SESSION 106 Wednesday, November 2, 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM

Track: People, Culture, and Value

Implementing ITIL on a Small Scale

Andy Atencio CTO,City of Greenwood Village andy@atencio.org

Session Description

Not all large organizations have large cultures, and not all small organizations have small cultures. ITIL is often thought of as applying only to large organizations, containing too much bureaucracy and complexity to provide value to smaller organizations. This session will use many of the concepts provided in the often forgotten "ITIL Small-Scale Implementation" book to demonstrate the inherent benefits organizations with small cultures see when they implement ITIL. This session is for small organizations or organizations that "think small" looking to find the success in implementing ITIL. (Experience Level: Intermediate)

Speaker Background Andy Atencio is a certified ITIL Expert with more than twenty-five years of experience in the IT industry. Holding various roles from support to leadership, Andy currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer for the City of Greenwood Village where he focuses on helps organizations understand the cultural impact and changes IT service management can create. Andy leverages his Master’s Degree in Organizational Behavior and experience in psychological personalty to foster organizational understanding of the change from technology being about things to technology being about people.

Implementing ITIL on a Small Scale

Andy Atencio

City of Greenwood Village, CO

@aatencio

Agenda

1. Introduction and History

2. Scalable ITIL®

3. Organizational Change and ITIL®

4. How to succeed?

5. Closing

Who Am I?

J. Andrew Atencio “Andy”

• Chief Technology Officer for the City of Greenwood Village, Colorado

• 25+ years of experience in IT, education and project management

• Expert certified in IT Service Management (ITIL® V3)

• Master’s degree in Psychology Organizational and Industrial Behavior

Who Is Greenwood Village?

• Southern suburb of Denver Colorado and also land locked, no room to grow.

• We have a residential population 14,000 and a daytime population of 50,000.

• My annual technology budget is ~$1.2M excluding salaries and benefits.

• There are currently 250 employees in the organization with an Shared Technology Services staff of 8 including myself.

• There is currently Service Desk person in the IT organization.

1

ITIL

®V

ers

ion

3 M

od

el

ITIL® and IT Infrastructure Library® are Registered Trade Marks, and Registered Community Trade Marks of the

Office of Government Commerce, and are Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

What Makes ITIL® Scalable?

• ITIL® is a “best practice” not a standard to be rigidly followed.

• ITIL ® is not designed to be a one-way fits all organizational sizes or culture view.

• ITIL ® can be successful if only what is applicable to your organizational size and/or function is kept.

• It is okay to combine roles and functions that do not conflict.

What Makes You Small?

Informal culture --------------------------------- Formal cultureTeam spirit ------------------------------------ CompetitivenessQuick communications ------------------ Slow communicationsResponsive --------------------------------- Tendency to inertiaFlexible --------------------------------------------- ConstrainedUnderstanding of the business --- Isolation from the businessRelying on individuals ----------------- Broad pool of expertiseNowhere to hide --------------------------------- Role flexibilityGeneralists ------------------------------------------- SpecialistsLimited knowledge ----------------- Comprehensive knowledgeHigh organization costs -------------------- Economies of scalePer capita complexity ----------------------------- Role division

What Makes ITIL® Right for Me?

Scaling down ITIL® to fit workload or available resources is the key to applying ITIL® to small organizations, as long as the value of doing so continues to exist.

Ask three questions:• Is ITIL® a practical direction for my organization?

• Is ITIL® advantageous to my organization’s goals and outcomes?

• Is there enough benefit left in ITIL® for my organization when I take away the things I cannot or do not do?

Problem Definition

• Taking the complexity of ITIL and applying it to a small IT organization

• Applying ITIL and maintaining value

• Applying ITIL without decreasing flexibility of a small organization

• Applying ITIL in a way that it helps not hinders

Defining Your Organization

As an organization are you a Village or a City culture?

How do you answer the three question test?

Are you willing to commit to changing the culture of your technology organization?

Scaled ITIL ® Strategy

• Defining ITSM Strategy• External influences on business strategy

• Defining the ITSM functional needs

• Identify skills constraints

• Applying skills to the needs

• Setting defined strategy in motion• Assigning priorities

• Relationships with customers

• Structuring IT to meet the service goals

Impacts on Strategy

Multiple External Influences

Organization Strategy

Organization Services Strategy

Non-technology ServiceManagement Strategies

Other ServiceSupport Strategies

IT ServiceManagement Strategy

IT Strategy

External Influences on Strategy

• Strategic issues that will affect the ITSM strategy – and thus the IT strategy.

• New or changed customer and user relationships• Changing demands for management information• Customer expectations• Organizational vision change• New services being added• Changes in business processes

(SOX or GASB34)• Changes in economy• Changes in leadership direction

Influence of organizational strategy on ITSM

• Strategic issues that will affect the ITSM strategy – and thus the IT strategy.

• New or changed customer and user relationships• Changing demands for management information• Customer expectations• Organizational change• New services being added• Changes in business processes (SOX or GASB34)• Changes in economy• Changes in leadership direction

Strategy Model – Greenwood Village

Quality of Life

Other ServiceSupport Strategies

ITIL

IT Strategy

Political ResidentsRegulatory

Clean FunSafe

Snow Removal (EPA) FoIA

Customer Service Standards

Structuring IT To Meet The Service Goals

Historically ITSM has been individually focused in its structure.

• One person – one SM discipline

• Little if any crossover of duties – but still communication

• Extra work and effort might be done “just in case”

Structuring IT To Meet The Service Goals

For small organizations the structure for ITSM is much different.

• One person is accountable for each SM discipline, but might be accountable for more than one – leverage existing skills and duties.

• Minimize the handovers from one discipline to another –typically done by reorganizing functions and processes.

• Similar work should be owned by the same skills group/individual.

Small organizations must be ruthless in their

elimination of unnecessary or duplication of effort.

Adapting the Roles

• How do you adapt the roles?

• Influenced by:• Staff aptitudes – allowing for overlap, cross-

function and mutual support• Restrictions of scope – staffing, money, and

complexity

• There are also aspects that apply to all organizations but may be easier or more valuable in small organizations:

• User education• Process and technology automation

Defining ITSM Needs - ITIL® Roles

• Role 1 – Incident and Service Desk Management (ISDM)

• Role 2 – Problem and Availability Management (PAM)

• Role 3 – Configuration, Change & Release Management (CCRM)

• Role 4 – Finance and Resource Capacity Management (FRCM)

• Role 5 – IT Services Continuity Management (SCM)

• Role 6 – Service Level Management, Business and Service Capacity Management, Relationship Management (SLM)

Identifying Current Skill Constraints

• Skills constraints typically fall into two areas:• What skills are available and able to support the

proposed solution or direction.

• The ability to analyze and appropriately apply the available skills by management.

• Skills of importance include:• Knowledge of the business or

organization

• Ability to work with others

• Knowledge of technology in place and how people use it

Applying the Skills to the Needs

What you implement depends on a number of aspects of your people

• What processes do you plan to implement?• Automated Service Desk makes phone skills less important

• Capacity Mgmt. requires visioning skills

• What skills are needed vs. what skills do you have?

• How important or useful are specialized skills to the organization?

• The cost of developing skills vs. buying skills.

• How long will the skill(s) be needed?

• The ability to easily find the skills externally.

Organizational Change + ITSM = Simplicity

Capacity/

Availability

Service

Desk/

Incident/

Problem

Config/

Change/

Release

Finance/

Relationship

(ext.)

IT

Continuity/

Security

SLM/

Relationship

(int.)/BCM

Problem/

Availability

Incident/

Service

Desk

Config/

Change

Release

Finance/

Capacity

IT

Continuity/

Security

SLM/

Relationship/

Capacity

Assigning Priorities

Process for setting priorities (basic resource allocation process):

• Identify all tasks

• Determine resource allocation required

• List the project in order of organizational importance and business value

• Decide how far down the list you can go

• Draw a line!

In small IT organizations, as in any other, the priorities must support the business objectives.

Assigning Priorities – Continued

Although the prioritization process is a simple one on the surface, it can become more complex because:

• The process is iterative – tasks below the line have to be revisited.

• Priorities are influenced by customers – customers may be willing to fund projects below the line, but not above the line because of perceived importance or value.

• Uneven allocation of resources/skills – too much work for those with necessary skills, not enough for others.

Removing all possible causes of failure does not

automatically deliver success. – Paul Herzlich

Managing Customer Expectations

• Customer relationships are more personal

• SLAs less formal, but just as important

• Expectations are often harder to manage

• Agreement on delivery of services different• Expected speed of delivery

• Ease of working with customers

• Closer to the core organizationalprocesses

• More nimble - make changesmore quickly

Steps to Success - People• Identify ITSM champions

in the organization

• Identify ITSM “road blocks” in the organization

• Build a team• Might be out of pieces

already in place• Might be out of new

pieces

• Match skills of the team to the needs

Steps to Success – Setting the Goal

• Matching needs to existing skills

• Selling simplicity to the people change will impact

• Drawing the connection to what is currently done• Demonstrating that change isn’t as much change as what

people might immediately think

How to Succeed?

Define what success means.

Keep What You NeedService Desk/Incident Mgmt.

Tiered

Support Single

Point of

Contact

Incident

Escalation

Problem

Mgr.

Combine What You Can and Align it with Current Skills/Duties

Role 3 - CCRM

Configuration

Management

Release

ManagementChange

Management

Take Small Bites

Plan

Communication

Training

CommitmentBuy in

Small

Bites

Which Way Do You Go?

Align with organizational outcomes

No Matter the Direction

• ITSM is not rocket science

• Define, understand and align with the organizational goals and outcomes

• Focus on the people and the relationships

• Communicate

• Educate

At the end of the day

we don’t want to feel

like this!

Andy Atencio

aatencio@greenwoodvillage.com

@aatencio

You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best.

You want to be considered the only ones who do what you do.

Jerry Garcia (1942-1995)

Lead Singer of the Greatful Dead

Thank you for attending this session.

Please don’t forget to complete an evaluation for this session!

Evaluation forms can be completed electronically on the

FUSION 16 Conference App.