As most of the first ‘USM thoughts of the day’ have been posted during the end-of-the-year holiday season, this newsletter will republish the first dozen. Click the link in the list to comment, or read the posts here.
4. Non-redundancy determines your process model
5. Manage everything with just 8 workflows
8. Never buy a module-based tool
9. Supplier’s strategies benefit their turnover
11. The Shiny New Thing That Really Helps
12. There is no such thing as ‘the bet tool in the market’.
USM Thought Of The Day [1]
“Forget about ITIL and COBIT until you've learned to think the USMway.“
USM Thought Of The Day [2]
"Every team, no matter their role, is a link in a larger ecosystem, supporting others to achieve a common goal. By understanding their interoperability, we can better optimize our service delivery and make it more effective."
USM Thought Of The Day [3]
"A system is more than the sum of its parts.It's the product of their interactions. An architect without Systems Thinking is a designer. The 𝐔𝐒𝐌 𝐂𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫-𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 should be the foundation of your service management strategy."
USM Thought Of The Day [4]
"Maximum efficiency comes from a non-redundant process model. Ensure each activity is used only once in your process model for maximum impact. Redundancy is the archenemy of efficiency. Make sure there is only one captain on the Operations ship.”
USM Thought Of The Day [5]
"Standardize your workflows, then empower your teams. Use the same eight workflow templates to manage everythingand enable efficient and effective routines for your Enterprise Service Management strategy."
USM Thought Of The Day [6]
"Processes are verbs. Processes are composed of activities, things you do, so they have to be verbs and you can count how often you've done that. If you can't count it, it's likely not a process. How many securities did you manage today? How many capacities did you do today?"
USM Thought Of The Day [7]
"𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮. If your own people are not learning how to solve their own problems, you'll always be a victim of traditional, complexity-based consulting strategies and the vendor lock-in." Forget about ITIL and COBIT until you've learned to think the USM way. Read the USM Wiki to learn how to save yourself.
USM Thought Of The Day [8]
"Don't let tools drive your service management.Design your system first, then find the right tool. And don’t take Gartner’s advise for granted, as they only ruminate the results of 3 decades of ITIL’s inefficiencies. If your tool provider’s business model follows has a module-based approach – be warned."
USM Thought Of The Day [9]
“Traditional consulting is based on the seller’s benefits: the more hours they sell, the more money they make. The customer has the opposite interest: they should learn to solve their own problems. To achieve that, these customers require guidance from knowledgeable experts: coaches, and not the traditional consultants. This explains the high project failure rate and the frequent fallback behavior of customers: when the consultant leaves the project, the customer hasn’t learned to take responsibility – which is in the interest of the seller: the consultancy agency. Solving this requires a shift in maturity of the customer. They can start that shift by studying USM. Check the USM Wiki, strategy 1“
USM Thought Of The Day [10]
“Don’t be a lemming. Einstein said ‘If you do what you did, you will get what you got.’ Take the next step in evolution. Change your approach. Think before you act. Forget about ITIL and COBIT until you've learned to think the USM way." Check the USM Wiki.
USM Thought Of The Day [11]
“Each new year brings new attempts of the traditional consultants to disguise their old failures as the next 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐲 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐬. We’ve seen this with ‘value streams’, ‘capability’, ‘enterprise service management’, and with frameworks like ITIL4, SIAM, and IT4IT. Do not be misled by these new formats, as they still create technology-based complexity that only drives the supplier’s turnover. 𝐈𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟. Understand your business as a 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦, get rid of the 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐲 in your work and products, 𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 your suppliers, and start 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 in you service ecosystem, because you cannot do anything by yourself any more.”
More on the concept of the link, for efficient collaboration in service ecosystems, in the USM Wiki.
USM Thought Of The Day [12]
“𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐓𝐒𝐌 𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐒𝐌 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓: don’t ever trust a tool provider, or a consultant – or Gartner for that matter - when they say ‘This is the best tool in the market’. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 ‘𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭’. There only is ‘a product that may suit your requirements at this point of your evolution’. And believe me – your requirements will change when you take that next step in evolution. Any enterprise service management tool that wants to be considered customer-driven is basically 𝐚 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭: it only requires a set of 𝟖 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞. ” Read the USM Wiki for more information on tooling and workflows.