As posted on the IPAPI website blog.
Having spent most of the past 30 years in information technology, I've tended to assume that business folks are highly focused on the business' customers. They bring in the money, right?
But it is increasingly apparent that in many organizations they've lost sight of them, and even when the business is still customer-focused the IT organization is often so far removed from these external customers that they really have no idea how technology underpins the business.
So, we have IT service management guidance (i.e., ITIL©, etc.) that suggests we create IT Service Catalogs to help with this alignment issue. Easy, right? Well not really.
I've already talked on this blog about Marketing Mindsets and Minding the Gap, so I won't repeat this information here. What I'd like to elaborate on is how IPAPI's Certifed Process Professional (CPP) and Certified Process Manager (CPM) classes can help.
The CPP class introduces (or re-introduces) outside-in thinking through the Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO) techniques as well as how to simplify processes. It's focus is on process alignment, optimization and innovation. The CPM class describes a customer-centric enterprise architecture, discusses process strategy and establishing process metrics that are tied to SCOs.
Each of these classes can be very helpful if you are attempting to establish a Business Catalog of IT services. This is an important point, since many IT organizations have wound up with Technical Catalogs that mean much more to IT than to the business. In fact, acheiving the ultimate goal of IT service management (business/IT alignment and integration) wil not happen unless you are successful in creating a Business Catalog of IT services.
This is where the CPP and CPM classes could be very helpful! CPP will establish process analysis techniques that are driven by SCOs; making sure that the business stays focused on external customers (the ones that pay the bills, remember?). CPM will establish a clear understanding of Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 processes based on external customers, which will help identify process boundaries and potential cross-functional conflicts. Using external customers to create uniformity of purpose can keep folks on track. If you have 15 minutes you can hear me talk about how ITSM On-Ramp™ Services leverage IPAPI's methods.
So if you've drank the Service Catalog Kool-Aid, great! Make sure you start at the beginning --- with external customers. Marketing Mindsets and Minding the Gap are essential to a well designed service catalog.
Start the new year off with a marketing mindset and mind the gap between you and your customers, and between your business and IT. IPAPI's CPP and CPM can help.