Enlightened Management

We've taken this journey through ITSM objectives to highlight a critical element necessary to successful ITSM implementations. There is no substitute for an enlightened project or program manager who truly understands the objectives of ITSM, its tactical and strategic value to the organization and its contribution to the technical operations architecture. We have seen far too many initiatives fail because the key project leadership didn't "get it." The shame of this reality is there is absolutely no excuse for allowing an ITSM project fail because the wrong people were driven by the wrong incentives to implement "something" that was not clearly defined, not supported at the right level of the organization and improperly staffed.

You've heard it countless times before: "The project was a dismal failure because there was no project management." Well, what goes wrong with project management? Perhaps surprisingly, it's not always just the project manager who is at fault, if at all. All too often a project is launched prematurely before the vision, objectives and deliverables are clear. This means the project manager is not able to "pilot the ship” because there's no star by which to navigate!

How, then, does an organization identify this star? How does the organization know it’s attaching all its hopes and resources on the right star? The answers to these questions lie in even more questions that will help clarify an understanding of the organization.
· What business is the organization in? What are the core competencies of the organization?
· What is the compelling reason, the event or situation that is driving the need for change?
· Considering the core competencies, is this compelling reason something that should be dealt with by the organization? Does it made sense to deal with this internally?
· If it does make sense for our organization to tackle, which group or groups should take it on? Do we have the internal skills, expertise and available personnel to lead and participate in the program?
· How can that compelling reason be expressed in business, revenue, customer, or business success?
· How can that compelling reason be expressed in a unit of measure that is meaningful to the business?
· Who would be the leader, key stakeholders and executive sponsor of the initiative?
· How will we manage governance of the intervention? What will go into our communication plan? How often will we communicate?
· What are the goals and objectives of the intervention? How will we measure success?
· How much is this going to cost? When will we realize the benefits?