The Forum - 05/08/2008  (Plain Text Version)

Return to Graphical Version

 

In this issue:
Lead
•  President’s Corner – An Industry, A Profession and a Responsibility
Featured Columns
•  From the Editor’s Desk….
•  For Our Members
•  Focus on Three
•  Organizational Gatekeeping: itSMF USA Governance
•  Interest Group (IG) Services Update
•  San Francisco, Here We Come!
ITIL®/ITSM Related Articles
•  Service Strategy – The Intended Outcome
•  How to Justify Getting Started with ITIL® by Thinking Outside of the IT Box
•  Thinking Strategically about Services
•  IT Service Management: Where do we begin?
•  An old friend called Project Management: Bringing Project Management into ITIL® v3
•  ITIL® Strategy Needs to be Strategically Planned
•  Do’s and Don’ts - Business Service Management
•  Six Sigma and IT Service Management: Don’t recreate the wheel…just spin it a little faster and better!
LIG News
•  Practitioner Discussions Bring Wisconsin LIG Interests Into Focus
•  Speakers Needed for Ohio Valley LIG Professional Day on June 5
•  Growing Strong: National Capital LIG and ITIL®
•  itSMF New England LIG and Harvard University Host "Improving Process in Higher Education"

 

Practitioner Discussions Bring Wisconsin LIG Interests Into Focus

By Kathy Kiepert and Anil Balla, Wisconsin LIG Communication Committee
The members of the Wisconsin Local Interest Group (WILIG) engaged in lively dialog about Configuration Management, Availability Management and COBIT at their April meeting.

The members of the Wisconsin Local Interest Group (WILIG) gathered April 8th in a new location, the Tommy Thompson Youth Center for practitioner discussions on Configuration Management, Availability Management and COBIT.  It was a well attended event, with spirited discussions and dialog.

The event started off with the WILIG President, Allan Montezon, thanking the membership for a strong LIG.  The WILIG had a recent election to fill four vacancies on the board.  Allan announced the new board members and thanked the outgoing ones for their dedication and commitment.  The new board will meet in May to discuss roles and responsibilities.  He also took the opportunity to thank the vendor sponsor, INACOM Information Systems.

Two roundtable sessions of 45 minutes each (facilitated by the practitioners), allowed the members to participate in dual topics:  networking and sharing their experiences.  After the sessions, each facilitator summarized the highlights.

  • Colleen Schmitt: Configuration Management
    • Take a phased approach
    • Start with pilot for a business service that is not very critical
    • Put the Pareto principle to work – invest time in 20% of the CIs that will generate 80% of the impact
  • Eric Swenson: Availability Management
    • Work from the top down – business service to infrastructure
    • Current availability reporting is primarily outage reporting
    • Lack of a consistent approach for the calculation of response times
  • Paul Hypki: COBIT - Control Objectives for IT
    • It is complementary to ITIL®
    • Define and implement a pre-audit process
    • COBIT 4.1 is available for complementary download

Next, Rob Stroud, a member of the itSMF International Executive Board and the itSMF USA Board of Directors (who was visiting Milwaukee), was gracious enough to address the membership.  He gave an overview of the upcoming FUSION 08 event in San Francisco and the current focus of the itSMF USA.

After the discussions, the WILIG board and members participated in a vendor "talk-back" session.   The primary goal was to seek input from vendors on ways to strengthen relationships and generate ideas to grow the LIG.

The next WILIG event is currently scheduled for June 10 th from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.