Tag: Brady Orand

Fresh Links Sundae – July 27, 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!

Brady Orand and Global Knowledge are running a blog series “11 Common Mistakes of ITIL Foundation Newbies.” I had already featured the first five posts several weeks ago. Here are the last six installments of the series. ITIL Newbie Mistake #6: Being Too Process Focused  ITIL Newbie Mistake #7: CAB Meeting Burnout  ITIL Newbie Mistake #8: Too Much ITIL Talk  ITIL Newbie Mistake #9: Relying on Templates  ITIL Newbie Mistake #10: Expecting a Tool to Do the Work  ITIL Newbie Mistake #11: Thinking You’re Done. Ever. (Global Knowledge Training Blog)

Some manufacturers’ processing environments can have extreme swings in variability. As a result, those manufacturers need a more granular approach to diagnosing and correcting process flaws. Eric Auschitzky, Markus Hammer, and Agesan Rajagopaul discuss how advanced analytics can provide just such an approach. How big data can improve manufacturing (McKinsey & Company)

In his 20+ years of working in the IT industry, Barclay Rae continues to work with organization on fielding similar ITSM questions. He discusses the most important element for ITSM success that even trumps SLAs and KPIs. Do you have an SLA with your spouse..? (Barclay Rae Website)

Many organizations implements ITSM but neglect to have a CSI process in place. Stuart Rance talks about why he believes CSI is one of the biggest opportunities we have to create value for our IT customers. Building a CSI culture (The ITSM Review)

Many people talk about business digitalization as a portfolio of discrete game-changing technologies. Bob Lewis would argue that the digitization movement is different than what most people think because many have a false assumption about the digitization trend. The assumption of pervasive technology (IS Survivor Publishing)

To most people, innovation is risky, plagued with challenges, and hard to do successfully. Daniel Burrus illustrates how we can predict the changes accurately and be a great innovator. How to Transform Innovation ROI by Using the Science of Certainty to Accelerate Results (Daniel Burrus)

With the availability of many cloud technology and SaaS offering, companies are considering whether to leverage cloud for business intelligence and data analytics activities. John Myers discusses the emerging field of data analytics as a service and what criteria should an organization consider to determine whether it is ready for business analytics. Why Data Analytics as a Service? (EMA Blogs)

Many organizations are setting up the data analytics practice using big data technologies. Andrew Oliver outlines the top 10 worst practices to avoid. The 10 worst big data practices (Strategic Developer)

Fresh Links Sundae – June 15, 2014 Edition

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image9076544Fresh 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!

Brady Orand and Global Knowledge are running a blog series “11 Common Mistakes of ITIL Foundation Newbies.” Here are the first five installments of the series. ITIL Newbie Mistake #1: Too Much Focus on the Processes ITIL Newbie Mistake #2: Certified and Done ITIL Newbie Mistake #3: Focusing on Processes First ITIL Newbie Mistake #4: Attempting a Project in Isolation ITIL Newbie Mistake #5: Developing a Service Catalog without Considering Business Needs (Global Knowledge Training Blog)

Using Forrester’s research data, Kate Leggett illustrates what is the most important factor in good customer service and recommends approaches for organizations to offer excellent service. Surprise! Customer Service Doesn’t Need To Be Delightful – Just Effective (Forrester Blogs)

These days, picking an appropriate public cloud provider can be a daunting task due to the large number of provider choices. Sarah Chapman and Leonard Whitten outline the factors you should consider when evaluating your public cloud provider options. Pick Your Public Cloud Providers Like You Would Pick Your Hotel (SUNGARD AVAILABILITY SERVICES BLOG)

Many IT organizations believe they provide adequate services but rarely take the necessary effort to assess themselves. Ryan Ogilvie believes that on-going dialogues with the customer are essential for IT to validate its own performance. Performing ITSM Self Assessments – Don’t Wait too Long (Service Management Journey)

Some people would advocate that estimating is a waste, and project decisions can be made without estimating. Glen Alleman argues that executing projects without estimating is like driving in the dark with the lights off, not a prudent business move under any circumstance. An Agile Estimating Story (Herding Cats)

Pearl Zhu believes that a well-designed dashboard can serve as an effective management tool to enable business leaders to make better decision. She recommends a list of measurements and KPIs within which a comprehensive CIO Dashboard should include. CIO Dashboard (Future of CIO)

Martin Grobisen believes that advanced IT service management tools need not only apply to IT functions. The automation and management tools also can be applied to line-of-business processes to drive innovation across departments. He suggests some potential business cases which can be supported with IT service management tools. 7 Quick Ways to Take Advantage of Process Automation for Line-of-Business (ITSM Lens)

For many organizations, the deficiency in trust causes a great deal of tension between IT and the lines of business. Kevin Lees discusses how IT can overcome such deficiency to gain true business alignment. How IT Can Transform “Trust Debt” into True Business Alignment (VMware CloudOps)