SP> "We can't be bearded hermits hiding in dark server rooms doing mysterious things all day."
So, if I understand you correctly, ITIL Best Practices say that I should shave more and get a tan? :-) I can live with that. Thad Esser Remedy Developer "Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours."-- Richard Bach "Pierson, Shawn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: "Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)" <[email protected]> 05/06/2008 08:49 AM Please respond to [email protected] To [email protected] cc Subject Re: ITIL Remedy I would add that not only do most organizations not hire someone as only a "do as you are told" resource, if you adopt that mindset you can get into a lot of trouble. I've been on site at places where people did exactly what management told them to do, which was flawed, then the managers became upset with the consultant for not showing them the better way. Developers have to be skilled at interpreting user requests and requirements into something useful. The same applies for huge, highly-configurable applications like ITSM. If you are a full-time employee or consultant, you are a subject matter expert on Remedy, ITSM, and to some degree ITIL. Of course you are going to have people above you dictating the direction, but if you don't bring up concerns you have with implementing it you're going to have a lot of problems. I've also found that in many cases, the higher up the food chain a person is, the less they care about the details. You may have a CIO or director telling you "we have to implement ITIL!" but they usually aren't going to focus on specifics. It's not a matter of following orders as much as understanding the best way to interpret them. My current employer really expects me to be aware of what is going on with ITIL and ways other companies are implementing it with ITSM. Whenever I go to my CIO or director and talk to them about the direction I'm going with Remedy, it's not for them to dictate to me who the Owner or Assignee of an Incident should be, it's my job to let them know what I think the best practice is, and what would work best for our company. Anyway, this is just my two cents on this topic. Working in I.T. requires more of us than it used to. We can't be bearded hermits hiding in dark server rooms doing mysterious things all day. We have to be professionals who know how to interact with others and work for the good of our customers. That is, after all, what ITIL is out to help us do. Shawn Pierson -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Pancia Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 10:10 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy William hit the nail on the head. Most of these issues are people related. Either there was no buy in at levels, all levels were not involved in the decision/definition/implementation process, or the appropriate training was not given. Not knowing who the "Owner" is, is a communication/training issue or the definition is not well defined. It is true that organizations have been doing "Incident Management" since the beginning of time. It's not that by adopting ITIL an organization is implementing ITIL, but moving towards a process improvement strategy and standardize on process/procedures/terminology using ITIL as a guide. That improvement strategy needs to be ongoing. A lot of organizations setup these processes and forget about and force people to follow them. There is always room for improvement. If you don't take the lessons learned and improve the process they will eventually fail. As far as doing as your told, an organization hires people because they add some type of value. Most organizations do not necessarily want a do as your told person. However, it is critical that in order to make recommendations that a person understands the big picture and the why. It is also important that once a person understands that to make suggestions/solutions. There are a lot of people that will state something is wrong and needs to be fixed, but don't provide a viable solution. If you don't agree with "Owner" say why and provide another solution. Not all solutions are excepted but you should also be given a reason why, not ITIL doesn't say that. Not to continue the rant because I know a lot of this is in an ideal situation, but if people spend less time complaining about a problem and more time contributing to a solution more things would get done. -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of William Rentfrow Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 10:44 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy Isn't that generally a people issue? Not to start a flamewar but you'll find those individuals in any setting where there's heavy emotional committment + ideology. To name a few... -Religion -Politics -Global warming (both sides quite frequently) -Fishing (often referred to as [EMAIL PROTECTED] fishing!) -Hockey/Football/Etc... The key is to identify the zealot and deal with them accordingly :) Not to digress but I've tasted the ITIL Kool-aid and I think it's OK but I don't preach it. Time and time again I have been at customer sites the first week and been thinking "WHY ON EARTH WOULD ANYONE EVER DO PROCESS ________" only to find out there is usually a VERY good reason for the way people do things. Often those processes can be improved, streamlined, and made more efficient. However, nearly as often those processes were put in place due to legal/regulatory requirements, contractual obligations, union rules, external vendor service contracts, and a myriad of other reasons. Changing those requires lawyers and a budget of astronomical proportions. In one case it literally would have taken an act of Congress. Counter-intuitive non-ITIL stuff happens all the time. One company I was at had individual service teams in each building. These were small teams of 2-8 people depending on the building size. They did not deal with major issues like software debugging but did all of the small standard stuff. When the issue of centralizing was brought up they refused - they'd already done studies showing that the travel time from a central facility out to the customer's desks alone made it too expensive. This particular company did a lot of in-cube service. Some may disagree with their approach but this was their choice and the corporate culture demanded that level of service. This is starting to sound like a ramble. I'm ending it there. William Rentfrow Principal Consultant, StrataCom [EMAIL PROTECTED] O 952-432-0227 C 701-306-6157 ________________________________ From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of Scott Parrish Sent: Tue 5/6/2008 9:28 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy Norm, Have you run into this situation: ". . . But then when you challenge those decisions by asking, "Why are we doing XYZ?" you get a very vocal and forceful, "BECAUSE ITIL SAYS SO!" If so, how did you handle it. If not, how would you handle it? Scott Parrish IT Prophets, LLC (770) 653-5203 www.itprophets.com ***IMPORTANT NOTICE: This communication, including any attachment, contains information that may be confidential or privileged, and is intended solely for the entity or individual to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you should delete this message and are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, or distribution of this message is strictly prohibited. Nothing in this email, including any attachment, is intended to be a legally binding signature.*** _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"
