Eighth in a Ten Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the eighth in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to ITSM nirvana.

Lesson #8: Resist Customization. Everyone thinks that their organization is unique, has a unique use case, and has a valid reason why a tool should be customized to fit their use case. While I am not denying that there are some valid reasons for customization, implementing an…

Seventh in a Ten Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the seventh in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to ITSM nirvana.

Lesson #7: Review ALL existing ITSM systems, organization charts, and IT contracts when developing the strategy for your new ITSM platform. If you’re going to deploy a new, single, unified ITSM platform to replace all others in the organization, you’ll need to gain read-only administrator access to…

Sixth in a Ten Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the sixth in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to ITSM nirvana.

Lesson #6: Have Diligence Relative to Category, Sub-Category, and Item. As I mentioned in Lesson #2, don’t take shortcuts or be short-sighted in the proper definition of your meta-data. I realize that it may be impossible to know all the permutations that will ultimately exist for Category…

Second in a Fifteen Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations. Below is the second in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.

Lesson 2: Understand Common Reasons for Moving to Agile

I believe there are three (3) common reasons for moving to an agile delivery methodology. These reasons have nothing to do with IT specifically, but rather align themselves more generally with the common goals of product delivery…

Institutional Racism and the War on Drugs

By Chad Greenslade

The facts are coming out in the Breonna Taylor case. The warrant was intended for the ex-boyfriend, whom investigators knew did not live there.

Her ex-boyfriend was already in custody across town when the warrant was served. A judge signed off because cops said they believed her ex-boyfriend was keeping drugs and other evidence at her apartment. They were wrong. Nothing illegal was found. Her current boyfriend, who opened fire, was legally standing his ground.

When, when God, are we going to stop prosecuting (persecuting) and imprisoning people for swallowing…

Fifth in a Ten Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the fifth in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to ITSM nirvana.

Lesson #5: Have Service & Configuration Item (CI) Owners. The concept here is simple; there is a single person listed in the ITSM platform that is responsible for the availability and working operation of the service and the configuration item. When a new service record is logged…

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in delivering Agile transformations. Below is the first in a fifteen part series examining my lessons learned while instituting Agile concepts & practices. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to Agile nirvana.

Lesson 1: Identify the Agile Sponsor & Champion

Before you start your Agile journey, you must identify a Sponsor or a “champion” from the ranks of the executive team. The Sponsor will be similar to the captain of a ship. You will work with this person to define the destination and ensure…

Fourth in a Ten Part Series

By Chad Greenslade

I have often been asked about my lessons learned in implementing an IT Service Management (ITSM) tool. Below is the fourth in a ten part series examining my ITSM lessons learned. I hope that these lessons help you on your journey to ITSM nirvana.

Lesson #4: Log Incidents, Service Requests, Problems, Change, and Releases against Services AND Configuration Items. As I’ve mentioned in the previous lessons, when a new service record comes into the Service Desk, you’ll want to ensure that accurate meta-data relative to the Service and Configuration Items impacted…