Another dozen USM Thoughts Of The Day

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• USM Thought Of The Day [13]: A service department is not a maintenance department: 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫. This means that each of your teams is a service provider. But what answers do you get when you ask those teams to specify their services? In most cases, you’ll get very 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 – 𝐨𝐫 𝐧𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥. Use clear definitions to communicate the scope and responsibilities within your teams and avoid ambiguity. Read more on the concept of the link in service ecosystems, in the USM Wiki.
• USM Thought Of The Day [14]: "Millions of IT experts call Security Management a process. They are wrong. Security management is not a process, it is a practice. One of the 10 requirements to call something a process is that you can count it. Can you count securities? This would mean I can ask the question “How many securities have you done today?” and get a figure as a response. And I have asked this question many times, from the stage of the conferences where I was invited to speak in the last three decades. The audience would look at me, thinking “What is that crazy Dutchman asking now? That’s a silly question!”. Indeed – it was a silly question. Sillier than they perceived – because it couldn’t be answered. For the simple reason that the thing couldn’t be counted – and therefore, the thing wasn’t a process.” The USM Method specifies 10 requirements for something to be called a process. These 10 can demystify a whole lot of things called ‘process’. Read the USM Wiki to learn more.
• USM Thought Of The Day [15]: “USM is different from traditional approaches. People asking for a case that demonstrates the deployment of the USM Method, are actually confusing USM with the deployment of a common product. A product can be deployed in a limited time frame. USM specifies a step in evolution and that is a different piece of cake. You can’t complete that in a couple of months. Most organizations are living around level 2 of the USM Value Maturity Model. Moving to level 4, where USM resides, requires that they get rid of the burden of the traditional practice-based approach (like ITIL) and all of its devastating effects. That will take more than a few months. USM specifies the dot on the horizon, where you want to go. The road to that dot can only be taken in a step-by-step approach. And be sure: you’ll never get there. The only thing you can do is to move in the right direction. But USM will help you find that direction. The rest is up to you. The benefits are clear: continuously improving your performance with less time, effort, and money. It’s up to yourself to decide how to continue: follow the traditional path of practice-based approaches, or use the new thinking of USM to move to a new future that brings you in control of what you’re doing, making you less dependent on others, and improving your customer and employee satisfaction at the same time. I wish you a pleasant USM journey in 2025!” For more information, read the USM Wiki on the Value Maturity Model and ask yourself: “What is the maturity level of your own organization, or your customer?”.
• USM Thought Of The Day [16]: “Every role can be considered a function (job), and every function can be considered a role. Both are composed of the very same material: tasks and the associated responsibilities and authorities (TAR). For both, the same skills can be required. While roles are generally more often used to define a generic TAR pattern, and functions are more often used for individual TAR patterns, both can be exchanged if you want to do so. Therefore, the difference between the two is a matter of subjective interpretation that often leads to misunderstanding (see the mess of SFIA). USM avoids this by only using the concept of ‘profile’. A profile is composed of TAR, can be assigned to a staff member, and can be expressed as any combination of roles and functions – whatever you please. But avoiding the subjective interpretation in terms of roles and functions prevents the common misunderstanding.” Check the USM Wiki to learn more.
• USM Thought Of The Day [17]: "𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 "𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤"? 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞. They may have helped us get from maturity level 1 to level 2, but they are not able to help us further on the evolutionary ladder. To solve today’s complexity you need to make 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. And for that, you need to 𝑢𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘. Stop using practice-based frameworks like ITIL and start thinking from a systems approach, focusing on value creation for your internal and external customers, and for your partners in 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦. Solve the 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 challenges of today by understanding that “technology” will never be the answer. Break down the walls of your silos and 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝. The USM method forces you to 𝑢𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 and 𝑟𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 service management. It is based on Systems Thinking instead of on practices that have been useful 2-3 𝑑𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑔𝑜. You can of course continue to approach the new problems with the old techniques, but time will catch up on you – and you’ll be sorry for listening to the ITIL consultants like you were used to. Forget about ITIL or COBIT until you've learned to think the USM way. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 go back and benefit from the lessons learned." Check the USM Value Maturity Model to understand where you’re going.
• USM Thought Of The Day [18]: "There should be only one steering wheel and one captain on the ship of an organization.  The habit of using (best) practices for the improvement of organizations has created the opposite: fragmentation, loss of integration, lack of overview, and many captains on the same ship. USM has repaired this by getting to the old paradigm: one captain on the ship. Everything this is of relevance to the customer, in terms of happening in the live environment of te service delivery, is now steered in one integrated process: Operations management (OPS). OPS is a component of all 8 USM workflow templates, so it gets triggered from anything you (want to) do. The reward? Full integration, not just in terms of managing, but also in terms of your tooling. Everything is now planned on one integrated OPS Calendar. Just imagine the insight this provides you… " Read the blog, or check the USM Wiki to learn more.
• USM Thought Of The Day [19]: "A risk is often interpreted only as a threat, but it can be positive and negative. A negative risk is the well-known threat, and the positive risk is the opportunity. When you handle these risks, both have the very same effect: an improvement of your performance. Indirectly, both serve the customer, but they have a direct effect on your own performance. Therefore, you should analyze both threats and opportunities in one integrated process to drive improvement. Therefore, USM handles all risks in one integrated process: Risk Management. The output of the process is either a request to adjust the service agreement (workflow 6), or a change request (workflow 7), or a service request (workflow 8) - or nothing.” This is just one of the examples of how USM creates one integrated and integral process model for anything a service provider does in terms of service management. That process model is unique in the sense that is now is completely non-redundant and therefore maximum efficient. For more information, check the USM Wiki.
• USM Thought Of The Day [20]: “Discussions about 'value streams' are futile when the organization hasn't reached the maturity level where this can be realized. And as long as the large majority of organizations is still around level 2 of the Value Maturity Model, most of these discussions are just theory that largely isn't even understood by most. Read the USM Wiki to learn about the Value Maturity Model.
• USM Thought of the Day [21]: “When companies want to build an Information Security Management System (ISMS), to run an ISO27k project or something similar, they are making a huge mistake. If they think they can create a management system that focuses on one aspect of quality - in this case, 'security' - they are only increasing the internal chaos that was probably already there. A management system should be able to encompass all of the organization's quality objectives. In a comprehensive and integrated way. Not as another island in your company's archipelago. To create your management system, you first and foremost need an understanding of Systems Thinking and Management Architecture. And after that, you need a healthy dose of complexity reduction skills - skills that are rare to come by. But if you succeed in that, you may be taking your first step toward the goal of an ISMS.” Read more about the concept of a management applicable to an information security management objectivein the USM Wiki.
• USM Thought Of The Day [22]: "𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. It was in the eighties of the 20th century that Porter made that mistake – but some still haven’t learned the difference. The last 3 decades, stuffed with bests practices, haven’t delivered on their promise, so it may be obvious 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. Standards won’t help us here: when you explore 100 ISO standards for the definition of ‘service’, you’ll get at least 50 different answers. Frameworks like ITIL and TOGAF keep the concept of ‘service’ 𝐯𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, so every consultant and every organization will come up with their own local interpretation of a global concept that dominates our economy and society. This has created 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 (or more limited supply chains). And actually, it’s very simple to find a universal, operable definition of service. The only thing you need to do to get that, is to learn to understand the new thinking of USM. 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧." Read the USM Wiki to learn about the revolutionary USM thinking. If that sinks in, you’ll never think about (enterprise) service management the same way again.
• USM Thought Of The Day [23]: "IT people just keep 'fleeing forward’ towards 'new solutions', without having secured the previous solution in a sustainable and manageable way. We have all seen the IT department jump from one new solution to the next, abandoning the old, never having created a sustainable and manageable solution in the first place. As a result, we’re now facing huge complexity. Actually, complexity has become the main business model of the supplier’s guild. Luckily, there’s a way out when you learn to think differently with the new thinking of USM. USM is about facing our past and solving our current issues, instead of running towards the next Shiny New Thing That Really Helps, with no hope of long-term results. Let go of the past, and take a deep dive. You’ll be surprised ho easy it will be to find sustainable solutions for so many problems.”Check the concept of the link.
• USM Thought Of The Day [24]: "𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 and thus acts as the provider of 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬. The customers of this provider are the 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬: the people, companies and organizations in the country. Laws and regulations are the 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 between government and citizens. This should be a basic principle, but too often, government organizations don't see themselves as a service provider.” USM sees government as any other service provider, with citizens, companies, and other organizations as their customers. If we apply this principle, then we finally start putting the public first. Read the free download “Government as a Service provider”.