itil - Ivanka Menken

26Oct 2015 by Ivanka

Why ITIL Problem management needs the power of positive Psychology

itil, itsm

Earlier this month I attended the ITSMF QLD quarterly meeting and one of the speakers was Katherine O'Callaghan. To be completely honest with you - I wasn't looking forward to her presentation as she was positioned as an academic who was presenting on her PHD studies around incident management. You know me as a pragmatic person and the idea of listening to a PHD graduate didn't really excite me that much. I was wrong... her presentation was very good and insightful and not at all the boring dry story I anticipated. One of the things that resonated with me was her idea around 2 types of problem resolution: Problem focused Solution focused Most of us tend to use option 1 but her study has shown that when you use a…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

Itil – the Big River

itil, Uncategorized

Oh - this is simply too funny! Today I read the itsmportal and it talked about the discovery of itil... Russian Archeologists have discovered the remains of the city of itil - the former Capital of Khazaria (around the 8th century). So of course I went to the Wikipedia to see what it has to say about itil and it says that itil literally means "Big River"... and this is so appropriate! Having a Big river close to your village or town means trade and prosperity and this is exactly what ITIL- the IT Service Management Framework has been for a lot of organisations. The fact that they implemented the ITIL processes meant learning a new language that allowed them to communicate with the business to trade their goods and…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009

Uncategorized

You probably noticed that I am not as active with my blogs these days... the reason for that is simple: after 51 weeks of IT Service Management, ITIL and Cloud Computing - I am now spending 2 weeks fully focused on my family... Long lazy days at the pool sipping cocktails and glasses of champagne! Please join me in enjoying the final days of 2008 and I wish you all a fantastic, successful and amazing 2009! May all your dreams come true... in business and personal. As you can see this is a pretty old post but the idea is still the same: 51 weeks of the year we serve our customers, clients and students, but the week between Christmas and New Year is the middle of summer here in…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

What happened to Service Validation and testing in ITIL V3 Foundation Syllabus?

Uncategorized

Today was a very exciting but also very sad day for me... Our development team showed us the alpha version of the new ITIL V3 Foundation course material which is developed based on the new APMG/EXIN syllabus. This new course and the new exam is going to be launched on the first of May 2009 - so that is less than 15 days away!! The material looks amazing! Very clear and easy to follow, with new diagrams and new illustrations. It is not just a 'tweaked' program, but basically an entire new course. We used the updated syllabus, but also input from our accredited trainers, partners and students to create this new material. So that was the exciting part of it. I think it will be a lot better for…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

In times of recession – how does ITIL Service Management help to keep your good employees?

business, itil, itsm

Today I was interviewed by somebody from the itSMF about trends in the ITSM education and training industry. Inevitably the questions go the the current economic climate and the position of education in all this. To me this is really easy - but then again: I run an education company so I am slightly biased - ITSM education really helps organisations to make a difference. Note that I don't say 'training' as I don't have a lot of positive things to say about organisations who only focus on the training aspect.. teaching monkeys tricks... Of course there is a training aspect in each educational program but there is so much more to it! Being an educator means that you know your subject as well as have the ability to make…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

ITIL Capacity Management and Financial Management working together to block business processes

business, itil

I just checked into my hotel in Rio de Janeiro - great location: close to the beach and not too close to the busy streets. As I have to deliver a presentation tonight I wanted to do some work in preparation, so I asked the girl at reception about the internet connection. (normally I have to ask for a cable as I don't carry one with me) No problem with the cable as it is wireless internet so she gives me the userid and password for the connection. I am happy as my business processes can continue from my mobile/virtual office. But that happiness quickly vanished when she shouted at me - just before I stepped into the lift on my way to my room - "oh, and internet is…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

Why do training organisations pay mega $$ for ITIL accreditation?

itil, itsm

Caveat and pre-warning. This might turn into a little bit of a rant... Today I was notified that we didn't win a large training opportunity. This doesn't happen often, but still.. not happy with the results. And as always I try to figure out where I could have assisted the client better in their purchasing process. Good thing is that this time I know who I lost the opportunity to, so I decided to check out what the differences are in our approach. Now here's the deal: The Art of Service is accredited with EXIN for all ITIL V2 and ITIL V3 certification courses, both for our classroom delivery and our eLearning delivery methods. And yes, the full list is: ITIL V2 Foundation ITIL V2 Practitioner IPAD, IPPI, IPSR, IPRC…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

Set your service Free!! or: Free Willy – the ITIL way…

itil, itsm

Yesterday was day 2 of the Service Transition course and we were discussing the following processes: Transition Planning & Support Service Asset & Configuration Management Change Management Release & Deployment Management We had some fantastic discussions, shared valuable experiences and had an overall good time! Then... somebody asked what the difference was between 'releasing' something into the operational environment and 'deploying' something into operations. As none of us have English as their first language (this course is running in Mexico City) - we were in for an interesting discussion! One of the students went back to Spanish for an explanation: Release Management in Spanish is: gestión de la liberación. Oh, that got my creative juices flowing!! HA - liberación... set the software free! set the service free! Free willy!! Unshackle the bounds of…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

SLAs come with a process attached, says ITIL Service Management

itil, itsm

When you start looking at the reason why many SLAs fail to deliver upon their expectations, you often see that the Service Level Management process hasn't been implemented at the same time... This week I have been teaching a workshop on Service Level Agreements in Indonesia. An amazing experience, as it is always fantastic to see the journey that people go through during these two days. Initially the focus is purely on the document; the Service Level Agreement. But by the end of day 1 people start to realize that you need to go through the whole PLAN - DO - CHECK - ACT cycle to have a complete picture. In the past few days we answered the following questions: Q - How can you create SLAs when you don't…

17Mar 2015 by Ivanka

7 tips to achieve successful ITIL implementation

business, itil

According to the members survey performed by the itSMF Asia (and administered by ITsmF International), and the presentations during the ITsmF Asia summit, the following are guaranteed success-factors for your ITIL implementation: Everything you do in IT MUST fit in with the company's goals and objectives, and having the C-level board members involved in the decision saves a lot of time trying to convince managers and team leaders at the shop-floor that this is a good thing to do. Everything you do MUST fit in with the IT strategy The reason for ITIL implementation has to be YOUR reason - don't look at other organisations as you might be comparing apples to oranges. Cost saving is NOT a result/benefit/outcome of your ITSM implementation. Use external help - according to the ITsmF Asia…