Agile Service Delivery™

OVERVIEW

 Couple the fast-paced and dynamic changes happening in the IT industry with the ever-increasing performance demands of clients and their end users, and the message is clear: You had better keep up or move aside! At the heart of this neverending relationship is the IT Service Delivery mechanism. 

New tools and best practices are pouring into the mix every day. These new tools make it easier for a single tech to see and manage more endpoints than ever before with documentation and access credentials at their fingertips. But there has been no significant change in the actual workflow management processes, and this is where the biggest bottlenecks occur. Managing the actual workflow – from new issue reported to service coordination (or dispatch) to tech or engineer addressing them – is still largely the same kludgy process. We refer to this old way as Stack and Run, meaning we stack work onto the team and run them into the ground.

This is where Agile Service Delivery comes in. Agile is a Pull system that allows your team to more than double their performance while simultaneously creating true Flow in the work. Note, this is Agile Service Delivery, NOT Agile Service Management. Agile Service Management is the higher-level concern of embedding agile mindset and values into the IT Service Management (ITSM) systems at a high enough level so as to influence all Drivers and Outcomes of Value. And on the other hand: Agile Service Delivery is where the rubber hits the road.

Agile Service Delivery is about the very specific workflows and processes that are the day-to-day activities of coordinating and delivering IT services, such as Help Desk support, Field Service, NOC, and Project deliverables. Agile Service Delivery is a discipline of managing the work, not the workers. It means pulling work through a highly transparent system in which Work in Progress (WiP) is limited to what the team is capable of executing on in a timely fashion with Flow.

Agile Service Delivery methods release your service department from the constraints of conventional service delivery. These processes and methods allow your entire team to function with a level of autonomy far superior to those still preached by the industry and ticketing system solution providers. Agile Service Delivery results in a significant competitive advantage, regardless of the service ticket system in place or the team size, with greater ROI for you and higher value for your clients.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

What We Intend To Teach You

The Agile Service Delivery Master Class primary learning objective is to provide a better workflow methodology that can easily double your service team efficiency in delivering value to your customers. Secondary objectives include understanding:

•  The meaning of Agile as applied to service delivery and what being Agile truly means to workflow
•  The Value Chain and how to optimize team and department performance based on intended client value
•  The competitive advantage and ROI that comes from moving to an Agile methodology
•  Basics concepts and relevance of ITIL, ITSM, and DevOps – how they relate and why they all matter
•  Core Agile concepts and practices, including Scrum, Kanban, and the Backlog
•  Relevant concepts of Continuous Improvement and Continuous Refinement (often associated with Lean & Six Sigma)
•  The required tools and processes for a robust Agile Service Delivery system
•  The Workflow and Work in Progress (WiP) and why they must be be carefully protected
•  Performance measures and KPIs to guide the process refinement and drive continuous improvement
•  The day-to-day processes that manage the work and allow the team to truly Flow

Successfully passing (70%) each of the eight (8) class exams – consisting of 25 multiple choice plus True/False questions – will result in the participant’s designation as a Certified Agile Service Delivery Practitioner.

Agile Service Delivery certification is governed and maintained by the Agile Service Delivery Consortium and Manuel Palachuk International.

AUDIENCE

Who This Course Is Intended For

This course is specifically intended for Service Managers, Service Coordinators, Service Dispatchers, Project Managers, Engineers, Field Service, NOC, and Help Desk Technicians whose teams intend to implement agile practices in their service delivery system immediately in order to significantly increase their efficiency. This course is suitable for both internal service teams and external teams, i.e. Managed Service Providers and in-house IT Service Management teams. It is also intended for:

•  Department heads or C-Levels that are directly charged with creating value in the IT Service Management and IT Service Delivery process
•  Process owners and designers interested in making their workflows more agile but who have no practical starting point
•  Those interested in understanding the specifics of how the Agile methods can be practically implemented into the Service Delivery system
•  Consultants needing a practical guide to gaining a competency in Agile Service Delivery
•  Anyone interested in learning about practical application of Agile methods in an innovative way for the sake of continuous improvement

Prior Understanding

This course assumes at least a basic familiarity with general IT Service Delivery and Service Management processes and practices.

Note: Although this course is focused on the IT industry and assumes a basic familiarity with IT and IT Service Management, it is also true that these methods are not restricted solely to use in the IT industry. ANY service process can successfully utilize these methods to great advantage.

LEARNING MATERIALS

Materials Required For This Course

•  Two (2) one-hour Lessons of instructor-led prerequisite training (pre-recorded)
•  Six (6) one-hour Lessons of instructor-led core training (pre-recorded), including homework assignments
•  The Agile Service Delivery core Lessons are broken into ten (10) learning modules
•  All Slide Decks for each class for note taking and question cultivation
•  Core Competency Matrix spreadsheet and White Paper
•  How to Document a Process White Paper
•  Service Delivery Process Flow Charts
•  Service Delivery Backlog spreadsheet and White Paper
•  Standards and Procedures Seed Document (Run Guide) + Access to online version
•  Numerous sample documents, templates, checklists, white papers, tools, and techniques
•  Access to Agile Service Delivery Knowledge Base
•  Access to Agile Service Delivery Collaboration Forums
•  Resource and Reference list for every Lesson

PREREQUISITE 1

Ten Golden Rules of PSA and Ticketing Systems Training Webinar

•  Two (2) one-hour Lessons of instructor-led prerequisite training (pre-recorded)
•  Two (2) one-hour Lessons of instructor-led prerequisite training (pre-recorded)
•  All work is performed against a ticket
•  One Issue, One ticket
•  Whatever we can do remotely, we do remotely
•  We always work and track time in real-time
•  … and six others…
•  Agile Service Delivery overview
•  Communications Protocol
•  Getting everyone on board

PREREQUISITE 2

Working and Tracking Time in Real-time Training Webinar

•  Why Track Time?
•  History and Evolution of Time Tracking
•  Identifying and resetting the interrupt
•  Working and Tracking Time in Real-time Maturity Level
•  Time Increments for the Service Industry
•  Profit and Value Potential
•  The Multi-tasking Myth
•  The Most Important Rules of Working and Tracking Time in Real-time
•  Time Tracking Log Examples
•  General Rules of 5 and 15-Minute Time Entry
•  Steps to Success
•  Getting everyone on board
•  Measuring your progress

AGILE CORE - MODULE 1

An Introduction to Agile and the Competitive Advantage

•  Our work product: Utility and Warranty
•  Agile and other terminology basics
•  The Agile Manifesto – Why it’s outdated for IT and DevOps
•  ITIL, ITSM, DevOps: Why they matter and how they are related
•  The truth about Agile and Open Collaboration
•  An introduction to Scrum and its components
•  An introduction to Kanban and its components
•  Why Pull is better than Push
•  Why the Utilization metric hurts
•  Understanding Bottlenecks and Constraints
•  Creating Flow in your systems
•  Mastery through Study and Practice

AGILE CORE - MODULE 2

The Tools and Processes to Support the Method

•  The basics of Managed Services and Service Delivery
•  Service Desk / Service Delivery Strategy
•  Change Management
•  Projects – External and Internal
•  Help Desk / Field Service / NOC
•  The Requirements for a functional and robust system
•  Service Agreements (Master and Managed)
•  Support Tiers
•  Escalation Schedule
•  Response and SLA
•  Role and Responsibilities [Coverage Matrix (Teams)]
•  Core Competency Matrix
•  The Components required for an automated system
•  Issue / Ticket management system
•  Remote Monitoring and Maintenance system
•  Project Management solution
•  Knowledge Management system
•  The System defined – Queues and Boards
•  The User Story – Defining the deliverable value
•  The Flow of a Ticket through the System
•  The Flow of the Technician/Engineer’s day
•  The Skills-based Escalation and De-escalation (Swimlanes)

AGILE CORE - MODULE 3

Service Delivery Metrics and KPIs – Measuring What Truly Matters

Part A

•  Service Delivery Capability
•  Service Delivery Backlog
•  Service Level Agreements – Why they should not matter
•  Team and Individual Efficiency

Part B

•  Work In Progress
•  Queue Length – Little’s Law & Queuing Theory
•  Cycle Time and Lead Time (Average Time to close and Average Time on Ticket)
•  Ticket Count and Age
•  Client Effective Hourly Rate
•  Cost of Delays
•  Customer Satisfaction – What really satisfies them?

AGILE CORE - MODULE 4

Understanding and Managing Workflow and Work in Progress (WiP)

•  Types of work – Depends on who you ask
•  The Time Thieves and enemies of Flow
•  Work in Progress (WiP)
•  Unknown Dependencies
•  Unplanned Work
•  Conflicting Priorities
•  Neglected Work
•  Agile Methods Applied – The Daily and Weekly Sprint
•   Service Coordination Basics
•  Ten Golden Rules of Ticketing Systems – Process review
•  Working and Tracking Time in Real-time – Process review
•  Ticket Triage in general
•  The Mini Service Coordinator Process

AGILE CORE - MODULE 5

Mastering The Service Backlog – Understanding Capacity, Capability, and Efficiency

•  Understanding what Backlog is and is not
•  The Implications of the Backlog - Is it good or bad?
•  Why we need to track Backlog – How does this help?
•  Calculating Capacity
•  Calculating Team and Individual Efficiency
•  Our “Bench” and their Breadth and Depth
•  Intro to the Core Competency Matrix
•  Intro to the Service Board Coverage Matrix

AGILE CORE - MODULE 6

Agile Service Delivery Coordination – Making Work Flow

•  Managing the work, not the people
•  Running Sprint – Daily, Weekly, Monthly
•  When to use the Kanban board (and when not to)
•  The Mini Service Coordinator process – A closer look
•  The Service Coordinator complete process
•  The Service Manager role
•  The Customer and their role in Agile Service Delivery

AGILE CORE - MODULE 7

Leveraging Kanban and Making Work Visible

•  The Nebulous blob of Tickets (a.k.a. Tetris)
•  Making work visible to the team
•  Swimlanes and who’s swimming

AGILE CORE - MODULE 8

Best Practices for Managing Workflow

•  The Coverage Matrix for Queues/Boards/Projects
•  Daily and Weekly Stand-ups
•  Sprint Planning, Running, and Retrospective
•  Identifying and dealing with Bottlenecks and Constraints
•  Dealing with work flowing backwards
•  The many kinds of Rogues and how to deal with them

AGILE CORE - MODULE 9

How Effective Agile Teams Work – Communications and Collaboration

•  The Communications Protocol
•  Effective collaboration – Not simply chatting
•  Feeding the Knowledge Management system
•  The cost of lost knowledge – More than just time and money
•  Why history matters and its value in the stream

AGILE CORE - MODULE 10

Review, Follow-Up, and Q&A Session

•  Review of resources available
•  Specific steps to success for implementation
•  Discussions on content, theories, processes, and future work.