Practicing ITSM

ITSM, which stands for Information Technology Service Management, is derived from the practices of vanilla Service Management.

Service Management of course is a type of Product (as in Goods and Services) Management. Product Management is not the same as Process Management. Product Management focuses on the result that the consumer will acquire, use and consume the benefits. Process Management focuses on the sequence of value adding activities that produces the product. A product manager will focus on getting the design of the house correct. The process manager will focus on getting it built.

Both Product and Process Management are derived from basic Management, which deals with the Control of Assets (Cash, Tools, Equipment, etc.) and the Coordination of Resources (employees, vendors, suppliers, etc.).

Whether as an art or a science, management in any form is practiced. While many firms claim to offer an ITSM practice, there seems to be some confusion between a Professional Consulting Practice (PCP), Community of Practice (CoP) and Community of Excellence (CoE).

My experience founding different communities of practice as well as different consulting practices has found these to be very different things. First, let us deal with Communities. While both are considered Communities of Interest (CoI), the purpose for forming a Community of Practice (CoP) is to advance the capabilities of a professional practice. A typical CoP is designed to foster interdisciplinary inquiry through the exchange, peer-review and critique of individual and group best practices. The purpose for forming a Community of Excellence (CoE) is to reach and sustain a level of excellence in organizational readiness, responsiveness, performance and productivity. A typical CoE is designed to cultivate continuous improvement across the organization.

Typically, the CoP exists for the professionals engaged in the practice to exchange ideas, methods and best practices. The CoP represents the competency of the practice in terms of knowledge, skill and experience. Traditionally the CoP advises the PCP on interpretations of a body of knowledge such as ISO 20000, ITIL V2 or V3.

Typically, the PCP is a business or service venture, measured by P&L. Launching a practice fulfills a strategic objective of the firm to provision consulting services to a strategically targeted market of customers. PCP's have executive champions that control the investment resources to develop a practice and represent the strategic interests of the firm in the results. While it is very common for practice ideas to originate with practicing employees, it is unheard of for them to lead a practice launch.