Tag: Gregory Tucker

Fresh Links Sundae – July 20, 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!

Many organizations focus on driving analytics as a foundation for competitive advantage, but they often compromise their analytics effectiveness by not establishing a sound foundation through the process of data readiness and data cleansing. Robert Handfield discusses the critical element of Data Cleansing, which is the most time consuming and challenging of the elements. Data Cleansing as the Foundation for Supply Chain Analytics (International Institute for Analytics)

Many organizations do not assess and monitor their IT maturity level, but the maturity can be a great vehicle to get IT properly connected with the business. Andy White outlines the building blocks for improving IT maturity and effectiveness. IT Maturity: Chasing rainbows? (The ITSM Review)

A well-designed service catalog can bring a number of benefits to both the IT organization and their customers. A badly designed catalog can also make things worse for IT and everyone involved. Sarah Lahav makes suggestions on how we can put an effective service catalog in place. 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Service Catalogue (SysAid)

IT organizations are using the services model to drive IT performance based on the business value generated by the service, rather than simply technical metrics. George Mathai discusses the “market-share” approach to assess and communicate the business value of IT services. How to Make Metrics Matter (CIO Leadership Council)

Future ITSM will increasingly combine service desk and operations much more fluidly than in the past. Organizations will need to embrace the integration between ITSM and ITAM in order to be effective within the overall IT landscape. Dennis Drogseth explains why it is both beneficial and effective to grow the ITSM and ITAM disciplines together. Why IT Asset Management and IT Service Management Belong Together (The ITAM Review)

Implementing an IT improvement program using the ITIL framework brings about both changes and benefits to an organization. Gregory Tucker shows us a model of what changes and benefits can be expected and how IT can help its organization respond to the changes. The Balanced Improvement Matrix (ITSMinfo)

After receiving the training in ITIL, many highly motivated and well-intended folks head back to the office trying to implement ITIL processes. However, Greg Sanker points out that simply “implement ITIL” misses the big picture. He talks about why the ultimate goal is to maximize the business value of IT and how to get to work. The Practitioner’s Dilemma: How to Adapt ITIL (ITSM Transition)

Karen Ferris believes that everyone in IT should shadow the business because it is an effective approach for leading to real innovation and resolution to business challenges. She discusses the important elements to keep mind when crafting such collaboration program with the business. Walk A Mile in Their Shoes? Not Far Enough! (Macanta)

Fresh Links Sundae – June 2, 2013 Edition

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

Responding to the assertion that robotics may soon replace people on the IT support function, Rob England believes that such assertion is decidedly premature. Let’s not underestimate the resilience of people and societies (The IT Skeptic)

When facing the dilemma of serving IT constituents and maintaining sound technology architecture at the same time, Gregory Tucker reminds us the risks of over-responding to user requests that compromise a designed service. Managing to Design (Tracted IT Management)

A key driver behind the DevOps movement is to balance between the need for changes and the need for stability. Using a causal loop diagram, Charles Betz offers a model to illustrate how changes, IT availability, and business value affect one another. Part 1 and DevOps CLD part 2 (lean4it)

With a four-part series, Niek Bartholomeus discusses the drivers and suggests the approaches for introducing DevOps in a traditional enterprise. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Implementing a release management solution in a traditional enterprise (BMC Communities Blog)

Most organizations practice the chain-of-command like structure for handling support requests. Stuart Facey believes that bringing the necessary people and experts together in a collaborative manner is a better approach and will go a long way to improve the support experience for customers. The service desk shuffle: Collaboration trumps hot potatoes (The ITSM Review)

Some IT organizations adopt the “trial by fire” approach to weed out the new comers. Sometimes those organizations tolerate more of the rude behaviors from the senior team members towards the junior ones. Patrick Gray suggests that perhaps it is effective to do it differently. Does IT eat its young? (TechRepublic)

With an abundance of “free” security tools available, many organizations have asked whether the free solutions can be as effective as the ones that require an up-front financial investment. Sorin Mustaca suggests that most “For Free” analysis of the costs stops at the acquisition and ignores others like the installation and maintenance costs. Security “for free”? ((ISC)2 Blog)

Good blogs are like good restaurants – one goes there for a delicious meal and leave pleasantly satisfied. Melissa Hathaway suggests ways to populate a blog with more timely and relevant content for its targeted readers. Engage Your Blog Readers with Meaty Content (Writing On The Web)

While use cases might not always be the most appropriate choice for every project; however, there can be misconceptions about exactly when and how the use cases should be used. Laura Brandenburg outlines three scenarios when it’s appropriate to apply use cases. When Would You Write a Use Case? (Bridging the Gap)

Many leaders all too often believe that their organizations operate with efficient, free-flowing communication and found themselves surprised by the lack of understanding from the staff at the lower levels of the organization. Marshall Goldsmith suggests that proactively practicing follow-up will cure many miscommunication situations. Don’t Just Check the Box (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – December 16, 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.

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 – December 2, 2012 Edition

While many organizations may view ITSM as a simple exercise of implementing the processes in the ITIL books, Kirstie Magowan explains why “implementing” ITIL is missing the point and how not to lose the big picture. Repeat after me: “I am not IMPLEMENTING ITIL®” (The ITSM Review)

It is human nature to seek out the quick and simple solutions to business problem, and ITSM is no different. David Ratcliffe explains why IT Service Management is all about the challenge of leading and managing people. My 1, 2, 3 of ITSM: Or, What Is IT Service Management REALLY All About? (Pink Elephant)

Many organizations would like to get a much better handle on the tracking and utilization of their IT asset. Jon Hall talks about why he thinks IT Asset Management has an image problem and what we can do to address and improve the situation. Let’s work together to fix ITAM’s image problem (Evolving ITSM)

Partly spurred by Jon Hall’s insights on IT Asset Management, Stephen Mann talks about the current state of Software Asset Management effort in many organizations and presents a quick analysis. The Rise, Fall, And Rise Of Software Asset Management: It’s More Than Just A “Good Thing To Do” (Forrester Blogs)

We all had our fair share of working with ineffective managers or bosses. Bob Lewis gives two suggestions on what can leaders do to prevent or to minimize the negative effects of having ineffective managers in their organizations. An ounce of bad-boss prevention (IS Survivor Publishing)

Gamification has been a popular topic in the IT service management space lately. Martin Grobisen shares his opinion on why such reward and recognition mechanism may not be as effective as some would like to believe. Service Desk Gamification – Not the Priority (ITSM Lens)

Compelled by a recent debate on the need for service catalog, Rob England outlines his view of why service catalog is a critical foundation to any IT service provider organization. Service catalogue and service request catalogue (The IT Skeptic)

Responding to a recent LinkedIn discussion where someone advocates that incident priority should never be changed once determined, Gregory Tucker expresses his view on why the incident prioritization is much more dynamic. Changing Incident Priority and Incident Prioritization in Detail (ITSMinfo.com)

It is almost the end of 2012. Bob Sutton updates his reading list and shares them with his blog readers. 11 Books Every Leader Should Read: Updated for 2012 (Bob Sutton)

Being a parent can be a fulfilling life experience, but you don’t need to be a parent to appreciate what Rachel Martin has written for all of us to think about. 43 Life Lessons that Kids Teach Us. (finding joy)

Fresh Links Sundae – November 4, 2012 Edition

Citing the recent news and the survey results from the ITSM tools space, Stephan Mann advocates that ITSM Tools vendors should focus more helping their customers on solving business problems and improving customer experience while using the tools. More ITSM Tool Bells And Whistles, And Where The Real Focus Of Vendor Attention Should Be (Forrester Blogs)

The notion of management support has been preached by many as the pre-requisite to ITSM initiative success. Kirstie Magowan describes what management support for an ITSM effort should look like and the ways to obtain such commitment from senior management. Are your managers just going along for the ride? (Common Sense and Service Management)

While many knowledge management (KM) efforts focus on the reusability of knowledge captured, Adam Krob points out another metric that a support organization can use to improve its KM practice and effort. The Teeter-Totter of Knowledge Management: A Close-Up View of the New-vs.-Known Lever (HDIConnect)

While there are many who advocate the new and improved monitoring approaches, Jonathan Ginter explains why infrastructure monitoring is still a very much relevant component in your end-to-end monitoring solution. Monitoring 101 Myth – Infrastructure Monitoring is Old Hat (BMC Communities Blog)

Reflecting from her recent technology upgrade experience, Susan Cramm describes the roadblocks she ran into when upgrading her smart phone technology and how the lessons learned can be applied to other technology upgrade endeavors as well. 72 Hours of Technology Hell (Valuedance)

In IT we are often taught to prioritize process design over tool implementation, instead of the other way around. Gregory Tucker explains why the improvement of service and process often goes hand-in-hand with the implementation of the tools through automation. Process Before Tool (right)? (ITSMinfo)

Reflecting upon a recent office move project, Alicia Choo describes how IT and Facilities teams leveraged technologies and collaborated effectively in making the office move more seamless and less chaotic. The collaborative potential of WhatsApps and GoogleDocs (Choofca’s Brain Dump)

Relating to his personal experience, Marshall Goldsmith explains why the quality of information flow within an organization often is a good indicator of the quality of the organization. Failure to Communicate (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Thinking back to his high school days, Bret Simmons talks about how one teacher’s action affected how he views personal responsibility and professional conducts. Mr. Owen’s Lesson: The Irresponsibility Tax (Positive Organizational Behavior)

Seth Godin discusses his thoughts on how consumers have become more willing to work with technology changes. The similar mindset shift could have similar impact on how we support our IT constituents. The bell curve is moving (mass geekery) (Seth’s Blog)