itil demand management: why august is a bad time for a presentation

JOHN BORWICK, MANAGER AND FOUNDERHIGHER EDUCATION IT MANAGEMENT, LLC

HTTP: / /WWW.HEITMANAGEMENT.COM/AUGUST

ITIL Demand Management:

Why August is a bad time for a presentation

John Borwick, PMP®

Wake Forest University, 2003-2012 Director of Service

Mgt PMO Director

Manager and Founder,HEIT Management

Career goal: Make people’s lives easier by improving how higher education IT is managed.

[email protected]

Higher Education IT Management, LLC

“Helping Higher Education IT effectively deliver value to campus

while minimizing waste.”One-on-one coachingCustom engagementsBlog

http://www.heitmanagement.com

http://www.heitmanagement.com/

Agenda

Concepts in Demand ManagementThe Costs of Ineffective Demand

ManagementUnderstanding and Communicating DemandPlanning for DemandInfluencing DemandSo why is August such a bad time for a

presentation?

WHAT IS ITIL’S DEMAND MANAGEMENT?WHAT’S LEAN AND WHAT’S “ WASTE”?

Concepts in Demand Management

Demand Management Capacity Management

Service Strategy process

Does this service make sense?

Service Design process

How are we going to do it?

ITIL’sDemand Management vs. Capacity Management

Capacity is a stair-step function,not a linear function

$

Capacity1 PB 2 PB 3 PB

Types of Demand Management

“Absolute” demand vs. “Temporal” demand (Patterns of Business Activity)

Understanding demand vs. influencing demand

“Absolute” Demand

What do users VALUE?

Capturing Value

$Cost

of the servic

e

Sample IT costs

Server room equipmentServers and storageSoftware licensesCloud services

… and us (the IT staff).

Capturing Value

$Cost

of the servic

e

Capturing Value

Value of the servic

e$

Capturing Value

Value of the servic

e

“Captured Value”

$Cost

of the servic

e

Yay! Virtuous cycle!

1. IT designs

new service

2. Value exceeds

cost

3. Happy campus

4. Increased IT

funding

—or, a vicious cycle.

1. IT designs

new service

2. Cost exceeds

value

3. Unhapp

y campus

4. Reduce

d IT funding

Virtuous Cycle Vicious Cycle

(Perceived Value > Cost)

Google Apps ?

(Perceived Value < Cost)

Anti-Virus ?

Value vs. Cost

Perceived value changes over time

What people value today

What they may be influenced to value

Patterns of Business Activity

Students arrive in late August/early September

Admissions is busy November-MarchThe budget season is February-AprilStudents don’t use the LMS 3 AM-7 AMTimesheets are submitted 3PM-5:30 PM

Fridays

Lean’s Three Types of Waste


Muda, or in-process waste: the traditional target of “process improvement,” e.g. having 5 steps in your process when only 2 are needed



Muri, or overburden: waste due to trying to do too much at once



Muri, or overburden: waste due to trying to do too much at once

Mura, or unevenness: waste due to fluctuations in demand

Building for peak demand

Cap

acit

y

Spring

Summer

Fall Winter

Demand

Building for peak demand

Cap

acit

y

Spring

Summer

Fall Winter

Demand

Capacity

“Stair step” effects can make small increases in demand be magnified

Extra 10 students admittedOne course section addedFive more GB of disk space needed for the

sectionOne additional disk drive neededOne additional rack of drives neededOne additional pair of fiber connectors

neededOne more network switch needed…

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUTDEMAND MANAGEMENT

The Costs of Ineffective Demand Management

1. No demand for a service

http://www.flickr.com/photos/92435716@N00/54069752/

2. Too much demand for a service(Unexpected demand)


3. Can’t handle peak demand


Understanding and Communicating Demand

Talk with customers

Who talks with your IT customers?Patterns of Business Activity are much easier

to uncover than perceived valueUndirected conversationsYou know the possibilities; they know the

value e.g. listserv digests

..and talk to your customers’ customers.

The final customers, e.g.IT supports Financial AidFinancial Aid supports the students

Most people overestimate demand

Focus groupsSimilar servicesUsability studies

“Go to the Gemba” = Go to the real place

Iterative releases/roll-outs(think “Test markets”)

One administrative departmentOne academic departmentOne courseOne residence hallOne class of students (e.g. seniors)

Clarify demand expectations with service levels

“This service is designed to accommodate 200 simultaneous users. If more users attempt to access the service, they will be put in a waiting queue and given a time estimate before they can access the service.”

Share a campus events calendar with IT staff

Ideally, pull from existing sourcesIdentify the “peak days”

Build a chart of busy months by department

List campus departmentsReview with them their busy monthsShare this chart with ITIdentify the “peak months”

Planning for Demand

Selected portions of a project

Approval: Deciding whether to pursue a project

Scope Definition: Understanding high-level scope

Project Planning: High-level decisions about how the service should work

Project Execution: Implementing the project

Approval Scope Definition

Project Planning

Project Execution

Selected portions of a project


Project Planning

Project Execution

Service Strategy

Service Design

Service Transition

Should we even offer this service?

Will there be demand?Are we capable of satisfying the demand?


Project Planning

Project Execution

Include demand management in the project scope

Project responsible for identifying potential demand

Project won’t close until capacity satisfies demand


Project Planning

Project Execution

What types of demand will there be?

WordPress “Multisite” functionality vs. WordPress instances

Demand for trainingDemand reduced for another service


Project Planning

Project Execution

In design, identify bottlenecks

Design assumes one database serverDesign assumes one application serverDesign assumes one IT staff member

approves requests


Project Planning

Project Execution

Test demand

Iterative releasesCapacity vs. demand


Project Planning

Project Execution

ABSOLUTE DEMAND

Influencing Demand

Marketing

“How many problems of life can be solved actually by tinkering with perception, rather than that tedious, hardworking and messy business of actually trying to change reality?”

—Rory Sutherland, “Life lessons from an ad man” TED Talk

Marketing

e.g.Getting people’s attentionKnowing your target marketCreating desireFraming your offer

Shifting demand: Empower users

Users build reports vs. IT builds reportsA tool resets passwords vs. IT staff reset

passwords

Service Levels

Speed of the serviceHours of operationCapacity

Chargeback

Charge back only when it can influence demand.

PATTERNS OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY

Influencing Demand

Differential Charging

Overtime ratesExpress shipping

“High demand” service levels

Service will take longer to provide during peak months or peak hours

Release windows

Code will be released into production on…Tues August 13 (“Release 1”)Tues August 27 (“Release 2”)Tues September 10 (“Release 3”)

…and Release 2 is almost full.

Business process improvement

Identify the reasons for the peaks and valleysWork with upstream customers to change

their business processes

E.g. canvassing campus departments for capital requests several weeks before the deadline.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PEAKS IN DEMAND IN AUGUST?

So why is August such a bad time for a presentation?

Agriculture


Semesters

Students learn face-to-face with a professor

Creates many Patterns of Business Activity getting ready for the fall

Think: ITIL’s Release Management

Opportunity to re-invent campus


Q & A

http://www.heitmanagement.com/august

itil demand management: why august is a bad time for a presentation

Technology