The ABCs of ITIL: Accountability

March 10, 2015 Michael Scarborough Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Service management, as defined by ITIL® (formerly the Information Technology Infrastructure Library), is a complex topic that takes individuals years to master. While individuals may have difficulty mastering all aspects of the ITIL framework, organizations often have significant difficulty understanding how the ITIL best practices fit into their environment. ITIL consists of five core books, with each book focusing on a specific stage of the lifecycle approach to service management.

Governance That Makes Sense

January 21, 2014 Michael Scarborough Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Governance is the aspect of an organization that defines, communicates, and enforces its equivalent of “laws”: policies. Policies are the boundaries that an organization defines to guide how it behaves, operates, and conducts business.

Creating Efficiency with IT Tools Governance

January 14, 2014 Michael Scarborough Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

IT organizations often purchase numerous tools and tool packages. It’s not uncommon to see an organization have multiple tools for monitoring, multiple tools for reporting, and multiple other tools to perform various common activities in an IT organization.

What’s the Most Challenging Aspect of Adopting ITIL Best Practices?

January 8, 2014 Michael Scarborough Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

I’ve seen numerous organizations adopt all aspects of the ITIL best practices. In all cases that I’ve witnessed, organizations from various industries experience shortcomings in the same area.

CSFs and KPIs: How Many Does Your Organization Manage?

December 19, 2013 Michael Scarborough Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

A critical success factor (CSF) is something that must happen if a process, activity, service, etc., is to succeed. A key performance indicator (KPI) is a way to measure achievement of a CSF.