SESSION 207 Wednesday, November 1, 11:30am - 12:30pm

Track: People, Culture, and Value

Problem Management: A Culture Shift Toward Delivering Business Value

Jim Bolton President, Propoint Solutions jbolton@propointsolutions.com

Session Description IT is experiencing a fundamental cultural shift in emphasis from efficient utilization of resources (fix it fast) to effective realization of business value (prevent failures). This session begins with a case study on successfully dealing with constraints. The session will then shift to the synergies and important differences between incident management and problem management. Finally, you’ll get recommendations on how to address the most common challenges to implementing a problem management process that delivers b+L38usiness value.

Speaker Background Jim Bolton has more than a decade of experience in architecting ITSM solutions by applying ITIL best practices, ISO process disciplines, and Six Sigma concepts. He is the coauthor of Problem Management: A Practical Guide, and the founder and president of Propoint Solutions. An HDI business associate and former member of the HDI Strategic Advisory Board, Jim received his MBA in technology management from the University of Phoenix, and he is a certified ITIL Expert and ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant. In recognition for his industry contributions, Jim received the Information Technology Industry Legend Award in 2014.

Problem Management:A Cultural Shift Toward Delivering Business Value

JBolton@PropointSolutions.com

International Best Practice Co-AuthorProblem Management: A Practical Guide

Jim is the founder and president of Propoint Solutions Inc. He is an ITSM Consultant, ITIL® Training Provider, Courseware Developer, IBP Author, and Speaker at conferences around the world on ITSM topics.

He a member of the HDI Faculty, and has served on the HDI Strategic Advisory Board, the itSMF and HDI Local Chapter Boards, and as track chair for itSMF and HDI annual conferences.

Jim’s credentials include: an MBA in Technology Management, ITIL v3 Expert, ITIL v2 Manager, ITIL SOA and OSA Certificates and the itSMF ISO/IEC 20000 Consultant Certificate.

On a personal note: As my friend and colleague Ken would say, “There are a number of things I know

nothing about….this topic is not one of them.”

Jim Bolton

When I was a kid growing up on the farm the average American farmer produced enough to

feed 25.8 people.

Today's American farmer feeds about 155 people worldwide. *

That’s a 600% Increase!

How did they do it?

• The soil is the same

• The weather is the same

• No increase in staff

Problem Management!!

* Source: American Farm Bureau Federation

Problem Management

- Workarounds

• Drones analyze plant

foliage to locate trouble

areas. Farmers then

quickly and precisely

apply solutions only where needed.

Problem Management

- Root Cause Analysis

• By analyzing yield data from prior

years, farmers are able to adjust

seed dispersion to compensate for variability in soil types.

Problem Management

- Proactive, Analytics

• Farmers are collaborating using

blockchain based systems to

securely share data.

• Farmers use soil samples and

yield data from prior years to

proactively dial in nutrients.

• They are looking for changes that will increase yield by just 2%!

Problem Management Has Transformed Farming!Has it Transformed IT Organizations?

NO! Based on the most recent HDI Practices and Salary Survey of

Technical Support Organizations:

• Only 49% claim to have adopted Problem Management

• Only 27% have a formal Problem Management process

• Only 10% have dedicated PM resources

It’s Time for a Fundamental Transformation

Source: 2016 HDI Practices and Salary Survey

Problem Management: A Cultural Shift Toward Delivering Business Value

1. Process – From Incident Management to Problem Management

2. Mode – From Sustainer to Dreamer

3. Metrics – From Reactive to Value

Case Study: It’s planting season and you are out in the field planting corn with your 40 row planter. The weather forecast is calling for rain so you need to quickly get the planting completed. Suddenly you hear a squeaking wheel on the corn planter. You should:

a. Turn Up the Radio

b. Grease the squeaking wheel

c. Grease all of the planter wheels

d. Replace the squeaking wheel

e. Buy a new planter

1. Process

Incident Management

Problem Management

Change Management

Problem DB

KEDBorKB

Incident Database

Matching

Problem Record

Root Cause

Workaround

Incident Management – Quick Fixes

Change / Release

Known Error

CI at fault

RFC

Workaround

Problem Management – Root CauseProblem Management – Permanent Solutions

Incident Management

• Proactive; Value

• Characteristic of high-performing organizations

• More than restoring services

• Eliminate recurring incidents

• Prevent incidents from occurring

• Reactive; Firefighting

• Logs data used for trending by Problem Management

• Categorizes incidents which aids in appropriate incident and problem assignments

• Prioritizes incidents which triggers problem prioritization

Incident – An unplanned interruption to the standard operation of a service, or a reduction in the quality of that service

Problem – The underlying cause of one or more incidents

Problem Managementvs.

Schedule Time for

Problem Management

“But we only have an IT Staff of

7 including the CIO!”

“If there is no Major Incident

impacting the business, we will

spend every Friday Afternoon

from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM on

Problem Management”

2. Mode – From

Sustainer to Dreamer

“lost golf ball”

Sustainer

• We are on autopilot

• Just follow the process

• That won’t work

• The boss won’t approve it

• We are already too busy

Source: Innovation Resource; Robert Tucker

Dreamer

• Wouldn’t it be great if …

• Problems become opportunities

• Obstacles are challenges

• Impossible just takes a bit longer

Source: Innovation Resource; Robert Tucker

Dreamer

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes:

• What would be an outstanding experience?

• What would keep me coming back?

• What would make me tell others about this business?

DreamerFrom “Fixing” to “Bringing Value”

The Incident – 9:00PM slow drip at water meter near the floor drain A repair person shows up in 20 minutes and fixes the leak

Bringing Value When I ask about my gas meter not being level, the repair

person offers to stay and fix it They cut and install the new pipe They repaint my meter They re-light all of my gas appliances They check each appliance for CO emissions They check my CO detectors and discover one is defective

DreamerFrom “Fixing” to “Preventing”

The Incident – 2,000 miles of aging water pipe Fix broken pipes quickly

Bringing Value - PreventUtilities employees suggest preventative

corrosion protectionRenewing water pipes is 2-5% of the cost to

replace them In 2 years, maintenance costs were reduced by

$90 millionRoadway disruptions are reduced by 95%

3. Metrics – We Get What We Measure

According to the most recent HDI Practices and

Salary Survey, 88% of customer satisfaction

surveys are reactive.

If we are focused on the Check Engine light, we will

forever be doing Incident Management instead of

adding value!

Source: 2016 HDI Practices and Salary Survey

Shift From IT Metrics to Business Value!!

IT Operation Traditional Metric Business Outcome Metrics

Help Desk Time to Resolve End user satisfaction

Data Center System Uptime Service Availability

Hardware or

Software

Upgrade

Level of Support

for equipment or

applications

Operating risks averted

New capabilities enabled

New System

Implementation

Schedule and

project budget

goals

Revenue generated

Change in market share

Productivity improvement

Service

DeliveryProcess Maturity

Speed and efficiency as

compared to competitors

IT Operation Traditional Metric Business Value

Source: CIO Magazine , adopted from K2 Solutions

Metrics for Problem Management

Reduced Incident Resolution Time

- Report the cumulative savings for developed workarounds

- To fund PM resources

- To fund PM training

- To fund Knowledge Management tools

Metrics for Problem Management

Reduced Incident Volume

- Predict the cumulative value of eliminating repeat incidents

- To build a business case for the permanent fix

- To build a business case to transition staff from Incident

Management to Problem Management

- To build a business case for additional PM training

- To build a business case for implementing PM tools

Metrics for Problem Management

Proactive Problem Management

– Establishing the value of actions taken to prevent

“incidents that have not yet occurred”

- To build a business case for preventative investments

- To effectively communicate value to your customers

- To build trust/support for future preventative investments

Problem Management: A Cultural Shift Toward Delivering Business Value

Process – From Incident Management to Problem Management

Mode – From Sustainer to Dreamer

Metrics – From Reactive to Value

I am committed to facilitating this essential shift in

my organization

When I get back to the office, here is what

I am going to do:

Process: Shift focus and transfer

resources to Problem Management

Mode: Encourage ideas (problems are

really opportunities)

Metrics: Report on actions that bring

value

“It was just a dream until I wrote it down”

HDI 2008 Emmitt Smith

Session 207