I found an article on line that was in many ways demonstrating a revolutionary approach to Release Management.  That being a truly integrated release management proof-of-concept.  Box.net, the company behind the iPad application and Cloud-based service with the same name, decided to not simply propose a solution to their client, D7 Consulting, but also to demonstrate, hands on, the benefits to their product utilizing state of the art technology by providing not just the application but the hardware to run it on: iPads.  In many ways, absorbing the financial risk from the hardware implementation in the short term.

In many ways this has been my point when I say that as an ITSM Professional, I need to view myself as the subject matter expert when it comes to proposing solutions to solve real-world business problems to my businesses.  That is when the true business value performed by the ITSM Professional comes into play.  If you are in-tune with the business you are supporting, then why not be the technology specialist who is in a unique position to discover technology solutions to real business challenges?

I think the team at Box.net have raised the bar with Application Development and Release concepts.  It is not just the “Wow” factor of a new toy, but more about what can this new device or application do to enhance or enable my business.  Box.net nailed it with this one.

To compare a “Core” technologist to that of a general technologist will always garner the contempt between various IT fields.  My background is in support for example.  I love technology and make every attempt to learn about the technology behind the products I have supported.  Now, further on in my career as an Incident, Problem and Crisis Manager,  I have to know about all areas of the products and services that IT delivers to the Business, including the likes of Storage, Database, Applications and Networking/Voice.  I am not a specialist any any of these core technologies, but I am a GEEK for driving to understand them and how they work together to enhance our deliveries to the business.

Having said that, it is also one of many roles which requires soft-skills in dealing with core technologists, leadership on both the IT and Business side, I would probably not be employed if I didn’t learn to interact and maneuver around the politics and personalities at all levels, in getting anything done in IT.  So to say there is a back-lash or that I am a weenie for possessing soft-skills is somewhat an oversight as to how Technology needs to function in the modern business environment regardless of industry.

In short; all roles in Technology play their part in delivering on a business strategy.  If we are failing in anything it is not ensuring that technologists “core” or otherwise do not think of themselves as better than any other technologist and that each requires different skills to serve a higher purpose.  The cog in the machine if you will.  Maybe then we can begin to leverage these different skill-sets instead of further instigating a “who’s better than who” battle in IT. This is no longer the 1980′s.

To compare a “Core” technologist to that of a general technologist will always garner the contempt between various IT fields.  My background is in support for example.  I love technology and make every attempt to learn about the technology behind the products I have supported.  Now, further on in my career as an Incident, Problem and Crisis Manager,  I have to know about all areas of the products and services that IT delivers to the Business, including the likes of Storage, Database, Applications and Networking/Voice.  I am not a specialist any any of these core technologies, but I am a GEEK for driving to understand them and how they work together to enhance our deliveries to the business.

Having said that, it is also one of many roles which requires soft-skills in dealing with core technologists, leadership on both the IT and Business side, I would probably not be employed if I didn’t learn to interact and maneuver around the politics and personalities at all levels, in getting anything done in IT.  So to say there is a back-lash or that I am a weenie for possessing soft-skills is somewhat an oversight as to how Technology needs to function in the modern business environment regardless of industry.

In short; all roles in Technology play their part in delivering on a business strategy.  If we are failing in anything it is not ensuring that technologists “core” or otherwise do not think of themselves as better than any other technologist and that each requires different skills to serve a higher purpose.  The cog in the machine if you will.  Maybe then we can begin to leverage these different skill-sets instead of further instigating a “who’s better than who” battle in IT.  This is no longer the 1980′s.

There are mainly two core elements to technology: infrastructure and development. The deployment of these elements and understanding how they are leveraged together is key to any successful organization. Each contains various flavors of implementation that are fundamentally designed to service the business mission. Some provide competitive advantages while others are generally designed to keep the plant operating and are not unique to a specific corporate business process.

Infrastructure is the true foundation upon which all technology rides. In many ways it is not unlike the plumbing, electric, foundation and framing of a house. It is the base that technology depends on to exist. For a start-up, simply getting the business off of the ground distracts from the longer term vision for the company. A technology trap many fall into.
As with a home, designing the right infrastructure will make or break how your technology evolves to meet the business needs both in the immediate and long term. Imagine designing and building a two bedroom home for a newly married couple. It suits their immediate need in starting their new life together. But what happens four years later when they are planning on their second child? That two bedroom begins to not seem as appealing as it once did; a true problem of capacity planning.

Plan, design and build for growth. If you don’t get these right, chances are the results will be both painful as well as costly. Infrastructure however, has an image problem. The power of infrastructure lies not with what the business or end users can see, touch or experience. Because of this, it is often overlooked in terms of investment. This fault is usually what bites most businesses in the ass when system failures begin to occur.

Development on the other hand, is usually the most visible and highly touted. It is these products that ride on the users desktop and provide the entry point to business functionality needed to complete the corporate mission. Whether that development is provided internally, via large commercial software houses or 3rd party vendors, the role is clear: Deliver core business process functionality.

It is assumed, although not always the case, that developers understand the business processes and are able to work it into their design to develop effective solutions. Internal development takes that concept even further as these groups exist within the company to provide custom solutions that deliver a presumed competitive advantage within a specific industry. For those companies who can afford this option, the value is clear as it can provide an edge over competitors in the never ending fight for market share. More importantly, it comes down to control. Proprietary applications that may contain functionality based on processes developed from within an organization can leverage the business knowledge in a way that drives development into very specific directions. The disadvantage with any software application regardless of who develops it, is that like Infrastructure, when it fails, there is a direct impact to business.

In the new-world order of Technology, there is a third element to IT which, like the Infrastructure, goes relatively unnoticed until something breaks. This is not software, nor it is hardware, let’s call it what it is; People. Yes, people run the infrastructure and people write code, but then there is Jack O. All-trades. The individual who knows a lot about infrastructure and development, yet also has that special skill to be able to communicate with the customer. Jack is not a Systems Administrator, nor a C# or C++ coder. Nope, this individual knows about Command Windows, X-Terms, Consoles, Windows Scripting Host, SQL Queries, HTML and Java development, tools of the trade. Jack knows how to run IP Config on a Laptop and understand what DNS servers it is connecting to, while running a shell script to recursively remove files from at TMP directory.

More importantly, Jack knows how to explain to the customer that their computer isn’t connecting to the web because when they booted their machine up, it did not pick up a new IP address or DNS settings from the DHCP servers which might be due to a faulty Ethernet cable, port, DHCP isn’t configured or the LAN may just be down. No, Jack will simply say “Let me take a look and see what I can do to get you up and running again.” Take a second or two to run IP Config /all to check under the hood, discover that all network connections appear in order, see’s the lights on the Ethernet port flashing, confirming network connectivity; run IPConfig /release + IPConfig /renew, Ping a few hosts or websites and viola~! Turning back to the user, simply says “There you go, back up and running. If you have any more problems, please let us know and we’ll get right on it.” Jack is on his way again.

This is an example of customer service and support skills in action, leveraging the basic tools of the trade that go unrecognized as a valid technology field in it’s own right. Of course this was a very basic example which does go much deeper than that in terms of ensuring that business services and users are not impacted by infrastructure or development system failures. It is not some individual with English as a second language behind a desk reading from a script calling themselves IT Support (I’m sure I will have more to write about in that space.) I am referring to that undervalued and overlooked position on the front lines of technology, leveraged as a critical element to an effectively run technology environment. This group of individuals needs to be recognized as the not just a “IT guy/gal”, but that bridge which binds a business to its technology.

Service and Support, long the beaten down step-child of any industry, has taken no more public abuse and ridicule than in the world of Technology. In today’s modern internet driven society, the presumed “elite” are those who can write code, de-tangle the inner workings of a UNIX kernel, design and manage relational databases or architect a global WAN. However, when all hell breaks loose with those core technologies, who is that one person responding to a business user to take the bullet for the failure? It is the Service Professional who is dispatched to take up the challenge of facing the end user impacted by the failure.

By no fault of the industry as a whole, the relatively young business of technology has been one designed to enable the users as quickly as possible to provide the business with a technological advantage over its competition. Over the years this has meant a rapid deployment mentality which translated to throwing out all sorts of technology solutions with little thought being given to how that technology would be supported after it is in place. The result of which has been an environment cultivating a culture of reactivity.

The goal of these writings is not to address the importance of technology nor the business as the concept of Service can be applied across any industry or technology, but rather the service minded professional that is long overdue in being recognized for their contribution to every industry. The IT Service Profession however, is unique. It is a field that many feel can be performed by any person with a deeper than average interest in technology. “Do you have an email account?” “Yes.” “You’re hired.”

What is being realized as of late is that the Service-minded individual is one that not simply understands technology, but has a unique view of how it should be implemented in a manner that may be more effective than one of the core technologist or the pure business user.

A cultural shift is in the works within most technology dependent businesses today. The ability to stop viewing technology as purely a body of development and engineering elements, but also that of a third piece, which is a people driven function outside of those core roles. We all know technology breaks. It is the management of those breaks through to the restoration of business processes in which the true value player can be found….. The IT Service & Support Professional.

Why is it that every time I seem to be into working on something when my machine decides to want to restart due to some system maintenance installation that occurred in the background. Is there not some way for these automated maintenance scripts to detect keystrokes to determine if someone is actually using the machine?

In tonight’s case, I was working on a PowerPoint presentation needed first thing Monday morning when I was prompted to save all work as a shutdown was commencing. Does anyone understand how utterly frustrating this can be? I would think this would have been something experienced by anyone who works in a networked environment.

In an Enterprise environment such as mine, this type of thing is both necessary and critical to maintaining a healthy environment. Believe me, I understand the need to keep the Windows environment as up to date and protected as necessary, but in terms of impact to productivity, I would think that at some point, and I know I may be pushing the envelope of the individual user’s needs here, it would be nice to not to have work interrupted by some reboot script.

I wonder if this would be the first in a long line of “nice to haves” in terms of an software Service friendly environment. Who knows. I do know that I am more than likely not the only individual out there who has not either lost work due to an unexpected reboot or been interrupted by one that was kind enough to give you time to save your work.