Monday, November 23, 2009
Education and Training Issues
Training organizations, regardless of what topic they cover, seem to face the same issue; the students are not prepared despite the numerous times the training organization instructs them to do so.
The message exists on the website, the course description, the syllabus, the confirmation email, the preparation package, the reminder email, or phone call.
You are an instructor, you welcome the delegates, and when you start talking about the preparation work, they all look surprised and tell you they did not know anything about it.
Surprise… Surprise…
This is, to me as an instructor, the most frustrating thing. It means i have to cater to the lowest common denominator which is to cover the basics instead of the advance topic I am supposed to cover.
questions like ”...but what does the book say about how to do it?...” The book usually does not in the world of best practices, as the literature Oh, sorry, and since there is an exam at the end, exam anxiety sets in, the frustration level mounts, the customer satisfaction levels plummets and when someone fails, the instructor, the exam, the syllabus, the books, and the examination bodies are wrong.
One of the biggest issues here is the culture we live in. Everything has to be fast, everything has to be now, and people don’t want to put in the effort. I am not saying people are lazy; they just don’t have the time. People commute long hours stuck in their cars or taking public transportation and they “work” long hours. However, too often people work on meaningless tasks, make work projects, surf the internet for personal reasons on company time using company equipment, or socialize too much.
There is also the fact there are too many meetings. The problem with meetings is that there is no action items assigned with a deadline. There is too much talk and too little actual work done. How can you expect people to do any work when all they do is attend meetings?
Additionally, the executives of many organizations think that implementing any best practice is like installing a video game on a PC from a CD. We all know this is not the case. Add to this that organizations (mostly overpaid executives in search of the biggest paycheck for themselves) want to cut costs “at all costs” and we have the out of control situation. People think they have to be connected all the time; they check their cell phones all the time. You speak with someone, his or her phone rings and answer the phone. This is rude. People do this in meetings, private conversations and of course in education and training situations.
As instructors, we always hear that people can attend a course but they still have to be available and they have to do their job on top of that. This is non-sense.
Business etiquette is not what it used to be. We fell into the vicious circle of deploying something we know little (or nothing about), overworked staff, too little staff, and the mentality of “I wanted it yesterday.”
Therefore, it is no wonder that people come to class unprepared for the executives do not believe in “long term” education. People believe that attending a three-day foundation course will give them all they need to know.
It is like everything in life; if you don’t put in the effort (what I refer to as the sweat equity) you won’t get any results. Let’s face it; what we are experiencing is a reflection of the society we live in; fast food, junk food, complacency, too much technology and greed. The education system is suffering just as we do. Kids download essays from the internet, don’t study and parents are against homework. I am a parent and I had to fight many parents who complained that 30 minutes of homework a nigh stressed out their kids.
How does this reflect on our industry? I call it the “I want you (the instructor) to teach me everything you know about a topic both theory and practical aspects in as little time as possible.”
So how do we address this? We start at the top. We do a massive communication campaign in as many outlets as possible such as blogs, magazines, conferences, presentations to executives, etc.
Companies have to invest in people. We need to get people to understand the difference between education and training. Education is acquisition of knowledge and facts; training is the practical application of that knowledge. Being in the classroom to learn the signs and rules of the road is education. Being in a vehicle and actually driving is training.
My message to every organization is clear and simple. Slow down. Get some fresh air. Invest in your people through education and training. Stop cutting the education budget. You (the organization) will retain your employees longer; they will be more productive and have a greater job satisfaction level.
I am serious. How can someone become an expert in any field just by attending one week-long course? They can’t. Give them the resources, money to pay for the course, the books, and the time to prepare and attend the course. By the way, when they attend the course, they are not available.
I know what many are thinking right now. I am out of touch and I am not realistic. If we continue the way we do things today, best practice consulting will be around for a long time and companies will pay exorbitant amounts of money and time trying to sort this all out.
FINAL NOTE: In regards to the overpaid executives, this has always existed. A long time ago, their titles were chieftains, dukes, barons, lords, emperors, kings, etc. This happened in all societies on every continent. Read your history books.
Monday, November 16, 2009
What is the Service Offering and Agreement course (SOA) all about?
This certification is about the “transition” (no pun intended) between the Strategy phase and the Design phase.
Service Portfolio Management provides documentation for services and prospective services in business terms
- The portfolio helps IT understanding what IT “sells” to its customer, what is coming down the pipeline, and explaining it in business terms
Service Catalog Management is about the production and documentation of the Service Catalog from a business and a technical viewpoint.
- There are two major components to the service catalog. The customer and IT both see and use the Business Service Catalog” section
- IT is the only one using the “Technical Service Catalog” section.
- The two sections are connected together.
Analogy:
The restaurant menu is the Business Service Catalog
The recipe book, the ordering system, the cash register, how to use the appliances is the “Technical Service Catalog”. The restaurant patrons don’t need to see this.
Financial Management is about ensuring the understanding of the service value and the management of all financial considerations
This process is about understanding how much it is costing us (IT) to deliver the services. One item delegates have a hard time differentiating is cost vs. price. From the IT perspective, we think of our “costs”. Then we decide what “price” we want to charge back to our customers. The difficulty arises when the customer asks, “How much does it costs?”
Pierre’s rant: IT must stop talking to the customer using “techno-babble” such as bits, bytes, gigabytes, and MIPS. IT must use the language of the business, MONEY!
Ex: Implementing this system will cost $50K but will save you $250K over three years.
Service Level Management sets up a Service Level Agreement (SLA) structure and ensures that all SLAs have an underpinning support structure in place
- The strategy phase has already decided what the services will be and described in the portfolio. It is up to the Design phase to fill in the blanks in the Catalog and determine what levels of service we can provide given the limitations (constraints) we have in IT, based on our capabilities and resources available.
- The other major constraint relates to the existing contracts we already have with our suppliers. Renegotiating is expensive and may not be worth it presently.
Demand Management identifies Patterns of Business Activity to enable the appropriate strategy to be implemented
- It is about understanding how much we anticipate the service to be used (demand).
Questions to ask:
- What are our busy periods (daily, weekly, monthly)?
- What are the reporting periods?
- How many users use this service?
- How often do they use it?
- How many transactions can we process?
- How big is one transaction on average?
- What is the maximum size of a transaction?
- Who uses the service?
- How knowledgeable are they?
- Which service is more important at any given time? (Not all services are always critical all the time)
Etc.
Supplier Management ensures all partners and suppliers are managed in the appropriate way and includes contract management
- A major constraint relates to the existing contracts we already have with our suppliers. Renegotiating is expensive and may not be worth it presently.
- IT needs to manage the relationship with its suppliers properly.
- It is easy to blame the supplier especially when the contract not not support the business needs. However, the supplier only delivers what is in the contract, next time, negotiate the contract after you know what the true business requirements are.
Finally, it is about managing customer’s expectations about what they can expect to receive and it is about educating IT as to what the agreements are. This is called COMMUNICATION.
Business Relationship Managers have the responsibility to represent customers and ensure the Service Catalogue and the Portfolio both have the right needs
In order to ensure good communication, IT staff involved with SOA must understand the operational activities of processes covered in other Lifecycle phases such as Incident and Change Management