This is the second part of a series proposing a Manifesto for Service Management Agility. It draws upon the Manifesto for Agile Software Development and proposes a modified version of that manifesto’s propositions, based on the issues characterizing the management of services. In this installation, I will discuss the third proposition, “Customer collaboration over contract […]
Service Management
A Manifesto for Service Management Agility—Part I
The Agile Manifesto has borne not just fruit, but complete orchards and plantations. But as we know, that document intended to be a manifesto for agile software development. Let us examine how that manifesto may be adapted for service management. What would a Manifesto for Service Management Agility be?1 The Manifesto for Agile Software Development […]
Lean configuration management: a conundrum
How does a purely internal activity like configuration management add value to customers? Would a customer gladly pay you for your configuration management activities? Keeping your configurations under control is hardly value adding in the same way as, for example, increasing the utility of a service. And yet, good configuration management underpins virtually all service […]
Lean Release Management
What is lean release management? “Lean release management” is an oxymoron. It refers to a set of activities that either should not be performed when managing work in a lean way, or are part of other processes. In a lean context, release management as an independent process should not exist.1 I would be begging the […]
Lean Service Request Management
With this article on lean service request management, I continue my analyses of lean service management processes. My earlier discussion of lean incident management may be found here. Any discussion of managing service requests should take into account John Seddon’s Freedom from Command and Control: Rethinking Management for Lean Service. My debt to that book […]
Lean Incident Management
A vicious cycle in incident management Lean incident management is the resolution of incidents in a manner respecting lean principles. Being lean allows us to significantly reduce the extent of the control activities in the process and the number of organizational roles created to exercise those control activities. For, I have often seen a vicious […]
Using BPMN notation to help manage services
BPMN: a step toward automation I have argued elsewhere that the typical service management tools in use today might be suitable for service desk agents, but are annoying, redundant and of little value to anyone else involved in resolving incidents, among other activities. I have further proposed that existing IT management should be leveraged to […]
Problem Management Metrics
Consider the case in the callout. While reading it, think about what might be wrong with that way of measuring problem management.