Tag: Matthew Selheimer

Fresh Links Sundae – July 6, 2014 Edition

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-image-fruit-sundae-image15278271Fresh 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!

Vaughan Merlyn is running a five-part series on business relationship management on his blog. He discusses the common failure modes he comes across and what the IT organizations can do to implement an effective BRM practice. Common Failure Modes in Business Relationship Management – Part 1  Common Failure Modes in Business Relationship Management – Part 2  Common Failure Modes in Business Relationship Management – Part 3  Common Failure Modes in Business Relationship Management – Part 4 & Key IT Roles for Driving Business Value (IT Organization Circa 2017)

Although IT and business ultimately have the same goal in serving the enterprise, they often do not communicate effectively with one another in many organizations. Establishing a business relationship management function can improve the IT-business interactions. Ryan Ogilvie discusses that IT can do to get started. Translating IT and Business Speak (Service Management Journey)

IT organizations continue to face aggressive cost saving mandates, and IT service management practice could be leveraged to contribute positive results. Reginald Lo presents his perspectives on how does Service Management directly save costs and how do we reduce the cost of Service Management. Streamlining Service Management to Achieve Cost Savings Targets (VMware Accelerate)

A number of organizations have implemented IT practices around the DevOps concept with varying degree levels of success. Mike Loukides discusses what the DevOps trend is today and what organizations need to do in order to be effective. Revisiting What is DevOps (O’Reilly Radar)

A recent Forrester study found that many organizations experience low first change success rate for and long lead time on changes for IT infrastructure and applications. Matthew Selheimer discusses the problems he sees as the impediments to organization changes and how to improve the first change success rate. The secret to change success – understanding multiple perspectives (The ITSM Review)

Companies often assign leaders to affect changes (culture, behaviors, or climate) within the organization. People have different opinions on whether a leader should change a culture and, if so, how to change a culture. Rob England helps us answer the question of “Should you try to change culture?” and what a leader should do to promote changes. Don’t try to change culture (The IT Skeptic)

Putting out fires can be a common problem for the Program Management Office while struggling to manage a portfolio. Glen Alleman outlines five recommendations we should keep in mind, so we do not lose sight of the big-picture view of the project management process. Don’t be an Accidental Project Manager (Herding Cats)

In his new e-book Workforce of the Future: Building Change Adaptability, 2nd Edition, James Taggart discusses four major forces that are exerting major impacts in our lives. He outlines ten leadership lessons each one of us should leverage to adapt to the on-going change. 10 Leadership Lessons to Succeed During Turbulent Change (ChangingWinds)

Fresh Links Sundae – March 10, 2013 Edition

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image28379626Fresh 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 them at least thought-provoking or something of value.

Leverage a recent Forrester study on the topic of on-premises and SaaS ITSM tools, Stephen Mann discusses the good practices distilled from the discussion with a customer. 12 Tips For Moving From An On-Premises To SaaS ITSM Tool (From A Customer) (Forrester Blogs)

Bob Lewis suggests that there are no magical technology solutions that can solve hard business problems with only minimal work.  IT is all about good people doing the hard work. Don’t believe the drumbeat against IT (InfoWorld)

In the latest issue of ServiceTalk from the itSMF UK, Robert Stroud offers two phased approaches to address the challenge of proving full account of IT costs in terms of business capability. Financial Management: The Forgotten Discipline (CA Technologies)

In order to have an effective problem management practice, Simon Higginson believes there are four problem management measurements that are essential. Four Problem Management SLAs that you really can’t live without (The ITSM Review)

For some time, the traditional IT’s emphasis on process and technology has not paid sufficient attention to the people component. With the advance of IT, Matthew Selheimer believes that IT organizations can restore the balance for success by integrating five key behaviors into the people component of the triad. Power to the People (The ITSM Review)

Believing the creation of service catalog is the first step of a successful ITSM implementation, Yemsrach Hailemariam outlines seven key considerations when formulating your own service catalog. 7 golden rules for getting the most from the Service Catalogue (The ITSM Review)

Believing there is a limit for humans to accept and process the rate of change, Rob England advocates that IT exists to protect and to serve the organization by managing the risks, resulted from the rate of changes. Slow IT (The IT Skeptic)

After working with many successful leaders who are committed to taking their games to the next level, Marshall Goldsmith recommends that one key ability of today’s executive should be learning and knowing how to ask questions. Advice on Getting From Here to There (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)

Some business principles come and go. Jeff Haden outlines eight principles that are timeless and you can use forever. 8 Timeless Business Principles (Inc.com)

Concerned that there is a trend of assuming complex social issues can be solved as engineering challenges or as nicely packaged, convenient nugget of solutions, Umair Haque argues that great ideas challenges us a lot more than simply entertaining us. Let’s Save Great Ideas from the Ideas Industry (Harvard Business Review)

Fresh Links Sundae – January 20, 2013 Edition

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image28379626Fresh 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 them at least thought-provoking or something of value.

While some may hold the belief that DevOps and ITIL are in conflict with each other, Robert Stroud explains why that is not the case and why proper application of the DevOps concept can further strengthen an organization’s IT capability. Does the emergence of DevOps mean the end of ITIL? (CA Technologies)

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend was a hot technology topic in 2012. Bob Lewis discusses the trend and its 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 BYOD and why it’s a long-term trend (InfoWorld)

By leveraging four key consideration elements, Roman Jouravlev suggests a model that can make an IT initiative clearer and easier to assess. ITSM ORBIT or How to help a tail to wag the dog (ITSM Portal)

With a two-part series, Matthew Selheimer describes a four-level model of social IT maturity and discusses how to avoid the most common pitfalls. The part-two of the post is available here. Getting Started with Social IT (The ITSM Review)

Although the concept of the ITIL problem management may be straight forward, few people fully understand it or appreciate its importance. Ian Aitchison defines what Problem Management process is, describes its value, and gives pointers on how to get started. Problem Management: The Teenager of the ITSM Household (LANDesk Blog)

Questioning some of the recent criticism on consultants and their contribution to the ITSM community, James Finister discusses the operating parameters consultants must work with and how the parameters differ from those of ITSM practitioners. Them and us – again (Core ITSM)

Building on the premise that people who have positive influence on us is that they also have real presence when they communicate. Mark Goulston examines the three essential elements that make up the presence. Real Presence, the Foreplay to Real Influence (Usable Insight)

By using a drinking water example, Anna Farmery talks about why brands should focus their effort on filtering and distributing the ocean of data to their intended audience. How to Quench the Thirst of Your Customer (The Engaging Brand)

After observing a magician performing his card tricks on a train, Adrian Reed draws a parallel with his BA work and explains the lesson he took away. Avoiding Elitism in Your Business Analysis Templates and Techniques (Bridging the Gap)

Peter Drucker was once quoted to have said, “Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop.” Marshall Goldsmith outlines 20 interpersonal behavior challenges that leaders can work on to correct. Bad Behavior (Marshall Goldsmith Personal Blog)