The ‘G’ Word and Service Management
20 Nov 2020In this article, I’d like to highlight the importance of governance in Service Delivery. No! Wait! Come back! I said the ‘G’ word, didn’t I? That horribly serious, sensible, boring concept that makes most of us switch off in an instant because it’s someone else’s job. But stay with me, because I want to discuss why you should spend more time on this beautiful thing – even though there’s so much good tech out there.
In this age of digitization and ‘The Fourth Industrial Revolution’, it’s very easy to overlook the role of governance in Service Delivery. The promises of the tech industry to solve your business woes ‘out-of-the-box’ are easy on the ear and – if we are to believe the sales pitch – easy on the wallet too. Tech is often perceived as a ‘quick fix’ and let’s face it, it’s far sexier than governance. At many a party I’ve eschewed the real subject expertise of my career in favour of something more, well, palatable to the masses. ‘Service Governance’ is a sure-fire way to keep the crowds at bay during any social gathering…
But as the convergence of business and IT management increases, and development iterations grow shorter, governance becomes absolutely critical to the success of any business endeavour. What are we trying to achieve? How do we ensure we expend our resources ‘appropriately’ to reach that goal? That word ‘appropriately’ covers a multitude of sins, including the management of risk, compliance (legislative, regulatory or corporate), and management of intellectual capital. Herein lies the key roles of governance.
The governing body of any organisation (such as the Board of Directors or Executive Management) are accountable at the highest level for the performance and compliance of that organisation, defining the common direction, policies and rules that are used to conduct business. At all levels, governance must exist to regularly evaluate, direct and monitor the organisation – and that includes delivery of services.
So let’s have an analogy to keep the importance-of-governance ball rolling. Think of the worst driver you know… Got it? Right, what makes them a bad driver? I’m sure everyone is coming up with different views and observations, but essentially it’s their ability to control and drive the car safely, probably leaving a trail of destruction behind them and risking the lives of themselves and others.
Now, let’s give that same person a flashy new car… maybe a BMW? Or a Ferrari? Maybe a nice four-wheel drive? Suddenly, miraculously, they’re now a much better driver, right? Hmmm, I thought not. Well, that is exactly what you’re doing when you throw money at tech to solve a business problem, rather than understanding the goals, outcomes and activities of the business processes and, of course, having the right people to fulfil them.
You see, the ability to drive well is not a characteristic of the car (sure, some handle better than others, but even Jeremy Clarkson suggests that there aren’t any donkeys these days). It actually has to do with the driver – their temperament, their judgement, their observation, their skills at handling the car and ultimately their knowledge and ability to follow the current ‘rules of the road’ appropriately. Yes, there are some great aids to driving these days – parking sensors and cameras, lane-changing aids and braking assistance, but these are simply to assist human judgement – they don’t innately understand the road rules, and if you rely solely on them, you’ll be coming a cropper fairly soon (I can assure you that Lewis Hamilton isn’t relying exclusively on his driving aids).
And so it is with Service Delivery. The tools we are buying (think ‘the car’), are only a means to automate the business processes we put in place (the ‘rules of the road’). A whizz-bang tool isn’t going to help your lousy process – in fact, if anything, it will accentuate the deficiencies in your process. And without the appropriate number of skilled people, with the right temperament, who understand the goals of the organisation, and who are correctly ‘trained’ in the business rules and the operation of the tools… well, you’re on the fast track to no-where.
‘Oh processes!’ you hiss, rolling your eyes and thinking of your over-bureaucratic Change Enablement process. It takes forever to approve your minor change, and by the time it’s reached production, the opportunity it was trying to create has gone. Like anything in life, there’s good examples and bad examples of everything. With good processes, everyone’s life easier.
With Change Enablement for example, low risk, predictable, repeatable changes should fly off the production line with minimal interference from CAB. If these changes are going through an oh-so-slow bureaucratic assessment, then no wonder you’re frustrated. So long as the process is agreed and established, and the change meets the criteria above, the approval of the changes should be 99% automated; select, click, approve, click, done – fantastic.
Did you see what I did there? I suggested the tool was fabulous! You see, the new generation tools are indeed magnificent (actually any tool is usually better than an error-prone manual affair). The current generation of tools are far beyond what I envisaged when I started my career in Service Management. But also note that I indicated that they are only fabulous once you’ve established a good process; believe me you don’t want a two-click, unassessed approval of your high-risk changes!
And so it is with all of your Service Management practices. The process (and all that goes with it) must precede the tool. And of course, people must be trained in how to use both the process and the tool. Otherwise you’re trying to win a race by giving flashy cars to all the bad drivers we know, and I think we all know how that will end up.
I hope this article has made you think about how good governance improves everyone’s life and, more importantly drives the appropriate behaviours and outcomes that help meet organisational goals. If your service management governance is causing you problems, either stifling outcomes or not affording enough control, perhaps it’s time to revisit your practices and processes to ensure they deliver the flexibility you require to control and manage risk, whilst delivering the outcomes required by the business.
