If you’ve worked with Evergreen much, you know we constantly harp on our clients to define and measure business value for IT projects and programs. But it’s never easy, for all the reasons I’m sure you already know - here are a few:
- ROI and Business Value are assumed to mean the same thing, which, in my view, they are not. For example, a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance project definitely has business value. The value would be that the company doesn’t get in trouble with the SEC. But what’s the ROI for that? The ROI is negative, unless you want to count the potential cost avoidance of lawsuits and stock devaluation. But you’d get very few CEO’s to agree that SOX compliance is a money-making effort, so the ROI argument doesn’t work.
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We had an interesting epiphany last week at a client site… if you’re a Director or Manager who’s trying to “sell” ITIL, you might find this to be very important.
It reminds me of the kid’s party game where the first kid whispers a secret to the next kid, who in turn whispers it to the next kid, and so on around the table, until the last kid tells the secret. You know how it works - the last kid’s “secret” is nothing at all like the first kid’s version. In fact, even if the secret makes no sense whatsoever, if it’s all gibberish, the kids repeat what they think they heard anyway.
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I’m currently working with a client to help improve their processes using ITIL as a guide and benchmark. We started with a maturity assessment and used the results to identify major gaps (as defined by business value, not ITIL’s textbook). Serve Desk and Incident Management were two of the key foundation areas for improvement, so we started there first.
If you’ve worked with ITIL much, you know it didn’t take long for challenges to show up. Specifically, one of the key requirements of a good Service Desk is enforcing the defined SLAs and OLAs - as defined by the Service Catalog. Well- this client doesn’t have a Service Catalog. Not yet, anyway. So we had a long series of conversations about “What is a Service Catalog?” and “How can we define a Service Catalog that supports the business?”
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I get variations on this question all the time, and the simple answer is NO. In fact, when you start understanding how ITIL relies on the CMDB to support processes and activities, you?ll realize that the disciplines and best practices of ITAM are even more relevant and needed in the ITIL world.
Here’s an example: Service Catalogs.
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Yes the holidays are an exciting time, and so is having a chat about how to increase the value of IT by building a structure to become the Chuck Norris of IT. While I joke with an infamous Chuck Norris reference, because the reality is no one can be that cool. I would say investing in a comprehensive structure that addresses the establishment of a Service Catalog and CMDB. Why would I say this?
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Hey all! I am back. I wanted to chat for a spell about another point that I brought up in Part 2 of my wonder twins powers series. If you remember, and I do not know how one could forget, but just in case the thoughts of Thanksgiving dinner have made our discussion slip your mind, I will refresh your memory. I was pontificating on the benefits of establishing a service catalog and the value of spearheading a CMDB effort simultaneously. Does this refresh your memory? Cool.
So why do this? What are the benefits? Thank goodness you asked.
The reason that this is the bee’s knees is related to the day after the service catalog is deployed. What happens?
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Hey there everyone?. It is ‘I’. I wanted to take some time and to elaborate on the points that were mentioned in Part 2. If you recall, I discussed my belief that the value of implementing a service catalog can be extended by establishing a CMDB in parallel. I am sure some of you had thoughts of this being the beginning of my pitch to sell you a time share in some tropical island location, but I assure you this is not the case. No, my reasoning has only been founded through the pain and suffering of being limited on what can be delivered within the context of a service catalog project.
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