be decidedly different from managing technologies in the western world. Bright Simons describes his experience deploying enterprise IT in Africa and the lessons that IT organizations should consider. What’s Different About Enterprise IT in Africa (Harvard Business Review)

Many IT organizations work hard to improve their working relationships with the business. Peter Lijnse outlines four Business Relationship Management activities that IT can leverage to improve its effectiveness when working with business. The Business and IT Love Requires Lubrication (The ITSM Review)

When organizations execute major IT initiatives, conflict or duplication of effort can arise if the PMO and the IT service management team are not in sync. David Cole recommends ways for both organizational functions to work together. A Loving Co-Existence: When ITSM Overlaps With the PMO (Plexent Blog)

IT is one field where the gender gap issue is often discussed. Aprill Allen suggests ways where we can work together to address the imbalance. Redressing the balance: women in IT(Service Management) (Knowledge Bird)

Many experts have opinions and suggestions for supervising, managing, and leading female employees. Jeff Haden would suggest that the first thing a leader should do is to look past the gender differences and focus on the individual employees. Groundbreaking New Way to Lead Female Employees (Inc.com)

Leaders in large companies face a number of side-effects that can come up as a result of the complex structure. Julian Birkinshaw explains what forces are shaping these complex organizations and recommends approaches leaders can take to keep their organizations on track. Managing Complexity Is the Epic Battle Between Emergence and Entropy (Harvard Business Review)

When individuals become exceedingly rigid with their thinking or positions, it can create communication obstacles for the organization. Len Lagestee offers his suggestions on how to overcome the obstacle. Defending Your Position (Illustrated Agile)

When an organization leverages the Agile framework, the product owner plays a crucial role in the successful execution of the development effort. Peter Saddington provides a list answers to the commonly asked questions about the product owner role. FAQ on Most Common Product Owner Questions for Management (Agile ScoutAgile Scout)

Anna Farmery believes happiness and meaning do matter and are crucial to success in life and in business. She offers her tips on creating more of both. An Ocean Rower’s Top Tips for Happiness and Meaning (The Engaging Brand)

Fresh Links Sundae – January 13, 2013 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. They maybe ITSM related or not entirely. Often they are from the people whose work resonates with me, and I hope you will find something of value.

Referring to a recent LinkedIn discussion on the Change and Release Management processes, Jan van Bon discusses how the two processes relate to each other and offers suggestions on how to best leverage both processes in an organization. The one-and-only Change Management process (ITSM Portal)

Cloud computing was a hot technology topic in 2012. Bob Lewis compares three types of cloud services and discusses their suitability to organization in terms of the organizational players involved, the degree of affordability, and the disruption to the enterprise. The realist’s guide to cloud services and what they’re good for (InfoWorld)

With cloud computing transforming how businesses consume technology services, Robert Stroud lists some guidelines that can help effectively implement services in a hybrid cloud-computing environment with effective service operations. Hybrid Service Delivery Guidance for the New Year (CA Technologies)

Change and configuration management practices have always been an important part of IT operations, but implementing the practices well can also take a significant effort and may not appear to add much value to the business operations. Sasha Gilenson suggests that IT Operations Analytics maybe a way for organizations to handle this important area and make it worth-a-while. Change and Configuration Management Is Sexy Again! (Evolven Blog)

Drawing similarities between cloud offerings and the K-cup concept, Patrick Gray explains how the popular per-cup pricing model can also be leveraged by IT in providing similar value proposition to organizations. K-cup coffee and a lesson for IT (TechRepublic)

Inspired by the ShamWow commercial, Aprill Allen describes seven goods self-service forum can bring to an organization. 7 Ways Self-service is like a ShamWow (Knowledge Bird)

Observing from the IT Risk/Reward Barometer survey and the technology trends, Brian Barnier believes there is a serious disconnect between IT and business and how we can make a difference. IT risk leaders: Does 2013 pose triple threats or triple treats? (ISACA Now)

With his usual skeptical humor and insights, Rob England outlines some of the IT and general computing trends between now and 2020. The IT Swami predicts the Twenty-Teens (The IT Skeptic)

After observing leadership development professionals are looking for a way to build executive presence in their organization’s high potential managers, Scott Eblin explains what is executive presence based on his research and coaching experience. What Is Executive Presence? (Eblin Group)

While an asynchronous communication like email has become a big part of our communication paradigm, the lack of interaction in real-time has its short-coming. Seth Godin advocates building resilience into how we communicate with one another. Toward resilience in communication (the end of cc) (Seth’s Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – December 16, 2012 Edition

While ITIL may advocate the concept that problems come into play only after incidents had occurred, Rob England gives an introduction into what a proactive problem management process should look like and address. Proactive Problem Management (The ITSM Review)

In a two part series, Abhinav Kaiser outlines the steps for setting up a software license management process in your organization. Best practices for software license management [Part 2] (TechRepublic)

Implementing a service catalog can sometimes turn into a major undertaking for many organizations. Barclay Rae gives an overview of why having a service catalog, what it should look like, and what to expect when putting one together. Service Catalog is Simple…or Should Be (Barclay Rae Website)

Most people would agree with the notion that change is the norm in our time. Karen Ferris explains why the desire of staying static and avoiding changes is no long an option. CHANGE: Don’t be a statistic [] (The ITSM Review)

Reflecting from a recent McKinsey Quarterly article “Capturing value from IT infrastructure innovation,” Gregory Tucker shares his view of what the service management concept is turning into. Service Management Is Dead (Tracted IT Management)

In this information-rich age we live in, managing knowledge and classifying information can be a formal challenge. Aprill Allen discusses two methods of information classification schemes and how they can be used together. Taxonomies and Folksonomies (Knowledge Bird)

In a presentation to a group of computer science students in London, Simon Morris describes the software development methodology used within his organization. ServiceNow development methodology presentation to QMUL (ServiceNow Community)

Instead of making the typical New Year resolutions that get quickly deferred or forgotten, Jeff Haden outlines 21 goals that can go a long way to improve your personal effectiveness. 21 Things That Beat Your New Year’s Resolution (Inc.com)

Like so many things in life, the subject of leadership does not have one single source of truth, but a number of competing ideas or opinions. Jim Taggart suggests what each of us can do to better understand the field of leadership and management. A Big (Obvious) Idea for Leadership–There Are NO Experts! (ChangingWinds)

Seth Godin talks about how companies start in serving the niche market. Later on, some of those companies transform their products/services to serving the mass market. I think supporting the IT technologies in organizations has gone through the similar transformation as well. The question remains is how should an IT department deal with the two very different market/user segments within their own organization. The cycle of customers who care (Seth’s Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – October 14, 2012 Edition

Fresh Links Sundae encapsulates information I have come across during the past week. They maybe ITSM related or not entirely. Often they are from the people whose work resonates with me, and I hope you will find something of value.

In a two-part post, Bob Lewis talks about how the combination of Release Management, scrum, Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints can be leveraged to manage IT work and achieve more consistent results. The best way to manage IT projects is to eliminate them (Advice Line)

Using New Zealand’s healthcare experience as a reference, Kirstie Magowan talks about the difference between IT users and IT customers, as well as the implications to providing IT services. This user vs. customer differentiation is tough! (Common Sense and Service Management)

If you are working on engineering a service management solution for your organization, Alicia Choo posted a sample operating procedure document and a few other support documents that may help in your endeavor. My take on ITSM and IT Governance: Service Engineering Management (Choofca’s Brain Dump)

Rather than simply “managing” knowledge, Aprill Allen advocates that Knowledge Management is more about “enabling.” It’s not really about knowledge management (Knowledge Bird)

Reflecting from recent experience with a successful client project, Barclay Rae outlines some lessons learned from developing and implementing SLM and a service catalog. Service Catalog – real life secrets of success (BarclayRae Website)

When it comes to standard CMM methodology, the typical flow is to define, control, manage, and improve. Rob England argues that improvement should come first, then manage and measure, and finally standardize and make it repeatable. Improve first (The IT Skeptic)

Although switching from one industry to another can be daunting, Adrian Reed suggests five ways a business analyst can use to get up to speed when joining a new industry. Starting in a new domain? Don’t Panic! (Bridging the Gap)

Using an analogy from the movie Moneyball, Michael Mauboussin describes what qualities that useful statistics should have and the sequence of choosing the right statistics. Four Steps to Measuring What Matters (Harvard Business Review)

While many organizations place great emphasis on leaders to develop their employees, Michael Schrage suggests that perhaps those same organizations should also pay attention to how their best people and performers can improve the managers whom those employees report to. Do Your Employees Make You a Better Manager? (Harvard Business Review)

When it comes to dealing with iterations of problem, Seth Godin suggests how to overcome them by doing something different, or in his words, initiating a new “up cycle.” Cycle worse, cycle better (Seth’s Blog)