Post Planning April 17, 2007
Yeah… I disappeared again for a while. But at least I know a few folks are still watching.
I started looking at ITIL again, so I think I’m going to look at the “rest of” ITIL, beyond the stuff that I already posted before. Working on the notes and mindmaps for that now.
That, and working out “life as an independent consultant” just seems to have gotten the better of me lately. Sorry.
Random Work Sample - Server Consolidation/Virtualization July 7, 2006
For whatever reasons, I’ve explained to a few people the last couple of days “what I do”. Or at least, I’ve tried to! That made me think of a piece of work I did a few days back, and I thought I’d throw it up here.
What I do, mostly, is manage technologists, engineers and so forth, and act as the man in the middle (I was going to say “interface”, but let’s not play “Bingo!” today…) between the pure technical folks, and the pure business folks.
Wearing that hat, I was having a conversation with a former colleague who’s taken on a new role with a different company. One of the first things he’s been asked to do is deploy virtual servers, thus consolidating servers. My first question to him was “Why?”. Not implying that this was a bad road to be going down, just that there had to be a “why” behind it, and that understanding that was going to be important to deliver the “how” properly. We talked it through - and yes, we partook of a couple of cold adult beverages at the same time! - and I ran through a sample of the kind of questions I’d be asking if I was in his shoes. The attached is a representation of that. For what it’s worth, it took me about ten or fifteen minutes to generate in MindJet MindManager, and then another couple to export to PDF, Word and PowerPoint format (I’m working with the MS Office 2007 Beta, and I wanted to make sure that my colleague could read at least one document that I sent him!).
If you’re looking at the document, it’d be useful to keep this in mind - this is a very high-level view, with the intent of prompting discussion. It’s by no means an indepth technical plan, assessment, or such, and nor is it complete. But it’s a starter.
If you want the actual Mindmap, you can download it here.
ITIL: Service Support & Service Delivery - the whole thing June 1, 2006
I’ve been posting sections of my notes as I’ve worked my way through various ITIL materials over the last few months, and those can be found here. I got caught up with various bits and pieces, as the distinct lack of posting around here may have indicated, but I did keep that work up. Rather than posting a series of hard to read JPG’s, and a series of posts, I thought I’d just go ahead and post the whole thing here, and let you have at it if you’re interested. The overview image on the right links directly to the MindManager MindMap - there’s too much detail in the map itself to make an image of it here viable. If you don’t have MindManager itself, there’s a viewer available for download.
If you want to talk more “ITIL Stuff”, feel free to contact me, either directly or in the comments here. The map I’m making available here isn’t the “final version” that I use myself - that has substantially more low-level information in the notes field of the various map entries, as well as commentary and such from my own experiences, as well as links out to appropriate parts of other methodologies. For the time being, partly for commercial advantage reasons, and partly to make sure that I don’t violate anyone else’s copyright, I won’t be making that version of the map directly available, but if I end up working with you on an ITIL matter, well, we’ll see.
As always, comments and questions on ITIL are welcomed, and if you take a copy of the map, and are so inclined, let me know what you think and how it works for you.
Review: Six Discplines for Excellence April 12, 2006
Some time ago, I was sent a copy of the book “Six Disciplines for Excellence”, by Gary Harpst, and asked to do a review when I was done with it. I’ve read it through twice now, and this is the review I promised. It’s a lot later than I intended it to be, and for that I sincerely apologize.
From the back of the book: “This book is NOT for those who are looking for a quick fix. Six Disciplines is a “long-term fitness program, not a fad diet”. I think that’s an excellent description. If you’ve been reading my blog here, you’ll know that I’m “into” ITIL, and process methodology as a whole, with a technical focus. Six Disciplines has made a very nice addition to my process skills arsenal with its focus on the business side of the house.
The Six Disciplines break down as follows:
- Decide What’s Important
- Set Goals That Lead
- Align Systems
- Work The Plan
- Innovate Purposefully
- Step Back
and each of those major headings above breaks down into additional sections, which are then explained fully in the book.
For an overview, you can either go to the Six Disciplines website, or consider the image below.
The thumbnail above will expand to a full-size MindMap if you click on it. In this instance, I’ve deliberately used an earlier-draft of the MindMap that I Was making as I read the book, rather than the completed version, and I won’t be making the actual MindMap available for download - that wouldn’t be fair to the book publishers, and would likely violate copyright as well. You should be able to see from the image, however, that this is a circular, continuous improvement methodology, with outputs from one section readily feeding into another, and that there are linkages throughout the methodology (the MindMap looks a little messy to show that; remember that if you’re working with one of them in the MindManager application itself, you get to filter and turn on & off as much detail as you need at any given moment).
Frankly, I wish I’d had this book a few years ago, when I was part of a project that DID create a global IS department, from several smaller departments, and set visions, mission statements, processes, and so forth in place, many of which are still in operation today. We got it done, but at times it seemed like we were winging it, as there was no central reference like this to go to, other than process steps we defined for ourselves. If I was in that situation again, this would be a process guide that I turned to. I’m honest enough to admit that I might not follow it to the letter - the curse of man is that he likes to change things to his own preferences - but it would definitely be a good starting point.
In reading the book, I’m struck that the author spends time focusing on HOW to achieve maximum benefit from each of the six interdependent Disciplines, and not just providing a laundry list without explanation. There are plenty of “lists” and “summaries” out there, but getting a strong sense of the reasoning behind a recommendation adds to the value.
The book is subtitled “Building Small Businesses That Learn, Lead and Last”, and that’s a great focus; while it may not scale to a larger company in its entirety, there’s no reason individual departments within such couldn’t benefit as well.
I’ll be completing my note-taking of the book shortly, embedding it all into the MindMap that I started, and along with my ITIL maps, project management maps and so forth, the Six Disciplines will form a permanent part of my reference set that I use when I work as a manager.
Still Relaxing March 30, 2006
Vacation is a good thing, and I’m still relaxing in the UK. No substantive posts to come until next week, I’ve decided, but here’s what’s coming up when I get back to the States next week:
- the ITIL series will continue. Problem Management is next, and then one of the biggies - Change Management;
- I’ve just read Six Disciplines for Excellence by Gary Harst (Amazon) and I’ve got a review of that that I need to type up;
- I’ve also had the chance to catch-up on the last few Manager Tools podcasts (yeah, I know, that’s not really vacation listening, is it?!), and I’ve got some notes that I may well pull together into a MindMap and publish, like I did recently.
- and a couple of other ideas that I’ve got bubbling around that may well turn into something sensible here.
Good chance you’ll get to see some family photos in the next day or two as well - sorry about that 
One of the reasons I’m here in the UK is that Saturday is a party for my stepfather’s 60th birthday, and his and my mother’s 25th Wedding Anniversary. Warning: Gary + Alcohol + Digital Camera + Internet Connection Ahead!
Gentle reader, I thank you for your time and attention, and I’ll see you next week!
Packing List March 22, 2006
Showing that yes, I really do reach for MindManager as my primary thinking and layout tool, below is an image of the map I threw together today as a packing list. I’m not taking everything on it, but I wanted something that would act as a basis for future trips as well.
I used MindManager because I wanted to do two things - be able to quickly filter down to a list of things that, if I am taking them, need to be charged the night before, and also determine whether I want to pack them in my carry-on, for use either in-flight or as soon as I land, or in my checked luggage (I try not to check, but sometimes, it just can’t be helped. And if stuff is going in the hold anyway, then I want to be carrying as little as possible!).
One of the benefits of using a MindMap to do this, rather than a simple linear paper list, is that it’s self-selecting for some items - if I’m not taking the iPod, for instance, then I don’t need any of the other items that are mapped out from that item; on the other hand, if I’m taking the iPod, then yes, I probably need to take the sync cable, and the power-brick that goes with it, but do I need the international power adapter?
I did another version of the MindMap that includes model and serial numbers for all the equipment that I might possibly take, as well. I’ve never needed a list like that, and I hope that I never do, but it’s nice to have it “just in case”.
If you want the map file itself, you can download it here.
I’m off to England tomorrow, where I gather the weather for the next two weeks is going to be about forty degrees colder than where I am right now…
Weekly Review - Checklist MindMap February 20, 2006
My GTD Weekly Review checklist was getting a little disorganized, to the extent that I was tending to ignore it. So, I spent a little time today cleaning it up, and producing it as a MindMap, so that I can have one, clean, sheet of paper that I can pin up over my desks. I usually do the Weekly Review on a Friday afternoon, in the office, but occasionally run through it at home on a Saturday morning, so you’ll see it’s from that point of view. I also tend to do a reasonable amount of processing as part of the weekly review - my expense report, if needed, for instance - which isn’t strictly in the spirit of the review as written by David Allen, but it works for me.
There’s an image below that will expand substantially if you open it up, or you’re welcome to download the MindMap here.
If you’re getting the message that I’m “into” GTD, and that I do a lot of process documentation, often with MindManager, you’d be right!
As always, if you get any benefit out of the above, or have anything else to say about it, please feel free to let me know in the comments section below.
Manager Tools - Managing Your Boss January 31, 2006
Mark and Mike over at Manager-Tools have done it again with their podcasts last week and this.
In “Managing Your Boss - Part 1” and “Managing Your Boss - Part 2“, they’ve run through the five aspects of their process/methodology for establishing a good/better relationship with your boss, and understanding where they’re coming from. As I was listening, as with my earlier piece on their Development Challenge, I was taking notes, and these are represented in the images and link that follow. As I was working through the pieces, I was already thinking that I’d offer something up on my site, from the reverse of their perspective - for the folks that have, do or will work for me, so that they have an idea of some of the things I might want considered. Sure enough, sharing these concepts with your team is one of the summary points identifed in the podcast.
If you’re reading this piece on or close to it’s publication date, rather than looking at an archive page, there’s a competition piece in the podcast itself - go check out the second podcast, and have a shot.
As before, I’ve used Mindjet’s MindManager - if you don’t have it, you’re welcome to the jpeg images below; click on them for the full images. I’ve put two images this time, just to show that you can be quite selective in what you look at on the map at any given time.
If you do have MindManager, or the viewer available from their website, you’re welcome to the full map in the link below.
Download the Manager Tools - Managing Your Boss MindMap here.
(Disclaimer/Acknowledgement - all content on the MindMap is from the Manager Tools podcast, and is the work of Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne; all copyright is theirs and acknowleged. The content on this page merely represents my notes of their presentation).
Manager Tools - Development Challenge 2006 January 21, 2006
As indicated in the previous post, I’ve been doing some catching up in my management reading, and in this case, listening.
Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne run a podcast each week at www.manager-tools.com, covering various management development topics, such as delivering feedback, recruitment, performance reviews, and management communications.
About two weeks ago (I said I was catching up!), they released a podcast with a slightly different type of content - a set of potential challenges for managers to undertake over the next year. As I was listening to it, I was making notes, and I took those notes as a mindmap, as I am wont to do. Looking at it afterwards, I decided that I wanted to keep it for reference (as opposed to the practice of taking notes to help keep my attention focussed), so I spent ten minutes with MindManager, and the results of that are below.
If you click the image below, you’ll get a high-res picture of the map. But you’ll be selling yourself short.
If you actually have MindManager, or their free viewer, you can download the actual map from the link below. When you do that, you’ll see that, apart from being able to zoom around and filter the map, I’ve also put in hyperlinks to relevant parts of their website, books they recommend in the podcast, and so forth.
(To those that know about it - yes, I’m aware of the method to embed the map and viewer into the webpage. That causes issues with the site template that I’m currently using, however).
Download the Manager Tools Development Challenge MindMap here.
(Disclaimer/Acknowledgement - all content on the MindMap is from the Manager Tools podcast, and is the work of Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne; all copyright is theirs and acknowleged. The content on this page merely represents my notes of their presentation).
What is ITIL? December 12, 2005
Well, literally, it’s the “Information Technology Infrastructure Library”, but that’s not very helpful in and of itself, is it?
ITIL is a comprehensive collection of consistent and coherent best practices focused on the management of IT service processes. It’s intended to promote a quality approach to achieving business effectiveness and efficiency in the use of business systems. It has a subsection known as IT Service Management, which is concerned with delivering and supporting IT services that are appropriate to the business requirements of the organization.
It’s popular, it’s used worldwide, and it isn’t aimed specifically at large organizations - it works equally well for large, mid-size or smaller IT groups. It doesn’t tell you exactly what to do - it’s a set of best-practice guidelines that you customize as you implement them within your own organization, taking advantage of your local knowledge. You can use ITIL in part, or in whole, it’s up to you, and your individual requirements. ITIL originated in the United Kingdom, and the home page of the Office of Government Commerce, who “own” process definitions, can be found here.
There are a number of high-level sections to ITIL, and I spent a lot of time working within the IT Service Support and IT Service Delivery areas - the diagram below (created in MindManager) shows the top-level working areas addressed within these two sections. I’m expanding that MindMap currently, including definitions, goals, benefits, risks and KPI’s, as well as descriptive notes for each area, and I’ll publish specific sections of each of those over the next days & weeks. If you want a particular MindMap in full-form, just let me know in the comments.
technorati tags: Process, MindManager, ITIL
Edit/Update: A later post of mine, which can be found here, has the “complete” mindmap I have done on ITIL Service Support & Service Delivery. Help yourselves…
“Taskforce” Meeting Template December 8, 2005
To me, a “Taskforce” meeting is one where a variety of folks are called together, and told to “fix that problem”, whatever that particular problem may be. I’ve just been asked to form such a group, to address an application performance issue at work, and in setting up the meeting, I brought together a number of my current notes and templates into a single MindManager template, for re-use. Thought I’d post it here - if you find it useful, have any comments, or want a copy of the template file itself, just let me know.
When I hold the meeting tomorrow, I’ll give out copies of the map, with the “Notes/Thoughts” section collapsed, but everything else expanded, for the participants reference. The “Notes/Thoughts” section is for me, as the meeting lead, to remind me of “discussion methods” that can be useful for these kind of things - simple brainstorming, the Six Thinking Hats, and SCAMPER.
During the meeting, I’ll make notes on the whiteboard, on my copy of the agenda, and on regular paper as I see fit. As it’ll be a fairly interactive meeting, I’m not going to try and take digital notes, either in OneNote or straight into MindManager, as I might under other circumstances; instead I’ll update everything into the MindManager map as appropriate after the meeting, and then send out both the map itself, and a Word document generated from it, for participants reference.
technorati tags: Process, MindManager, Meetings
Update: I realised that although I can’t use the MindManager web embed option, I can load the file up to Wordpress for those of you that have MindManager itself, and want the file. I’ve got no way of tracking that, so if you take it and like it, or have any other comments, do please let me know in the comments section. Thanks.
Update 2: Well, apparently not. It worked in testing yesterday, but Wordpress.com won’t allow me to upload a “.mmap” file now. I don’t know if that is a deliberate change, or a temporary thing. I’ll check again later. So, the original still applies - if you want the file, just let me know.
Final Update: Kai reminds me in the comments below that I was going to embed the Mindmap using the MindJet viewer plugin once I had things up and running on this new site. Well, I’ve been trying… I can embed the map, and it works perfectly - that really is a good plugin. Displays great in IE as well. Trouble is, it completely destroys the page layout for every post below it in Firefox - completely removes the formatting and such that is applied through the theme here. Now, someday/somewhen, I’ll spend a bit more time understanding the inner workings of what’s going on here, and I’m sure I can work around it, but in the meantime, I want to focus on producing content for the site, rather than dealing with the mechanics of it. So, old school approach:
Click here to download the “Taskforce Template MindMap” (Requires MindJet MindManager, or their free viewer).
Referencing, without showing… November 24, 2005
Does this work? Hobart Swan, at the MindManager Blog, has a piece about Using MindManager for Patent Applications. It’s a reference to a piece on Russ Krajec’s “Anything Under the Sun” blog that somewhat adequately leaves me informed, but above all wanting to see the MindMap! Or at least a part of it… Does saying “I have this, and it’s cool”, cut it, or does there need to be more than that to it?
technorati tags: Process, MindManager,
Mind-Mapping November 22, 2005
My friend and colleague Ant posts about Mindmapping, with the observation “I was introduced to the concept by a colleague a few months ago and now I’m hooked.”. What he neglects to mention is his original assessment of the technique - “oh no, Gary’s on another management fad!”. Just thought I’d call him out on it 
Glad you’ve come around to this stuff Ant - I don’t think a day goes by at the moment that I don’t do some form of mindmap. Not always as formal as a MindManager produced version, maybe just a back-of-the-envelope one, but it definately helps with the thought process.
And if you haven’t already seen it, you might want to look at the browser plugin for MindManager.
technorati tags: Process, MindManager,
