Both Robert and I have recently talked about Risk, which is one of the key factors we use to categorise Changes into Minor, Significant or Major types. The other factor that plays into this categorisation is Impact. How we categorise Changes is important, because it affects how they can be authorised for Release, as well […]

For the final Kepner-Tregoe thinking process we return to risk analysis – despite Matt having covered this recently from a change management perspective, I make no apology for the repetition! Many service management disciplines encounter risk as, in the real world, perfect knowledge is not possible – much of what we do will involve a degree of […]

ucisa (That lower case U is not a typo!) is an organisation which the University of Edinburgh has been a member of for a number of years, but it’s one that you might not know much about. ucisa is the member-led professional body for digital practitioners within education and encourages FE and HE organisations to […]

  Decision Analysis is our next Kepner-Tregoe thinking process.  The steps provided will be very familiar to anyone who has undertaken a procurement, theft or recruitment exercise, yet they can be scaled down to decision making at an operational level.  A key aim of this process is to balance benefits and risks. 1. State Decision […]

Change Management is an interesting proposition, when it comes to risk. At first pass Change Management sounds like the kind of discipline where it would be important to minimise risk. In practice, Change Management is better described as balancing risk. Changes are inherently risky. Any time we upset a known quantity, we’re introducing risk. It’s […]

Two weeks – two conferences and a blog post on two recurring themes: ITIL® 4 and Self-Service Portals. Last week was an itSMF meeting at Glasgow University. This week the UniDesk 2019 Conference up at University of Highlands and Islands at their main Inverness campus. Conferences provide a great opportunity to network and find out […]

Over the last 12 years, we’ve had 516 University of Edinburgh staff complete ITIL Foundation training and at the end of May, we ran our first ITIL4 Foundation, adding another 14 names to the list. I was one of the attendees on this course, sitting an ITIL Foundation for the third time (I can tell […]

A situation when in the opinion of the master, the vessel, vehicle, aircraft or person is in grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance. International conventions (SOLAS, COLREG) clearly establish when a distress signal (such as a “Mayday” call) may be made.  These same conventions bind those that receive a distress signal to respond in a particular way. Our […]

There’s a subreddit called “ATBGE” which stands for “Awful Taste… But Great Execution!” What lurks within is a lasting testament to the possibility of perfectly implementing a thing of no value. Or worse. Worse such as when a design, despite flawless execution, actively goes against the purpose of the thing to which it’s being applied. […]

Problem Analysis is probably the most well known of the Kepner-Tregoe thinking processes, and the one referenced in the ITIL textbooks.  Almost certainly your current job description includes a “problem solving” section, yet I suspect that problem solving rarely proceeds via a systematic process and instead is often intuitive and sporadic.  How many times has […]