Full Circle – from ESM to ITIL and Back Again

I guess it means that I’m getting old… I can look back over my career now and see many things coming full circle.

As example, we just celebrated our 10th anniversary here at ITSM Academy.  Of course, we are much larger, with more robust processes in place (and 30,000+ Alumni!) But, with the introduction of our new Agile Service Management Line of Training, there are many parallels to when we originally launched our ITSM/ITIL Line of Training.

Earlier this month, I was fortunate to attend the ServiceNow Knowledge14 Conference, and that’s where it really hit me.  Several people talked to me about “Enterprise Service Management” and how that title needed to replace “ITSM”.  I don’t disagree, but it struck me as so funny.  10.5 years ago, I was an ESM Practice Manager, but got so much feedback that people didn’t know what that meant.  My favorite was, “Why would you call yourself that when your are the ITSM Practice Manager?” Based on that conversation, I did something as unethical as it gets here in LisaLand…. I went onto LinkedIn and changed my job title…(insert shocked face here!).

So what does this mean, this movement to (as one presenter called it) – Innovating Beyond ITIL: Enterprise Service Management.  Well, quite simply, it’s where we should have been 15 years ago.  The focus of ITSM / ITIL / ESM – whatever you want to call it – has to be outside of IT.  The focus of any successful (insert your letters of choice here) Program needs to be on;

  • the services we provide
  • the stakeholders we provide them to
  • the cultural change that needs to shift our IT organization into a service provider

One of the KPMG presenters said, “Innovate on ITIL, but don’t emphasize the IT in  ITIL”. Which will leave some feeling IL – LOL (sorry, couldn’t help it!)

KPMG also spoke a lot about Global Business Services.  I did a little follow up reading and, “Global Business Services (GBS) business operating model is poised to replace standalone outsourcing and shared services…with around 60 percent of the organizations embracing GBS over the next three years. The research also predicted that expenditure on external GBS is expected to nearly double-up to reach $73 billion in 2017 as against US$ 40 billion in 2013.”

arrows_tail_spin_multi_colored_400_wht_9654And to take us full circle now on this blog….I think, we are back to where we should have started 15 years ago.

I also think that getting older gives you some perspective that makes life more interesting…. but that will go full circle too.  One day, we won’t be able to remember any of this anyway.

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Circling!

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DevOps: Moving Beyond Early Adopters to Pragmatic Acceptance

Join us for a complimentary webinar: DevOps: Moving Beyond Early Adopters to Pragmatic Acceptance on Thursday, May 15th at 11am (Eastern) – Register

Presenter: Alan Shimel,Editor-in-Chief, DevOps.com

EXCLUSIVE WEBINAR BANNER_May2014

Just about every technology trend over the last 30 years has followed a similar pattern. Originally championed by a dedicated core of enthusiasts, it gathers adherents among those willing to live at the bleeding edge. Over time champions emerge who seek to spread the word on the benefits of the technology. These visionaries eventually come to a chasm that separates early adopters from the vast majority of the mainstream. Some technologies cross the chasm, others fall in.

DevOps is now at precipice of the chasm. It appears to have the momentum to make the leap. Why? How will it affect you? Separating the fact from the hype, examining the truth behind the myth, learn how DevOps is not a threat to IT jobs, but can be the greatest catalyst of improved performance that we have seen in IT for a long time

Have questions you want included? Post them on Twitter; #askITSM.

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Learning!

New Courses at ITSM Academy – Scrum and DevOps

itsmacademy_smallWe have been working (tirelessly!) on our newest Line of Training – Agile Service Management®, and are continuing to add new courses to our portfolio.  We are thrilled to announce the following courses:

  • DevOps Overview – 4 hour virtual class, introducing concepts of DevOps. February 28 (with many more options to come), virtual classroom.
  • DevOps Fundamentals – 2 day certification course, provides attendees the ability to formulate a high-level strategy and action plan for adopting DevOps in their organization.  April 7-10, virtual classroom.
  • Certified ScrumMaster – 2 day certification course, which we are delivering in partnership with a leading Rep of the Scrum Alliance.  March 17-18 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
  • Agile Service Management: Applying Scrum to Process Design – 5 hour virtual class. Coming soon.

For more information on these courses, or to register, please visit our website.

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Learning!

Work at ITSM Academy!

We have 2 great sales openings at the Academy; Business Development Manager (virtual) and Public Education Sales (Ft. Lauderdale).

Public Education Sales

ITSM Academy’s Public Education Sales team member is a skilled sales person who can effectively sell seats into our open enrollment (public) classrooms.  The ideal candidate will be located in South Florida, and will:

  • Generate sales via the telephone, in person, targeted email marketing and Social Media.

  • Articulate the purpose, key features, advantages, and value proposition of ITSM Academy’s portfolio.

  • Work from the Ft. Lauderdale Training Center every day of class to interact with learners. (May work from home on non-class days).

  • Promptly answer in-bound calls and web requests to convert to sales.

  • Develop and deliver proposals and quotes for individuals and groups.

  • Apply effective time management techniques and strategies to prioritize activities related directly to selling and minimize non-productive sales activities.

  • When necessary, travel to represent ITSM Academy to potential class locations, tradeshows and/or user groups.

  • Contribute to the growth of ITSM Academy through ideas and suggestions to help us to achieve outlined targets.

Business Development Manager
ITSM Academy’s Business Development Manager is a skilled business development manager / sales person who can effectively sell our full portfolio of training to existing and prospect accounts, using our extensive database.  In this Virtual (work from home) position, the right candidate will:

  • Conduct new business development via phone, research, in person client visits and networking

  • Partner with clients and prospects through a strategic and consultative sales approach to understand their business needs, issues, strategies and priorities and translate into best fitting service / product mix

  • Develop and deliver; client profiles, client presentations, proposals, quotes, Statements of Work, etc.

  • Acquire and integrate industry knowledge related to general trends, emerging technologies, competitors, etc. into strategic account planning and sales activities

  • Apply effective time management techniques and strategies to prioritize activities related directly to selling and minimize non-productive sales activities

  • Prioritize and performs a variety of concurrent tasks with minimal direction

  • When necessary, travel to represent ITSM Academy to potential and existing clients, and tradeshows

  • Contribute to the growth of ITSM Academy through ideas and suggestions

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ITSM and/or Training Sales Experience is strongly preferred.  Our strong internal process, tools and teams provides the right candidate with a fun and lucrative working environment.

ITSM Academy is a full service IT Service Management Provider, specializing in Education and Advice. Our work environment is built on trust, loyalty and long term relationships. We provide solutions to our clients based on those same values.

Working with our team will be a fun, exciting and fulfilling experience.

ITSM Academy proudly offers a comprehensive employee benefit program which contribute to an exceptional and competitive place of employment. Program includes paid holidays, paid vacation days, medical insurance coverage through BlueCrossBlueShield as well as Flexible Spending Accounts (Section 125) for Medical and Dependent Care Costs. We also provide eligible employees with immediate vested 401(k) Qualified Retirement Plan upon 1 year of service which is an excellent means of long-term savings for your retirement.

ITSM Academy is an equal opportunity employer.


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Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Round Table

CSM Round Table

Join us for a complimentary webinar: Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Round Table on Thursday, February 20th at 11am (Eastern) – Register

Everyone is talking about Agile and Scrum. But how does Agile apply to service management and DevOps?

Spend some time with two of our ITSM Academy Certified ScrumMasters, Donna Knapp and Jayne Groll, as they share their insights and advice on how Agile can improve IT’s velocity and Time to Value.

Have questions you want included? Post them on Twitter; #askITSMscrum @ITSMAcademy.

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Learning!

2013 The Year of Innovation

At the end of 2012, we declared that 2013 would be “The Year of Innovation” here at ITSM Academy. And I’m proud to say it was!

This year, we’ve concentrated on 2 large projects.
1. my.itsmacademy.com – our Learner Portal
2. GAME ON! An Interactive Learning Experience

fill_the_seat.jpgAs I wrote about a few weeks back, part of the reason we were able to accomplish standing up both of these in a single years was by attaining our Certified ScrumMaster certs along the way. We have morphed from a standard Waterfall project methodology, using Agile instead. That wasn’t an easy transition.

Focusing on Shippable Products and running in 2 week sprints has been great. This has really helped us with prioritization. In an organization our size, self organizing teams makes sense, but appointing 3 individuals to be Scrum Master, Product Owner and then Team Members, isn’t always realistic. So we’ve taken the best of what we learned from Scrum, and have adapted to fit our needs.

An exciting by-product of this, is that it really helped us focus on our next Line Of Training – Agile ITSM.  We have 4 new classes which we are adding early 2014:

  • DevOps Overview – 4 hour virtual class, introducing concepts of DevOps. January 24 and February 28 (with many more options to come), virtual classroom.
  • DevOps Fundamentals – 2 day certification course, this course provides attendees the ability to formulate a high-level strategy and action plan for adopting DevOps in their organization.  April 7-10, virtual classroom.
  • Certified ScrumMaster – 2 day certification course, which we are delivering in partnership with a leading Rep of the Scrum Alliance.  March 17-18 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
  • Agile Service Management: Applying Scrum to Process Design – 5 hour virtual class. Coming soon.

So, with our 10th anniversary behind us (how is THAT possible?  Oh, Jayne Groll wrote a great blog about our first ten years…) we continue to grow, morph and change.  Which I’ll be honest, is something we are proud of 😉

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Innovating!

LisaLand

 

Hey, There is Something to this ‘Agile’ Thing

A few months ago, several of the ITSM Academy team (including yours truly), earned our Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Certificates.  While Scrum – and Agile – are typically utilized for software development projects, we quickly realized a lot of the knowledge and tools that can be applied to any project type.

Here at the Academy, we’ve undertaken one of the biggest projects we’ve ever tackled. We are standing up a Learner Portal, www.my.itsmacademy.com.  This portal will touch every line of business, and is a huge value-add for our learners.  To learner more about it, please click here.

When we came home from our Scrum training we were, “hot and happy and ready to go”. We were planning on applying our new skills to the Learner Portal project.  But then the real world reared its head and we didn’t immediately, or correctly, begin applying the knowledge.

I’ve said, since we started the company, that we will never use that terrible expression about the Cobbler not being able to fix his own kids shoes.  Based on this, and our desire to recoup our return on investment, we knew we had to buckle down and built a plan.  So that’s what we did.

We didn’t start fully, we probably didn’t even start “right”… but we started.

We identified our first Sprint – and have been running ever since! With each Sprint retrospective, we take the time to improve the way we are using Agile and our Sprints.

The result has been that we are getting more “ship-able products” to market.  These include (but are not limited to 🙂

So, in a nutshell, Agile is keeping the Academy rolling at a brand new speed!  We are excited to introduce the courses above, which will help our clients and alumni start Sprinting too 😉

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Sprinting!

fill_the_seat.jpg

What is DevOps?

Join ITSM Academy on Thursday, January 16, 2014 at 11am (Eastern) for our webinar; What is DevOps?Register

whatisdevopswebinar

This webinar introduces  attendees to DevOps, the cultural and professional phenomenon that is rocking the IT world.  By encouraging better collaboration, communication and integration between development and operational teams, DevOps is enabling organizations to build, deploy and operate quality software faster

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Learning!
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My.ITSMAcademy.com – Learner Portal

Over the last several weeks, ITSM Academy has begun introducing / beta testing our new learner portal; my.itsmacademy.com. The portal extends the classroom experience by providing access to online content and tools to further educate and inspire learners.

Using my.itsmacademy.commyitsmacademy

  • Increases preparedness
  • Enhances retention
  • Supports exam preparations (where applicable)
  • Provides value-add resources
  • Expands access to our community of experts and peers

The goal of my.itsmacademy.com is to provide the most efficient and effective learning experience. Whether a learner is participating in a traditional classroom, or joining us in one of our virtual classrooms, they have access to their learning portal.

By including an online component to our education strategy, our learners can actively participate in class preparation, attendance, and have post class access. This blended strategy increases the long-term sustainability of their ITSM education.  Attributes include:

Accelerated Learning

  • Increase retention and enable exploration through the use of guided online supplemental instruction (learning labs); labs can be completed at a time convenient for the learner
  • Traditional Classroom: Extend the learning experience by providing access both pre-and-post class
  • Virtual Classroom: Improve the impact and flexibility of virtual instruction; enabling learners to balance their workload and class requirements

Multi-media Learning

  • Maximize learner engagement by addressing varying learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic)
  • Increase learners’ ability to learn anywhere and at any time through the use of mobile devices

Data-driven Decisions

  • Gauge and increase learner retention by using embedded assessments and ITSM Academy’s Game On! An Interactive Learning Experience
  • Enable self-directed learning by providing learners unlimited access to supplemental online resources

Critical, Action-oriented Thinking

  • Supplement classroom lecture with online tools that include hands-on assessments and exercises
  • Learning labs support Bloom’s foundational levels of understanding and remembering
  • Peer group collaboration projects further promote critical thinking
  • Personal Action Plans inspire learners to identify improvement opportunities based on what they are learning throughout the class

We are so excitedFreeStuff to roll out the new Learner Portal, that we’ve pre-loaded it with tons of Free Stuff.  

Feel free to go visit today, and start your exploration of the cool stuff we’ve already loaded – with tons more to come!  

Until your next trip to LisaLand…Happy Exploring!