PM: PMBOK, PRINCE2, Agile and Scrum

PM: PMBOK, PRINCE2, Agile and Scrum

BRM: Business Research Methods

BRM: Business Research Methods

I'll be using this blog to document my summary of the Business Research Methods subject.

Well - that's been postponed until next year for now :-(

ITSM: Articles, Literature and Websites

ITSM: Articles, Literature and Websites

I'll use this blog to list any interesting articles, literature and websites I come across.

ITIL: Incident versus Problem Management

ITIL: Incident versus Problem Management

I've noticed that although ITIL has been around for more than 20 years, there's still a lot of confusion about what Incident Management is all about and how it differs from Problem Management.

I hope that the following list, which I'll keep adding to, will help you to understand and if necessary "sell" these differences. Given more time I'll start categorizing them under People, Processes, Products, and Partners (or feel free to do this for me).

Feel free to dispute any item on this list, and also feel welcome to send me more recommendations to be added to this list. It's only a start and I won't rest until I've found at least 100 differences between these two processes!

Incident Management	Problem Management
Mainly reactive	Mainly proactive
Strong focus towards business and user community	Strong focus towards IT and technology experts
Uses the Known Error Database (KEDB)	Populates the Known Error Database (KEDB)
Restores services as quickly as possible	Less emphasis on speed, more emphasis on finding real solutions
Not responsible for creating known error records	Responsible for creating known error records
Predominantly applies temporary fixes, also known as workarounds or band-aid fixes	Is all about finding more structural permanent solutions
Typically deals with single individual incidents	Performs analysis on large volumes of incidents to detect trends and/or patterns
Applies a high level of people language	Applies a high level of technical language
Has a strong relationship with SLAs	Has a strong relationship with OLAs and contracts
Processes reoccurring incidents	Eliminates reoccurring incidents
Frequency and impact of related incidents typically not taken into account when prioritizing a (new) incident	Frequency and impact of related incidents typically taken into account when prioritizing a (new) problem
Users are able to generate incidents	Users are not able to generate problems
Increases support costs due to the repetitive nature of resolving repetitive incidents without providing a structural long-term solution	Reduces support costs with resolving repetitive incidents in a structural long-term manner
incident records may be the same	problem records should be unique
The focus is short-term	The focus is long-term
Escalates incidents to other teams (still part of the incident management process) to ensure timely service restoration	Submits change requests into the change management process with proposed solutions that eliminate known errors
Does not influence the number of incidents that are reported by users	Does influence the number of incidents that are reported by users
Investigation and diagnosis are often performed in parallel	Investigation and diagnosis are often performed sequentially
An incident can be closed although it may be unclear what has caused it (the so called root cause is often unknown)	Problems cannot be closed without a clear understanding of its root cause
Major incident reviews are not mentioned as part of ITIL's incident management process flow (incident model)	Major problem reviews are mentioned as part of ITIL's problem management process flow (problem model)
Many incidents may be linked to the same problem	Many problems are typically not linked to the same incident
Not responsible for maintenance of the Known Error Database (KEDB)	Responsible for maintenance of the Known Error Database (KEDB)
Doesn't improve the overall stability of the IT infrastructure	Does improve the overall stability of the IT infrastructure
Able to boost user satisfaction short-term	Able to boost user satisfaction long-term
Process members often "static"	Process members often "dynamic"
Most effort comes from lower (and typically cheaper) level support teams	Most effort comes from higher (and typically more expensive) support teams
Incident resolution techniques are more repetitive across incidents	Problem resolution techniques are more unique for each problem
Often includes full-time roles	Often includes part-time roles
Often performed with use of internal resources	Often performed with the support of external resources
Predominantly operates at a user level	Predominantly operates at an enterprise level
Has access to many effective commercial of the shelves (COTS) incident management systems	Has access to fewer effective commercial of the shelves (COTS) problem management systems

ISO/IEC 20000 series: Writer's Blog Block :-)

Mmmm... I'm still pretty blank and busy, so I thought what the heck let's use this month's blog for a bit of an update and research on the various ISO/IEC 20000 standards, available and under development.

What's available at this moment:

ISO/IEC 20000-1:2005 ITSM -- Part 1: Specification (16 pages)
ISO/IEC 20000-2:2005 ITSM -- Part 2: Code of practice (34 pages)

Australian equivalents:

AS ISO/IEC 20000.1-2007 ITSM - Specification
AS ISO/IEC 20000.2-2007 ITSM - Code of practice

More ISO standards:

ISO/IEC TR 20000-3:2009 ITSM -- Part 3: Guidance on scope definition and applicability of ISO/IEC 20000-1 (32 pages)

ISO/IEC TR 20000-4:2010 ITSM -- Part 4: Process reference model (30 pages) "Just released (25/11/2010)!"

ISO/IEC TR 20000-5:2010 ITSM -- Part 5: Exemplar implementation plan for ISO/IEC 20000-1 (38 pages)

All standards are available as downloadable PDFs and cost between CHF 86.00 and CHF 124.00.

It seems unlikely that the new -1, -2, -3, -4, and -5 standards will be adopted by Standards Australia. After all, adding AS to the existing ISO standards doesn't really impact a lot on the contents if these contents stay untouched.

What's in development at this moment:

ISO/IEC FDIS 20000-1:YYYY ITSM -- Part 1: Service management system requirements (26 pages)

ISO/IEC FCD 20000-2:YYYY ITSM -- Part 2: Guidance on the application of service management systems

My question to ISO on when the new ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO/IEC 20000-2 standards will be released received the following response:

"We don’t have an exact date. Probably at the beginning of the 2nd quarter 2011.
To be notified of any change in the stage code of standards and other deliverables, you can subscribe to the RSS Feed: http://www.iso.org/iso/rss_feeds"

Other remarks relating to the 20000-X series of standards:

Withdrawn standards (20000 series): None
Project deleted (last 12 months) (20000 series): None

IT Governance standard (okay, I know, it's not a 20000 one!):

Another interesting standard is ISO/IEC 38500:2008 (Corporate governance of information technology). Good reading, but don't expect the world as yet - it's only 15 pages, but it does include some likable models!

Acronyms:

AS, Australian Standard
DIS, Draft International Standard
FCD, Final Committee Draft
FDIS, Final Draft International Standard
IEC, International Electrotechnical Commission
ISO, International Organization for Standardization
ITSM, Information Technology Service Management
JTC, Joint Technical Committee
TC, Technical Committee
TR, Technical Report
TS, Technical Specification

Interesting websites:

http://www.iec.ch
http://www.iso.org
http://www.itil-officialsite.com
http://www.itsmfi.org

More specifically:

http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/processes_and_procedures.htm
http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/processes_and_procedures/how_are_standards_developed.htm
http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/processes_and_procedures/stages_description.htm
http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development/processes_and_procedures/stages_description/stages_table.htm
Etc.

PMI: Writer's Blog Block :-)

Writer's Blog Block :-)

I just noticed that PMI's Project Management has:

5 process groups
9 knowledge areas
42 processes
206 inputs
179 tools & techniques
132 outputs

That’s a whopping 573 items to know for the CAPM/PMP exam! This number is excluding definitions, terminology and acronyms.

I just noticed that PMI's Program Management has:

5 process groups
12 knowledge areas
57 processes
273 inputs
255 tools & techniques
187 outputs

That’s a whopping 789 items to know for the PgMP exam! This number is excluding definitions, terminology and acronyms.

I just noticed that PMI's Portfolio Management has:

2 process groups
2 knowledge areas
14 processes
58 inputs
48 tools & techniques
40 outputs

That’s a whopping 164 items to know for the "undefined" exam! This number is excluding definitions, terminology and acronyms.

Yeah - why not total the whole thing!

12 process groups
23 knowledge areas
113 processes
537 inputs
482 tools & techniques
359 outputs

That’s a whopping 1526 items to know for the key PMI exams on project, program and portfolio level! This number is excluding definitions, terminology and acronyms.

My unscientific and nonacademic conclusion is: Don't become a program manager LOL!

EDUCATION: Blended Intelligent Training and Education (BITE)

Blended Intelligent Training and Education (BITE)

Make sure you have at least one "Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster" (Adams, 1952) or preferable as many as possible without ending up in Lala-space (surely a very likely space that's an outcome of "elasticated string-theory" (Pratchett, 2010)), before you even consider the infinitesimal - yes extremely unlikely - possibility of reading on! For those that do: be prepared for the unexpected!

Introduction

I've thought hard and long, about 5.39124(27)x10-44 seconds (that's called Planck time for those that want to do a bit of research on this number) about reading - oops writing - this paper. I have no - I'll repeat - NO - intention to be serious in any shape or form, except for those occasions where seriousness can't be avoided, and I'll do my utmost best to avoid them for the sake of human existence and survival of our species. If you're still reading, then somehow I've caught your attention and it's time to start adding some knowledge transfer into this text, as this text is all about the art and science of transferring knowledge and skills in new and hopefully somewhat challenging and thought provoking ways. Personally I believe that education as we know it, is about to receive its biggest shakeup we've seen (or actually not seen, but should have seen) in the last century or so! Being somewhat sensitive to the many educational "omens" that seem to float in the air around me, and poke me in the back when I'm not paying enough attention to them, the signs are clear: this article wants, no even better, demands to be written.

Past: The era of lemmings!

I guess from the early 1900s until the 1950s/1960s most educational systems would submerge (feel free to read drown/suffocate) their students into a drone, military-style like system, where you would sit, pay attention, somehow absorb the materials and keep your mouth zipped. The teacher/educator/lecturer was Om (The God of all Gods) on his/her throne and "deserved" utmost respect from their loyal students (feel free to read "fear 'motivated' slaves"). Questioning the skills, knowledge and/or attitude of Om would be blasphemy, or at least a "crime" to which death was the only penalty that would lead to your salvation. Yeah, I know, I'm exaggerating just a wee bit, but I hope it's getting the message across. It wasn't all that bad, and I'm sure 'most' students survived their educational journey with quite some knowledge and skills sledge-hammered into their brains, ready to conquer the world. A large chunk of knowledge, skills and attitude transfer was uni-directional (including attributes like values, respect, rights and responsibilities) moving down from Om to its army of trustworthy followers. Surely, some type of resistance was to be nothing more than expected. The time of being a lemming, being drilled for 12 hours a day, was soon to become history, something that happened to others in the past.

Present: Chaos rules!

Future: The student decides!

Why BITE?

What is BITE?

Emotional intelligence (EQ)

ICT's critical role

From teacher to coach/mentor

Engagement is key!

Conclusion

Literature

Online references