PR Radio 50 - The Ins and Outs Of Process Assessments

Thoughtful and Careful Reflection Is Key To Purposeful and Effective Improvement In the world of military strategy it is always a good thing to do reconnaissance and gather intel before storming the beach or charging the the hill. Of course, process improvement is never quite so dramatic. However those of you who have lived the life in the CSI Warrior in the process engineering trenches can probably attest to the fact that knowing the lay of the land and avoiding political mines and hidden tiger traps is always a good thing. A little foreknowledge can go a long way when identifying solid ground for project scope identification, or the existence of an existing centre of excellence you can leverage and reuse in other places of the organization. From this perspective I believe that most listeners would agree no one likes to thrash about blindly and that having a current state map of the existing practices landscape will help greatly in navigating to a chosen end state destination. With this premise in mind Chris and I are delighted to have Robin Hysick as a guest on today's Practitioner Radio show to talk to us about the right and wrong ways to go about conducting a process assessment.

Show Notes:

  • Robin Hysick — Director of Product Management & Pink's ITSM Process Assessment Practice Lead
  • Assessments do double duty. (Where are we today & Critical for building buy in
  • Capturing People's voice is critical for management of change
  • People don't care what you know until they know that you care
  • Why should I bother having you tell me what I already know?
  • Organizations usually have more in place today then they may realize
  • Standardization is a key goal for assessments. Reduce Variability
  • Four Reasons For Process Assessments
    1. Planning (What do we have and what's next?)
    2. Validation (Getting beyond Relativity & Subject Opinion)
    3. Deployment Insurance (You get what you inspect)
    4. Proof of Benefit Realization (What have you done for me lately?)
    5. PR Radio 49 Effective IT Governance (Evaluate, Direct, Monitor)
    6. CSI is not about slapping wrists it about making sure it continues to be relevant
    7. Assessments are your best friends — Pooched without them
    8. All Quality Systems start with (Assess, Observe, Look, Define)
    9. Quantified Man — Chris Dancy
    10. Perspective As A Service — Assess your life
    11. Capability vs Maturity Assessment
    12. You Don't Want Analysis Paralysis
    13. Different Assessment Approaches:
      1. Surveys (Good for Raw Data)
      2. Interviews
      3. Workshops
      4. Attend Meetings
      5. Etc..
    14. Interview Approaches:
      1. Leading Questions (Don't teach while assessing)
      2. Open and Closed questions
      3. Avoiding leading questions
    15. Unbiased Assessments — People need to be in a comfort zone when talking
    16. Watch your Body Language!
    17. Be careful about having a watchdog in all the interviews
    18. Assessment vs Audit

Resources:

Why Bother With ITSM Process Assessments?

Practitioner Radio 48 - ITSM Roadmap Planning
 

Robin's Thunder Bolt Tip Of The Day: Treat the Assessment for what it should be — an opportunity. Not a task in a project plan but something that will take you a lot further. In understanding where, how and over time. An opportunity to improve the people side of “Buy In” for your project goals.
In the words of my good friend and fellow Pinker, Gary Case “You Can Expect What You Inspect” To subscribe to Pink's Podcasts on iTunes