Many companies find themselves with a gap between technical skill needed for IT Service Management (ITSM) and the experience level possessed by staff. It’s not surprising, given:
- The exodus of experienced, senior specialists out of the workforce
- Intensifying demand for technology, typically complex in nature
- Pace of operations to accommodate high expectations for delivery and instant gratification
- Junior specialists who haven’t yet built a well-rounded ITSM background
Without a Skilled Team, It’s Difficult to Deliver
These factors mentioned above can disrupt service delivery and prevent you from meeting business objectives. Often, the root cause can be traced back to at least one of these culprits:
- Insufficient communication, resulting in lagging Major Incident Management and unresolved incidents
- Lack of infrastructure skill, knowledge or experience, hindering an ability to resolve major incidents, manage change or perform root cause analyses
- Insufficient leadership skill, resulting in ineffective incident management and advising capacity
- Not proficient in ITSM processes
- Limited thinking, operating by task instead of by a big picture or vision
- Inability to recognize how an environment’s infrastructure was designed or set up
When faced with these kinds of obstacles, it’s particularly challenging to add value. But it is possible. It just might take some thought about how to bring the team up-to-speed and give them the time and resources needed to get there.
Here are a few ideas that could help:
Expand Each Person’s Competency in Multiple ITSM Specialties
Ideally, your staff would contain people competent in a range of ITSM processes, so that they can work across various major process roles. This way anyone can hop in and solve a problem, help if there is a backlog or keep things moving if someone is out sick. Being able to call on a few people helps you shift employees’ focus as needed, and it keeps things interesting for them.
Create ITSM Training
If you don’t have that flexibility in-house, you might need to create it. This is where ITSM curriculum and an emphasis on continuous learning is vital. The best training is on-the-job, so putting employees in live situations is preferable to classroom theoreticals examined in a vacuum. You might want to focus learning on:
- ITSM process calls or recordings relating to infrastructure, major incidents, root cause analysis or other weak spots
- Team problem-solving with various roles, using a live environment and simulated situations
- Soft skills, including communication, interpersonal, advising and cross-culture training
- Infrastructure technical skills as the foundation of ITSM roles, with the goal being an intermediate-level competency in areas like hosting, mainframe, networking and user services
- Problem-solving practices for different verticals and industries
- ITIL education
- Knowledge of what affects business, risks to processes and how processes function
Make Sure Processes Work
Once the team is upskilled and you have the right players in the right positions, it will be easier to spot process breakdowns and create an improvement plan. If you need support until then, Cireson can step in and provide all levels of ITSM expertise. We’d love to talk about your needs and how we can help!
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