. I don't get to attend the LIG meetings as much as I'd like, but have decided to put my thoughts down here if I am able to attend. A change to fewer --- but perhaps more focused --- LIG meetings in 2010 sounded well received, and schedule permitting I'm going to try and make more of these in the future. If you're adopting ITSM and are not yet a member of the itSMFusa NY LIG, come join us!
The topic was the familiar yet elusive Aligning IT with the Business, and I commend all the speakers who were courageous enough to tackle this one. They all did a great job.
Here's my thoughts on this subject after a lunch and a long bus ride home…
Service Definition Challenges Continue
The focus on the Service Catalog is really about trying to define services, and clearly this remains a big challenge. I continue to get the feeling that the business is not adequately involved in defining IT services, particularly IT 'business' services. This leaves IT to focus on the technical services that underpin the business catalog, yet a true catalog of business services remains elusive (and as such, so does alignment).
For example, a recent McKinsey & Company report suggests that business requirements --- rather than technical needs --- should be at the center of the IT architecture. This seems consistent with the ITIL guidance and SLM, yet for many the business personnel involved in many of SLM initiatives are 'technical liaisons' and in some cases report to the CIO.
The desire to measure Utility also got me thinking, and it's true that we mostly measure warranty (and some not even that). One would think that Utility would be defined from the eyes of the business (IT's customer), but should it really?
Alignment Requires Uniformity of Purpose
It is the external customers of the business that matter. I believe that understanding how business processes serve external customers is a fundamental responsibility of the business, not IT.
The use of Outside-In thinking by the business may be very beneficial to establishing both business service definitions as well as the uniformity of purpose needed to sustain organizational transformation. It's still not clear to me if or how customers that are leveraging Outside-In on the business side are making sure IT realizes the full benefits of this approach, but I'll continue to recommend books such as Customer Expectation Management: Success Without Exception and The Outside-In Corporation.
In fact, the discussion on Service Portfolio Management was timely for me since I'm reviewing a book many will want to read on this subject as well: Taming Change with Portfolio Management.
These publications might provoke some interesting thoughts on business/IT alignment.
Final thoughts
I'll have to ask why we do not have an itSMF blog yet, but in the meantime this will have to do. I've suggested a NYlig subgroup on the itSMFusa LinkedIn group in the meantime.
Having attended the CloudEXPO earlier in the week, I couldn't help but think of how critical SLM, the Service Catalog and definition of services has become. As the world becomes virtualized and cultural changes like the emergence of DevOps spread, the pace and complexity of business will hit light-speed.
Won't that be fun.