How ITIL Helps Organizations Become More Efficient In the Daily Activities with Patricia Fridman at SKILup Days 2024

Hello, everybody. Welcome to the last session of this great event where a lot of professionals share with us a lot of experience about how it deal works in a lot of kind of organizations. In this session, in this presentation, we are going to talk about how IT four helps organization become more efficient, and we, we will, we'll be talking in terms of experience.

We will be talking in terms of how the organization decide to improve or to, to design new processes and practices to work better in their organizations. First of all, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Patricia Friedman.

I'm managing partner in a company called Communit who is in a, which is in Argentina. I have been working with a, some kind of companies, uh, public and private companies during 20 years helping them to make more efficient their daily activities. We have been doing this work, working with them in training and consultancy, and understanding that, eh, in any place they need, we were, we are with them to identify where any practice or any process will help to be more efficient in in their activities.

Today, we're going to talk about how it helps the organizations to become more efficient, but we decided to abort this matter with two approaches. The one, the first one is about understanding how the guiding principles, combining with, um, the four dimensions of service management are a powerful tool to work in this kind of projects. And then we are going to, uh, see some special steps and some special tips to consider when, when you are work, working in an IT implementation we well in, in, in, in which you need to have new processes or new practices working together and giving the company the best results they need.

So to begin to talk the talk about all these matters that are important for the organizations in terms of ship efficiency, we have here some special point I would like to take into account and to consider when you are thinking in best practices. And we are thinking in having better processes and better practices. The first point I would like to share with you, it's about the why or specifically the question.

Why would an organization could like to have processes or improve processes and practices? This is a very important question when you begin to work with these kind of projects because if you have a clear answer for this, you are, you will be sure more close to the results that you want. So in terms of the experience, what I, what I, I have found in this kind of, of situations is that the most important reason that the organizations have to have to, to design this kind of project, to begin this kind of projects is to optimize their way of working.

Perhaps they are needing to have a better way to do the things, to do their job, to do other activities. And then this is the, the, the reason that let the people move to, uh, decide to, uh, to, to work better. Then the, um, the other possibility is that you have in your company the need to obtain any kind of certification.

So perhaps it's an iso like, um, the, the ones that refer to quality or refers to service management, or perhaps that referred to security or any kind of important certifications in terms of, um, governance. Perhaps, uh, you need to certify in SOCs or any other specialty. You, you have another reason why the organizations can decide to do these kind of jobs, perhaps the members of the organization, the people who work in all these, the activities of any kind of process or the practice, they don't know really what they have to do.

So the company decide to make any kind of, um, initiative to put the process in place, to put the pr, the practice in place to be sure that everyone know what they have to do. Other reason is to be prepared for audits. It's a very useful, um, uh, um, a tool to dedicate some time to consider if you are a company who are going to need some processes to present in an audit process to consider this point.

And perhaps when I'm talking about these cases, about this wise, uh, you are thinking another reason and some of the reasons you can share with us in this, uh, um, in this moment with us. But, um, the, the most important thing to understand is that we need to to know the why at the beginning of the moment. We are thinking to have these kind of projects when you are thinking that you are going to implement any kind of practice, a process or perhaps to improve them.

So the other point that is interesting to understand is the who and we are when we are thinking about the who is about who motivates to start using it, practices and processes. Because if the organization is the, is the one who brings this idea, you will talk with managers and you will talk with the direction. Um, of course they will offer you some budget resources and will, you will have a lot of information available, available to decide how to manage with this project.

But in case the individuals are the one who are bringing the idea, this is more difficult because it's a great initiative for the people to bring the idea, to make the things better, to be more efficient. But in this case, we need to explain to your managers and your to, to your directors all about the idea to prepare a business case to justify with cost and, and of course dedication about what to do in case of designing this kind of project. That's why the this view is very important to be addressed when you are considering this kind of project to implement practices or processes.

Then there is another who, because you know that we are talking about considerations to, to, to use when you begin these kind of projects. But when you are in the middle of the project and you are at the end of the project, and then you begin to use these practices and processes, or you begin to improve them, you will need to have anyone responsible for all, all of them in the company. This is a very important point to understand when you begin the project, because if you can't identify who is going to be the responsible, it would be difficult to be sure that the process or the practice, the practice will be updated all the time.

And with the last decisions made over these processes. So there are some kind of decisions about who could be the responsible of the, of this kind of, of practices of processes and organization where when they are in, in the organization place to use them. So perhaps you have a, an area dedicated to have the responsibility of practices or processes.

In some companies, you, you have a quality assurance area or perhaps you have a PMO who has the responsibility to, to see all the practices are processes, but in this case, this area we'll see for the overall update of all the practices and processes and that the people know what they have to do in any moment. There is another two possibilities perhaps into every area. You have a responsible who has to see and to, um, to be sure that the activities of the area are, um, are done by the people.

But on the other side, there is a new way of considering this that appear in, in appears in the organizations, uh, during, last, last years, I think that it has, um, they are, um, they are first, uh, appearing since in terms of, uh, the, the applying of the agility mode of, of working in the organizations. And it, it, uh, refers to having the responsibility of all the tasks you have to do in terms of a project of, of a process or a practice in the hands of the people who do the, the, these activities. So these people, in case they have the, the opportunity to see that they need any update of the process or the practice, they, they have to raise the hand and say, okay, I can see that here.

We have an improvement to make, and I will the respon, I will be the responsible to put this improvement in, in, in, in, in a way that everyone knows what to do about this. What we need to understand in this consideration is that we need to have someone, an individual, a group, an area who is responsible to having the ownership of practices and processes, the idea to design a project where you have to, um, dedicate some time to create some practices and processes or to improve them, and then to find that no one is going to do anything in, in, in them when they need to have an, an update will be very bad in the company. And at the end, all these kind of process, uh, will, um, will not succeed.

Okay? So this point is important to consider when we, you are, um, preparing everything to have this kind of projects. Another point to consider is how about the people who must do the activities, why you need to consider this?

Because if the people is not involved, they are not going to understand what is happening, and then they are not going to do the activities by themselves because perhaps they don't agree. So here you have any, some kind of checklist to consider if you are looking at those, um, considerations to see if the people is involved in the creation or the update of the, of the practice or process. So one of the, of the question or some of the questions are, are they considered to be part of the definition?

Are they informed when the, the, the new process or practice is creative? Are there are activities correctly reflected, reflected? So they understand that if they see, uh, uh, what is written in the process or what is detailed in the practice, uh, it's okay with what they think they have to do.

Are they adequately communicated about what they have to do in terms of, okay, now we are going to, to implement or to, to, to launch this process, this practice. And you are a very important role in terms of that. So you have to understand that, uh, at 1st of May, you'll be responsible of this list of activities, okay?

Important seek that you need to consider to the, to have the people on board on the new process or practice or the improved process or practice you are designing. And a very special point that you can't forget when you have this kind of project or any kind of project is to have a sponsor. Yeah, in case you need any kind of help in case you need something to be solved.

So looking at that, we were talking about what we were talking about why we need to understand that these kind of projects are a, a need in the company, in the organization who is motivating the idea of considering this project or who is going to be responsible, what the processes or practices are designed and how the people is participate, participating, and if they are open to, uh, understand their role in all the practices and processes considering these activities that we were talking and that are key to the success of this kind of the of implementations, we have a very good starting point to see additional questions that we can have to address. The first point to add to these questions is an opportunity, an opportunity to use what it four offered to us. Here you have the, um, guiding principles.

The guiding principle has been designed. Uh, these seven guiding principle has been designed for ALT four in this way, and they are a very important tool to use when you have any project and you have any process to design or to do or for any kind of, um, situation you need to solve. The guiding principles are great to be considered, but if you join the kind principles with the four dimensions of, uh, service management, you will find a powerful tool to consider in all it processes and practices, implementations, you can consider that you can see first the four dimensions and to, to stand and say, okay, I need to consider what happened with the organization and people, the information and technology, the, the partners and um, suppliers and the value stream as processes and in every one of these dimension to put the view of the diving principles and to understand how we can combine them to be sure that we are considering everything at the moment to design a new process and a, and a practice or to design or to improve a, a process and a practice.

This could be a two-way, uh, view, because you can start looking at the four dimensions and integrate in this in every dimension, the guiding principles, and you can start looking at the guiding principles, and you can sit in every principle to apply for everyone the four dimension and to understand how they work. If you look at it four, uh, books and practices and publication, you will find a lot of information, um, about how to apply every guiding principle and what is important to consider in, in this case, and the same for the four dimensions. So if you showing all these recommendations and you put them in the, in the center of a project where you want to implement any kind of process or practice, you will, you'll have the opportunity to obtain the full view of the situation.

To continue with this, uh, this view, I would like to share with you some suggested steps to design or to implement practices and processes. Perhaps we are not going to share all the tasks involved in this in general idea, but, uh, um, I'm going to set the most important of them in this, in, in this presentation. And then you can go on to see, um, the, the proposal, uh, in over every slide, or if you want to be in contact with me and to debate about this idea, it would be great.

This, um, these activities or these steps, uh, are, uh, a sort of methodology applied to some customers with very good results. So perhaps for any company, it would be very great, uh, to use some of them, uh, and for other company, uh, it's not so easy, and as we always says, when we talk about it, we can adopt and adapt the things that we consider that are good for us. So considering the steps for designing practices and processes, we have to understand the context first, then to make any kind of assessment, to develop your idea and to communicate, because communicate is key in every step of a project.

And then there are some supportive supporting activities mentioned here to consider if you need to use them. So in terms of context, I think that the most important thing is to establish a pro, a project identity to say, this is the project. This is why we are doing this.

This is how we are connecting with the people. This is how we are identifying the, um, uh, what we need to solve if we have an issue to solve. When we are designing this practice or process here, we, um, we have to consider this powerful tool of the guiding principle and four dimensions working together.

Here. You have to see the impact of this, uh, process and practice in the rest of the organization to understand if you need to prepare the company for this change, uh, to see how the people will feel in terms of what you need to, to, to design and very clear objectives to be achieved, to understand that we are on the right path to be successful in what we need. Then in terms of assessment, it would be useful to work in something that is very important for vocabulary alignment.

When you are talking about practices and processes, you always have, has differences in vocabulary. For anyone in C that is one thing, and for other one is another thing. So, um, to have the opportunity to, to work with the people in the middle of the designing project to align the vocabulary, perhaps with some trainings, but perhaps with some workshops, it would be great.

Here is a good moment to define the ownership. To understand that we need to know who is going to be responsible for everything we are working with, and a very important point to consider the governance, the governance consideration. We have this design in the service value system in, uh, it four very, very clearly to understand what things we need to consider when we are thinking and services, products, practices, and processes.

Then at the, at the step of the development, it would be great to have a model of what we would like to have designed in this practice or this processes to identify if there is improvement, to apply to the first idea, uh, in case we have a new process to design. Perhaps you can see improvements in the far design and if there is an improvement of an existing process, it's the same. And then try to identify a new vision of this practice or the, or this process to understand the, to be and be prepared to work with this.

Then the very important communication step, the communication step refers to share the version with all stakeholders, with all the, uh, people involved in the, in all the activities. Be sure that they have received the, the, the proposal and iterate with them to understand that every everyone is happy with the, the final result. Perhaps you decide, do you decide to put in the process or the practice something that, um, an individual, uh, uh, is not, um, comfortable on the decision with the decision.

But, uh, if you have the opportunity to talk with this person to explain why you are doing this, it would be a good way to manage the situation. And then to complete the designing view or the suggested step for the designing view, you have the supporting activities and the supporting activities applied to the rest of the, uh, of the steps. Uh, so if you need help to obtain any kind of information and to be sure that all are in the same page, you can talk with the sponsor a ask him to, to help in any matter.

If you need to do additional activities of awareness of training, um, to work with the people, it would be great to consider them. And if, and if the impact of the change is very, very hard, um, I think that you need to work harder in communication. So perhaps a, a communication plan or something to give visibility to the definitions.

It would be great to complete what we, um, prepared to, to share today. You will have the suggested steps when implemented. Here are four steps, four simple steps.

If you use a methodology to implement, you will find that these steps will be integrated in this methodology, but here are specific tips to consider when you are working in this kind of projects. So if you are preparing for it for the implementation, surely you need the process or practice validated with stakeholders, and perhaps you will find people that are not agree. But we talk about how to manage them to have a communication plan and to follow it, to understand where will be the moment that we are going to launch the practice of the process to prepare some metrics to consider if we are okay with the idea that we are trying to obtain since the beginning of the design.

When we define the why and define the, the, the, the how and with who, and we set the clear objectives, well, here is the moment to be sure that we will find a way to have a metric to understand if we are doing the things right and if we, uh, have obtained the effectiveness that we are, look, we, we were looking for when we, when, when we think, uh, about this idea, when the, when we talk about communication next steps, it's about considering that we have a, a, um, communication plan design, and perhaps you need to put the information about the new process or practice who is going to be available to begin their life in any place, perhaps in the walls of the office. If, if the people go to the office, perhaps in, in a portal in, in, in SharePoint or, or some, um, knowledge database where everyone goes to see everyday activities and all the places that you consider that this communication can be, it could be okay. So you need to understand that more.

The more you communicate, the more the people will be aware of what is going to happen when this practice or process begin their daily activities. This is a good moment to consider to put a, a continuous improvement register where you can add, uh, proposals or you can add, um, ideas of, uh, making something better. And you are not prepared to do it now, but if you have 10 or, or, or, or a, a certain number of, uh, of initiative to improve, perhaps you could, you can put them all together.

And then the last two steps to go live with the process or the practice to launch the process or the practice in the way that you have defined. And very important step to do the implementation activities where you need to be sure that if there is any adjustment to do, you will be able to do. Now, in this mo in this, uh, moment of the organizations, it's very, uh, it's very, uh, uh, very real to see, very common to see that, uh, you launch perhaps a process with the general idea of what you need.

And during the life of the process or the practice, you begin to put adjustments and improvements and additional controls, uh, because you leave the process or the practice and in the middle you decide to put any kind of change. But in the post-implementation activities, one thing important to do is to verify, to analyze the adoption of the new way of working. If you find any kind of, um, group that are not, um, doing what they have to do, uh, because they are not agree or because they are, um, expressing, um, that they are not, uh, comfortable with the activities.

So in these cases, we need to work with these groups. If we don't, uh, don't have the opportunity to identify them in earlier steps of this way of implementing. So this is a general proposal to to consider some steps, uh, and to use them if they are valuable for you.

Um, if you can use what some of them in your implementations of practices or processes, uh, you will have the opportunity to have better results to obtain the desired efficiency you are needing in your organization, in your way of working every day. So to close this, um, presentation, I think that putting all together, you have to have in mind that if you need to implement any kind of process or a practice or, or, uh, perhaps you need to improve one of the, the one that are available in the, in the organization, then it would be a very good practice to answer these questions at the beginning to study the frameworks that can combine with I til four, for example, uh, the Agile way of working or lean management, uh, to eliminate the activities that are not productive. And then to use the guiding principles connected with the four dimensions to obtain better results, work with the activities of design work, work with the activities of implementation, and then to consider to apply an exercise of continual improvement to be sure that the processes and practices have the level of efficiency we are looking for.

So that's all for today. I hope that this, um, this concept were valuable for you. I am, um, very happy to be part of this event.

Uh, and I think that everything that everyone of the, of, of the professionals that have the opportunity to make a dog in this great event, uh, has very important experiences to, to share and hope that all this information, uh, was great for everybody. Thank you very much.