Metrics_ How to Improve Key Business Results - Martin Klubeck [118]
I didn't even consider that FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) would be a factor for the directors. I forgot that reactions to metrics are not based on position, paycheck, or power. Fear is a human emotion—and our leaders are just as human as the entry-level staff members.
So, my innocent question about which services were key to the organization created an unexpected firestorm of debate. If the CEO didn't include a service that a director thought was integral for his group, that director feared that the service was expendable. Perhaps when financial cuts had to be made in the future, these non-key services would be at risk. This was especially real at the time, due to the economic woes the United States experienced in the early twenty-first century. So, every director fought to have as many of his services included as possible. Any peer recommendations to exclude a service were seen as an attack against that director's security and that director's group.
My good intentions didn't matter a bit. I even made the mistake of trying to convince these directors that their perception was wrong; that no one was looking to use these metrics to determine how to downsize the organization. That was a colossal mistake. Where I was consistently careful to mitigate the workers' FUD, I missed the same opportunity with leadership.
Good intentions don't outweigh poor execution.
So, I created an uphill battle for myself that culminated, as you may have guessed, in having to move forward without a list of key services. Instead, I selected seven services that had high customer use and which I felt the directors would agree were among the key services—but not, in any way, a complete list. These services included e-mail, calendaring, the service desk, the network, telephones, printing, and electronic storage services.
In an ideal situation (which requires that the organization be on its way toward maturity), the service catalog would be created easily and as an integral part of the organization's natural definition of itself. If the organization is introspective, it will want to know what services (and products) it provides. Along with the “what,” the organization will want to know the who, the how, and especially the why.
Who is the customer? Not the next person or unit in the process, but the final consumer.
When I say “how,” you don't have to have the process spelled out (although that would be nice). By “how” I mean you have to know what goes into the service/product. In essence, another “who.” Who is involved in providing the service/product? Which units or departments?
The “why” relates to the customer. What is the purpose of the service/ product? Why does it have value? Why would your customer “pay” for it?
How to Develop a Service Catalog
While a service catalog is not a requirement for a Service/Product Health metric program, it can definitely help. So, let's take a moment to look at how to create one and then use it.
To create a service catalog, you will need to take each service and run it through a simple analysis. Before you start, take a pre-step to determine what business you are in. Check your mission statement. Why does your organization exist? What is its purpose? If you have a good feel for that, then determine the “types” of services that you provide. One of the byproducts of our metric effort has been the identification of service types or categories. Being an IT service organization, we ended up with the following:
Utilities (including network, telephone, e-mail, and electronic storage)
Support (general support, like the service desk)
Academic services (specific support services for the academy)
These categories can help, but are not necessary. If you provide only a few services, like McDonalds, you may not need to break out the services into