Patch Management vs Business First

Side Effects

Easy scapegoats...

Always try to blame :

- the same people
- those who cannot defend themselves
- those whose job is impossible to understand
- those who seem to be at the center of everything (but nowhere in particullar)

That is: the Network!

Can you feel the Force?

I told you: All I need to know in life...I learnt it in Star Wars... :D

The Force will be with you... Always...

All I need to know in life...I learnt it in Star Wars... :D





And remember: always let the wookie win!

Unspeakable Language

Life is too short to lean COBOL




This week is a tribute to "the unspeakable vault of doom"... Probably the best comic blog ever (in our Euclydian dimension)...

Problem Sovling: ITIL RuleZ

Secrets of the Kung-Fu Master

And don't forget to shave your head...

Heroes we deserve...

THE answer

Allmighty Eye

It seems that IT failures explain a lot of things...

The worst is yet to come?

We hare "Disaster Recovery Plans", but what about "Apocalypse Recovery Plans"???

Project Management: little secrets...

Well... "2010" seems to be on schedule: signed and delivered on the 1st of January, and running for 365days...

Best wishes for an "IT New Year"

Happy New Year... ?

...

Desperate Solutions...

Heroes...

Changes Management

Well, well... It seems we're back for good, after many, many months of waiting...

I'll try to push a "change" to the CAB each week... Seems to be a more reasonable target than a daily process... :D

Welf

Frozen Zone Sneakers

A « Frozen Zone » is a well known concept of the IT Production : at some critical calendar dates, all changes will be frozen (ie : blocked, not iced) to allow a « smooth » run of some vital jobs. Typical frozen zones include the last and first days of the month, quarter and year (to allow accountancy matching, invoicing or inventory check-up for example). Some frozen zone can be declared in summer, while all the technical experts are away on vacation, or when a critical production run is performed for an usual order in a factory…

The “Frozen Zone” comes with two paradigms:

First, it’s a further proof that one of the foremost (the main?) causes of incidents are changes (many of those being corrections to previous changes).

Second, no matter what you do, you can’t change human nature (even with process consultants): some people will always try to sneak around the Frozen Zone, by obtaining derogations for THEIR changes.

Those people tend to be (according to their own opinion of course), “the only ones who’ve got a real job”…

That’s why, even in Frozen Zone, critical incidents occur, by the fault of changes…

Premium IT Service

Customer relationship is not always easy... But after all, we must keep in mind that we’re running computers, not space shuttles nor jetfighters (even if the cost is the same). It is very unusual for a IT Production to have lives at stake (well maybe those who work for hospitals). Most of us work in offices, endangered only by back pain and dry air conditioner. So, when tone is rising in meetings, when clients and techies are angered, when people insult and threaten each other, keep cool and relax: it’s just about machines, we’re not killing or saving people!

And remember: always try to deliver the best service for your clients, within the scope of your SLA!

the return of the CAB - real life experiment

People can’t help it : their changes are always either “urgent”, “most urgent”, “critical break fix” or “an emergency”. No matter how well (and how lean) you design and run your change process, there will always be a lot of “bypass” (or attempts at least). Perhaps the true solution lies elsewhere, far from our ITIL reflections. Perhaps people just have to understand and above all accept that they are not alone on earth nor the centre of thereof. There are other people around us, with equally important claims for urgent changes and swift incidents resolution.

Perhaps ITIL is about people, after all… Not about computers…

Improve the service! (or at least, think about it!)

Summer : time for holidays, traffic jams, desert open-spaces, and (for those happy enough to remain at work), budgets elaboration…

As usual, vital projects are “arbitrated” (cut in half) while costly consulting missions are commissioned to produce emergency advices on how to improve the services… However, their recommendations will (probably) imply vital projects. Projects that will have to wait at least a year to begin (meaning that most of the recommendations will be obsolete). Projects that will be cut in half, just to be sure we still have enough money to pay for both the new consultants and the old – now meaningless- projects, dragging desperately behind the schedule…

Sounds familiar?