It’s hard not to mix work and what’s happening in the world today, so this post will unfortunately mix both.
I started thinking about USM being consistent with the viable systems model and had to stop and think, ‘wait I remember that… ‘what was that viable system stuff?’
From a very simple perspective a ‘viable system model’ is basically one that can produce itself and adapt to changing environments. If ever there was a need for a management system that can adapt to change, service management would seem to fit the bill nicely, especially when you look at it from an enterprise service management perspective. Almost all services today involve supply chains with an ever-increasing number of suppliers.
Then I ran into the word recursive. Viable systems are also recursive, which basically means it can be repeated. This is when I went off the rails….
Years ago, I was in Vladivostok and we purchased some Russian nesting (matryoshka) dolls. Each doll decreases in size and is placed one inside the other (see the picture).
This is kind of what we mean by recursive. You can use the USM in much this way. What this means from a USM perspective is a couple of things.
First, the USM Method’s unified process model and standard workflows reduce variation.
Second, it’s recursive which means you can still have localized procedures, tooling and organizational structures and still ‘fit’ into the overall service management system architecture.
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Going back to the war now…