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What is a Process?The term "process" is surprisingly difficult to define, as the meaning of the term varies from context to context. In the chemical industry the process is often an uninterrupted series of tasks. In information technology, process is more understood as a predefined and repeatable chain of tasks. Also, a program running on a computer might be a process, too, but that is a different matter.The quality scientists can fight forever arguing where the boundary line is between a process and a procedure. The older versions of the ITIL framework called many things processes while they really are not processes. Confused? Everything is not subject to be declared a process. An example of this is the specialist work. Basically, a specialist
is a person who knows what to do next, without a guidance by a framework. But what is included in the process?
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What Do You Think ITIL Is?Is it an absolute truth, is it nonsense of the process people, is it a viable concept, is it a jail, or is it a beast?There is a lot of buzz and misconceptions about ITIL. Fundamental mistakes have also been made in the history of ITIL, such as calling things that are not processes as processes. Some companies have decided to organize themselves as "ITIL-compliant" and some sell "ITIL-compliant" products. However, there is no such thing as "ITIL compliance". In the latest version 4 of ITIL, many things have changed for the better, having descended to the level of reality. It is a good cookbook for how to start building the IT service delivery. But it is not the whole truth.
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Do the Quality and Number of Tickets Correlate?We have seen customers approaching their service providers and demanding them to reduce the number of incident tickets by two-digit percentage points each year. This is, as they say, about raising the service quality.Anyone who has ever managed IT service production understands the insanity of such an order. The number of tickets and changes in them are good indicators of many things. But does a drop in the number of tickets imply that the quality has improved. Well. Most probably the answer is simple: No.
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Incident, Problem, Change, Service Request?When studying ITIL terminology, confusion often arises about what is an Incident, what is a Problem, what is a Change and what is a Service Request. Naturally, because the meaning of all terms is not fully self-evident.The fifth related term is an Event. Each term has its own place in the ecosystem, and the places become familiar as the experience accumulates.
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MIM - Major Incident ManagementMIM - Major Incident Management is an extension to the standard Incident Management. It is initiated when something really severe has happened.It is more about the organization's crisis communication and mode of operation in exceptional situations than information technology. The idea of the procedure is to protect the expert staff from external pressure. Thus, they can concentrate on resolving the incident. Also, its purpose is to enable quick decisions. A well-implemented MIM avoids oxymorons like: Report every 30 minutes, why the work is not progressing.
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Seven Rs of the ChangeA substantial number of incidents are side effects of some change. There is a strong indication about this: The best quality metrics are usually recorded when the IT specialists have their holidays.On the other hand, the world stops quickly without changes. A balance between realities is sought by the ITIL Change Management practice. Various organizations implement it with varying priority and success. An exaggerated Change Management can freeze even the most agile organization and it encourages people to seek shortcuts to bypass the controls. ITIL helps to structure the practice by introducing the "7Rs" checklist.
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