Blog

Stuart Rance writes many blogs and white papers that are published on a variety of sites, you can find a regularly updated list of all of these in Stuart Rance blogs

Blogs that appear below are published on the Optimal Service Management web site.

All blogs published on this site are licenced under CC BY-SA 4.0

How to manage major incidents and security breaches

Major incidents and security breaches are different. Learning from experience can turn out to be hugely expensive, or even result in the organization concerned going out of business. So how can you make sure that you handle these incidents correctly first time?

How to get the best value from an ITSM consultant

I deliver much better value to some of the organizations that I work with than to others, and I’ve been thinking about why. Here are four tips that will help you to get the best possible value next time you engage a consultant.

2018 06 08 Which ITSM framework is right for your business IMAGE

Which framework is right for your business?

At the Service Desk and IT support show, there was a panel discussion titled "Which framework is right for your business". I was pleasantly surprised by the sensible conclusions reached...

Putting the Ops in DevOps

I often hear people who work in IT operations complain that DevOps is just about development. If we want DevOps to work for everyone then we shouldn’t wait to be invited to join in and complain when we aren’t. We should actively adopt ideas from DevOps into how we run IT operations and seek out our development colleagues to foster collaboration.

How well does your service desk communicate?

I delivered a presentation on Metrics and measurement at the Service Desk Institute conference in the UK. To my surprise, the most lively discussion topics were more about how well the service desk communicates with end users, than about metrics.

Incident Management Isn’t Just For IT

If you define an incident as "... interruption to an IT service..." then you're not really focussing on customers. One of my clients has a much more business-focussed definition, and this drives completely different behaviours...

Managing IT is just like running a barbershop

Delivering services isn’t something that is unique to IT. We know good service when we receive it, and so do our customers. If you focus on service levels and processes your customers will never see you as more than an internal cost centre; if you focus on outcomes and customer experience instead then you can become a valued partner.

You Need a Vision

Many IT organizations think that defining a vision is too abstract, they don’t see the point, and they just want to get on with it. So they jump straight into the important work. The results are as predictable as they are sad. IT staff work very hard, but fail to arrive anywhere helpful, with results that are not nearly as good as they could have been.

We all get it wrong sometimes

Do you think about the outcomes you're trying to achieve with all of your processes? Or do you just try to make the processes work better? Many IT organizations continue to run the same ITSM practices long after they have become outdated, but there is a better way to work...

Goldilocks does security

If you are responsible for security try to be like Goldilocks. Not too much security, not too little, but just right.

Stuart Rance writes many blogs and white papers that are published on a variety of sites, you can find a regularly updated list of all of these in Stuart Rance blogs

8

How to manage major incidents and security breaches

23

How to get the best value from an ITSM consultant

11

Which framework is right for your business?

15

Putting the Ops in DevOps

19

How well does your service desk communicate?

15

Incident Management Isn’t Just For IT

18

Managing IT is just like running a barbershop

20

You Need a Vision

12

We all get it wrong sometimes

14

Goldilocks does security

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