Houston we have a Problem...

Baton down the hatches, keep your wits about you, the Problem Manager is back in town and he wants answers....ok he actually wants solutions, but you get the idea.

So what’s the problem with Problem Management?

Resource!!!

Yes we all pain to admit, but it’s true, the Problem Manager is a lone ranger in many respects, he is the outlaw who wants to lay down the law. Soooooooooooooo when do we really have a Problem?
In IT a Problem record would need to be raised after an incident or three are logged which are of similar or familiar type. Many little incidents resulting from one big whopper problem and the ‘problem’ is only where the headache begins.

Let’s recap....some mini whirlwind occurred, incident logged, restoration to service complete and incident closed....problem record created and now the lone ranger wants to know WHY.
Day to day our IT staff feel their work here is done. All is well, production is up why all the fuss? Do we really have to spend additional man hours looking into something that may never occur again, or in fact not be avoidable due to some ‘what ever’ reason?

The hard core honest answer, it depends! Ha I hear you cry, that is not a real answer. But it is! It depends on the benefit that creating a role to look into past related issues and root cause analysis brings. Is it worth the outlay, do we want to spend the money, the additional hours and effort to find the meaning of a 10 minute downtime to production. I tell you now, it depends on if that 10 minutes cost you $10 million or $10.00, and how important that lose is to the survival of your company.

I feel that the lone ranger has been given a raw deal, as most Problem managers are in fact gloried Incident and documentation junkies who never really get to make the impact that can be so beneficial to the company.

Is Problem management essential to a company? Yes, maybe not in the purest more officialised form. But whether we document it or not, if we admit it or pretend we don’t, we all can and will be a Problem manager at one time or another, so spare a thought to the lone ranger who wants a bit of your time. It might end up freeing your time up at a later stage.

Over and out!

The Young Manager – Why it is not all hot air

Within any industry there are the giants that rule over the land keeping things in order with the sometimes heavy hand of supreme experience.
This is when the world is in order.

However in the circle of life there must be change, (No RFC required). This change often comes in the form of some whipper snapper, the perpetual bull in the china shop so to speak, beaming with confidence ready to solve the problems of the world.

What is it about these young managers that cause so much friction? I suppose the bullish mentality that their ideas are new and innovative. That no one before them has thought about the steps to fix the problems, that they are unique!
In reality, the giants have done most of it all before, they also once upon a time they also had a spring in their step when talking about transformation and change. (In fact some giants still do)
So it’s easy to see why the young manager rubs so many people up the wrong way.

But I do persist, being that I in fact position myself in the aged handicapped that a lot of use can be made out of the young manager. Not all this hot air and fuss is over nothing. If only given the tools and creative vent to display all the excitement money can’t buy, this young manager might in fact create enough opportunities for the giants of the business world to see them through to retirement with no fear of redundancy. (Dunn Dunnnn Dunnnnnn - )

Yes, we (the insufficiently aged) are good for something. We can work hand in hand with the wise giants of the world, sap up the experience like a dry sponge, look, learn and be better....

....and eventually steal your jobs!

Just something I found funny...

A sheep farmer is tending his flock when a city slicker rolls up inhis BMW, hops out and asks, "Hey, if I tell you exactly how many sheep you have, can I take one?" The farmer nods, so the city slicker open shis laptop, calls up some satellite photos, runs some algorithms, andannounces, "You have 1,432 sheep." Impressed, the farmer says, "You're right. Go ahead and take one." So the city slicker loads one of the animals into the backseat of thecar. "Now," says the farmer, "if I tell you what you do for a living,can I have it back?" A gaming sort, the city slicker says, "Sure." "You're a consultant," says the farmer. "Wow!" says the consultant. "How'd you know?" "Well," says the farmer, "you showed up even though I never asked youto. You told me something I already knew. And you don't know anything about my business. Now give me back my dog."

Servers vs Services

There is nothing like IT skilled workers.

They can not be compared to any other kind of skill set because each and every individual techy does indeed believe they are gods gift to the IT community.This may in fact be the case for some, as their work time often spills over to play time, and the boundaries are blurry. They are committed to a love of IT.

However in this day and age the IT professional is evolving, and so they must. Gone are the days where IT boffins rule the world due to the general lack of knowledge by the larger community of users. Oh no! The world is a totally different place, and this is spawned from the Home Personal Computer. A PC in every house, yes this is the reality.
Our users no longer cower and bow down to IT staff superiority, oh no! Jane Noman has a PC at home, and now asserts, requests and expects things to work as smoothly as her home device does. Joe Anon does not care to hear about servers, and cables....they now all require something else....They want SERVICE!

So now IT staff are required to listen not tell, understand not explain, enable not limit.IT staff will now shift focus from the server re boots, to what services are impacted and the actual cost implications a 5 min down time. In no way are we demoted by this change in the environment, we are now multi talented.
We are now business focused IT staff with good service to the user community at the fore front of goals.

This is a new age in IT, how exciting!

ITIL - Is This Information Lucid

In IT every now and then a word, abbreviation or a catch phrase becomes the hot cross bun of the moment, the Jaffa cake with that little bit more Jaffa.

It could be said that ITIL to many recruiters and employers is one of those 'super phrases' that get people interested. 'ITIL certified', 'Red Badge Holder'....let me pause and say, 'OOOOOHHH, AAHHHH'.

ITIL - The ideology that can so often go so wrong! Oh so wrong.
I know ITIL, yes I am ITIL certified, and yes I am a red badge holder, (please no applause required), and YES, I DO BELIEVE IN ITIL.
Kind of like believing in God in some respects, you know the perfect situation is out there, you just cant see it. It about having faith, yes faith in IT and ITIL.

Let me stand on my soap box and position myself nicely....

ITIL to me is a great idea, a great guideline, a great place to strive to, but that's about it. It won't fix your IT department, it wont make your life easier.
In fact if implemented incorrectly it will make you life a living administrative hell in which there is little escape. Through working in IT I know all to well that an ITIL crazed leader can often be the downfall of very good intentions and strategy, as is an ITIL blind leader.

With the version upgrades and changing times even the most staunch ITIL lover must accept that ITIL is not a one size fits all, always right, unbending framework. ITIL is about showing you how to use your common sense, because essentially that's what ITIL is...loads and loads of pages of common sense.
I love the new life cycle of ITILv3, and I am an ITIL lover through and through, but I can only tell you now, that before you walk down Service focused IT road , round integrated functions bend and into ITIL compliant company, know what you want to get out of it, know you company's limitations, and know when too much is too much!