There is confusion among the three concepts of a value chain, a life cycle and a value stream. We see this both in feedback on my recent article on a value stream for service management and in many other places. I believe it is useful to treat them as different concepts, so I will try to sort them out here.
Posts
A Continual Improvement Maturity Model
A continual improvement maturity model♠
Over the past year, I have worked with several organizations wishing to start the continual improvement of their services and how they manage them. Continual improvement can be a profound cultural change for an organization. Many teams find it difficult to appropriate and internalize the principles of continual improvement. And so, I found it useful to model the developing maturity of an organization’s continual improvement capabilities. I wish to share with you this model. [Read more…] about A Continual Improvement Maturity Model
A Value Stream for Service Management
One of the main benefits of a lean/kanban approach to IT is the simplification of processes expressed in the value stream of each team. But IT teams are sometimes indoctrinated with process frameworks coming from approaches such as COBIT® or ITIL®. They may be at a loss to understand how a single value stream can represent all the work they do. Unfortunately, the many examples of IT kanban boards we see are of little help. This is because they often are based on the needs of application development. In this article, I will propose a generic value stream for service management. Then I will examine how it applies not only to service management, but to the other typical IT activities. [Read more…] about A Value Stream for Service Management
Suppliers and SPAM
I am convinced that the trend toward complex outsourcing arrangements is like the nutmeg of consolation. You’re better off sailing on the main with your own crew and not be married to a harem of third parties. While looking through some old trunks in my attic, I recently found the following hitherto unpublished manuscript that lends credence to this opinion. Please note that any resemblance between this text and the work of Mr. Theodor Geisel is purely coincidental. [Read more…] about Suppliers and SPAM
ITIL à la Seuss
Aprill Allen asked if we could represent ITIL or any part thereof in the style of Dr. Seuss. Here is a modest contribution. For those of you who were not raised on the tales of the good doctor, you may wish to read “And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street“, first.
Is service value really, truly delivered?
Services participate in the creation of value in five different ways. It is useful to understand these different paths to value, as each has its own optimization techniques. I call these five types of value market value, business value, returned value, relationship value and replacement value. [Read more…] about Is service value really, truly delivered?
Concentric Circle Consulting’s logo
Before you ask why we use a logo whose circles are not concentric, consider the following image: [Read more…] about Concentric Circle Consulting’s logo
Do we really need service desks?
I have recently been investigating provocative and heretical ideas. Among them are the very hard questions concerning radical service provider reorganization. I have found that some of the reasons why service desks have been valuable contributions to service provider organizations are perhaps no longer justified. I would like to start a discussion around this question: Do we really need service desks? [Read more…] about Do we really need service desks?