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354 Results found for 'Cloud services'
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ITIL 4 and cloud-based services
Blog
Published 06 Mar 2019
Have you noticed how the world of IT is changing in recent years? Have you also noticed how your role, responsibilities and current work practices might be coming under increased pressure to change and work differently? Organizations used to buy and build IT infrastructure a...
Cloud services|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes
Supporting the value of cloud-based services with ITIL 4
Blog
Published 20 Sep 2019
Cloud-based IT services have created a massive change in the traditional IT model, the way IT is delivered and the agility enabled as a result. With cloud, organizations are getting access to technology services in days and weeks rather than months and delivering products ...
Cloud services|Customer needs|Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Processes|Value
ITIL and Cloud: future-proofing your career
Blog
Published 06 Aug 2018
What does migrating IT services to the cloud mean for ITIL ® ? I’ve heard various comments along the lines of “it’s no longer our infrastructure , it’s the responsibility of the cloud provider so why are we bothering with ITIL?” I find this really surprising as cloud integ...
Business Relationship Management|Career progression|Cloud Computing|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Governance|IT services|ITIL
Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud: The Future of Service Management in the Era of the Cloud
Blog
Published 19 Jan 2015
In the first post in this series, Service Monitoring as a Strategic Opportunity , one of the topics that we discussed was the need for a "Service Monitoring Service " that would act as the monitoring platform for all of the various application and service teams within the s...
Best Practice|Cloud Computing|IT Services|Project Management
Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud: Service Monitoring Service Outputs
Blog
Published 26 Feb 2015
The first aspect of Service Design is to define the functional requirements, capabilities, and so on. No matter what we are doing and no matter the industry, we should always start with the customer in mind. In the case of our Service Monitoring Service, our customers are th...
Best Practice|Cloud Computing|Cloud services|Frameworks|Service Management
ITIL and DevOps - arch-enemies or complementary models?
Blog
Published 17 Feb 2017
I recently read a blog post titled something like "the death of ITIL ® ". The essence of the post was the suggestion that DevOps would essentially supplant the role of ITIL in high-functioning organizations. Reading the blog post made me realize that the state of confusi...
Change management|DevOps|Frameworks|Incident management|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL
From the Air Force to the Cloud - A new perspective on ITIL Foundation
Blog
Published 12 Jun 2020
We spoke with Kevin Moye, who is retiring from the US Air Force and has recently passed his ITIL ® Foundation exam. Here is his experience with ITIL so far. Can you tell me about your professional history? I’ve been in the US Air Force for the past 21 years, working in H...
Career progression|Certification|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
ITIL Intermediate: Planning, Protection and Optimization (PPO)
Blog
Published 04 Jul 2019
ITIL ® Intermediate’s Planning, Protection and Optimization (PPO) module compels practitioners to think about the practical details of providing an IT service. In other words, once you have crafted the right service design what are the practicalities and implications of ...
Cloud services|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|M_o_R|PRINCE2|Service management
Service Monitoring Application Development
Blog
Published 13 Nov 2015
Looking behind, the Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud   series of blogs has covered a lot of ground - from why, to what, to how. Now it is time to look ahead to how we pump water through the pipes we have built. It is time to discuss how we be...
Business solutions|Cloud services|Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Service desk|Service management
Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud: One Team - One Set of Service Management Objectives
Blog
Published 02 Feb 2015
Service Management must not shy away from application development Most Service Management organizations are full of process people. And then, there are tools teams that are full of tools people. What I mean is that the tools teams are made up of individuals who are experts...
Cloud Computing|Cloud services|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|Processes|Service Management
Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud: Service Monitoring as a Strategic Opportunity
Blog
Published 30 Sep 2014
One of the most important aspects of delivering a world-class service, regardless of whether the word "cloud" is associated with the service or not, is Service Monitoring. Monitoring should not be considered a commodity, but rather a strategic opportunity for Service Deliver...
Cloud Computing|Customer Experience|IT Services|Management|Service Management|Strategy Execution
ITIL Intermediate – Service Offerings and Agreements (SOA)
Blog
Published 17 May 2019
While working for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with responsibility for global service level agreements, certifying in ITIL ® ’s Intermediate Service Offerings and Agreements (SOA) module was essential. I really recognized the power of ITIL and service mana...
Certification|Cloud services|IT services|ITIL|Service desk|Service management|Value
ITIL 4 Information security and risk management practices: embedding safety culture and behaviour
Blog
Published 26 Mar 2020
How well prepared are organizations for information security and risk management in an increasingly cloud computing-based world that is also volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) ? The rush to use cloud services sometimes means organizations are not thinking fu...
Behaviour|Cloud computing|Cyber security|ITIL 4|Risk management|Service management
The service monitoring service – rounding it all up
Blog
Published 18 Mar 2016
In my previous post in this series, I posed a question: “Can perfect monitoring still end in failure?” I hope that you have come to the same two conclusions that I’ve come to: nothing made by humans is perfect, and even if monitoring were perfect, we can most certainly fail...
Best Practice|Capabilities|Cloud services|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|Service Management
Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud: Service Monitoring Service
Blog
Published 07 Apr 2015
Simplifying things for our application team consumers: Inputs Application teams know their applications. We know our Service Monitoring Service. We need to quantify very simple inputs that will enable our application/service teams to easily consume our service. The great new...
Best Practice|Cloud Computing|IT Services|Service Management
Making the Service Monitoring Service Viral
Blog
Published 17 Jun 2015
Earlier in the series, we discussed the importance of enabling features in our Service Monitoring Service that make the application teams want to use the service rather than building their own “page myself” scripts.There are many features that we may add, but there are thre...
Best Practice|Change management|Change requests|Cloud Services|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Processes
Building Trust in the Service Monitoring Service
Blog
Published 19 May 2015
As we begin these next few blog posts on “Implementation”, it is important to look at the ground we have already covered. To begin this series, we discussed Service Monitoring as a Strategic Opportunity . We followed that discussion with four posts on Building Service Monit...
Capabilities|Cloud Services|Customer Engagement|Customer Experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Key performance indicators (KPIs)|Processes
IT service continuity management – 5 key factors for disaster preparation
Blog
Published 23 Apr 2020
Service continuity management, along with IT security, is top of the critical list for IT today – not least in the current global situation caused by Covid-19 . If you don’t have service continuity management and something major happens, it could ruin your business and – cl...
Cloud computing|Customer needs|Information systems|Infrastructure|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Risk management|Service desk|Service management|Threats|Vulnerability
AXELOS 2019 ITSM Benchmarking Report – the industry’s view
Blog
Published 15 Nov 2019
We recently published our 2019 ITSM Benchmarking report where 1,600 respondents worldwide had their say on the state of the ITSM industry and the challenges ITSM is facing. The key findings from our report include: Digital transformation Digital transformation has become ...
Cloud services|CPD|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|Skills|Strategy execution|Training
My to-do list for service management in the new normal
Blog
Published 04 Aug 2020
For service managers the concept of service is changing. In crisis situations such as now, it’s not about service level agreements but managing the customer experience and anticipating things they didn’t know they needed. It’s about helping businesses prepare for and respond...
Cloud services|Customer engagement|Customer needs|End-User Experience|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Service desk|Service management
Site Reliability Engineering – dealing with emerging complexities
Blog
Published 15 Apr 2020
Since Google first began sharing details of its approach to massive-scale web operations - Site Reliability Engineering, or SRE - many organizations have adopted aspects of the SRE approach to help deal with the emerging complexity of modern software systems. However, there...
Benefits realization|Cloud services|Customer needs|End-User Experience|Information systems|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service management
Delivering the Service Monitoring Service
Blog
Published 26 Nov 2015
Throughout the "Building Service Monitoring as a Service with an Eye on the Cloud" blog series, we have focused on the need for a Service Monitoring Service - a “monitoring hub” of sorts. This approach is different from the legacy centralized monitoring approach whereby t...
Best Practice|Capabilities|Cloud services|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|Service Management
ITIL update: Mapping IT services with ITIL to drive business value
Blog
Published 29 Jan 2018
30 years ago, researchers and companies used to ask: how do we harmonize IT and the business? Today, we’re no longer talking about harmonizing, aligning and integrating IT and the business : the business is technology! Organizations that understand this are already at ...
Customer needs|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|Value
ITIL update – the high-performing IT organization
Blog
Published 21 May 2018
Marcel Foederer is part of the AXELOS Lead Architect Team (LAT), responsible for guiding this year’s ITIL update. In this blog post he looks both backwards and forwards, considering where ITIL has come from and where it’s going: How has ITIL ® changed in the past 20 ye...
Agile|Best practice|Cloud Computing|Frameworks|IT services|ITIL|Value
Value co-creation and common accountability
Blog
Published 29 Oct 2020
In today's connected world, service providers and clients share a common accountability to make business successful. The way that some might have shrugged off accountability previously just doesn’t work now and, if this continues, the outcomes won’t be favourable. Because ...
Best practice|Cloud services|Collaboration|ITIL 4
Making ITSM agile
Blog
Published 03 Sep 2018
Traditionally, ITSM has not been agile. People have tended to focus more on having robust processes and rather than considering “what do we need?”, they have asked “what more can we put in to processes ?”. This level of “over-control” has happened because of over-enginee...
Agile|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Stakeholder engagement
Monitoring Service Health
Blog
Published 19 Nov 2015
What is Service Health? Now that we understand the service, we must ask ourselves what service health really is. For each service capability we must ask 1) is the capability working? and 2) is the capability performing well? What types of monitoring might we consider? We ...
Best Practice|Business Solutions|Capabilities|Cloud Services|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Service Management
The Future of ITIL®
Blog
Published 05 Jun 2014
Throughout the 25 years of its existence, ITIL has supported IT organizations in providing business value for their customers in the form of well-designed and supported services. ITIL has become the most widely used and most successful ITSM (IT Service Management) framework i...
Best Practice|IT Services|ITIL|Project Management|Service Management|Value
AgileSHIFT – spreading agile and best practice ideas
Blog
Published 30 Oct 2019
The world of work is moving towards enterprise-wide, planned adaptability . Running the business and changing the business are becoming one and the same. As the organizations we’re working with are fundamentally aiming to improve their capability, it is interesting to note ...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Business solutions|Certification|Cloud computing|Customer engagement|Digital transformation|Project management
Managing the digital product lifecycle: more speed, less chaos
Blog
Published 30 Apr 2020
There is now a huge demand for digital IT products and the services they support. This is no surprise, as cloud-based software as a service is easier to maintain, make changes to, upgrade or swap things in and out. Servers can be rolled up and rolled down, adding or reduci...
Cloud services|Customer needs|End-User Experience|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
Using ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL to deliver business value
Blog
Published 16 Aug 2016
ITIL ® and ISO/IEC 20000, the international standard for service management, have enjoyed a long and mutually supportive relationship. ISO/IEC 20000 is currently being revised for the third time, with an increased focus on Service Integration (SIAM), governance and manag...
Governance|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Requirements|Value
The delta – less disruption, more success
Blog
Published 25 Jun 2019
With tech-centric changes driving disruption all around us, AgileSHIFT has a simple indicator to help you assess the impact on your organization. The Delta is the difference between the 'target state' and the current performance level. The larger the delta, the more exposed...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Business solutions|Change management|Digital transformation|Threats|Vulnerability
How Technology is changing the way we work
Blog
Published 22 May 2020
Technology has helped companies make the transition to remote working that was necessary over the past months. Organizations have had to react fast to come up with temporary solutions. Many employees are now able to work from home , services have been moved to the digital s...
Best practice|Cloud computing|Digital transformation|Frameworks|Leadership|Service management|Strategy execution
The disruption economy: a warning to IT organizations
Blog
Published 14 Dec 2018
Julie L. Mohr, renowned author and international keynote speaker, shares with AXELOS her thoughts on why consumers are embracing companies such as Uber, Amazon and Netflix and why IT organizations can either learn lessons from the disruption economy, or risk extinction: ...
Digital transformation|IT components|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL
ITIL 4 Managing Professional: agility and structure for the real world
Blog
Published 28 Nov 2019
What did I notice most when certifying in the ITIL 4 ® Managing Professional Transition Module ? Above all, the agile and digital perspectives in the guidance are moving service management away from a process-only driven world. For example, breaking down change into quick...
Agile|Certification|Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
ITIL, DevOps and the search for silver bullets
Blog
Published 01 Dec 2017
Another day, another IT framework – or that’s how it could seem to IT Service Management (ITSM) practitioners in 2017. DevOps, digital transformation, BRM, SIAM and so on; all of them have relevance and good ideas; but we have to stop thinking that any one framework i...
Agile|DevOps|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL
ITIL 4: a clear definition of value
Blog
Published 31 Jul 2019
Despite studying software engineering and computer security to Masters’ level at university, my career took me into technical support rather than development. Working on a service desk – at the front end of IT, dealing with customers – worked for me: being customer focused...
Agile|DevOps|Digital transformation|Governance|ITIL 4|Professional development|Service desk|Service management|Value
Managing change at work
Blog
Published 18 Apr 2016
In IT and ITSM, we’re living in the age of change – and that change is accelerating. If the birth of the internet was the start of this new age, we’ve now entered the next evolutionary stage: that includes a combination of cloud computing, mobility, big data analytics, ro...
Behaviour|Capabilities|Change management|Cloud services|Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)
ISO/IEC 20000 and ITIL® – introducing Part 11
Blog
Published 17 Jun 2016
Following the release of ISO/IEC TR 20000-11:2015: Part 11 - Guidance on the relationship between ISO/IEC 20000-1:2011 and service management frameworks: ITIL® at the end of 2015 , we spoke to Shirley Lacy, managing director of ConnectSphere, who was involved in i...
Frameworks|Information Management|Information systems|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL
Bringing agile and ITIL together in an agile organization
Blog
Published 10 May 2018
Services are about people and processes and how technology enables the service delivery. These services need service management and, as a product manager, it has been useful to recognize that designing services is different to designing products. In order to deliver a cons...
Agile|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Customer needs|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service Management
Bringing agile and ITIL® together in an agile organization
Blog
Published 13 Jun 2018
Services are about people and processes and how technology enables the service delivery. These services need service management and, as a product manager, it has been useful to recognize that designing services is different to designing products. In order to deliver a cons...
Agile|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service catalogue|Service Management
The modern service desk
Blog
Published 16 Dec 2016
It’s a pivotal and exciting moment for the service desk. For those still struggling with their traditional IT service desks that might sound like an odd statement, but significant change is coming. Historically, the service desk’s primary role has been a help desk for when ...
Best practice|Customer experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Processes|Service desk|Skills
ITIL 4 Digital and IT strategy: creating a sustainable business
Blog
Published 15 Jan 2021
The pace of change in digital and the challenge of being a sustainable business are more profound than ever. With companies likely to have an average lifespan today of 20 years compared to 50 years in the 1950s, gone is the idea of being sustainable through sheer size, like ...
Adopt and adapt|Agile|ITIL 4|Value
ITSM the next generation: To boldly go where no ITIL has gone before - Part 2
Blog
Published 10 Apr 2019
This is part 2 of a 2-part article, read Part 1 . Theory to ACTION! At the end of the short simulation exercise (1 ½ hours) we asked delegates, ‘ What did you experience from applying ITIL ® 4 theory that you will now take away and try to apply in YOUR organization ? ...
Behaviour|Business Relationship Management|Certification|Collaboration|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Stakeholder management|Value
ITSM research findings from Japan
Blog
Published 11 Dec 2017
I was recently in Tokyo to meet with CIOs of Japanese businesses prior to the annual itSMF Japan conference. I was interested in asking these CIOs about their business and IT challenges, the skills they believed would be important, and their thoughts about ITIL ® and th...
Agile|Cyber security|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Service management
5 popular misconceptions about ITIL®: ‘ITIL is a standard’, and other folk stories
Blog
Published 25 Aug 2016
Recently, we investigated the misconceptions around ITIL in order to better understand and address the common challenges when adopting ITIL. We asked our community members to share their stories. To our delight, our members did not stop at listing the challenges, but f...
Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Requirements|Roles|Training
Agile ITSM Manifesto – are we there yet?
Blog
Published 04 Jun 2020
Agile ITSM is on the rise, now becoming more and more a reality and even making it into ITIL 4 ® . So, what are the next steps in the Agile ITSM evolution? I think the most critical one is defining an Agile ITSM Manifesto that works holistically across IT. The Agile Manife...
Agile|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
Is it time to change Change Management?
Blog
Published 26 May 2015
How to develop and grow control processes that work for your teams How do teams deliver better quality software or an IT solution at a pace that matches the needs of a business? This question is especially pertinent in the context of the solution development lifecycle an...
Change Management|Change Requests|Collaboration|Methodologies
ITIL® and the modern mobile enterprise
Blog
Published 06 Jun 2016
What is the impact of mobility for the enterprise and the IT people tasked with supporting it? Like it or not, mobility is a hard trend – one that is not going away anytime soon – and its impact is significant. There is a projected exponential increase in mobile usage and c...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|End-user experience|IT services|ITIL|Knowledge management
Service Desk – the value creating one-stop-shop
Blog
Published 21 Jan 2020
The onus on the service desk has changed: today, it’s more customer focused and demands a new combination of skills for successful service desk agents. Previously, the idea was to spend as little time on the phone as possible, with service level agreements measuring speed ...
Business solutions|Customer experience|End-User Experience|Incident management|IT services|ITIL 4|Service desk|Value
The Future of IT Service Management
Blog
Published 21 Feb 2018
We are going through a light-speed technology revolution: from IT modernization to digital transformations, the internet of things (IoT) , cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), not to mention “quantum computing”. My advice? Hold on tight, continue to learn and g...
Best practice|Digital transformation|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Service management|Skills
Reshaping ITSM: (Intelligently Transforming Service Management)
Blog
Published 25 Sep 2018
IT Infrastructure management and support domain are experiencing a new makeover when it comes to tools, technologies, and methods that are being introduced on top of the service layer. Support and service are an integral part of every business. Every organization is an IT org...
Capabilities|Dashboards|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|Processes|Service management
A catalogue for change: using the service catalogue to improve public services
Blog
Published 14 Mar 2016
Janek Rozov, Head of the Information Society Services Development Department at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in Estonia, explains how it has introduced a multiple-view service catalogue to improve understanding of services amongst its citizens and allo...
Best Practice|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Service catalogue
Applying lean to improve ITSM processes
Blog
Published 28 Jun 2017
The DevOps and Agile movements are putting increasing pressure on traditional approaches to IT Service Management (ITSM) as many organizations embrace new technology and become more and more cloud native . These concepts related to the movements are all about evaluating ...
Agile|Change management|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes
What does good cyber resilience look like?: building a solid information security strategy
Blog
Published 24 Feb 2016
Good information security and cyber resilience begins with creating a solid security strategy. So, how do organizations and their CISOs or Heads of IT and security create such a strategy? There are a number of critical questions, driving factors and strategic considerations ...
Cyber resilience|Cyber-attack|Information management|Processes|RESILIA|Risk management
Integrating new technology into services – ITIL 4 HVIT
Blog
Published 20 Feb 2020
How does High-velocity IT (HVIT) in ITIL ® 4 help organizations develop the capability to integrate new technology and reduce their services' speed to market? The challenge in a product/service environment is developing the product, harnessing the technology, involving st...
Digital transformation|Frameworks|IT services|ITIL 4|Skills|Value
More than meets the I: a deep foundation for IT service management
Blog
Published 11 Dec 2017
1. In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL provide? ITIL ® provides a deep foundation when it comes to IT Service Management. One of the reasons is because ITIL is a framework. It is a set of best practices that focuses on aligning IT s...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service management|Value
EU regulations promise shake-up for organizations’ data protection
Blog
Published 02 Jun 2016
Is your organization ready for the biggest shake-up of data protection laws in 20 years? The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation will take effect from this year with the aim of giving EU citizens greater control of what happens to their data and containing t...
Cyber resilience|Data protection|RESILIA|Risk management|Sensitive data|Skills
ITIL® Misconceptions: “ITIL is incompatible with other practices.”
Blog
Published 26 Sep 2016
Daniel Breston shares his thoughts on why it’s a misconception that ITIL is incompatible with other practices: Practices such as lean, agile and DevOps can’t be successful without ITIL . Each of them needs to go from idea to realization, be supported in operations a...
Adopt and adapt|Agile|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes
ITIL® Misconceptions: “ITIL doesn’t require any formal training, it is just common sense or a tool that will fix it all.”
Blog
Published 30 Sep 2016
There are a lot of misconceptions around ITIL as a tool within IT Service Management (ITSM). Some people believe that if they implement a ‘tool’ or an aspect of the guidance, they’re implementing the whole thing. Others think that if they implement a tool it will fix every...
Best practice|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service Management|Training
Built on ITIL: ITIL – the tool that just keeps giving
Blog
Published 16 Oct 2018
My first three days in a new job with a training company just before the Millennium comprised the I TIL ® Foundation course. Those three days changed my career. After the course I realized ITIL was what I’d been seeking during my 15 years working in IT. The course made s...
Adopt and adapt|Career progression|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service management|Training
Hybrid project management and PRINCE2 Agile
Blog
Published 16 Jun 2020
Some projects are better managed under a Waterfall approach while others are better managed using an Agile approach. However, The PRINCE2 Agile ® course and certification allowed me to understand the needs of project stakeholders and apply the best combination of the two me...
Agile|Certification|Learning|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Project management|Project planning
Implementing and leading a best practice PMO
Blog
Published 17 Oct 2016
It is very easy to look at best practice and/or a number of existing Project Management Offices (PMOs) in your industry sector and decide on what functions and services are ‘best’ for your organization. However, a best practice PMO has a problem-focused purpose, with its fun...
Best practice|Governance|P3O|Project management office
ITSM and the customer: make a difference through services, not “framework hunting”
Blog
Published 15 Sep 2017
People wanting to progress their careers and make a difference in IT and IT service management (ITSM) roles need to concentrate on three major issues: their customer, the services they need, and the value they should be providing. Avoiding the sport of “framework hunting” i...
Agile|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Customer engagement|DevOps|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL
ITIL 4: time to stop and think about a new IT services blueprint
Blog
Published 27 May 2020
How can companies – and particularly IT organizations – take something positive from the current worldwide situation with Covid-19? Just like I had the chance to end my own procrastination in completing the ITIL ® 4 Managing Professional Transition Module , organizations h...
Customer engagement|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Service management|Strategy execution
The sustainability of services and products
Blog
Published 25 Jul 2017
Every product or service has a carbon footprint. How a project is managed, how a product is built and used, and how it is disposed of will define the harm it does to our planet. Sustainability must be judged across the entire product lifecycle. So many of the decisions tha...
Behaviour|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Project management|Requirements|Service management|Value
Project management skills for financial services
Blog
Published 19 Jan 2021
Since finishing education, my entire professional life has been in project management. What struck me from the beginning was the organizational element of project management, the ability to make real change without prior knowledge of the work area and even how it can apply t...
Best practice|Career progression|Frameworks|PRINCE2|Project management
Managing IT services for the short and long-term
Blog
Published 13 Jan 2021
The ongoing uncertainty in our working lives makes long term planning difficult. And though people and organizations are not assuming that their current approach will be the long-term way of working, it will likely last longer than first expected. This means friction between...
Agile|Business solutions|ITIL 4
Building and sustaining resilient behaviours in the face of growing cyber-attacks – a Financial Services perspective
Blog
Published 28 Feb 2018
The banking and personal savings sector is a prime target for hackers, which is no surprise when that's where the money is! Hackers use social engineering and phishing techniques to target both staff and customers to gain access to an organization's information, data and mo...
Behaviour|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|RESILIA|Sensitive data|Training
DevOps plus – delivering services not just products
Blog
Published 11 Sep 2017
Delivering value to a customer doesn’t begin and end with a product and its features – it also requires service . In the IT development world, recognizing the need for service means cultivating skills in service management. This is where turning to ITIL ® is important...
Customer needs|DevOps|ITIL|Service management|Value
Getting started with Continual Service Improvement
Blog
Published 07 Dec 2018
In the world before ITIL v3 and Continual Service Improvement (CSI) it was part of a service level manager’s job to identify areas for improvement. However, this was ad hoc and happened mostly if a customer was complaining. We used what were called service improvement pl...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Customer experience|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL
ITIL® – Why ‘Adopt and Adapt’ is the Only Way to Go
Blog
Published 10 Mar 2015
“It won’t work if organizations expect IT people to pick up an ITIL ® book or go on a training course and then implement successful service management solutions. “Organizations and people need to ‘adopt and adapt’ ITIL to the specific and unique requirements of their b...
Best Practice|Capabilities|Change management|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service Management
Business Service Management (BSM) and ITIL: delivering value
Blog
Published 28 Jul 2017
Business service management (BSM) is about bringing value to a business through matching overall business objectives with IT. Arguably, the concept has been with us for some time; but like the latest version of ITIL ® addresses the issue of business and services, it ha...
ITIL|Leadership|Processes|Service catalogue|Service management|Value
ITIL 4 – embedding Lean and Agile to move quickly and disrupt markets
Blog
Published 11 Oct 2019
Today’s organizations need greater flexibility to create new products and services, which requires agility to build, test and deploy much faster. This need has led to movements such as DevOps and – in fact – ITIL ® 4 , the latest evolution of the ITIL best practice framewo...
Agile|Benefits realization|DevOps|Digital transformation|Frameworks|ITIL 4|Value
Business value from IT goods and services in a digital world: ITIL 4 - The Evolution of ITSM Part 3
Blog
Published 18 Feb 2019
Business value from IT goods and services in a digital world I think it’s fair to say that organizations’ understanding of “digital” is currently ‘all over the place’, leading to much confusion. In technology terms, when you’re using IT strategically to drive a business...
Customer engagement|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL|Value
ITIL 4 and value co-creation
Blog
Published 07 Apr 2020
Why is co-creating value within service management such an important concept in ITIL ® 4? While some customers might expect providers to “deliver value” independently, value requires open dialogue and active collaboration between providers and consumers. Everyone needs to a...
Agile|Communication|Customer needs|DevOps|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
ITIL: bridging the gap between IT services today and tomorrow
Blog
Published 27 Dec 2018
How can communication within IT service management (ITSM) – and ultimately with the business it supports – be improved? The silos that can develop among different parts of organizations need something that bridges the gap between the professionals that create and build t...
Communication|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Skills|Value
21st century cyber awareness for a 21st century threat
Blog
Published 03 May 2016
The success of cyber security awareness learning in organizations today is, typically judged by the ‘ticking of a box’ to say it’s been done. But have organizations – and their managers responsible for information security awareness learning – really stopped to ask whether t...
Cyber resilience|Cyber-attack|Learning|RESILIA|Skills|Vulnerability
The ITIL update in a world of digital & service transformation: ITIL 4 - Evolution of ITSM Part 2
Blog
Published 14 Feb 2019
The ITIL ® update in a world of digital and service transformation Today, what are the main challenges facing organizations around IT generally and ITSM in particular? This is very dependent on the individual organization: on one hand, many are passing through digiti...
Best practice|Customer needs|IT services|ITIL|Service management|Value
Machine learning is the key to AI adoption in ITSM
Blog
Published 04 Apr 2019
With so much hype today about artificial intelligence, IT service providers need to weed out the facts from the fiction to develop as successful strategy . The most promising area of study and research in artificial intelligence for ITSM is in machine learning or teaching co...
IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|Service management|Strategic objectives|Value
ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver and Support: from demand to value
Blog
Published 08 Nov 2019
Delivering services that equally meet consumer demand while remaining stable and reliable has become even more critical with the speed of IT change today . Every service organization needs to create, deliver and support services and understand the skills and competencies th...
Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service catalogue|Service desk|Service management|Value
Three BIG tips for managing multi-vendor ITSM scenarios
Blog
Published 20 Jul 2016
The IT industry is undergoing a tremendous amount of change and at a rapid rate. It’s becoming no longer affordable for an organization’s in-house IT department to manage every single IT service that’s required for the business to grow. Outsourcing IT or at the very least so...
Change management|Communication|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL
PRINCE2 2017 Update: an investment in you
Blog
Published 05 Jun 2017
Mike Babb, who is responsible for recruitment into Capita’s 4,500-strong professional services division, gives his verdict on the PRINCE2 ® 2017 Update: Since qualifying in PRINCE2 six years ago I’ve witnessed at first hand the importance of tailoring the project mana...
Career planning|Methodologies|PRINCE2|Project Management
ITIL 4: Connecting key concepts – Part 1
Blog
Published 30 Apr 2019
Products, Services, and Service Relationships Over the next few weeks we will publish a blog series to give you the big picture of ITIL ® 4. A bit of context before I start: When I was in India last November, I was challenged by a group of trainers to create a single dia...
Customer engagement|Customer experience|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
ITIL update: Evolution and Integration
Blog
Published 08 Dec 2017
ITIL ® has always been dynamic. It has evolved over time to reflect changes to the way organizations work, different service management concepts and priorities and our understanding of the different capabilities required to deliver value. Now it’s time to update ITIL ...
Agile|Customer experience|Governance|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service management
ITIL Intermediate – Operational Support and Analysis (OSA): Combating chaos
Blog
Published 23 Aug 2019
For any operational department it’s obligatory to have processes and an approach to things – otherwise it would all be chaos! In my view, if you don’t adopt and adapt knowledge from one of the IT operational approaches such as the ITIL® Intermediate module, Operational Supp...
Customer experience|Incident management|IT services|ITIL|Problem management|Processes|Value
Meet the ITIL team – Akshay Anand
Blog
Published 07 Jun 2017
It might sound strange to say that there’s no need to be afraid of failure. And that goes for IT Service Management (ITSM) as much as anything else in life and business. Using ITIL ®  to learn how not to fail in ITSM In fact, one of ITIL ® Practitioner’s co-authors, Kev...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|Service Management|Value
The benefits of ITIL® in IT security
Blog
Published 21 Oct 2016
I n recent years Romania and, more broadly, South East Europe have become a hotbed for international IT services. Due to the region’s Internet of Everything approach, the IT market is booming and facilities like Security Operations Centres (SOCs) and Network Operation Centres...
Communication|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Resource management
High-velocity IT – a way for the digitally-enabled organization
Blog
Published 18 Feb 2020
An interview with Mark Smalley, author of ITIL ® 4 Managing Professional High-velocity IT. Q: Why should ITIL practitioners see value in the High-velocity IT module within ITIL 4’s Managing Professional certification? A: The module is aimed at practitioners who are n...
Agile|DevOps|IT services|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management|Skills
Delivering IT value
Blog
Published 22 Jan 2016
IT professionals do not typically focus on delivering value to customers and that’s because service providers in general don’t understand what value is – it’s not quantifiable, it’s not tangible, it’s not definable, it’s not measureable and so it can frighten them. Manageme...
Customer engagement|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Service catalogue|Value
Meaningful metrics in ITSM: it’s about the business (stupid)
Blog
Published 30 Jun 2015
IT organizations don’t tend to recognize when they have an image problem or why they should care. Though some would argue they’re getting better at dealing with it, it’s still not nearly enough. The traditional problem is based on IT organizations believing the world revolv...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Processes|Reporting|Value
Who really is your customer?
Blog
Published 10 Jun 2019
Why is the question “who really is your customer” important to ask in IT and IT services? It’s extremely important because it shapes what IT/ ITSM people do and why. It helps us define and focus on the right things, which includes going beyond the superficial view of who a ...
Customer experience|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Value
Ask AXELOS - Creating value not cost in ITSM
Blog
Published 12 Nov 2014
"How do I hold on to my current ITSM budget or even grow it? I know I need to show value to the business, but my concern is that the 'powers that be' see only cost. What's my best approach to this?" As technology continues to advance and develop, IT is becoming even more i...
Best Practice|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service Management|Value
Is your ITIL evergreen?
Blog
Published 04 Jun 2019
We are creators, innovators and explorers of new, shiny things. It is part of our role and we love it. Listening to the hype, the latest trends - what ones are worth our time and investment, which ones will stick around (Apple iPhone, Amazon Echo) and which ones will not make...
Change management|Frameworks|Incident management|IT services|ITIL|Knowledge management|Problem management|Resource management|Service management
ITIL is a lifeline for the non-traditional IT Leader
Blog
Published 23 Oct 2019
Five years ago, after more than 21 years with Ashland in multiple business roles, I was appointed director of IT customer support and service delivery. Unfortunately, I had zero traditional IT knowledge. I literally Googled “IT education” and found the word ITIL ® . Fast for...
Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Processes|Requirements
Service Strategy: ahead of its time
Blog
Published 11 Nov 2016
I remember the divide in the industry when we published Service Strategy in the summer of 2007. Whilst a minority said it was inspirational, the majority questioned what right IT had in trying to shape business strategy. Zoom forward more than a decade, where the Fourth...
Capabilities|Collaboration|IT services|ITIL|Skills|Strategy execution|Value
Using ITIL Practitioner across a range of IT job roles
Blog
Published 15 Apr 2016
When I first learnt about ITIL Practitioner , I was somewhat sceptical about its value and, in particular, how it would work for candidates with a wide range of ITIL backgrounds, knowledge and job roles. Thinking about training someone at ITIL Foundation stage in the...
Capabilities|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Qualifications|Skills|Training
ITIL in a world of digital transformation
Blog
Published 31 May 2018
I n a recent webinar hosted by New Horizons, AXELOS’ ITSM Product Ambassador, Akshay Anand, shared his thoughts about one buzzword of the moment, digital transformation: What is digital transformation , how are companies going about accomplishing it and what does th...
Change management|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Customer Experience|Digital transformation|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Stakeholder management
ITIL 4 Specialist drive stakeholder value: maximizing the consumer experience
Blog
Published 04 Feb 2020
Back in the industrial society, goods were a dominant factor in our lives. But in the “service era” we prefer to replace ownership of goods with access to services and resources without necessarily owning them. This is happening with and without digital transformation , alt...
Collaboration|Communication|Customer experience|End-User Experience|IT services|ITIL 4|Stakeholder engagement|Value
High-velocity IT: overcoming challenges and setting objectives
Blog
Published 19 Jun 2020
What is the imperative for organizations moving to a high-velocity IT environment? Scarce resources, growing demands, continually shifting goals, the need for speed and end-to-end, sustainable behaviours that deliver agreed business value in times of agile transformation. Is...
IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service management
ITIL 4 Specialist: CDS – Firing up the IT and digital engine room
Blog
Published 09 Sep 2020
When a traditional IT organization evolves to achieve a higher velocity – delivering work more quickly and meeting the business demand for agility – it adopts new ways of working, such as DevOps. This usually triggers organizational changes which might lead to multiple produ...
Certification|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4
Process Implementation: Spotting the “Five Dysfunctions of a Team”
Blog
Published 24 Jun 2015
Process implementation in IT Service Management (ITSM) comprises the steps we take to deliver services and the changes necessary to support the business moving forward.The purpose of IT is to be a business partner, ensuring anything that falls within the remit of delivering ...
Best Practice|Change management|Customer engagement|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Leadership|Processes
CX = BRM + SLM?
Blog
Published 12 May 2015
It all started with a tweet and now I find myself debating Customer Experience (CX) on the AXELOS blog. My tweet posed something of a challenge to AXELOS: “Right AXELOS, I’ve decided here starts the campaign to replace ITIL® Business Relationship Management (BRM) and Servic...
Communication|Customer Experience|End-User Experience|ITIL|Service Desk|Service Management
Could you be a Business Relationship Manager?
Blog
Published 09 Mar 2016
Do you have what it takes to be a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) ? What does a BRM do? The role is responsible for building relationships between the IT organization and the business units to ensure IT services meet the needs of business customers. BRMs collaborate...
Business information management|Capabilities|Collaboration|IT services|Requirements|Skills
ITIL 4 Specialist Create, Deliver and Support: optimizing work methods
Blog
Published 07 May 2020
How do IT teams keep up with the increasing speed of business change and demand for services that provide customer value consistently? Optimizing work methods in service management helps to improve efficiency, effectiveness and minimize waste while ensuring that IT’s goals...
Business solutions|Collaboration|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
Service management for 2021: the at-home workforce
Blog
Published 09 Dec 2020
Initial lockdowns this year meant that organizations had no choice but to send staff to work from home. However, how they handle the return to an office – or continue to operate remotely – is less simple. Among employees working from home for the first time, some will thrive...
Adopt and adapt|Best practice|ITIL|ITIL 4|Leadership|Service management
ITIL® Practitioner - Focus on Value
Blog
Published 28 Jul 2016
Focus on value is one of the nine guiding principles described in the ITIL ® Practitioner Guidance and is the subject of the animated video below. Of course it’s so obvious that we should focus on value that you might wonder whether it needs saying at all. The t...
Change management|Customer experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
Essential ITSM tips for 2018
Blog
Published 26 Feb 2018
2017 was the year of the “lean IT” revolution, trying to bring frameworks together and figuring out how they can all play in the same sandpit. That means understanding how to get cohesion between the likes of ITIL ® , Agile, Six Sigma and COBIT in a way that adds value ...
Best Practice|Customer experience|Frameworks|IT services|ITIL|Problem management|Skills
ITIL Practitioner: blending best practices to deliver customer value
Blog
Published 26 Apr 2018
ITIL ® Practitioner was launched two years ago, expanding IT service management (ITSM) practitioners’ capability to deploy and derive value from the ITIL framework . Since then, how has the guidance helped people on the frontline of delivering IT services? AXELOS sp...
Best practice|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Customer needs|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service Management
ITIL 4: Connecting key concepts – Part 4
Blog
Published 16 May 2019
The Service Value Chain, and Service Value Streams Welcome back! This post is the fourth (and last) in a series in which I connect the key concepts of ITIL 4 . In the last blog we briefly covered the service value system (SVS) and its five components. One of those compon...
ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
High-velocity IT – if you’re behind the curve, where do you start?
Blog
Published 15 Jun 2020
Companies need to seriously re-think how they change direction to ride out crises. And not just to survive, but to thrive. In uncertain times like now, high-velocity IT is something organizations need regardless of industry. And that’s not only about speed but the ability ...
Best practice|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service management
Essential skills for the digital era – the customer journey and ITIL® 4
Blog
Published 20 Jul 2020
Why is mapping the customer journey with a service mindset important for organizations in the digital era? Until recently, customers have mostly engaged with organizations via person-to-person engagement, such as paying in a cheque at the bank. Now, there is an increasing d...
Certification|Customer experience|Customer needs|ITIL 4|Skills
AXELOS Enterprise Service Management Podcast
Blog
Published 10 Mar 2017
In early December 2016, Kaimar Karu and I found ourselves in Portland, Oregon running a workshop with Jon Terry, Shane Carlson, and Kevin Behr. Over dinner one night, we started talking about Enterprise Service Management (ESM). Differences in opinion started to surface, and ...
Best Practice|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Processes|Service management|Value
The importance of collaboration in the evolution of ITSM
Blog
Published 04 May 2017
Following the publication of AXELOS' The Future ITSM Professional report, AXELOS associate Toby Moore joined Dr Tuuli Bell, partner manager at Tasktop Technologies, to discuss the evolution of ITSM businesses and the shift to a more service-based culture. Ever...
Business solutions|Collaboration|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Service desk|Strategic objectives
ITIL 4 – a “crystal ball” for evaluating technology and value
Blog
Published 17 Apr 2019
Royce Dsouza began his ITIL ® journey in 2011, becoming an ITIL Expert in 2015. His ITSM career has included setting up a service management office at two Fortune 500 companies and helping to align IT with end-to-end service delivery. He has replicated this success ...
Certification|DevOps|Frameworks|ITIL|Methodologies|Processes|Value
My service management to-do list for the new normal
Blog
Published 17 Jul 2020
The reality of working in increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments is going to drive organizations to adapt and thrive. This lack of certainty has made people very nervous about making long-term plans and is, essentially, almost an ideal sc...
Collaboration|IT service management (ITSM)|Service management
Business turnaround using PRINCE2® themes
Blog
Published 18 Sep 2020
For organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging on an unprecedented scale. Business leaders have suddenly had to focus on keeping their companies above water, as well as sustaining future growth potential. Given this unpredictable environment many organizations ...
Best practice|PRINCE2|Project management
Filling the youth skills gap: ITIL 4 and service management
Blog
Published 28 Sep 2020
Today, in big tech companies, we increasingly hear about people having a “growth mindset”. That means continually pushing yourself to learn and explore different professional certifications. In essence, employers view people like this as going the extra mile, wanting to unde...
Career progression|Certification|ITIL 4|Learning|Professional development
Tackling the rise of bimodal IT and 'two-speed ITSM'
Blog
Published 17 Feb 2015
Why is IT and - consequently ITSM - under pressures that can pull it in two different directions? Leading research company, Gartner, calls it "bimodal IT" and depicts it as “rocks in a river”: solid IT operational excellence standing against the fast-moving flow of digital. ...
Best Practice|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Service management
ITIL® Practitioner - Design for Experience
Blog
Published 22 Jun 2016
The initiative to establish a service request catalogue to automate fulfilment of the most commonly requested services and allow customers to log their support requests is a commendable one. It would meet the objective of reducing the calls to the service desk and therefore...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|End-user experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service catalogue|Service desk
ITSM, ITIL and DevOps – an education process
Blog
Published 31 Jul 2018
In IT service management (ITSM) education is critical: it helps organizations get a shared understanding of terms and concepts and a proven body of knowledge such as ITIL ® . The IT industry is rife with buzzwords carrying varied interpretations, so education helps ...
Certification|DevOps|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Value
ITIL Intermediate: Service Transition – making IT change less painful
Blog
Published 26 Jun 2019
Every organization, at some point, will make some sort of IT transition. The concepts in ITIL ® v3 Intermediate’s Service Transition (ST) module help that challenge in specific ways: The ultimate idea is to make transitions smooth enough to avoid disrupting current IT ser...
Certification|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service management|Skills
Creating a common IT language – ITIL 4 Managing Professional Transition
Blog
Published 24 Jan 2020
The ITIL ® 4 Managing Professional Transition module provides the foundation to deliver effective service management through new ways of working within digital organizations. This builds on concepts from ITIL 4 Foundation and the four Managing Professional modules, such a...
Best practice|Certification|Collaboration|DevOps|Frameworks|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
Return on Value (ROV): the lens to see the real value of IT
Blog
Published 19 Jun 2017
Every day, CIOs face the same daunting question; how can they effectively communicate the value of IT to the business? For any IT initiative, the confusion lies in identifying and quantifying its outcomes for the business. They need to challenge the business’ perception of ...
Frameworks|IT investment|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
Meet the ITIL Team – Roman Zhuravlev
Blog
Published 02 Jun 2017
Roman Zhuravlev talks service management and why ITIL ® is not the work of a “crazy professor”! Service management is everywhere – and that means the economy becoming more customer-focused, intelligent and alive. With the exciting concept of digital transformation, o...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service Management
Combining DevOps and ITIL to cool the “hot potato” of change
Blog
Published 27 Nov 2017
How can DevOps bring service improvements to IT service management (ITSM) in organizations and avoid throwing operations the “hot potato” of badly planned change projects? And what is the role for ITIL ® Practitioner’s 9 Guiding Principles – in particular start where y...
Collaboration|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL
How ITIL® Practitioner will help your business get the best from ITIL
Blog
Published 18 Dec 2015
Many individuals, and even organizations, are convinced that there is real value in the guidance documented in ITIL® , but they struggle to know how to use that guidance to best advantage. ITIL describes a lot of best practices that could be followed, but as the saying go...
Adopt and adapt|Change management|Communication|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Skills
How does 'Focus on Value' relate to the rest of the ITIL Practitioner Guidance?
Blog
Published 01 Aug 2016
The ITIL ® Practitioner guiding principles are not independent of each other. You don’t start with focus on value then, once you’ve finished that, start thinking about a different principle. All nine guiding principles work together to help ensure you do the right things...
Collaboration|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Value
ITIL 4 and the co-creation of fast value
Blog
Published 01 Mar 2019
‘Digital’ is about customer experience and value For better and for worse, the societal, political and economic impact of information technology is unprecedented. As citizens and consumers, technology has made our life so much easier that it’s giving organizations a hard t...
IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL|Skills|Value
Combining AI and ITIL – governance and value
Blog
Published 08 Apr 2019
AI is not the future: in fact, we’re seeing very much in the present. So the message to organizations (corporate and IT) is, simply, “get on board and start learning about it ”! If you don’t believe me, take the example of IBM Watson in healthcare . While no human can dig...
Best practice|Frameworks|Governance|IT services|ITIL|Value
ITIL 4 and automation – opening up improvement and transformation
Blog
Published 19 May 2020
What is the future for automating IT services in an ITIL ® 4 world ? The latest evolution of ITIL has opened the conversation up, addressing the practices from a technological perspective as well as a business management one. But where are organizations on that journey ri...
Capabilities|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL 4|Processes|Strategy execution
ITIL Practitioner’s 9 Guiding Principles – part of my vision statement
Blog
Published 07 Aug 2017
Certifying in ITIL Practitioner has been an opportunity for growth and understanding of how IT service management (ITSM) delivers value in the government organization I work for. In fact, its 9 Guiding Principles have become part of my vision statement because I feel they...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Value|Vision
ITIL 4 – Guiding Principles: Focus on value
Blog
Published 18 Oct 2019
Why is focusing on value – according to the ITIL ® 4 Guiding Principles – so valuable when providing services? We used to tell people: “Don’t focus on the technology you are managing; focus on services you enable or support with the technology.” Now, we must take the nex...
Collaboration|Customer needs|ITIL 4|Service management|Stakeholder engagement|Stakeholder management|Value
ITIL Intermediate: Service Strategy – towards better business and customer outcomes
Blog
Published 19 Jun 2019
Over the past five years, I believe that – for some IT organizations – the ITIL ® concept of Service Strategy (SS) got left behind. Why is this? IT organizations have been buried in the “trenches” of an endless loop which includes immediate uptake of design, transition an...
Customer needs|ITIL 4|Service management|Skills|Strategy execution|Value
Managing the Customer Interface with Best Practice Guidance - and not only in ITIL®!
Blog
Published 02 Apr 2015
The customer interface is the place where an organization meets its customers but in ITSM it’s something no one talks about enough, even though it adds so much value. In today’s economy, businesses revolve around the service experience: take the upmarket coffee house concept...
Adopt and Adapt|Best Practice|Customer Experience|IT service management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|PRINCE2|Service Management
The real ROI of ITIL training
Blog
Published 29 Jun 2016
When I analyze the tangible results my organization has achieved as a result of employees being ITIL ® competent, the return is undeniable. The benefits of ITIL training are threefold: differentiation, service improvement and cost saving. Differentiation In 2012, lev...
Certification|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT investment|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Training
ITIL® Misconceptions: "ITIL is for infrastructure or production only."
Blog
Published 19 Sep 2016
Many people associate ITIL’s core books with managing incidents and problems. This focus on break/fix scenarios is probably historical, but the misconception is still very much alive. Having been an ITIL trainer for more than 15 years and practising even longer, the o...
Incident management|Infrastructure|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes
Improving company culture by introducing a new ITSM tool
Blog
Published 14 Dec 2016
Why is IT Service Management (ITSM) important to organizations? Executives, of course, want to measure systems, data and people and how the IT infrastructure and the provided services are helping end-users to accomplish their business goal more efficiently. In the past, onl...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|Problem management|Processes|Requirements
My AXELOS – developing skills and building careers in best practice
Blog
Published 09 Aug 2018
My AXELOS is the new, online content subscription service to help you take control of your skills development and career in project, programme and IT service management. In a recent webinar AXELOS’ head of Professional Development, Amrit Saroya, and Global Marketing...
Career progression|Digital badges|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|MSP|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management|Skills
ITIL 4: Connecting key concepts – Part 3
Blog
Published 16 May 2019
The Service Value System Welcome back! This post is the third in a series in which I connect the key concepts of ITIL 4 . In the last article , we briefly covered concepts such as multiple stakeholders, PESTLE, and the Four Dimensions of Service Management. In this articl...
ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
ITIL Intermediate v3: Service Design – enabling value creation
Blog
Published 22 May 2019
ITIL Intermediate’s Service Design (SD) module provides one of the most important approaches to deliver a service that works and enables value creation. Without employing SD and, for example, moving to transition without much design and attention to processes there is a ...
Agile|Customer engagement|DevOps|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
ITIL 4 DPI – continual improvement and good communications
Blog
Published 26 Aug 2020
Why should organizations think about creating a customer-focused approach to delivering services? And where do they begin? The experience of providing services during the current pandemic drives home a number of service management lessons, most prominently that the only path...
Best practice|Customer experience|ITIL 4|Service management
The orchestra’s conductor: the skills needed to be a Programme Manager
Blog
Published 19 Aug 2016
Programme Managers or directors play a critical role in an organization, often acting as the conduit between strategy and execution. Speaking in a blog post for AXELOS, The risks of promoting Project Managers to Programme Managers , Lindsay Scott, Director at Arras People, d...
Best Practice|Communication|Leadership|Programme Management|Project and programme management (PPM)
Them vs us: the importance of Collaboration
Blog
Published 31 Oct 2016
A lot of organizations, experience frustration with their service desk. While that’s not a criticism – the majority get things done quickly – end users get annoyed by the speed of service desk support. Interestingly, what’s usually at fault is effectiveness rather than effic...
Business solutions|Collaboration|ITIL|Processes|Service desk|Stakeholder management
Why ITIL Practitioner is invaluable for small businesses
Blog
Published 31 Jul 2017
I have found the structuring principles of ITIL ® Practitioner extremely valuable for my latest project with a social services cooperative in Italy which, although relatively small in size, has ambitious plans for continued expansion. Having achieved double-digit growth ...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Project management
Taking IT4IT on the ITSM journey
Blog
Published 25 May 2018
What is IT4IT and who is it relevant for? AXELOS’ ITSM Portfolio Development Manager, Roman Zhuravlev and Anton Lykov, Solution Architect for Micro Focus, discussed the IT4IT architecture model in a recent AXELOS webinar and this blog post offers a brief summary of their dis...
Agile|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Service Management|Value
AgileSHIFT: using agility to help organizations handle a changing world
Blog
Published 15 Oct 2018
Organizations and professionals are facing an ever-changing world in which consumers are forcing faster responses to their demands. At the same time, there are internal tensions between the delivery team seeking to fulfil this demand versus the corporate teams they interact w...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Change management|Frameworks|Training|Value
PRINCE2 Agile Foundation: a pragmatic approach to project success
Blog
Published 06 Dec 2018
Emma Arnaz-Pemberton, director of consulting services at Wellingtone Project Management put herself and her team through the new PRINCE2 Agile ® Foundation course with the support of Logical Model. What’s your principal role? I run a team of consultants and focus...
Agile|Certification|Governance|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Project management
MSP – not just for programme managers
Blog
Published 21 Feb 2020
What is a programme? And how does the Managing Successful Programmes (MSP ® ) guidance and certification make programmes more manageable? A programme is a flexible structure in an organization used to coordinate, direct and oversee implementation of a set of projects to de...
Career progression|MSP|PRINCE2|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management
ITIL 4 Strategist – Direct, Plan and Improve: cascading goals
Blog
Published 26 Feb 2020
What does it mean when we talk about a goals cascade in ITIL ® 4 Direct, Plan and Improve – and how can this enhance the work of service managers? In fact, there are different ways to look at a cascade: 1. Purpose Here, the goals cascade comes from purpose (for exampl...
Customer engagement|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Key performance indicators (KPIs)|Service management|Value
Establishing the basics of cyber resilience
Blog
Published 01 Apr 2020
Companies worldwide are now realizing that cyber resilience is not just a “good to have”, but a necessity. It’s no longer a question of if but when risks will emerge and when vulnerabilities are exploited with threats relating to information assets such as data, syst...
Certification|Cyber resilience|Frameworks|RESILIA|Skills|Threats|Vulnerability
Value streams and ITIL 4 CDS: looking holistically at service management
Blog
Published 14 Jul 2020
How is ITIL ® best practice important to people in IT operations teams getting “dirty” in the day to day tasks of managing changes, transition and delivering flexible and stable service? Well, I think that ITIL 4 Specialist: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) gives them a ...
Best practice|Collaboration|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4
I’ve got ITIL 4 Foundation – what next?
Blog
Published 21 Aug 2020
What should service management practitioners do after certifying in ITIL ® 4 Foundation? This is one of the questions I hear most often, especially from people starting on their ITIL journey. And it’s important today for people who have previously certified in ITIL v3 Foun...
Best practice|Career progression|Certification|ITIL 4|Professional development
Are you giving or receiving full value from your PMO?
Blog
Published 30 Apr 2018
What does a good PMO (project/programme management office) look like? The standard response is often to describe a best practice model and list some core services, but I want to challenge this perspective. In my view, it doesn’t really matter what activities your PMO provid...
Communication|Project management|Project management office|Roles|Stakeholder management|Strategy execution
A career plan for PMO practitioners
Blog
Published 05 Jun 2018
The PMO has evolved from a mainly admin/support function into an exciting career space – so how can today’s practitioners successfully navigate the different opportunities on offer? PMO is becoming increasingly popular as an organizational entity around project management...
Career planning|Career progression|Project management|Project management office|Roles|Skills
Built on ITIL: a service management foundation for the future
Blog
Published 22 Oct 2018
Organizational transformation is built on ITIL ® best practices. And, from what I’ve seen from the frontline, the need for this still exists. In fact, there is so much work still to be accomplished among organizations that I could be busy for years and years! As a consul...
Adopt and adapt|Best practice|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL
Built on ITIL: quality and consistency in service delivery
Blog
Published 02 Nov 2018
While my first exposure to ITIL ® came almost 30 years ago – working in tech support for the American part of Glaxo – helping organizations adopt and adapt ITIL has been a cornerstone of my consultancy practice for 15 years. In that time, I’ve seen ITIL help organizati...
Best practice|Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service management|Training|Value
Built on ITIL: putting a rocket under your career
Blog
Published 05 Nov 2018
As part of our Built on ITIL ® blog post series, one of our most prolific guest bloggers, Adam McCullough, shares his ITIL journey: was it coincidental for someone who was working at NASA to find ITIL helped his career “sky rocket”? Working in ITSM supporting NASA’s Kenn...
Career progression|Certification|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT services|ITIL|Skills
Defining the delta
Blog
Published 20 May 2019
AgileSHIFT , one of the latest best practice solutions from AXELOS introduces a new concept, the delta. But what is it, and how do we use it? The purpose of the delta is to illustrate how organizations need to think in order to be more resilient to disruption . If we loo...
AgileSHIFT|Behaviour|Business solutions|Customer needs|Digital transformation|End-User Experience|Strategy execution|Threats
ITIL 4 transition: look no further than the Guiding Principles
Blog
Published 05 Sep 2019
How should an organization undertake the transition from ITIL ® v3 to ITIL 4 ? But before the “how?”, maybe we should talk about the “why?”. ITIL 4 is the latest evolution in the best practice framework that has supported IT service management professionals and their org...
IT service management (ITSM)|IT transformation|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
ITIL 4 – Value Streams: doing the right things for customers
Blog
Published 10 Mar 2020
Value streams are without doubt my favourite topic in ITIL ® 4, because the concept makes clear how the overall value that a service delivers is a complex combination of sub-components. Now, to explain how value streams work I’d like to invite you for coffee: Going to ...
Customer experience|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Processes|Service management
5 Key Digital Transformation Trends in 2020
Blog
Published 03 Apr 2020
Digital transformation worldwide will pick up the pace in 2020. This is despite  the thorough planning required to move from legacy IT to digital transformation , which will entail analysing current practices and determining future outcomes. But organizations around the world...
Benefits realization|Big Data|Business solutions|Data protection|Digital transformation|GDPR|Information systems|Infrastructure|IT transformation|Privacy|Risk management
Developing a cross-organizational digital strategy
Blog
Published 21 Jan 2021
How can organizations become more proactive about defining and making timely, significant changes to compete in a digital world? Most define their digital strategies to compete more effectively but, rather than starting with a clear vision, companies look to industry leade...
Adopt and adapt|Digital transformation|IT services|ITIL 4|Strategic objectives|Strategy execution|Vision
Making the Guiding Principles live! - Designing for User experience?
Blog
Published 15 Feb 2016
To my mind, one of the most useful additions to ITIL ® Practitioner is the Guiding Principles (GP). The Guiding Principles help focus on the essential aspects for a successful ITIL adoption. They provide a powerful checklist to those responsible for ensuring an ITIL deploy...
Adopt and adapt|Behaviour|Customer experience|IT transformation|ITIL|Value
The ITIL® DevOps Blog Response
Blog
Published 04 Dec 2017
Everyone’s favourite IT service management (ITSM) puppet blogger, Joe The IT Guy, published an article a couple of months ago on the alignment of ITIL ® and DevOps. It had some great insights, and Joe suggested that I pen a follow-up … so, here it is. Before I start, I’d...
Capabilities|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Service Management
What is a good P3O culture?
Blog
Published 15 Aug 2018
Before we begin, let's define what culture is. Culture is a pattern of responses discovered, developed or invented during a group's history of handling problems which arise from interactions among its members, and between them and their environment. These responses are consid...
Best practice|P3O|Portfolio management|Programme management|Project management|Project management office
Combining different IT and ITSM frameworks for business benefit: ITIL 4 - Evolution of ITSM Part 4
Blog
Published 20 Feb 2019
Combining different IT and ITSM frameworks for business benefit How do organizations that begin with basic IT service management (ITSM) processes progress their approach to become more service-centric? I often observe companies – in spite of today’s focus on digital tr...
Agile|Benefits realization|DevOps|Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL
From v3 to 4 – This is the new ITIL
Blog
Published 28 Feb 2019
Ten years ago, Bitcoin was launched, and James Cameron released his innovative film Avatar. And now think of all the changes we have lived through since then. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has created such a fast-paced and complex environment that organizations and individ...
Career progression|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL|Value
ITIL® Practitioner Guiding Principles in action: Start Where You Are
Blog
Published 26 Aug 2016
When embarking on any project, the hardest part is knowing where to begin. But as the Guiding Principles of ITIL Practitioner recommend, my view is that you should start where you are. I recently put these principles into practice when completing a strategic review of our I...
Frameworks|Information Management|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Maturity Models
On designing an Information Security Service
Blog
Published 07 Dec 2017
In recent days, there’s been a lot of comment (in news stories , by pundit s , on social media, and in online forums) about how appalling it is that MPs are sharing passwords with their staff. Amid all that chatter, on a forum that I follow, John Custy ( @ITSMNinja ) mad...
Behaviour|Cyber security|End-user experience|IT services
Austerity, convergence and leadership deficit – transformational change trends for 2018
Blog
Published 04 Jan 2018
Three trends in 2018 will combine to challenge the most expert and experienced of the UK’s transformational change leaders . 1. Being clinical about the core We have heard plenty about “doing more with the same” or “doing the same with less”. Given global economic uncertai...
Behaviour|Big data|Capabilities|Change management|Leadership|Portfolio management
My AXELOS Journey
Blog
Published 18 Jan 2019
Like most people who have either project managed or worked within a project and have started their formal training typically starting with Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 ® , I was no different. Working on my first ever business change project, the guidance was ...
ITIL|Learning|MoP|MSP|P3M3|P3O|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Professional development|Qualifications|Training
Translating best practice and the new ITIL 4 "Practices"
Blog
Published 10 Jul 2019
The content of best practice methods and frameworks such as ITIL ® , PRINCE2 ® and MSP ® enables people to speak a common language of IT service management, projects and programmes. However, the terminology needs to be chosen carefully to account for tone and...
Best practice|Frameworks|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|ITIL 4|Processes
ITIL 4: Storytelling in Value Management
Blog
Published 24 Jul 2019
Understanding the needs of others is fundamentally at the core of good service. A working definition of a good service is the ability to address the needs and wants of an individual in the fastest and most effective way possible – whether it’s in a restaurant, at a hotel, ...
Business solutions|Customer experience|End-User Experience|IT services|ITIL 4|Problem management|Value
Want to make an IT service change? Here’s how to do it
Blog
Published 07 Aug 2019
Change, release and deployment in ITIL ® help to ensure that what a requester – such as a service owner – wants can be delivered from a technical and feasibility perspective. I’ve seen this work effectively in the French national railway company, SNCF; but before we get...
Change requests|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
From mucky to green: Moving from legacy IT to digital transformation
Blog
Published 20 Nov 2019
When is a “dirty, mucky field” like your IT estate? Having mature existing practices, processes and controls that can’t be jettisoned; legacy technology sitting alongside new and a combination of waterfall and Agile/DevOps approaches – that’s your proverbial “mucky field”....
Collaboration|Digital transformation|Frameworks|Governance|IT components|IT services|IT transformation|Processes|Stakeholder engagement
IT asset and configuration management: part of ITIL 4’s Service Value System
Blog
Published 10 Dec 2019
Managing IT assets has been a natural part of business for decades: where is the asset? What are you paying for it and from whose budget? From the service management perspective of “ providing value through technology services ” we rely on the assets to deliver the technolog...
Benefits realization|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4|Service catalogue|Service management|Value
IT and the CIO: custodians of “employee experience”
Blog
Published 21 May 2020
The focus on customer experience has really taken off in recent years. However, customer experience won’t happen without employee engagement; having engaged staff means the company performs more effectively. Therefore, creating more engaged employees is what companies should...
Customer experience|Customer needs|Empowerment|End-User Experience|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL 4
Remote working: how to manage it during the pandemic
Blog
Published 01 Jul 2020
The current pandemic has probably accelerated organizations’ plans for working from home by five years and digital transformation is now taking months rather than years. So, the world that IT organizations have been moving steadily towards – supported by the digitally-enable...
Best practice|Collaboration|Digital transformation|IT services|ITIL 4
Nine service management challenges for the new normal
Blog
Published 07 Oct 2020
Lockdown has, I believe, ultimately changed all products to services and means that service managers will be needed more and more. Thinking about ITIL 4 ® , the co-creation of value is going to be increasingly important to service management if you want to understand busin...
Best practice|Collaboration|Communication|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4
ITIL 4 DITS – crafting a digital vision for your future state
Blog
Published 19 Nov 2020
If ITIL 4’s Digital & IT Strategy (DITS) module offers strategic guidance for leading digital transformation in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, it was made for 2020. In fact, we were still writing the DITS book when Covid-19 hit, forcing us...
Agile|Business solutions|Digital transformation|ITIL 4|Vision
Cultural transformation and ITSM - the challenges are cultural and technical
Blog
Published 11 Jun 2015
Every service management implementation is a cultural transformation. And culture change is an even bigger issue for senior management than it is for IT and ITSM, as they need to recognize that for such a transformation to be successful, they need to lead and be role mode...
Change management|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Processes|Service Management
ITIL Practitioner: Communication and IT Change Management
Blog
Published 22 Feb 2016
Being able to break through jargon is vital for effective communication, particularly when dealing with people who have little or no technical background. This is particularly true in change management where a breakdown in communication can potentially lead to failure in any ...
Change management|Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Requirements|Skills
Moving to a CSI approach: The ITSM journey of Yale University
Blog
Published 13 Jun 2016
Yale University’s IT Service Management (ITSM) journey began in 2011, just before my arrival in 2012. At the time, the University had about 450 central IT staff and a newly appointed CIO who had arrived with a mission to create a world-class ITSM organization. ITIL ® ...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes
Internet of Things: balancing benefits with data security
Blog
Published 25 May 2016
Just because you can connect a device to the internet doesn't mean you should. While connected devices (commonly called the “Internet of Things”) can deliver new services, there needs to be security, privacy and clear ownership of data. The endgame for the Internet of ...
Behaviour|Cyber resilience|Data protection|Processes|RESILIA|Sensitive data|Vulnerability
How to distinguish a change initiative and the best practice principles to deploy for governance
Blog
Published 15 Aug 2016
In the past 30 years the Northern Ireland Civil Service has seen an increased focus on delivering change and less on “business as usual” activity. This demand for improved public services has changed the way these services are delivered and that requires a much more robust a...
Best practice|Change management|Governance|MSP|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile
Do businesses really need Business Relationship Managers?
Blog
Published 22 Dec 2016
Having spent an early part of his career in a business relationship management role as a Government IT Service Management (ITSM) contractor supporting NASA, Adam McCullough understands the purpose and value of Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) within organizations. In th...
Business Relationship Management|Communication|Customer engagement|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Skills|Value
How to prove effectiveness and value in ITIL
Blog
Published 03 Apr 2017
ITIL ® can help companies improve effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness by developing reliable data and consistent delivery, processes and tools. But when it comes to demonstrating the difference ITIL is making, and especially when the interpretation of valu...
ITIL|Processes|Resource management|Stakeholder management|Strategic objectives|Value
From back office to strategic partner: how ITIL is evolving in India
Blog
Published 15 Aug 2017
Ten years ago, IT in India was a very different world to now: the country was the “back office” of the world, providing outsourced services in the form of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). During this period ITIL ® was the...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Learning|Training|Value
PRINCE2 Agile Foundation: blending agile approaches with greater governance
Blog
Published 25 Jul 2018
If you want to successfully deliver new products and services to keep your organization competitive in today’s changing world, effective project management is critical. The project management method, PRINCE2 ® , has been taken up by more than 150 countries and, by its prov...
Agile|Certification|Frameworks|Governance|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Project management|Qualifications
ITIL 4: Connecting key concepts – Part 2
Blog
Published 30 Apr 2019
Value for Stakeholders, PESTLE and the Four Dimensions Welcome back! This post is the second in a series in which I connect key concepts of ITIL 4. In the last article, we briefly discussed the concept of value co-creation, and I’d like to expand on that here. While value ...
Customer engagement|Customer experience|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Service management
ITIL Intermediate: Release, control, validation – many happy releases
Blog
Published 08 May 2019
The major reason I think ITIL ® practitioners should be looking at the Intermediate module – Release, Control and Validation – is summarized in one word: DevOps. DevOps has become the latest way to describe collaboration, agile, and leaner enterprise working but ITIL’s R...
Agile|DevOps|IT services|ITIL|Knowledge management|Service management
Why should you make cyber security people-centred?
Blog
Published 15 Jan 2020
As technology becomes more and more embedded in company processes, businesses need to look beyond the traditional ways of securing their organizations’ most valuable assets. This involves approaches that engage with people and understand their needs and perspectives on secu...
Behaviour|Communication|Confidentiality|Cyber resilience|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|Data protection|Empowerment
ITIL® 4 Leader: Digital and IT Strategy (DITS) – a guide for digital transformation
Blog
Published 15 Sep 2020
The global pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation; this, in turn has put a new spotlight on the discipline of digital strategy. And the ITIL ® 4 Leader: Digital and IT Strategy (DITS) module is a timely guide to help organizations’ leaders understand ho...
A practitioner’s view of the ITIL® 4 practice guides
Blog
Published 13 Nov 2020
The ITIL 4 practices are described as "sets of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective". Every practice includes familiar, service management processes while encapsulating more than previous versions of ITIL. Each begins with a c...
Best practice|Change management|Collaboration|Communication|Incident management|ITIL|Professional development
The Incident Manager: five vital skills for success
Blog
Published 29 Apr 2016
Incident Managers are crucial to IT service operations in any organization. When something goes wrong, they provide immediate support, commanding and controlling major incidents. A successful Incident Manager needs to be proactive and a real people person. But what other sk...
Capabilities|Communication|ITIL|Processes|Roles|Skills
Why people are at the heart of your cyber security
Blog
Published 24 Aug 2017
Phishing , Trojan Horses, Malware, Whaling , Denial of Service – these are all terms that have become common currency in the world of cyber security. With increasing public exposure of global organizations’ cyber security vulnerabilities , the language of cyber threats a...
Behaviour|Cyber resilience|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|RESILIA|Threats|Vulnerability
More than meets the I: How ITIL makes a difference in Mergers and Acquisitions activity
Blog
Published 17 Nov 2017
1. In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL ® provide? ITIL is “documented common sense”, useful when undergoing any transformation as an organization. Having that ITIL tried-and-tested structure in place helps to lighten the load and mi...
Adopt and Adapt|Best Practice|DevOps|Frameworks|ITIL|Processes
ITIL Perceptions
Blog
Published 12 Nov 2018
1.  In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL ® provide? ITIL is “documented common sense”, useful when undergoing any transformation as an organization . Having that ITIL tried-and-tested structure in place helps to lighten the load and m...
Agile|Best practice|Frameworks|ITIL|Processes|Service management
AgileSHIFT – no, it’s not another Agile method
Blog
Published 28 Nov 2018
You may have heard about our latest guidance AgileSHIFT and wondered, what makes it different from other Agile products. After all, there are a lot of methods, methodologies and approaches that carry the name ‘Agile’, so why do we need another one? Well, the thing is, Agile...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Benefits realization|Best practice|Customer needs|Methodologies
SLAs of the future: measuring outcomes, not IT availability: ITIL 4 - The Evolution of ITSM Part 5
Blog
Published 25 Feb 2019
The service level agreement (SLA) model has always existed in the world of IT in some form, as a promise to guarantee a level of service. For a long time, SLAs have offered very traditional approaches to measure what is perceived as quality of service by IT organizations. ...
Behaviour|Customer engagement|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service desk|Service management|Value
Embrace an opportunity for some serious CSI
Blog
Published 14 Jul 2016
IT Service Management (ITSM) is not about the tools or the technology, but about delivering value to your customer through the use of that technology. The rapid advancements in hardware and software may have shifted the conversation onto what technology makes possible, but th...
Capabilities|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Value
ITIL® Misconceptions: “ITIL is only for big organizations.”
Blog
Published 23 Sep 2016
Susie Farquhar discusses why ITIL is “not only for big organizations” and can be used by organizations of any size. Is ITIL only for large organizations? Over the years in my consulting role I’ve encountered a number of people who believe ITIL isn’t for their organ...
IT services|ITIL|Processes|Roles|Service catalogue|Value
Towards convergence: how to overcome silo working in IT
Blog
Published 21 Nov 2016
How do you recognize and tackle the problem of silo working in IT? Picture the scenario: you’re in a meeting, discussing why something isn’t working; scratching your head and wondering how it can be improved. Most of the time the elephant in the room and the reason it’s not...
Change management|Communication|IT services|Leadership|Roles|Strategy execution
4 steps to getting the most from managed service providers
Blog
Published 30 Jan 2017
The use of managed service providers is relatively common across all sorts of organizations. Unfortunately, what’s also common is ineffective relationships and ways of working between businesses and their provider. Most organizations work with a managed service provider in ...
Capabilities|Incident management|ITIL|Processes|Risk management|Service desk
Is it the end of the road for IT?
Blog
Published 10 May 2017
AXELOS associate Toby Moore and Dr Tuuli Bell, partner manager at Tasktop Technologies explore the outlook for IT following the release of the AXELOS The Future ITSM Professional report . IT has evolved beyond recognition in recent years to become an integrated part of ...
Collaboration|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Roles|Service desk|Skills
7 essentials for a project, programme or portfolio dashboard
Blog
Published 05 Feb 2018
All PRINCE2 ® project, MSP ® programme and MoP ® portfolio governance bodies want updates on how well initiatives are progressing. To do this, management dashboards are a useful tool. MSP programmes aim to realize benefits resulting from changes in organizati...
Dashboards|Governance|MoP|MSP|Portfolio management|PRINCE2|Project and programme management (PPM)
Built on ITIL: benefiting business at a time of transformation
Blog
Published 17 Dec 2018
Organizations going through digital transformation can’t afford to use a tick-box exercise when it comes to using best practices like ITIL ® . Too many organizations find themselves going through the motions of adopting best practice when they need to. They might have good...
Adopt and adapt|Best practice|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service management
The problem of ITSM anti-practices: Part 2
Blog
Published 19 Mar 2019
In the first part of this two-part blog post series on ITSM anti-practices, ITIL Expert Pavel Demin described the problems of being too focused on implementation, increasing process maturity, "join-the-dots" ITSM and the risks of fast-tracking change requests. This time, P...
Incident management|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service management|Value
ITIL human centred service design – understanding customer needs
Blog
Published 31 May 2019
What is human-centred service design (HCSD) and how does it add value to an organization? It begins when you start to ask the right people the right questions about how IT is performing. The right people are those using the IT! The principles of understanding customer...
Agile|Business solutions|Customer needs|IT services|ITIL|Problem management|Service management|Value
Lean, Agile and ITIL 4 in ITSM and organization-wide
Blog
Published 02 Oct 2019
It’s almost 30 years since the book, The Machine that Changed the World , described how the Lean approach transformed Toyota’s approach to manufacturing. Today, Lean approaches to IT and IT service management have become extremely influential. In the past couple of years...
Agile|Behaviour|Customer experience|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL 4
Modern Service Management - The importance of the Customer Journey
Blog
Published 30 Jun 2020
ITIL ® 4 brought many modern concepts and approaches to Service Management. Many of those were previously thought to be exclusive to other areas like marketing and customer service. In this blog post, Airan Romero Savinon, Chief Operating Officer at Openser will cover the...
IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service desk|Service management|Value
Managing Successful Programmes: setting the blueprint for a better future
Blog
Published 09 Jul 2020
The blueprint is one of the core elements of programme management and the Managing Successful Programmes (MSP ® ) best practice guidance. In essence, it captures the capability an organization wants to have by the end of a programme, with all its features and characteristi...
Best practice|MSP|Programme management|Project management
ITIL 4 CDS: bridging the “frameworks gap”
Blog
Published 23 Oct 2020
The ITIL 4: Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) module is focused on the central engine of ITIL’s service value chain. Summarising a recent panel webinar involving Akshay Anand (AXELOS ITIL Ambassador), Barclay Rae (ITIL 4 CDS lead editor and consultant), Jon Stevens-...
Best practice|Collaboration|Communication|Frameworks|ITIL 4
Service management for 2021: being adaptable to change
Blog
Published 05 Jan 2021
Industrialization in any sector is initially driven by people with specialist, technical skills and knowledge in that area. With maturity, the sector becomes more mainstream, with the need for other generic business skills. IT is a perfect example of this – as our industry d...
Adopt and adapt|Customer experience|Cyber security|IT services|ITIL 4|Skills
How will project management help organizations improve in 2021?
Blog
Published 11 Dec 2020
How has the impact of the pandemic forced organizations to think differently – and how should they adapt project management and leadership to help them in 2021? Using what we call the “PMO triangle” helps us drill down into three key areas: People: The human element h...
Best practice|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Professional development|Project management|Training
A cyber resilience Q&A with Karoliina Ainge, Head of Estonian cyber security policy - Part 1
Blog
Published 24 Mar 2016
This is the first in a series of conversations with Nick Wilding and leading cyber resilience commentators and practitioners from around the world. Who should countries and companies learn from when thinking about cyber resilience? Estonia has been described in tech pub...
Collaboration|Cyber resilience|cyber-attack|RESILIA|Threats|Vulnerability
Agile Service Management - From Processes to Value Streams
Blog
Published 18 Mar 2020
With the new version ITIL ® 4, the discipline of Service Management has been catapulted back from the supposedly old, past world to the centre of current reality. No, not bureaucratic processes should manage services or products anymore. Rather, holistic practices are to be d...
Agile|ITIL 4|Key performance indicators (KPIs)|Processes|Service catalogue|Service management
Building on the foundation: Why take ITIL® to the next level
Blog
Published 03 Dec 2014
QUESTION: I’ve gained the initial ITIL® qualification but I don’t understand what further training and development can do for me. Isn’t the ITIL foundation enough? Individual practitioners often see the ITIL foundation qualification as a way onto the ladder because busin...
Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Management|Service Management|Skills
ITIL® Practitioner: Tackling the challenges of Service Strategy
Blog
Published 06 Apr 2016
Although an integral part of the ITIL ® Service Lifecycle, Service Strategy is probably the element most IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals are least comfortable using. In fact, even the word ‘strategy’ can strike fear into some IT professionals as, quite sim...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Strategic objectives|Strategy execution
ITIL® Practitioner Guiding Principles in action: Focus on Value
Blog
Published 09 Sep 2016
If you had to choose between following an agreed IT Service Management (ITSM) process, or focusing on value, what would you do? When assessing the Major Incident Management process for one of my customers, I recognized that while the process was well established and defined ...
End-user experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Stakeholder management|Value
RESILIA exam questions: Part One
Blog
Published 05 Oct 2016
Cyber security, today, is often very technology-based with a focus on technical issues such as firewalls and virus scanning software. While technology is an important part of the cyber defence, it is important not to neglect strategy in identifying what controls an organi...
Cyber resilience|Examinations|RESILIA|Risk management|Threats|Vulnerability
How to develop applications with ITIL, DevOps and agile methods
Blog
Published 03 Mar 2017
Developing new applications with a combination of ITIL ® , DevOps and agile methods is transforming results for customers. While DevOps and agile are enabling better communication, improved analysis of customer needs and delivering a quality solution, ITIL adds incide...
Agile|Communication|DevOps|ITIL|Problem management|Skills
PRINCE2 2017 Update – Training the Trainers
Blog
Published 18 Apr 2017
What happens when you introduce the new PRINCE2 ® 2017 update to experts responsible for training and developing PRINCE2-certified project managers? It’s never easy to predict how people will respond when best practice guidance undergoes a change. So, we were keen to hear...
Certification|Examinations|PRINCE2|Project Management|Qualifications|Training
ITIL Practitioner – a practical guide to ITSM
Blog
Published 17 Jul 2017
ITIL Practitioner is best practice guidance I use both in implementation as a consultant and in training people working in IT service management. Before the arrival of ITIL ® Practitioner there was, in my opinion, a large gap between ITIL Foundation and ITIL Expert ....
Business solutions|Change management|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Value
ITIL Practitioner: a different way of thinking about ITSM
Blog
Published 24 Jul 2017
Working as the service lead for an outsourced IT company, my challenge is understanding what our customers’ businesses are trying to achieve. Customers expect new ideas and innovation based on what we see other companies doing across a host of industries. But, above all, th...
Collaboration|Customer engagement|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Strategy execution|Value
Become a cyber security leader with Cyber Resilience Week 2017 and AXELOS RESILIA™
Blog
Published 31 Aug 2017
Today’s increase in cyber-attacks – and the resulting loss of valuable data and denial of services they cause – means organizations and individuals need to be better prepared to tackle this threat. What we all need is greater cyber resilience. AXELOS is partnering with Di...
Behaviour|Cyber resilience|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|Leadership|RESILIA
A business response to cyber risk – our people and their behaviours
Blog
Published 16 Oct 2017
We should “stop talking nonsense” about people being the weakest link in our cyber security, according to the head of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre . Ciaran Martin, the organization’s CEO – speaking at the CBI’s Cyber Security Conference 2017 in London on 13 Sep...
Behaviour|Cyber security|Data protection|Leadership|Threats|Training
ITIL update: Putting principles before process
Blog
Published 10 Jan 2018
When I first ‘discovered’ ITIL ® in the 1990s, it was both a revelation and like discovering a “family” I never knew I had. At that time, I loved that “family” because of how it took us where we needed to be. And it was needed because IT was largely run by people with ...
Agile|Change management|Collaboration|DevOps|ITIL|Processes
Protecting the reputation of UK Higher Education with your most valuable defence: your people
Blog
Published 06 Mar 2018
How can the higher education sector protect itself from and respond to a cyber-attack in the era of increased digital connectivity? AXELOS’ latest RESILIA ® discussion paper, Protecting the reputation of UK Higher Education with your most valuable defence: your peop...
Cyber resilience|Cyber-attack|Digital transformation|GDPR|RESILIA|Threats
Kanban: making progress and delivering value in ITSM
Blog
Published 21 Jan 2019
Originally developed by Toyota in Japan, Kanban is a system for scheduling production using a physical board to show work in progress; essentially, it’s a process improvement method. Within IT departments it’s used to visualize workload by having notes on a board showing...
Change management|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|Processes|Project management|Resource management|Value
What’s the point of being an agile organization?
Blog
Published 12 Jul 2019
Why should organizations become agile organizations? Recent research outlined in The Evolution of the Agile Organization report from PA Consulting among 500 business leaders suggests the “top 10% of businesses by financial performance” are “almost 30% more likely to dis...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Certification|Collaboration|Customer needs|Training|Value
ITIL 4 – supporting everyone in today’s organizations
Blog
Published 28 Aug 2019
Providing ITIL ® 4 training has introduced me to a whole new range of people beyond the pure IT professionals previously attending ITIL courses . Now, I’m involved with people from sales, user experience and others from organizations with an interest in how IT supports the...
Agile|Customer engagement|DevOps|Frameworks|ITIL 4|Skills|Training|Value
Minimum viable process doesn’t mean no process!
Blog
Published 07 Jan 2020
Organizations are now reacting to the need for high-velocity IT (HVIT) by exploring customer experience and methods like DevOps and Agile. In some of the more mature enterprises, they’re looking at ITIL 4 and recognizing elements of modern service management, but without f...
Agile|Collaboration|Customer experience|DevOps|ITIL|ITIL 4|Processes
Service desk: at the heart of ITIL 4’s service value chain
Blog
Published 10 Jan 2020
How can ITIL ® methods help transform the performance of a service desk supporting a multi-national business? Car dealerships in the Renault/Nissan Group – based in Switzerland and Austria – were generating 1,000 IT tickets per month, of which 75% were service requests an...
Incident management|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|ITIL 4|Problem management|Service desk|Value
Home and mobile working: common-sense security advice
Blog
Published 24 Mar 2020
The current coronavirus crisis has pushed ‘home and mobile working’ onto the front pages. Self-isolation is critically important as we work towards preventing the rapid spread of the virus. But how can we isolate ourselves from a different threat whilst working remotely or a...
Behaviour|BYOD|Cyber resilience|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|Data protection|Privacy|Threats|Vulnerability
Learning PRINCE2 virtually – a chance to upskill
Blog
Published 24 Apr 2020
How does it work certifying in best practices such as PRINCE2 ® and PRINCE2 Agile ® via virtual classrooms and distance learning? Right now, when most people are working and studying in a context of social distancing , it’s the only viable option. I’ve been delivering co...
Career planning|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Professional development|Skills|Training
How to keep an Indian shipping company afloat – PRINCE2 Agile and IT
Blog
Published 22 Jun 2020
Amey Manjrekar was, until recently, in information technology at India’s Great Eastern Shipping Company – which provides tanker vessels for the energy industry. When writing this blog post, he had recently certified in PRINCE2 Agile® and described how the changing demands f...
Lunch and learn – 30 minutes a day to best practice certifications
Blog
Published 25 Jun 2020
Dmitriy Kolesnikov recently certified in the ITIL ® 4 Strategist Direct, Plan and Improve (DPI) module after attending an online training course. He’s a long-time advocate of virtual training and believes more practitioners and their employers could benefit from it. Tak...
Best practice|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Learning|Professional development
The future of remote working
Blog
Published 07 Jul 2020
Whatever people might think now about working life in the future, I think it’s safe to predict we’ll be operating in a new normal. The statement “I have to go to the office” will become a foreign concept, though a home working /office mix will probably remain. And the sh...
ITIL|Leadership|Learning from experience|Roles
ITIL 4 Strategist Direct, Plan and Improve (DPI) – embedding strategy for change
Blog
Published 10 Jul 2020
Most IT teams – from front line up to leadership level – are focused on technology and functionality. They focus less on how to drive forward the vision and strategy of the organization. What is interesting (and maybe unexpected) today is seeing IT teams trying to move the...
Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4
PRINCE2 Agile and Kanban – making project tasks more visible
Blog
Published 15 Jul 2020
Using Kanban in projects is a simple and direct way to help teams increase their work efficiency by visualizing the workload. As part of the guidance available in PRINCE2 Agile ® , it’s a tool that should be in every project manager’s toolkit, especially in less complex en...
PRINCE2 Agile|Project management|Project planning|Task management
How to plan a walking tour using PRINCE2
Blog
Published 22 Jul 2020
Everybody has to take care of projects in their professional or private lives. So, in a way we are all project managers. And if you think about it, you can apply PRINCE2 ® to a lot of these projects. In my spare time I work as a qualified London tour guide. So, the other da...
Best practice|PRINCE2|Project management
My top to-do list for the PMO in the new normal
Blog
Published 24 Jul 2020
How has the pandemic lockdown affected the way project managers need to think about their work? On a practical level, we are so used to being in front of our boards and PMOs to get approval and support that many have found it difficult to re-structure and adapt. Admittedly...
Best practice|PRINCE2 Agile|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management|Project management office
Safety cultures and happy employees
Blog
Published 06 Aug 2020
Happy, safe employees generally stay longer at their organizations, are more productive, and cause fewer incidents. Successful leaders know this and actively develop safety cultures— climates in which people are comfortable being (and expressing) themselves—to make sure that ...
Best practice|Communication|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4
How ITIL 4 DSV concepts helped a brewery during lockdown
Blog
Published 28 Jul 2020
An international brewery company I work with is, in fact, two companies: a producer and a distributor of products to the hospitality sector. The company’s operations were forced to close from mid-March and relocate staff to work from home. So how did it respond to the lockdo...
Best practice|Digital transformation|ITIL 4
How to manage a service desk during a pandemic
Blog
Published 29 Jul 2020
The service desk practice is a huge part of ITIL ® and any organization as it highlights the importance of value in customer service. It sets the precedent for the customer/user experience and reflects heavily on the organization. The practice involves establishing effective...
Best practice|End-User Experience|ITIL 4|Processes|Service desk
Adapting to the new normal with project management
Blog
Published 31 Jul 2020
How has lockdown affected the way project managers need to think about their work? The challenge has been primarily two-fold: first, technical and, second, how to do project management when the workforce is distributed. The technical challenge is about whether the tools ava...
Best practice|Certification|PRINCE2|Project management
Transforming customer journeys with ITIL 4 Drive Stakeholder Value
Blog
Published 26 Nov 2020
In the pre-Covid world, what were the most important elements of customer service interaction and what’s changed? Taking the example of a restaurant, service was about managing the demands of customers such as their waiting time for a table, how long it took to get a menu an...
Customer engagement|Customer experience|Customer needs|Digital transformation|ITIL 4|Value
Best practice in IT, ITSM and the ITIL update: ITIL 4 - The Evolution of ITSM Part 1
Blog
Published 11 Feb 2019
Best practice in IT, ITSM and the ITIL ® update: solving business problems and delivering value IT organizations operating anywhere in the world still remain too internally-focused. That isn’t me saying this. This is what we are discovering using our ABC cards (Attitu...
Best practice|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
Integrating DevOps into the ITIL Orthodoxy
Blog
Published 24 Jun 2016
For many years, I’ve felt that I’ve been the official ITIL ® apologist in the DevOps community, because I’ve always believed that DevOps and ITIL should be able to peacefully coexist. But these days, I feel that a more activist role in the DevOps community is necessary -...
Change management|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service management
RESILIA from an ITIL veteran’s perspective
Blog
Published 18 Jul 2016
I started in IT back in the pre-Internet ‘dark ages’, over 35 years ago. In those days we were literally in the basement and nobody really knew what we did, we were the geeks of ‘IT Crowd’ cliché. When there was a major system outage it could take us down for hours, but the ...
Cyber resilience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|RESILIA|Service desk
2019 cyber risk landscape: key threats and lessons
Blog
Published 20 Nov 2018
As part of the CBI Cyber Security Conference 2018 , experts hosted a future looking session to “examine the latest threat intelligence and emerging risks for businesses in the cyber security landscape”. The panel considered what threat and risk issues boards need to be addr...
Best practice|Cyber resilience|Cyber security|Cyber-attack|GDPR|Threats
P3M3® v3.0 – the “big one” among best practices is coming
Blog
Published 24 Mar 2015
P3M3® v3.0 is – in the world of best practice guidance – the “big one”. This latest version, the newest since 2008, will provide PPM consultants and organizations they work with the evidence for whether projects, programmes and portfolios are working or not and their return ...
Best Practice|Management|Maturity models|P3M3|Processes|Project and programme management (PPM)
My CPD Life - project leadership coach and mentor Elise Stevens
Blog
Published 21 Oct 2015
What's the point of ongoing professional development? In "My CPD Life", a short series of blog posts to coincide with the launch of the AXELOS Professional Development Programme, experienced practitioners share their views on the value of keeping your skills and knowled...
Best Practice|Capabilities|Career planning|CPD|Project management|Skills|Training
ITIL Practitioner: Communication
Blog
Published 11 Dec 2015
The new ITIL ® Practitioner qualification is about giving IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals practical guidance that allows them to truly adapt and adopt ITIL® in their organization. Practitioner is very much going to be about continual improvement as much as...
Best Practice|Certification|Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service Management
Does cyber risk reduce the viability of your business?
Blog
Published 08 Apr 2016
Does it matter whether companies can predict their future and the potential impact of cyber risk? According to the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), it does. For companies reporting year ends from 30 September 2015 onwards, and driven by the need for greater transparency in...
Behaviour|Cyber-attack|Requirements|RESILIA|Threats
8 Things that Stand Out in the New ITIL Practitioner Guidance Book
Blog
Published 13 Apr 2016
This blog (abridged from my original 3000-word version) isn’t meant to be a review of the new ITIL Practitioner Guidance publication, although you might feel it sails close, and instead talks to the content that stands out for me, i.e. the stuff that will really help the read...
Change management|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Value
Using ITIL® Practitioner to solve challenges of ITSM
Blog
Published 19 May 2016
There are a number of challenges faced by IT Service Management (ITSM) professionals in the operational space but, broadly speaking, the ITIL Practitioner can be used to address three key areas: measurement; communication; and education. Measurement Metrics are often a...
Communication|Customer experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service desk|Training
Combining ITIL and PRINCE2 principles to achieve end-to-end value
Blog
Published 04 Aug 2016
Project management and IT Service Management (ITSM) are evolving and, as a result, are becoming more interlinked. The reason for their entwinement is simple: it’s part of a move from ‘traditional’ project management approaches that focus on producing a deliverable to a more...
Best practice|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|PRINCE2|Project management|Value
When Managing Successful Programmes (MSP®) goes back to school
Blog
Published 03 Oct 2016
Using AXELOS’ best practice for programme management - MSP (Managing Successful Programmes) - can come in useful in the most unexpected situations - even beyond the workplace. Several years ago, I became involved in a local parents’ campaign about the lack of secondary ...
Best practice|Change management|MSP|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Strategic objectives
Getting started with Kanban and IT Service Management
Blog
Published 26 Oct 2016
Many IT departments struggle when trying to adopt Kanban, especially at first. Whether they are moving from an established but ad hoc work management structure, or from a more standardized traditional IT Service Management (ITSM) work management model, they often find it hard...
Business solutions|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Service Management
ITIL® Practitioner: why it’s always best to Keep It Simple
Blog
Published 28 Oct 2016
One of the reasons why businesses overcomplicate processes in transition projects is because they are trying to develop an approach that meets all the principles of best practice. Quite often, the people in charge or accountable for transition projects want to achieve perfec...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Service desk|Value
Programme office in the context of an MSP programme
Blog
Published 01 Feb 2017
An organization working on a major programme often needs a programme office. Major programmes are concerned with implementing complex transformational change, and this can bring with it a range of challenges. The size and impact of the change, an organization’s experience in...
Business solutions|MSP|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Project management|Value
CSI in IT: 6 steps to creating a culture of improvement
Blog
Published 31 Mar 2017
There are a couple of ITIL ® processes that you really can’t avoid. Continual service improvement (CSI) is one. If you’re not improving, you’re stagnating. And though you might not yet have a strongly-developed CSI concept or framework, you must assume that most peop...
Behaviour|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT services|ITIL|Leadership|Processes
How ITIL Practitioner helps you handle the increasing demands on ITSM
Blog
Published 23 Mar 2017
Recently, I have been lucky enough to attend some excellent events in the IT service management (ITSM) space. I have noticed some reoccurring themes running through the presentations and networking discussions, which was affirmed by the talks I attended at Pink17 . There a...
Agile|Communication|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT transformation|ITIL
I’ve got ITIL Foundation: what next?
Blog
Published 20 Apr 2017
Obtaining an IT Service Management (ITSM) certification such as ITIL ® Foundation always requires an investment of time and money and begs the question: is it worth it? ITIL Foundation gives you the opportunity to put theory into practice immediately. This is important a...
Career progression|Certification|DevOps|ITIL|Skills
The blueprint – a cornerstone of programmes and MSP
Blog
Published 19 May 2017
Sue Taylor examines the importance of the blueprint in programmes and within AXELOS’ Managing Successful Programmes (MSP ® ) best practice guidance. By implementing change through a programme , an organization is trying to achieve a better future. That starts with a pr...
Capabilities|MSP|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Requirements|Vision
Applying ITIL outside IT
Blog
Published 03 Jul 2017
In today’s world, you would be hard pressed to find a business that doesn’t use IT. And where there’s IT, there’s IT Service Management (ITSM). When taking my ITIL ® classes, I met people from all walks of life who wanted to learn about ITIL: people from government cont...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
ITIL and DevOps – better together
Blog
Published 22 Sep 2017
In the world of best practice frameworks there is a risk that people jump on the latest thing, believing a particular framework is the answer to all their problems. As a species it seems we chase the one, universal quick-fix that doesn’t exist! As an expert who’s been worki...
DevOps|Frameworks|Incident management|ITIL|Value
More than meets the I: How ITIL makes a difference in organizations
Blog
Published 21 Nov 2017
1. In your service management experience, how much of a foundation does ITIL ® provide? One of the benefits of ITIL as a foundation is that it has created a common language across organizations, by establishing both basic terminology and the processes they define. It also...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Methodologies|Service Management
ITIL update: IT Service Management Evolved
Blog
Published 21 Dec 2017
The ITIL ® update recently announced by AXELOS will be guided by the Lead Architect Team, comprising highly-respected experts from around the world. In this first blog post from the team, Troy DuMoulin talks IT past and present along with what an updated ITIL will mean f...
Capabilities|Communication|Frameworks|ITIL|Service management|Value
Project manager 2.0: what it means and why it matters
Blog
Published 10 Aug 2018
The discipline of project management is evolving rapidly, but what does this mean for the project manager? Lisa Hodges, principal consultant at Cornerstone Service Management, explains why the future belongs to project manager 2.0. At a recent conference one of my fello...
Agile|Benefits realization|Collaboration|Communication|PRINCE2|Project management|Skills
Built on ITIL: taking ITSM to the next level
Blog
Published 03 Oct 2018
Organizations are going through a period of constant change in how they do things and having to leave behind the mindset of “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. As ITIL ® says, it’s a matter of focusing on customers and what they want. From an IT service management (IT...
Change management|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Roles|Service desk|Service management
Gaining the trust to transform: Programme management and MSP
Blog
Published 13 Feb 2019
With the digital disruption of markets, regulation and a need to maintain competitive edge creating a vision of a future organization, along with having an effective vehicle to deliver that, is absolutely crucial today. Organizations may achieve good project management pr...
MSP|PRINCE2|Professional development|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management
MSP and PRINCE2: structure and seeing change more clearly
Blog
Published 05 Mar 2019
After 14 years’ working in project management-related roles in complex environments, Andrea Vecchi – now Head of PMO at solar power company, Sonnedix – was introduced to programme management. Here he recounts his learning and certification journey, including 12 months of st...
Certification|MSP|PRINCE2|Programme management|Project management|Strategic objectives
Built on ITIL: training for transformation
Blog
Published 15 Mar 2019
AXELOS guest blogger, Charlotte Morison, has been providing training and consultancy to companies for more than 15 years, helping them satisfy customers and achieve strategic objectives through improving business processes including IT services and functions. How effecti...
Incident management|IT service management (ITSM)|IT transformation|ITIL|Service catalogue|Service desk|Training
PRINCE2 in US universities: equipping graduates for the real world
Blog
Published 28 Jun 2019
There is a pressing need to start graduating US college students with basic practical knowledge of how to operate in IT organizations and other change environments. Students with a recognized project management certification such as PRINCE2 ® are more likely to become eff...
Agile|Certification|PRINCE2|Project management|Qualifications|Skills
How to right size for change
Blog
Published 27 Aug 2019
There is often rigorous debate about whether an initiative should be categorized as a portfolio, a programme or a project. However, adopting any methodology needs to be appropriate for the level of change required as each portfolio, programme and project methodology or produc...
Methodologies|MoP|MSP|Portfolio management|PRINCE2|Programme management|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management|Project management office
ITIL Intermediate – Service Operation: more effective today and even better tomorrow
Blog
Published 19 Sep 2019
When I got my start in IT, I found myself in a service operation role without even knowing what it was! I was part of an initiative in which Service Operation (SO) and ITIL ® were at the heart: consolidating IT operations management and incident ticketing for a radiology ...
Customer experience|Incident management|ITIL|ITIL 4|Problem management|Processes|Value
Enabling organizational agility
Blog
Published 02 Apr 2020
To be successful in the current environment of rapid, concurrent and never-ending change, organizations must grow their agility not just to thrive, but to survive. Agility is the ability across an organization to move and adapt quickly. A high degree of organizational agility...
Agile|AgileSHIFT|Collaboration|Digital transformation|Empowerment|Senior team
60 Top Tips To Help New Virtual Trainers (from 60 Trusted Virtual Trainers)
Blog
Published 16 Apr 2020
Over the past few weeks most classroom training courses around the world have been cancelled, causing a major impact to the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of trainers and training vendors everywhere. Not only are these people worried about the wellbeing of their family d...
Capabilities|Career progression|Certification|Collaboration|Customer needs|Empowerment|End-User Experience|Leadership|Learning|Skills|Training
Learning at work: top downloadable content to top up your CPD
Blog
Published 05 Jun 2020
How can you easily enhance your continuing professional development (CPD)? The My AXELOS online subscription service, providing career development tools and resources aligned with ITIL ® , PRINCE2 ® and MSP ® best practice, has listed its top CPD content accessed b...
Career progression|CPD|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Learning|MSP|PRINCE2|Professional development
Remote working and ITIL 4: It’s not business as usual
Blog
Published 24 Jun 2020
Remote working for many companies during this lockdown has proven the proverb: “necessity is the mother of invention”. In other words, if you’re forced to do it, you make it happen. US companies have often struggled with remote working ; it’s too early to tell which organiz...
IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|ITIL 4|Value
Getting the PMO and SMO to collaborate and capitalize on innovation
Blog
Published 12 Aug 2020
Why is a service management office (SMO) an important function today – and how should it interact with a project/programme management office (PMO)? To operate successfully in a high-velocity IT world, organizations need to progress iteratively, collaborate and automate. Ther...
IT service management (ITSM)|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project management office|Service management
What employee type or shape are you?
Blog
Published 13 Aug 2020
In an era of adaptation and better ways of working in the context of continuous performance improvements, people have inevitably expanded their skill set and capabilities. Much of this change has stemmed from the shifting of roles and organizational structures in response to ...
AgileSHIFT|Career progression|Professional development|Skills
Intangible benefits and the Benefits Management Approach
Blog
Published 18 Aug 2020
In this blog post, Alexei Kuvshinnikov , an accredited PRINCE2 ® 6th edition trainer with 20+ years of international project management experience, explains how to include intangible benefits in the Benefits Management Approach.  Project benefits can be tangible or in...
Benefits realization|PRINCE2|Project management|Project planning
ITIL 4 Specialist CDS: successful culture and communication
Blog
Published 13 Oct 2020
Culture is one of the most important elements in service management but has rarely received more than lip service about “soft skills”. Successful change projects are affected very much by culture so it’s necessary to call out aspects of it that matter and therefore need mana...
Best practice|Communication|Customer engagement|ITIL 4
Service management for 2021: being change responsive
Blog
Published 18 Dec 2020
Organizations planning service management for 2021 have a raft of unknowns to contend with. At the macro level we are currently presented with the biggest set of variables we’ve known in a generation. Of course, Covid-19 is the stand-out – it means a 2021 business operating ...
Best practice|Collaboration|Communication|IT service management (ITSM)|Leadership|Service management
Reputation, reputation, reputation: what matters most to us all
Blog
Published 20 Jul 2016
Okay, I don’t usually quote Shakespeare, but there’s one line that I’ve remembered since I was at school in England. It comes from Othello : “Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself.” All the publicity aro...
Cyber resilience|Cyber-attack|Identity|IT services|RESILIA|Vulnerability
Service Desk Improvement: Part 2
Blog
Published 09 Jan 2017
I was working with a client recently, helping them plan ways to improve the management of IT user support. When I came to review the advice I offered them, I realized that other organizations might find the same advice useful, so I have created three blog posts highlighting ...
Customer experience|IT services|ITIL|Service desk|Value
Grab@Pizza Simulation
Blog
Published 11 Oct 2017
At AXELOS, we like to explore new ways of working, as well as new ways of learning. One such way is experiential learning (or ‘learning by doing’ as it’s more colloquially known). Earlier this year, Paul Wilkinson from GamingWorks proposed running the Grab@Pizza simulation...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|Learning|Roles|Value
ITIL’s the name - you won’t wear it out!
Blog
Published 04 Jun 2018
The IT Infrastructure Library – the original name for ITIL ® – is, officially, not in use! In fact, we haven’t actively used the name since the formation of AXELOS five years ago. However, as recently as last month there was debate on Twitter about what happened to the I...
Best practice|Frameworks|Infrastructure|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service Management
Top questions in ITIL® training
Blog
Published 07 Jul 2015
What are the ITIL training questions that a tutor hears from trainees time and again? As a useful resource for all practitioners, I felt it was worth bringing the “usual suspects” of topics together in one place: What is an accreditor, an ATO and EI? AXELOS is the accredi...
Career Planning|Certification|Examinations|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Learning|Qualifications|Service Management
5 Change Mistakes a Good Programme Manager Won’t Make
Blog
Published 06 Feb 2017
Programme managers juggle a wide range of challenges and many will get a buzz from bringing order to chaos and under-performance. All will want to avoid the pitfalls of change. Here are five change mistakes that a good programme manager will avoid in situations the really e...
Capabilities|Change management|MSP|PRINCE2|Programme management|Project and programme delivery
Project vs programme management: choosing best practice
Blog
Published 06 Mar 2017
What are the different approaches and benefits of programmes and projects in organizations? Rajiv Khanna assesses the differences and how the Managing Successful Programmes (MSP ® ) and PRINCE2 ® project management best practice principles and certifications can help. ...
Best practice|Governance|MSP|PRINCE2|Programme management|Project management
MSP Practitioner exam tips and advice
Blog
Published 30 Jun 2017
Taking the MSP ® (Managing Successful Programmes) Practitioner exam puts you on a pathway to a proven best practice method for managing transformational change in organizations. Programmes are the delivery mechanism for this level of change, defining an organization’s f...
Examinations|MSP|Programme management|Skills|Training
ITIL update: New effective ways of applying old ideas
Blog
Published 23 Jan 2018
People and organizations seek out the reassurance in structured recommendations from sources like ITIL ® . These sources essentially articulate in a cogent and accessible way the learning from others who have been in the same place before them, facing the same challenges...
Agile|Best Practice|Collaboration|DevOps|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL
Project management: adapt or die!
Blog
Published 09 Mar 2018
Project management and transformation practitioners Stephen Dowling and Stephen Callaghan have been sharing their 'Adapt or Die!' ideas with organizational change practitioners in Australia. AXELOS caught up with them to find out what this means for projects and project man...
Agile|Customer needs|Frameworks|Leadership|Project management|Roles
Presenting your value in the project management jobs market
Blog
Published 22 Jun 2018
Recruitment in the project management market in mid-2018 finds itself in between times: the recessionary economy of post-2008 and an emerging state of recovery. The relatively high availability of people during recessionary periods means employers don’t have to try too har...
Agile|Certification|MSP|PRINCE2|Qualifications|Roles|Skills|Value
ITSM best-practice for delivering digital transformation
Blog
Published 17 Sep 2018
Digital transformation offers organizations the potential to compete, stay relevant and reduce the cost of delivering services to customers and running business processes. IT service management (ITSM) provides a structured process, approach and common language along wit...
Benefits realization|Digital transformation|Governance|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes|Training
Preventing cyber attacks - it's a people thing as much as IT
Blog
Published 04 Dec 2014
Cyber security has been thrown into the limelight this week with allegations that the North Korean government is responsible for hacking into Sony Pictures’ systems and leaking four films at a cost to the studio production company of tens of millions of pounds. This follows ...
Best Practice|Cyber Resilience|IT Services|Risk Management
The ‘technical leader’ of the IT realm: the IT Architect
Blog
Published 08 Aug 2016
The IT architect title is used to describe a range of jobs varying in scope and responsibility but, in summary, the architect team is responsible for developing, maintaining and governing the ICT solutions across an organization. They are also tasked with making sure technol...
Communication|Customer experience|IT services|Leadership|Project management|Stakeholder management
Remote software development – an essential case for guiding principles
Blog
Published 10 Aug 2016
Working on projects to develop new software with developers in a different country - in other words, remotely - poses certain problems that cry out for the practical approaches enshrined in ITIL ® Practitioner’s guiding principles. The scenario I describe, unfortunately...
Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Project management
ITIL® Practitioner Guiding Principles in action: Working Iteratively
Blog
Published 12 Aug 2016
Why is working in silos a problem in technology and how can the ITIL Practitioner guiding principle of “working iteratively” help? In one service provider company, there were four silos operating very different service delivery models and different ITIL processes, therefore...
Communication|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Project management
How can we involve more women in IT?
Blog
Published 23 Nov 2016
I started life in IT as a technical support assistant about eight years ago and I have worked in a number of different organizations. In that time, I’ve often been the only woman in the IT department. There are few IT women in Kenya due to a mix of cultural and practical rea...
Capabilities|Certification|IT services|ITIL|Requirements|Service desk|Skills
What is configuration management and what we can learn from a fridge freezer?
Blog
Published 30 Nov 2016
Configuration Management requires a disciplined approach to be functional. It’s about having a record of your systems, what’s happened to those items and the details of the relationships between the items on your list. It’s commonly used in IT, military or commercial aviatio...
Change management|Information systems|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|Processes|Value
Emerging Service Desk trends
Blog
Published 15 May 2017
In response to the AXELOS The Future ITSM Professional report, AXELOS associate Toby Moore and Dr Tuuli Bell, partner manager at Tasktop Technologies, explore emerging issues in a key function of IT: The Service Desk An effective Service Desk is key to a successful IT...
Communication|Customer experience|IT services|Problem management|Processes|Service desk
Measuring business value in ITSM
Blog
Published 21 Jul 2017
How do people working in IT Service Management (ITSM) measure success and – more importantly – what should they measure? What tends to happen in ITSM is people measuring against internally-focused metrics: the number of incidents, service level agreements on incidents, the ...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
The value of ITIL outside of IT
Blog
Published 09 Aug 2017
From medical, banking and automotive, to retail and hospitality, ITIL ® best practice is being used in more and more industry sectors to improve business performance. Why is this happening? Because ITIL is a proven industry best practice that takes a holistic view of p...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|ITIL|Knowledge management|Processes|Service catalogue|Value
Adopting ITIL best practice in Mexico for service quality
Blog
Published 02 May 2018
CEO Javier López Casarín’s group of companies in Mexico is adopting ITIL ® best practice principles – including ITIL ® Practitioner – as part of programme to raise service quality standards and increase professionalism. Here, he describes why the group has emba...
Best practice|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Frameworks|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Service desk|Training
So why is staff training so critical for your data protection?
Blog
Published 05 Oct 2018
The much feared GDPR compliance date has come and gone. You have located the personal data your organization processes and ensured you have a lawful basis for processing it. You have published your privacy notices etc. Hopefully, as part of your readiness projects and progr...
Behaviour|Cyber-attack|Data protection|GDPR|Learning|Privacy|Training
A career in ITSM: life-long learning in ITIL
Blog
Published 22 Mar 2019
IT service management – at the turn of the century and before ITIL® v2 – was as difficult to manage as landing on the moon and finding a state of anarchy. But – in my career post-ITIL v2 – I discovered a common language, a glossary, definitions of service level agreements ...
Best practice|Certification|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL|Learning|PRINCE2|Training
Extrapolating Patterns of Behaviour to Predict (Team) Performance in Service Delivery
Blog
Published 15 Aug 2019
Executive Summary We all are aware of the three fundamental principles of People, Process and Technology. Every organization focuses on these three elements. The people factor in all the above has been limited to reskilling in new technologies and training on methodologies a...
Behaviour|Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|Knowledge management|Resource management|Service management|Skills
ITIL 4 – a healthy balance of structure and agility
Blog
Published 16 Oct 2019
Organizations that previously set up IT processes that lasted for years are now preparing themselves for new ways of working – and a “machine” of constant change. Running in parallel to this has been the introduction of alternative ways of working – such as Agile methods a...
Agile|DevOps|IT service management (ITSM)|ITIL 4|Service management|Value
A business case for 2020 Christmas celebrations
Blog
Published 04 Dec 2020
As Christmas looms, families everywhere are trying to decide how to celebrate. It’s been one crazy year, and that craziness has infected (no pun intended) all our assumptions and expectations about typical festive holidays. You may be wondering if there’s any point to celebr...
Adopt and adapt|Best practice|ITIL 4|Project planning|Risk management
Project management: universal skills for changing organizations
Blog
Published 07 Jan 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has led to major changes in the way that business is conducted in terms of interfacing and interacting with customers and organizations’ internal processes. This may well result in the commissioning of multiple projects to formalize and de-risk the n...
Adopt and adapt|Career progression|Certification|CPD|PRINCE2|Project management|Skills
The invisible heroes of IT
Blog
Published 28 Apr 2020
IT as unsung heroes? Really? Who are your heroes? Growing up, maybe your heroes wore capes and fought crime . Maybe they were the characters you found in books and on TV. Right now, in the middle of an unprecedented challenge to our health and wellbeing, you'd probably sa...
Behaviour|Business solutions|Communication|Customer needs|Cyber security|Information management|Information systems|IT services|ITIL
US project management: ITIL and PRINCE2 for effective change
Blog
Published 01 Dec 2020
As many US service managers will know already, ITIL ® 4’s biggest strength is its holistic and comprehensive nature, without being overly prescriptive. Practitioners will also recognize its affinity with other methods and frameworks such as Agile, DevOps, Lean and COBIT. Bu...
Best practice|Certification|ITIL|PRINCE2|Project management
ITIL® - Adopt and Adapt
Blog
Published 02 Jul 2014
Before any discussion about ITIL's "adopt and adapt" approach, it's important that we dispel some ITIL myths. The principal myths state that ITIL is: Useful for large organizations only Bureaucratic Time consuming Non-Agile Prescriptive. Traditionally, ITIL's commun...
Adopt And Adapt|Best Practice|IT Services|ITIL|Service Desk|Service Management
Resolutions for IT Service Management in 2015
Blog
Published 27 Jan 2015
Improving IT Service Management in 2015 For me the main issue with improving ITSM is that we often spend too much time contemplating our own navel instead of making things happen! As an industry we are very good at theorizing and discussing ideas both old and new, but makin...
Best Practice|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|Information Management|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL
ITSM - a journey to acceptance in business
Blog
Published 07 Nov 2014
Eddie Vidal hosted the recent session at USA service management conference, FUSION14, where AXELOS Product Development Director, Frances Scarff presented her thoughts on project/programme management and ITSM. Here, he reflects on conference learnings and the state of ITSM in...
Best Practice|Business solutions|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|ITIL|Service Management
The Big 3: Why change, release and configuration management are key to Performance Engineering
Blog
Published 04 Nov 2015
Though a performance analytics and testing company, SOASTA use ITIL ® best practice to consider key processes for any application lifecycles and have applied them to their development methodology. In this blog, Dan discusses a little of what they have learned so far. ...
Best Practice|Change management|End-user experience|Methodologies|Processes
AXELOS Professional Development Programme – Service Desk Technician
Blog
Published 25 Jan 2016
As part of our Professional Development Programme , AXELOS has outlined the skills and competencies needed in a wide range of roles across IT service management and project and programme management. In this blog post, Pauline Brown – Service Operations Manager at the Un...
Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|CPD|IT services|ITIL|Qualifications|Service desk|Skills
What does good information security and cyber resilience look like?
Blog
Published 17 Feb 2016
Gary Warzala is the former SVP CISO at Visa and has also held senior roles in information security and IT risk management at Aon and GE (General Electric). In 2014, he was a trusted CISO adviser for a major retailer following a serious information security breach. In this...
Best practice|Cyber resilience|Cyber-attack|Information management|RESILIA|Threats
ITIL Practitioner: Ensuring projects are delivered with greater collaboration
Blog
Published 22 Mar 2016
The effect of IT service management (ITSM) transformation or improvement initiatives is not only about the business; the mental and emotional impact on the way people work and behave is a major factor – not everyone likes change. That’s why collaboration – one of the ...
Collaboration|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT transformation|ITIL|Stakeholder engagement
The Benefits of the ITIL Practitioner Guidance
Blog
Published 11 May 2016
I read an interesting comment by AXELOS Head of ITSM Kaimar Karu that “…the ITIL of the future is from practitioners, for practitioners.” As a result, I keenly awaited the release of the ITIL ® Practitioner Guidance so that I could use it to assess and improve my ITIL prac...
Adopt and adapt|Continual Service Improvement (CSI)|IT Service Management (ITSM)|ITIL|Processes
Blending IT and business ability – becoming a Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Blog
Published 12 May 2016
CIOs have overall responsibility for IT strategy within a business and are accountable for the governance and management of IT resources. In most organizations, the CIO is someone with a broad knowledge of IT and is able to provide vision and leadership in all aspects of IT...
Communication|IT services|Leadership|Resource management|Skills
Of airlines, technology, and human error
Blog
Published 09 Aug 2016
The issue with Delta Air Lines’ computer system on 8 August 2016 created chaos for travellers around the world. The official reason for the systems crash was a power outage, initially described as something outside of Delta’s control, a claim that has  not been backed up by t...
Information systems|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT Services|Processes|Vulnerability
Why a service mindset is essential in 2016
Blog
Published 02 Nov 2016
As consumers we expect a high standard of service. Either with your cell phone provider, mechanic or energy company, we’ve got used to certain standards and being treated by businesses in a certain way. Yet in a business-to-business context – including IT service management...
Behaviour|Customer engagement|Customer experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
What is good P3O® governance?
Blog
Published 01 Aug 2017
Good P3O governance is about ensuring that all key stakeholders have a clear understanding of the portfolio, programme and project boards that are focused on 'changing the business' and how it aligns to the corporate governance structure that is focused on 'running the busine...
Processes|Project and programme management (PPM)|Risk management|Stakeholder management
How to plan for major incidents in ITSM
Blog
Published 17 Aug 2017
When is an incident a major incident? An incident becomes major when the potential impact or urgency is considered significant. This means different things to different organizations, but ultimately it depends on business goals and objectives and is defined by each organiza...
Business solutions|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Risk management|Stakeholder engagement
How an effective P3O model can transform an organization
Blog
Published 14 Jun 2018
If ever there was a time to deliver efficient and consistent business change in an organization it is now, particularly with ever-increasing budgetary pressures to do more with less. What the Portfolio, Programme and Project Office (P3O ® ) guidance provides is a decision e...
Portfolio Management|Programme management|Project and programme delivery|Project management
How to lead effectively in the age of digital disruption
Blog
Published 28 Jun 2018
Organizations today are struggling to stay responsive and effective in the face of constant change. Most are struggling just to catch up with, let alone get in front of, the accelerating turbulence that seems to infect every industry being impacted by ‘macro disruption’: A te...
Change management|Digital transformation|Leadership|Problem management
Modern Business Relationship Management and ITIL
Blog
Published 08 Jun 2018
The idea that there should be a disconnect between IT and the organization it operates within is, clearly, an insane proposition. Over the past 40 years we’ve recognized that there should be alignment, indeed convergence, between business and IT – and yet we’re still ...
Business Relationship Management|IT services|IT transformation|ITIL|Leadership|Skills|Value
How important is ITIL’s RACI matrix in ITSM?
Blog
Published 20 Jun 2018
Among many things, ITIL ® teaches us about accountability, boundaries and consistency. Therefore, it’s important to know who is accountable when a service goes down or there’s a change to a process . Having it documented means that anyone can see who’s accountable. That’...
IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Knowledge management|Processes|Roles|Service Management
My AXELOS – Building credibility with digital badges
Blog
Published 13 Jul 2018
My AXELOS, the new content subscription service from AXELOS, includes access to digital badges for ITIL ® , PRINCE2 ® and MSP ® certifications plus CPD in each area of knowledge. But why is investing in digital badges an important part of demonstrating your credibili...
Career planning|Career progression|Digital badges|ITIL|Learning|MSP|PRINCE2|Qualifications
ITIL 4 – Facts and Learning in Las Vegas
Blog
Published 04 Mar 2019
There is a famous saying, that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but I’m going to break the code here and share my views and feedback from Pink19 .   Although this was my first experience of Vegas, I knew what to expect having enjoyed several movies based in ‘Sin City...
Best practice|Certification|Customer needs|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Value
A new approach to implementing ITSM
Blog
Published 11 Mar 2019
As an experienced ITSM professional I am fortunate to have a wide network of colleagues and friends within the sector and from the many conversations I have had, I came to the realization that most of us are unhappy with our IT service management tools . This got me thinking...
Digital transformation|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service management|Value
The problem of ITSM anti-practices: Part 1
Blog
Published 13 Mar 2019
What are ITSM anti-practices? They are the bad practices that have become prevalent as organizations try to tackle service management challenges. Akshay Anand, AXELOS’ Product Ambassador for ITIL ® , has referred to “Watermelon SLAs” , check-box ITIL implementation and en...
Best practice|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service management|Vision
Learn and adapt with ITIL 4 – Why stories matter!
Blog
Published 27 Mar 2019
What does ITIL ® 4 have to do with the eternal, human practice of storytelling? Though you might already believe it instinctively, there is substantial research into the importance of narrative and storytelling to human beings. For example, a study that exposed people...
Behaviour|Benefits realization|Collaboration|IT service management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL
AgileSHIFT and the age of the customer
Blog
Published 21 Aug 2019
The ‘age of the customer’ describes how modern organizations need to meet rapidly changing customer expectations and also anticipate their future needs. With technological advancement occurring at an unprecedented rate, increasingly, what distinguishes one organization from...
AgileSHIFT|Customer engagement|Customer experience|Customer needs|Skills|Stakeholder engagement|Strategic objectives
6 reasons why ITIL 4’s guiding principle of collaborate and promote visibility is important
Blog
Published 06 Dec 2019
How is the ITIL 4 guiding principle “collaborate and promote visibility” important to organizations today? Many organizations remain siloed, whether by function, process, product, territory or other types. And within the silos, people tend to focus on their tasks and objec...
Collaboration|Customer engagement|IT services|ITIL 4|Service management|Value|Vision
Clear line of sight
Blog
Published 12 Feb 2020
Management of Portfolios (MoP ® ) introduced the concept of ‘ clear line of sight’ , a technique that seeks to ensure a transparent chain is continually demonstrated from strategic intent through to benefits realization. That is, a clear understanding of the positive cont...
Benefits realization|MoP|Portfolio management|Project and programme management (PPM)|Strategic objectives|Vision
The Women Behind the Words
Blog
Published 06 Mar 2020
Happy International Women’s Day ! This year, we are celebrating some of the exceptional women we work with at AXELOS. These women are experts in their fields and respected leaders in their thought-communities.  We ask a lot, but they always come out on top and deliver amazi...
Best practice|Certification|Collaboration|Communication|Empowerment|Frameworks|Identity|IT service management (ITSM)|Methodologies|Project and programme management (PPM)|Vision
PRINCE2: 30 years-plus giving "accidental project management" coherent principles
Blog
Published 14 May 2020
John Edmonds – who joined AXELOS in 2018 – was the classic, "accidental project manager" in an era before best practice and when project management was done through trial and error. Here, he charts his journey to training countless professionals in PRINCE2 ® while a...
Best practice|Certification|Governance|PRINCE2|Project management|Training
Conducting virtual training sessions
Blog
Published 11 Aug 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically impacted the virtual training market and in many companies, training has taken a back seat. For some people, virtual training has never been a realistic option. They either don’t have a computer at home, only absorb information if presen...
Best practice|Certification|Professional development
Looking for Business Leaders in the Cyber Resilience Race
Blog
Published 01 Aug 2014
When quantifying the scale of corporate cyber threat, the figures alone tell a sobering story. As reported in The Economist's recent special report on cyber security, 800m data records were lost last year as a result of cyber-attack, despite estimated worldwide spending of £...
Best Practice|Cyber Resilience|IT Services|Service Management|Threats
6 reasons why Project Managers are still essential to the success of an agile project
Blog
Published 16 Nov 2015
There are, as you may know, a few key differences between agile and traditional waterfall projects, when managed using PRINCE2® . Traditional waterfall projects are delivered sequentially, whereas agile projects tend to be iterative and incremental. Traditional project p...
Best practice|PRINCE2|PRINCE2 Agile|Project management|Project planning|Project progress
Service Desk Improvement: Part 3
Blog
Published 10 Jan 2017
I was working with a client recently, helping them plan ways to improve the management of IT user support. When I came to review the advice I offered them, I realized that other organizations might find the same advice useful, so I have created three blog posts highlighting ...
Communication|End-user experience|IT Service Management (ITSM)|IT services|ITIL|Service desk
How P3Os are enablers of strategy execution
Blog
Published 21 Jun 2018
With continuing digital disruption, customer-focused organizations today more than ever need a portfolio-centred approach to both strategic planning and product delivery. An effective P3O model for any organization therefore seeks to build on, and better coordinate, the cont...
Portfolio Management|Project planning|Strategy execution
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (Of Guidance)
Blog
Published 31 Oct 2019
Update January 2020 Hi everyone, I thought it worth providing a quick update. Most of the changes mentioned below have been made. However, there were 3 changes or clarifications that I wanted to share now: The new definition of Problem appears in the glossary only. The ma...
Certification|Customer experience|End-User Experience|Examinations|ITIL 4|Roles|Value
Service Desk Improvement: Part 1
Blog
Published 06 Jan 2017
I was working with a client recently, helping them plan ways to improve the management of IT user support. When I came to review the advice I offered them, I realized that other organizations might find the same advice useful, so I have created three blog posts highlighting ...
Customer engagement|IT services|ITIL|Processes|Requirements|Service Desk
Selecting a good senior responsible owner
Blog
Published 10 Aug 2017
Let’s begin by defining the senior responsible owner`(SRO) role. The publication Managing Successful Programmes ® (2011 edition) describes the SRO as the individual responsible for ensuring that a project or programme of change meets its objectives and delivers the projec...
Leadership|Project and programme management (PPM)|Project progress|Roles|Stakeholder management
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