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 
I am a strong believer in the power of communities (both personal and professional) to help us think through the difficulties we face, and solve our problems. Here are some examples from my own experiences...
Kanban boards are traditionally used in IT development teams, but they can be just as useful for IT operations. You should consider using them to help you manage flow, limit work in progress, and prioritise your work.
If you’re familiar with DevOps, you will probably have heard people talking about “the three ways”. The ideas described in the three ways can be adopted by everyone, not just those who follow DevOps.
If you’ve built IT services that are rigid and should never fail, then maybe it’s time to think about failing a bit more often!
I have spoken to lots of people about the issues we have with IT heroes, who save the day at the last possible moment, leaving a trail of devastation for others to clear up. This blog discusses what a true, modern IT hero would look like?
It’s not possible to make good decisions about the security controls you need on a purely technical basis. but there are some controls that nearly all of us need, and one of the most important of these is encryption...
I attended the inaugural meeting of the Global Forum to Advance Cyber Resilience last week. It was interesting to see that people from public and private sectors, and people from large and small organizations, all face the same cyber resilience challenges - and all need to collaborate...
I learned about the importance of good communication a long time before I became an ITSM consultant, but the lessons have stayed with me ever since...
Here are a few simple things you should do if you want to keep your home computer, and your personal information, safe.
If you think that applications are IT services, then it is likely that your customers won’t see the value that IT brings to the business. If on the other hand you think of IT services in terms of the business processes that you are supporting, you will find it much easier to focus on creating value for your customers...
How to create simple definitions of risk appetite levels, and then assign these to each of your organization’s projects, services, business units or any other clearly identifiable part of your work.
Mentoring is a great way to develop both professionally and personally, and the mentor can gain as much from the relationship as the mentee. This blog gives an overview of how you can get started as a mentor, or as a mentee.
Have you tried mapping out your customers’ journeys? If not, then it’s an exercise well worth doing.