E-Commerce Security: Advice from Experts (IT Solutions series)

This concludes our overview of IT service delivery management. The critical success factors associated with this complex set of processes may be summarized as follows:

• A common agreement among all participants, including line-of-business customers and IT service providers, about roles, responsibilities, and principles of operation

• Clear, well communicated rules of the road, workflows, and metrics that set customer expectations and measure IT accountability

• Ongoing process measurement and improvement with a focus on customer needs and on appreciating the value of IT to the enterprise

• Regular reporting through informal and formal communication venues, both within the IT organization and between IT and its customers

• Proactive listening on the part of the CRE in dealing with sponsors and working clients and in interacting with his or her IT colleagues

• The employment of the PMO to

  • Codify metrics

  • Collect and analyze customer feedback

  • Prepare SLA documents

  • Prepare the monthly operations report

  • Coordinate monthly operations report meetings

  • Provide staff support to the CRE function

  • Maintain the archives of performance measures, SLAs, and operations reports

  • Oversee and continuously improve all the processes that underpin IT service delivery management

• Collaboration all around and attention to the details

By adapting the frameworks and models presented in this chapter, your IT organization can excel at routine service delivery. In so doing, you will earn the credibility and support that you must have to win approval for the enterprise's further investment in IT platforms and systems. When IT takes care of the day-to-day and effectively manages customer expectations, the business community will grow more tolerant of the frustrations and high costs associated with the implementation of any large-scale, complex IT undertaking. At the very least, your customers will better appreciate the value of existing IT services and the necessity of partnering to enable the success of future efforts. To that end, use the tools presented here and on the accompanying Web site (http://www.crcpress.com/e_products/downloads/download.asp?cat_no=AU1991) at your own discretion to create and maintain a healthy SLA process. Feel free to adapt my examples so that they apply to your own workplace.

Having considered the bread-and-butter issues of service delivery in some detail, it is now time to move on to a more detailed consideration of IT project management. Here, too, the PMO has a major — if not central — role to play.