ITIL V4 update - Why & What Is The Reason? - here all you need to know

Reason for ITIL 4?

While ITIL Foundation level gives a high-level overview, and Practitioner focuses on how to practically adopt and adapt the ITIL framework and as per response from all around the world from organizations and IT professionals, ITIL helps them to improve their business and provide a better service to the customers but current era is digital era right?

Every organization or companies want to transform their businesses on digital platform, so it’s very difficult for the service provider to make new changes in their process to provide a better service for each and every new customer.

That’s why service provider adopted various framework like DevOps, Agile, Lean etc. to improve their productivity and better delivery on time and to keep up with that the new ITIL 4 is here with such adoptions and for establishing IT service management system.

What’s New in ITIL 4?

ITIL is really thinking about the future and that’s why the big change is coming in early 2019

The first major update to ITIL is announced by Peter Hepworth from AXELOS at the it SMF USA fusion 2017 conference and ITIL includes of renewed focus on following core principles:

◈ How to maintain the core principles of quality service management.

◈ Practical approach on how to use ITIL from large to small organizations.

◈ How ITIL can be used along with frameworks such as DevOps, Agile and Lean.

How is the ITIL 4 Certification scheme?

ITIL 4 has been developed to help organizations to achieve the excellence in better solution provider in the increasing demand from the current complex digital environment.

The new ITIL scheme has been designed to be compatible with ITIL V3 and efficient to encourage go beyond ITIL foundation level.

The ITIL 4 Certification Scheme comprises of the following modules:

◈ ITIL Foundation

◈ ITIL Specialist modules

◈ ITIL Strategist

◈ ITIL Leader

◈ ITIL Master

Purpose of ITIL 4 Foundation:

◈ ITIL 4 foundation will be released by Axelos in first quarter of 2019.

◈ ITIL 4 foundation is the entry level certification, offering individuals and end learners a basic awareness of the key elements, core concepts and the terminology used in ITIL 4.

◈ ITIL 4 Foundation level is aimed at entry level professionals, those who require a basic understanding of ITIL, or would like to go for higher levels within the ITIL 4 certification scheme.

◈ The main purpose of ITIL 4 is to introduce candidates to modern IT-Enabled Service Management.

What are the timelines of release for the itil v4 certification scheme modules?

The ITIL 4 modules will be released according to the below top-level timelines. More detailed release dates of the modules and new exams will be released to ATOs with the launch of ITIL 4 Foundation. ATOs will be provided with accreditation details, guidance and sales enablement information in sufficient time to be able to support the release of the further ITIL 4 modules.

◈ ITIL Foundation – Q1 2019

◈ ITIL Specialist modules (3) – H2 2019

◈ ITIL Strategist – H2 2019

◈ ITIL Leader – H2 2019

◈ ITIL Master – details to be released at a later date

I know you are thinking about why you are talking about ITIL4 Certification.. so lets see some interesting fact and features

Features of ITIL 4:

• ITIL 4 will help businesses navigate the new technological era, commonly known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The speed of current breakthroughs is disrupting almost every industry on a global scale.
• The Fourth Industrial Revolution is marked by emerging technology in fields including robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things (IoT), 3D printing, autonomous vehicles and much more.
• ITIL 4 will provide a practical and flexible basis to support organizations on their journey into the new world of digital transformation by helping them align their human, digital and physical resources to compete within the modern complex landscape and adopt this emerging technologies into their IT operations.
• The context of ITIL, with the release of ITIL 4 is now much bigger, with an emphasis on the business and technology world, how it works today, and how it will work in the future with Agile, DevOps and digital transformation.
• ITIL 4 will be much more relevant to developers, practitioners and businesses as a whole through promoting a holistic view of delivering products and services.
• ITIL 4 will be much more relevant to developers, practitioners and businesses as a whole through promoting a holistic view of delivering products and services.

Continue reading

Project Management Triangle: Overview of the Triple Constraints

Also called the iron triangle or project triangle, the triple constraint refers to these three elements of a project:

1. Cost
2. Scope or quality
3. Time

The theory is that you have to compromise on at least one of these things, which creates a trilemma. You might know this from hearing some variation of the cliché “fast, cheap or good: pick two”. Of course, a bad project will compromise on all constraints, overrunning on time and budget, and then delivering a bad final product.

Project management triangle example

Let’s take an example of a client that wants an ecommerce site. Here’s how the iron triangle impacts this project.

Compromising on time

“I want this website to support purchases and I want it done cheap.”

“We’ll need to make the website secure and compliant with the law. If you’re not going to pay for more help, people will have to double up on work, and that will take time.”

Compromising on scope/quality

“I want this website done cheap and quick.”

“If you’re not paying much, we’ll have to either rely on junior developers or really cut back on what the website can do, possibly just using a template site with limited ecommerce features.”

Compromising on cost

“I want this website to support purchases and I want it done quick.”

“We’ll have to either employ more staff or push our other work out of the way. You’ll have to pay for that, or it won’t be worth it for us.”

Why does the project management triangle sometimes use scope and quality interchangeably?

Scope and quality aren’t always the same thing. A simple project with a limited scope can still have extensive quality control. Some alternatives to the triple constraint do distinguish between scope and quality. Others put quality at the centre of a time/cost/scope triangle, like so:

The reason scope and quality are often used synonymously is that customers think in terms of deliverables. Deliverables are defined as ‘qualities/features that make the product fit for purpose’. To customers, the product is higher quality if it has more working features. So if you think of scope as ‘what the project team can achieve’, it makes sense for quality to also fall under that definition.

Alternatives to the project management triangle

Project management diamond

The project management diamond is essentially the triangle, but it lists scope and quality as two different factors.

At the centre, people will usually put either ‘expectations’ or ‘customer satisfaction’. Either way, this model prioritises the customer, rather than the product itself.

Project management star

The PMBOK® Guide uses a popular alternative model to the triple constraint. It lists six constraints, made from two overlapping triangles in a star shape.

As you can see, the project management star also distinguishes between scope and quality. Here, it says scope is constrained by the budget and schedule, while quality is assured by managing risks and resources.

How to manage the triple constraints

Of the three constraints, it is much more important to manage scope. This is why:

Scope lets the team to know what they’re doing. Even if the deadline is short or the budget is lacking, the project manager can still keep everyone informed, which is necessary to progressing the project.

Managing scope creep. Clients can change their minds at the last minute, especially since they’re more likely to understand the consequences of cutting the budget or moving a deadline. They may not realise the harm they do when they move the goalposts.

Withstanding sudden changes in a project. Bringing in more people or throwing more money at the project can actually slow it down. So along with compromising the budget, this can hugely impact the time and scope.

How to determine and apply the triple constraint

This depends entirely on the type of project. The three project constraints need to be discussed in detail with the client before the project starts. They need to know what it will cost in terms of time and scope, as well as budget. You’ll also want to establish that there won’t be any sudden or drastic changes during the project.

Remember that a bad project compromises on all three constraints, and that throwing money and extra time at a project often makes things worse. So stakeholder communication is key. Everyone needs to be fully aware of how the project complies, as the three constraints apply to and affect everyone.

Continue reading

Stakeholders in Project Management

It is imperative for you to identify all stakeholders at the beginning of the project and create a strategy to manage them for the success of your project. It will help you run the project with minimum obstruction because the sooner you identify them; the sooner you can start communication and involve them with your project. With this, they will feel connected to the project, can understand the benefit of your project, and will render support whenever you need it.

Your projects’ success depends on all your stakeholders are happiness.

It may happen that even though you have completed the project and the client accepts all deliverables, the project is not successfully completed because some of your stakeholders are not happy.

Therefore, it is imperative for you to keep all your stakeholders satisfied if you want to complete your project successfully.

Now many questions may arise such as: Who are the stakeholders and what types of stakeholders exist? Whom do you have to satisfy to complete your project successfully?

Therefore, I am writing this blog post to answer these types of questions, and I hope after reading it you will have answers to your queries regarding the project stakeholders.

Stakeholders

According to the PMBOK Guide “A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project.”

In other words, you can say that a stakeholder is a person, group of people or an organization that has an interest in your project or is affected by its outcome either directly or indirectly; this may include your project team members, project sponsors, your organization members, and people outside of your organization as well.

The stakeholder list may be low if the project is small. However, if the project is large and spread out in a large geographical area, you may have a huge number of stakeholders, which may include communities or the general public.

All stakeholders are not equal; every stakeholder has different requirements and expectations. You should treat every stakeholder according to their requirements and expectations. Failing to do so can jeopardize your project’s success.

If you know every stakeholder, their needs, expectations, and requirements, it will increase the chance of the project’s success. If you miss any important stakeholder, you may face many difficulties in the later stages of the project such as delay in the project, cost overrun, and in the most severe cases, they may terminate the project.

Type of Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders can be grouped into two categories:

1. Internal Stakeholders
2. External Stakeholders

Internal Stakeholders

Internal stakeholders are internal to the organization. For example:

◈ A sponsor

◈ An internal customer or client (if the project arose due to an internal need of an organization)

◈ A project team

◈ A program manager

◈ A portfolio manager

◈ Management

◈ Another group’s manager internal to the organization (e.g., functional manager, operational manager, admin manager, etc.).

External Stakeholders

These stakeholders are external to the organization. For example:

◈ An external customer or client (if project arose due to a contract)

◈ An end user of project’s outcome

◈ A supplier

◈ Subcontractors

◈ The government

◈ Local communities

◈ The media

Stakeholders can be positive or negative.

A positive stakeholder sees the project’s positive side and benefit from its success. These stakeholders help the project management team to complete the project successfully.

On the other hand, a negative stakeholder sees the negative outcome of the project and may be negatively impacted by the project or its outcome. This type of stakeholder is less likely to contribute to your success of the project.

I have been asked many times whether competitors are negative stakeholders. Please note that competitors are not negative stakeholders because you have to manage your stakeholders proactively to complete your project successfully, but you do not manage your competitors or fulfill their requirements; the objective of your project is not to meet your competitors’ requirements.

In some cases, the general public can be a stakeholder. In this case, it would be impractical to manage the whole population so you will consult their public figures or leaders to understand their requirements and expectations better. Some examples of this type of project are related to mining, the environment, road, rail, dam building, etc.

It is vital for you to identify your project stakeholders at a very early stage of the project.

Some of these stakeholders will have a minimum interest or influence on the project. However, you have to take care of them as well, because no one knows when they will become dominant stakeholders and if the dominant stakeholders will become less influential.

Continue reading

Chart Your Course For Success: Must-Have Project Management Qualifications to Boost Your Career

Project Management Qualifications to Boost Your Career

Project management has become one of the fastest growing profession with an increased demand for qualified project managers.

Irrespective of your current career stage, you will find that the proper project management qualifications are guaranteed to boost your career.

A recent study conducted in the U.K. showed that there was a steady increase of 15% in the rate at which projects fail. Part of this failure is attributed to the lack of proper qualifications for project managers.

So, as a project manager, how do you ensure success in your projects? One of the ways is to invest in the must-have PM qualifications that will guarantee you a successful career.

Wondering which project management qualifications will help you achieve career success? Read on to find out must-have qualifications in the industry today!

1. Training

Training is the first step you need to take to become a project manager. Two types of training will earn you different sets of skills. They are discussed below.

Formal

This is the kind of training you get from an institution of higher learning. There are so many courses of study dedicated to the skill of project management.

These courses range from degrees, diplomas, and other types of certification programs.

Informal

You may work for some institutions that offer in-house programs for project management.

These programs are meant to help you transition from your current position into taking up project management roles and responsibilities.

Some institutions will go the extra mile of offering you shadowing and mentoring programs. You can also get informal training from volunteering in project management work.

2. Skills

These days, the majority of employers are looking for the following distinct skills in project management:

Business Skills

Every institution has a business component in project management. This means that for you to have a successful career in project management, you must have business skills and knowledge such as project financials.

You must have an in-depth understanding of loss and profit account to enable you to stick to the project’s budget.

Here are some business skills you’ll need.

Project management skills begin with an understanding of the profession. Having project management skills means that you can meet the four major competencies, which include the following:

◈ Time management

◈ Cost management

◈ Scope

◈ Quality oriented

You need time management skills to ensure you complete projects within the stipulated time. This is the time required to complete a project

You also need to have skills on how to manage the financial investment side of the project.

Do you know the scope of the project? You need to have knowledge of what the project entails. Scope refers to the groundwork required to complete your project.

Finally, being quality oriented means that you are capable of meeting all the needs of your customer.

Leadership Skills

Being a project manager means that you will be in charge of other employees working on the project. This directly translates to you being a leader.

Therefore, you need to equip yourself with leadership skills such as conflict resolution, communication, negotiation and persuasion.

Risk Management Skills

If you’re in a position to identify risks and manage them effectively, it shows that you are in complete control of the project.

Employers will be attracted to you if you have exemplary risk management skills.

You must always stay ahead of the game and have the ability to predict potential risks for the project and come up with relevant solutions even before problems arise.

3. Level of Experience

The level of experience matters a lot. Most employers will want to know how long you’ve been in the industry. That’s why when they hire, they will indicate a certain number of years of experience as part of qualification requirements.

The level of expertise is classified into four groups, as discussed below.

Internship

If you’re a fresh graduate, this would be the most suitable level to start your career in project management.

You can look for paid internship opportunities in various businesses or institutions that are looking for people to help with their project management.

Internship opportunities could lead to full-time employment if you impress your employers.

However, if you don’t land that full-time job, the internship opportunity will add real experience to your CV.

What if it’s difficult to get an internship opportunity, what else can you do to obtain experience?

You can also volunteer. This is the easiest way of gaining the experience needed. Most organizations prefer volunteers to paid professionals for short-term projects to reduce the costs involved.

Are you working in a different department other than project management in your company? Are you interested in acquiring project management skills? You can find volunteering opportunities at your current place of work.

You need to ensure you deliver on the responsibility of your current job before taking up volunteering opportunities to enhance your project management skills.

Entry Level

As a newcomer in the industry, you’re likely to seek entry-level positions in project management. This requires you to have some experience like internship or volunteering.

Advanced Level

If you’ve had experience in project management for several years, then look for more advanced positions.

You stand a higher chance of qualifying if you have a higher number of years in experience.

4. Certification

Certification in project management is the best way to advance your career. You can take any course in project management that is particularly useful in your line of work.

You don’t need a postgraduate qualification to get a project management job, but if your first degree is unrelated, it’s advisable to do a master’s to increase your chances of success.

There are several postgraduate project management courses offered, which are more specific to various roles in various departments.

Other courses are offered under associations and institutions that are internationally recognized and certified. Such are discussed below.

PMI

The project management institute is an international institution that offers professional advancement in project management.

This institute offers formal training to project managers across various fields such as healthcare, finance, telecommunications, IT and the construction industry.

A PMI certification is guaranteed to equip you with the following advantages:

Credibility

PMI certifications are internationally recognized, and therefore, they’re an unbiased way to prove that you have the knowledge and professional experience in project management.

Competitive Advantage

We all want to earn a decent salary and have career advancement opportunities.

PMI certifications are guaranteed to give you a competitive advantage and earn you the much-coveted employer recognition.

Relevance

You don’t want to go for just any common PM certification. Instead, you should go for a PM certification that has been developed and acknowledged by practitioners and is upheld by the rigorous standards in the industry.

PMI certifications offer you the relevance you need to advance in your career.

APM

The association of project management is an internationally recognized standard that offers professional project management qualifications.

APM is the U.K. member of IPMA, which is the international body for program, project and portfolio management.

Some of the certifications that APM offers include the following:

APM Project Management Qualification

This is a knowledge-based qualification that allows you as a candidate to demonstrate your in-depth knowledge and understanding of all the elements in project management.

APM Project Fundamentals Qualification

It’s an introductory course in project management where you get to learn all the terminologies used.

You don’t need any prior project management or experience to take this course.

APM Practitioner Qualification

This is for the experienced professionals’ with over three years of experience.

APM Project Professional Qualification

This course covers the specific and most important competencies that you require as a project manager.

It’s a course you can take if you’re working in project management and you want to become a member of APM.

PRINCE2

This certification offers you a structured methodology that you can apply in end-to-end projects. There are courses available at the foundation, practitioner and agile levels.

The foundation level is for new recruits, while the practitioner level is suitable if you’re a working professional.

Agile

Agile certifications focus on continuously improving your PM skills. If you work in fast moving environments such as IT, you’re guaranteed to gain continuous improvement in PM skills that you need to excel in your career.

Project management in IT has significant differences compared to project management in other fields such as health care.

In IT, you’re continuously working in short-term projects under product development or improvement. Therefore, this requires you to upgrade your project management skills now and then.

How Can You Apply Your Project Management Qualifications to Boost Your Career?

You have all the project management qualifications you need to advance in your career.

But how do you apply them?

First, you need to know what options are available to you. This means that you need to identify the opportunities available for your career development and understand the qualifications needed.

Pick what suits you based on your qualifications. Once you get the opportunity, it’s good that you keep on advancing and upgrading your skills.

Continue reading

Six Sigma vs. Total Quality Management

Six Sigma is a relatively new concept as compared to Total Quality Management (TQM). However, when it was conceptualized, it was not intended to be a replacement for TQM. Both Six Sigma and TQM have many similarities and are compatible in varied business environments, including manufacturing and service industries. While TQM has helped many companies in improving the quality of manufactured goods or services rendered, Six Sigma has the potential of delivering even sharper results.

Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management is often associated with the development, deployment, and maintenance of organizational systems that are required for various business processes. It is based on a strategic approach that focuses on maintaining existing quality standards as well as making incremental quality improvements. It can also be described as a cultural initiative as the focus is on establishing a culture of collaboration among various functional departments within an organization for improving overall quality.

Comparison To Six Sigma

In comparison, Six Sigma is more than just a process improvement program as it is based on concepts that focus on continuous quality improvements for achieving near perfection by restricting the number of possible defects to less than 3.4 defects per million. It is complementary to Statistical Process Control (SPC), which uses statistical methods for monitoring and controlling business processes. Although both SPC and TQM help in improving quality, they often reach a stage after which no further quality improvements can be made. Six Sigma, on the other hand, is different as it focuses on taking quality improvement processes to the next level. The basic difference between Six Sigma and TQM is the approach. While TQM views quality as conformance to internal requirements, Six Sigma focuses on improving quality by reducing the number of defects. The end result may be the same in both the concepts (i.e. producing better quality products). Six Sigma helps organizations in reducing operational costs by focusing on defect reduction, cycle time reduction, and cost savings. It is different from conventional cost cutting measures that may reduce value and quality. It focuses on identifying and eliminating costs that provide no value to customers such as costs incurred due to waste. TQM initiatives focus on improving individual operations within unrelated business processes whereas Six Sigma programs focus on improving all the operations within a single business process. Six Sigma projects require the skills of professionals that are certified as ‘black belts’ whereas TQM initiatives are usually a part-time activity that can be managed by non-dedicated managers.

Applications Where Six Sigma Is Better

Six Sigma initiatives are based on a preplanned project charter that outlines the scale of a project, financial targets, anticipated benefits and milestones. In comparison, organizations that have implemented TQM, work without fully knowing what the financial gains might be. Six Sigma is based on DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) that helps in making precise measurements, identifying exact problems, and providing solutions that can be measured.

Continue reading

Top 10 Reasons Why do ITSM Tools Implementation Fails & How to Avoid Them?

ITSM Tools Implementation Fails?

Implementing IT service management (ITSM) in your organization is the most critical activity especially during the transition phase and it decides the future of Managed Services operations team.

Definition of ITSM Tools failures comes from any of below trigger points

◈ A service provider is not able to implement the technical solution within a defined timeline

◈ Implemented ITSM Tools solution does not deliver on its promises

◈ Cultural adoption of the tools and practices fail.

Let’s get into Top 10 causes why ITSM Tools Implementation fails

Over Engineering -

One of the reasons could be over customization to suit existing processes rather than adopting standards.

Lack of Organization Change Management (OCM) -

Change management coverage and training to all stakeholders is not done. Reluctance to follow system processes and prefer to have one on one email or telephonic conversation.

Poor collaboration & communication -

user groups are not taken into confidence and all their needs are not addressed. User groups are not made aware of the new features and functionality eventually impacting the adoption. Incomplete user training

Poorly designed processes

eventually resulting in the poor functionality Or even sometimes the tool has too many irrelevant fields from organization perspective which reduces their productivity to log tickets or follow tools

Ignoring Heart of ITSM – CMDB -

Traditionally most organization start implementing Incident Management/ Problem Management/ Change Management/ Service Request processes without fixing CMDB. CMDB is a heart of ITSM implementation and unfortunately, it is not given due weightage. Lack of clear understanding of business service mappings, Poor CI categorization and CMDB not compliant

B2B Integrations -

E-bonding is an overrated concept; an organization which is looking for a robust ITSM tool should discourage this at first place. E-bonding brings in complexity which is difficult to handle. Management of Metadata, as organizations are dynamic, metadata (CTI, Assignment Group, etc) inside it needs to be continuously refreshed, but most organization post-implementation doesn’t take care of it.

Lack of following application life cycle

for enhancements in the ITSM tool. Traditionally ITSM tools are managed by Infra teams and they don’t have the expertise to manage the application life cycle.

Lack of Focus on Automation-

Trying to do automation without simplifying the services first and focusing on complex architecture. Handshaking between different tools and services is not taken care of properly

Lack of good functional consultant

who understands the business, end-users expectation, processes and ITSM tool capabilities. The success of ITSM tool implementation is marrying these 4 things.

Missing Value Chain -

Continue reading

ITIL Vs DevOps: Is That They Fit Together For Innovation? Let's Check

ITIL Vs DevOps: It's Complicated Relationship Or Not?

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a Service Management framework. The framework is defined as a supporting structure around which something can be built. It is descriptive and flexible.

ITIL was initiated by Government of UK in 1989, initially handled by Central Computers and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) which was later renamed to Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Now it is owned, managed and supported by AXELOS. 

As we are in the era of 4th Industrial revolution, business is growing multifold and so is the demand for services to support a growing business. Business is adopting all emerging technologies (IOT, AI, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, etc) for enhancing the consumer experience. Owing to this demand from business, technologies are growing faster than ever before and have made IT a very important driver for Business. Therefore, the ways and procedures for IT Service Management have also evolved.

ITIL is an industry-wide most commonly adopted framework. ITIL has evolved from process-based delivery of services to end to end value delivery. ITIL4 has a focus on co-creation of value through service relationship. It introduces Service Value System for enabling Value co-creation. Service Value system provides guidance to the organisation in all circumstances and scenarios. It includes 5 components (Guiding Principles, Governance, Service Value Chain (SVC), Practices and Continual Improvement)

Service Value System

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs (Differences between ITIL V3 and ITIL4), ITIL V3 unintentionally missed guidance on Build part of products and services. As per ITIL V3 once service design is created it moves to the implementation phase. There was no guidance on a build of products and services as per design. It directly moved to implementation/transition post design was created. This gap in the lifecycle stages created an opportunity for adopting other practices like DevOps, Agile, SRE and many more for supporting build.

ITIL4 has introduced guidance on Obtain/Build as one of the SVC activities.ITIL4 suggests using DevOps, Agile, SRE, etc in Obtain/Build activity of SVC.

Let’s Understand what is DevOps before we discuss the relationship of ITIL4 and DevOps.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is defined as a set of practices that builds a culture of collaboration between software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) by using principles of Lean and automation along with high-end technologies to reduce the distance between Dev and Ops by increasing velocity and success rate of changes or releases.

DevOps is based on 5 core values (CALMS – Culture, Automation, Lean, Measurement and Sharing).

DevOps implements the following practices

◈ Continuous Development

◈ Continuous Integration

◈ Continuous Testing

◈ Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment

◈ Continuous Monitoring

Pillars of Effective DevOps

DevOps works really well with other methodologies like Lean and Agile. DevOps’s primary objective is to increase the speed from Development to Operations so it focuses on the reduction of waste and maximizing value for consumers. DevOps creates a shorter feedback loop so that defects can be corrected while working on new components. This improves the wider acceptance of the product as well as reduces the rework on correction of the final product as compared to the waterfall method. DevOps emphasizes on building an Automated Deployment pipeline in order to increase the velocity and reduce the defects/failures.

Misconception: If DevOps is implemented then there is no need for ITIL.

While automating operations may seem to be the goal of DevOps (NoOps), there will always be a need for human competencies and roles. Role of Ops is evolving significantly similar to the role of Dev. This is called as NewOps.

ITIL + DevOps: Working Together

ITIL4 and DevOps are here to complement each other. ITIL being Service Management framework provides the support for products and services that are being built and deployed using DevOps practices. ITIL 4 has introduced 7 Guiding Principles as one of the components of Service Value System.

7 Guiding Principles

ITIL4 suggests that these guiding principles should be established as core values of an organisation and they would help in the continual improvement of products and services. These would serve as guardrails while delivering products and services. These guiding principles are aligned with 4 values of Agile Manifesto as shown in the diagram below. Thus, ITIL4 is also referred to as “Agile ITIL”.

AGILE MANIFESTO v/s GUIDING PRINCIPLES

ITIL4 has focused on Continual Improvement and suggests that everyone in the organisation should focus on continual improvement in every step of their day to day activities. ITIL4 emphasizes on implementing improvements to existing products and services, and implementation of digital transformation projects. Wherein new applications and technologies would be built and implemented. This would involve different teams mainly Dev and Ops. DevOps can be used in building new application and toolsets and also deployment of these.

DevOps can also contribute to improving existing products and services. DevOps would increase the pace of change/releases and also the success rate of changes/releases, through the automated deployment pipeline. Automation would further help in better collaboration between involved stakeholders.

ITIL 4 has introduced 34 ITIL Practices, 14 General Management Practices along with 17 Service Management Practices and 3 Technical Management Practice. ITIL 4 is more focused on enabling co-creation of value and to do that Value Chain activities are spanned across the business and not only limited to IT. This approach would enable more collaboration amongst internal and external stakeholders in the organization. ITIL4 is flexible and can be easily used with other frameworks and practices such as Prince2, PMP, Agile, DevOps, etc

Value Stream for new Products & Services

SVC helps in capturing the business requirement for new products and services or enhancement to existing products and services. The first activity in SVC is to “Engage” with stakeholders to capture their requirements. Second activity is to create a “Plan” for those requirements. The third activity is to create a “Design & Transition”. Then components are built under the “Obtain/Build” activity, tested under “Design & Transition” activity, deployed in Ops and finally supported under “Deliver & Support” activity of SVC.

DevOps can be used to automate the deployment pipeline to reduce human efforts and errors. This would help in capturing immediate feedback on deployed components, would increase the speed of change/release deployments. As we are going to follow one of the ITIL guiding principles “Progress Iteratively With The Feedback” this would increase the success rate of changes/releases. In turn, enabling co-creation of value for Consumer and Business by reducing the overall impact and improving ROI.

Deployments using DevOps

DevOps also enables the use and implementation of Agile& Lean concepts. This helps in the reduction of waste by maximizing the value and improvement in ROI, creating a solid foundation for the integration of ITIL4 and DevOps.

Benefits from ITIL4 + DevOps

Here are the benefits of ITIL4 & DevOps which we can conclude from above:

1. Resolving issues in the proper way under structured framework leads to create fast solutions for complex problems.

2. We all know that ITIL4 is now aligned with Agile and DevOps now so we are sure can look forward to improved performance and increased efficiency of the overall business.

3. DevOps and ITIL 4 are mostly focused on how an organization creates value in or as a service and increases customer satisfaction with continuous improvement.

4. Improved productivity and continuous improvement complete the organizational objective which is getting faster Return on investments.

Continue reading

Why the PMBOK is not a methodology

One of the more common discussions on the web and in other places is focused on arguing the merits of, or comparing, the PRINCE2 methodology with the PMBOK methodology. The problem with the proposition is the basic premise is completely wrong! The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide is not and never has been a methodology.

Methodologies define the processes, responsibilities and workflows needed to achieve an objective. PRINCE2 is a good project methodology for managing projects with a large internal component. Agile and Waterfall are two different software development methodologies that incorporate elements of project management.

PMBOK is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard. To give it its full name, it is A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The processes described in the PMBOK are generally accepted good practices that apply to most project most of the time. This may be the foundation for a good project management methodology but of itself, the PMBOK guide is not, and cannot ever be, a methodology without adaptation.

The step between the PMBOK guide and a methodology is determining what should be done by whom, when and how:

◈ What of the processes should be applied in you organisation, to what extent and with how much rigour?

◈ Who is responsible for the implementation of the processes, including; generic roles and responsibilities, project organisation structures and governance committees?

◈ How will the processes be applied? Templates, guidelines and workflows.

These are critically important issues.

◈ If a PMO sets out to ‘implement the PMBOK’ you are heading for disaster.

◈ If the same PMO sets out to develop a tailored methodology based on the good practices described in the PMBOK you are potentially on the right road.

Certainly in my business, if someone does not know the difference between a standard and a methodology, I tend to start asking a lot more questions about their competence. Having been involved in the last three upgrades of the PMBOK guide I consider it to be a very valuable resource to underpin the development of any project management methodology but you still need to do the hard work of determining the what, who, when, how and how much.

The gaps in the PMBOK and consequently the information you need to develop and incorporate in your methodology include:

1. Knowing precisely what is to be done. The PMBOK only provides general guidance and states this specifically.

2. Defining precise input, output and performance criteria. The PMBOK is largely silent on these. For one simple example qualitative risk analysis identifies relative impacts, but what represents a 0.80 impact (extreme)? $5,000, $50,000, $500,000? The methodology has to make these definitions. The ‘impact’ can apply to quality, safety, time, cost: which ones matter and need including in the methodology, which can be left out? The last major risk assessment I helped run for a US$1 billion tank farm, the team decided anything over US$250,000 would be considered an extreme risk, on other projects $250,000 is more than the total budget.

3. Defining the people responsible for performing the processes by roles. The PMBOK only provides general guidance. A methodology defines roles, responsibilities and authority levels.

4. Developing user-friendly templates and guidance documents to implement the processes consistently. The PMBOK is largely silent on these.

5. Defining the work flows. The PMBOK is well laid out in this respect but only deals with a single pass; methodologies need to deal with iterative builds.

6. Then you get to the questions of how often the processes are used, how intensely they are applied, who oversees the processes, how performance is measured, how the processes are improved and what happens if there is an identified problem or issue.

The above is an elementary description of the contents of any well designed business methodology, is consistent with concepts such as Six Sigma, is well defined in the PRINCE2 methodology and is assessable in part through the PMI’s Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) construct.

In short, all the PMBOK guide offers is precisely what it says it offers: “a generally accepted set of good practices that may be used on most projects most of the time.” A methodology expands on this start by defining the, what, how, who, when and how much. Even the PRINCE2 authors expect organisations to constructively adapt the methodology to their needs: one size does not fit all! Real hard work is needed.

The PMBOK is certainly a great starting point (as is PRINCE2), and having a good foundation is crucial, but foundations are only ever the beginning point. Once the foundations are right, the real work of building a useful methodology or adapting a published methodology begins. The real skill is to make sure the methodology is as simple, quick and easy to use as possible while applying sufficient rigour to optimise project outcomes.

Continue reading