Tag: Stuart Facey

Fresh Links Sundae – December 8, 2013 Edition

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image24270014Fresh 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!

In spite of its negative connotations, politics can be viewed as the art of finding a way forward when people disagree about the best path forward. Bob Lewis explains how a manager can manage his/her political capital and work with the system effectively. Political Capital Management (IS Survivor Publishing)

For 2014, itSMF UK has decided to focus on four key topics that will drive its agenda, and those four key topics (referred to as the “ITSM Big 4”) were chosen based on the input from the ITSM community. Sophie Danby interviewed four ITSM Review regular contributors and practitioners to obtain their views on the ITSM Big 4. ITSM Big 4 – the practitioner view (The ITSM Review)

Maintaining a Supported Software Catalogue can immensely benefit the audit and reconciliation of Software Asset Management (SAM) data and facilitate activities at the Service Desk. Rory Canavan recommends a process for maintaining a Supported Software Catalogue. Process of the Month – Maintain a Supported Software Catalogue Process (The ITAM Review)

With the influx of mobile devices into the workplace, it will have a visible impact on what service desks have to do to provide support to the end-users. Stuart Facey recommends several planning approaches that service desk managers and ITSM professionals should consider. Service management for a more mobile world – is anything different? (The ITSM Review)

A number of organizations are struggling to find the balance between productivity and security when supporting IT initiatives such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Rob Enderle cautions that IT needs to scrutinize its BYOD approach and not put organizations and employees at risk by trying to be overly accommodating. IT’s BYOD Approach Is Wrongheaded (Unfiltered Opinion)

More and more IT support centers are paying close attention to customer satisfaction. Roy Atkinson explains what support managers can do to gain additional insight into their customers’ perceptions. Customer Conversations: One Thing (HDIConnect)

Diagrams and matrices can help to communicate complex ideas. Laura Brandenburg shows us how visual models can make business analysis work more productive with plenty of examples. How to Make the Requirements Process Faster With Visual Models 22 Visual Models Used by Business Analysts (Bridging the Gap)

Reflecting from the book “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty,” Jim Taggart talks about how an organization can meet today’s challenges by sharing power and enrolling its people to help find solutions. The Payoff from Sharing Power (ChangingWinds)

On those occasions when we are about to do something incredibly vital, we can get incredibly nervous. Jeff Haden suggests five things we can do to prepare ourselves mentally with a quick shot of confidence. 5 Ways to Get a Confidence Boost (Inc.com)

Most of us don’t like or fear public speaking because we believe the audience is focusing on us and constantly judging our presence. Seth Godin explains why those fears are simply misplaced. Speaking in public: two errors that lead to fear (Seth’s Blog)

Fresh Links Sundae – June 2, 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 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)