Yes I have, many times...and not only about ITIL. I've been down this road with ITIL, CMM, CMMI, Six Sigma, TQM...
How do I handle it? Unfortunately there's not much you can do about it. Usually the people like me (worker bees or "implementers") deal with middle management who have little or no power to change things even if I could convince them that we should. I suppose that's one of the biggest problems with process frameworks--they are taken too literally and their *intent* is missed. Then you find yourself just filling squares because, "That's what the process says to do..." And then you have to contend with the people who view all dissenters as resistors to change. That is, if you say, "Well, you know, I don't think this is the best way..." oftentimes you're viewed as just "fearful of change" (which, granted, many people are) and just get handed a copy of *Who Moved My Cheese?*. There are those who bring up issues because they make *sense* and there are those who bring up issues because they don't want to change. Unfortunately, oftentimes both get lumped together. -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Scott Parrish Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 9:28 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy Norm, Have you run into this situation: ". . . But then when you challenge those decisions by asking, "Why are we doing XYZ?" you get a very vocal and forceful, "BECAUSE ITIL SAYS SO!" If so, how did you handle it. If not, how would you handle it? Scott Parrish IT Prophets, LLC (770) 653-5203 www.itprophets.com -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 10:19 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy Just a few observations on this point...please forgive me if I sound a bit sardonic. First, did anybody really need ITIL to tell them to do what Ben describes in the first paragraph--i.e., Service Desk (I refuse to call it that--it's the HELP Desk) should be the first point of contact for customers, incidents are overseen by the Help Desk, the Help Desk forwards incidents to appropriate groups, and the Help Desk follows up with customers once the ticket is resolved? I mean, come on--we were doing that 15 years ago (or longer). That's, like, Help Desk 101. Second, people repeat over and over again, "ITIL is just a guideline...a framework...some best practices...a guide..." That might be fine if you're the person making all the decisions about what the ITIL processes are going to be and how they will be implemented, but if you're just the *implementer* following the directions of a myriad of bosses who are all gung-ho about ITIL and about being "ITIL certified" you are not at liberty to use ITIL (or any other disciplined process framework flavor of the month) as you so choose. You do what you're told. Other people make the decisions, and oftentimes those decisions make little sense. But then when you challenge those decisions by asking, "Why are we doing XYZ?" you get a very vocal and forceful, "BECAUSE ITIL SAYS SO!" -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Pancia Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:57 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy ** One issue many organizations face is taking ITIL for gospel. ITIL is just a framework/guide for organizations to use to define their own best practices. When you tag positions like Owner or Manager to the process it leads people to believe that these are physical positions when they are really functions of the process. Everyone is correct in saying that the Service Desk should be the central point of contact for customers. A function of the Service Desk is to oversee the Incident Management Process. However, an incident may pass through several support groups and these support groups are also responsible for following the process. The service desk is there to create a ticket (hopefully resolve too), forward to support groups when necessary, be the POC for the customer if the customer needs to call in for additional questions/status updates, and follow-up with the customer once the incident is resolved. Now with Remedy some of these functions may be automated within the system. Once a ticket is resolved an email or survey may be sent out to the customer, which would constitute the service desk contact to the customer. Also, SLAs and OLAs may be put in place to ensure that the incident is handled in a timely manner. This allows the system to take over much of the functionality of the process flow. So as you implement the ITIL processes look at a lot of the things in ITIL as functions that are performed during the process. Every person/group involved in the process needs to understand the functions and may be responsible for doing the function at some point in the process. This was one of the things that ITIL v3 tried to address and one thing that the writers will stress. Remember ITIL is just a framework/guide to help organizations build their own best practices. Just because the sample flow diagrams and functions are in the ITIL books does not mean that organizations have to follow them to a T. Use what works and makes sense for your organization. The more complicated you make a process the less likely it will be followed. From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Benedetto Cantatore Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 2:01 PM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy ** Here's some examples where you have different owners.... Helpdesk are incident owners for all helpdesk related problems NCC/NOC would be the owner for infrastructure issues (yes, I know some companies combine the helpdesk/NCC into a service desk) In a global environment the local helpdesks would be the incident owner rather than the global helpdesk for local issues. In each of the examples above, those groups would be interested and more importantly responsible for tracking the incident throughout its lifecycle. Ben Cantatore Remedy Manager (914) 457-6209 Emerging Health IT 3 Odell Plaza Yonkers, New York 10701 >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 05/05/08 1:01 PM >>> ** I understand both concepts - perhaps I need to clarify. Ticket comes in and the ticket is Auto-assigned to the Help Desk (Assigned Group). The Help Desk feels they should be the Incident Owner (Owner Group). The Help Desk then assigns the ticket to a Support Group (now the support group is the Assigned Group). The Support Group believes they should be the incident owner (Owner Group). In a message dated 5/5/2008 9:49:05 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Aren't you, maybe, mixing the concepts of "assignment" and "ownership"? -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kevin Pulsen Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 11:42 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy ** Hi Kathy, The Helpdesk really should be the owner of any incident. It's best that the customer has only one single point of contact -> the helpdesk.. they need to own the incident from cradle to grave.. and they should be able to spawn any change or problem from the given incident. From a user's perspective, they hate being pushed around to 10 different "Support Groups" only to be handed off back to the Helpdesk... incident bouncing it not good. So to recap, Single point of contact -> Helpdesk (Keep your Level II,III from getting calls directly from customers) Incident owner -> Helpdesk (You can still assign it to other support groups) from cradle to grave. This method follows the Incident Process Flow Bar.. Hope this helps. Kevin P. ** Hi, In Remedy ITSM 7.0.1 - who should be the actual "Owner" of the ticket. Should it be the assigned group or the Help Desk? What are the advantages of one over the other. ________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. 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