| This article looks at some of those things your ITIL | | | | to remove the cause. Are you thinking about the |
| trainer discussed on your ITIL Foundation Course. Your | | | | proactive things like getting involved in the Service |
| ITIL certificate is just your first achievement. | | | | Design process? Making sure Service Operations are |
| Remember, this is not meant to take the place of a | | | | doing the proactive maintenance. |
| fully review or audit but it might provide the impetus | | | | Go in search of positive feedback. |
| and justification for one. It should also help those | | | | Ask your customers what it is that they think you do |
| struggling with stakeholder buy in to demonstrate the | | | | well. It might be that you always attempt to resolve |
| value of applying ITIL principles. | | | | problems, that your staff is co-operative and friendly. |
| Compare your customer's values with your SLA | | | | Do you promote the things you do well? Are they |
| measurements. | | | | ever at the expense of other activities, more valued |
| Put on your ITIL manager hat, remember your ITIL | | | | by your customers, which you aren't doing well? |
| training and speak with a senior customer manager, | | | | Customers are quick to tell you about your failings, it is |
| maybe at the water cooler, and get them to describe | | | | human nature. Celebrating success can drive better |
| to you the most important aspects of your service to | | | | performance from your IT staff and improve morale. |
| them. Is it availability of an on-line service or the | | | | Some organisations over-deliver service to some |
| production or the speed of Request Fulfillment? Which | | | | customers, resulting in a very positive perception, |
| causes them greater business difficulty; delays in | | | | providing there is no impact on other services and that |
| setting up new users or the time take to obtain | | | | costs are not perceived as excessive this is entirely |
| approval for a change? Now compare this with the | | | | appropriate. It's important that the IT organisation |
| measures in the SLA - are you measuring the aspects | | | | chooses which elements of service it will use to |
| that are of most value to your customers, or just the | | | | influence customers' perceptions. |
| things that are easiest for you to measure? We often | | | | Always asking "what did we do wrong" creates a |
| thrive on availability figures in IT organisations but what | | | | poor perception of your own estimation of the service |
| does 98.5% really mean in hours lost each week? Is | | | | and misses the opportunity to get customers to think |
| this as important as the hours the service is made | | | | about the positive aspects of your service. |
| available to them? | | | | So as your ITIL trainer will have emphasised on your |
| Organisations which only measure and report the easy | | | | ITIL foundation course, this is just a starter for 6, rather |
| things risk customers describing the service as "poor" | | | | than 10, something to think about. |
| despite all SLA targets being met. Simply because the | | | | If you need any help, remember Sysop offer more |
| SLA's don't meet those business values. | | | | than just training. We have a professional services arm |
| Calculate whether your services are able to meet | | | | and we can help ITIL Managers like you to understand |
| SLAs. | | | | and bridge the gaps. We have developed Service |
| Remember, if you can't measure it you can't manage | | | | Management Implementation packages (or SMIP's) |
| it! Work out the Mean Time between Failure (MTBF) | | | | which focus on a specific area to quickly identify |
| for a critical service and check with your customers | | | | where the most progress can be made in the shortest |
| what their perception is of the interval between fails is. | | | | amount of time. Helping you to do exactly the kind of |
| Calculate the average time lost and check that the | | | | activities I've discussed in the shortest time so that you |
| service availability in the SLA is capable or likely to be | | | | can deal with more chunks of the elephant and raise |
| met. | | | | your customers perception of IT Services, get that all |
| Identify the most frequent cause of non-availability of | | | | important buy in and keep the momentum for Service |
| this service and determine what steps are being taken | | | | Improvement going..... |