International Best Practice Blog Archive

An interview with Alan Moran

05 May

Alan Moran is an IT manager who has worked in public and private sectors, learning how to adapt practices to the circumstances and culture that practitioners face on a daily basis.

Top 10 Tips for Project Planning

20 April

We live in a world where only 49% of projects are completed on time (PMI, 2016) and only 53% of projects stay within the original budget (PMI, 2016). Back in 2008 Aspire Europe started delivering maturity assessments, part of which is reviewing how effective organisations were at planning...

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses!

23 July 2014

By Karen Ferris IT consultant and service management expert Macanta Consulting Pty Ltd

I was recently sitting in a project management meeting discussing a large organization-wide initiative when someone piped up and said "We need organizational change management on this project". You could hear a pin drop!

Resources for learning about...Project planning

18 April

As Benjamin Franklin stated, 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail'. When setting out on a new project, the planning stage is a vital one. We have found some key resources to help you build a solid project plan.

An Interview with Rod Sowden

05 April

International Best Practice is delighted to have worked with Rod on his latest title, A Practical Guide to Project Planning: A Step-by-step approach, which published this month (April 2016). We caught up with Rod to find out more about his new title and what led him to write a publication on the subject.

Top 10 Tips For A Service Level Manager Rookie

18 March

Every service level manager goes through the same experience. You thought you knew what is important and what is not, you got your ITIL certification, you are an experienced manager, however, your first year as a service level manager was stressful and full of lessons learned. If only someone told you.

An interview with Ami Nahari

01 March

Ami Nahari is an ITIL expert and project manager. In an interview with International Best Practice, he shares tips on a successful service level management, and what led him to write a publication on the subject.

The Career Path of the Accidental Project Manager

11 February

Many project managers land in the profession due to being technical specialists with great success in their field of expertise. However, they are not always fully prepared for the important skills, knowledge and competencies that are critical for success.

An Interview with Peter Brooks

08 February

Peter Brooks is an author, trainer, and independent consultant based in Cape Town. Over the past decade and a half, he has specialized in both the management and governance of services.

February 2016: Upcoming Events

26 January

Just because February is the shortest month of the year, doesn't mean it's lacking in fantastic events and conferences for you to attend. We've tracked down some events you shouldn't miss occurring over the next month...

Resources For Learning About...Change Management

09 December

The Collins dictionary defines change management as, 'the area of business management that deals with methods of handling large-scale changes within a company'. In reality, it is more multi-faceted and complex. We have gathered some great resources to teach you the essentials of change management...

Resources For Learning About...Presentations

15 January

Presentations are a key part of professional life. We need to be confident that we're presenting our precious ideas and proposals in the best way possible. It's easy to let our nerves get the better of us in these situations. We've trawled the web, and found some great resources to help you prepare for that all important presentation, and keep those nerves at bay.

December 2015: Upcoming Events

02 December

December has rolled around again, before we say goodbye to 2015, say hello to some of these fantastic events occurring over the next month...

12 Key Checks of Video Communication for Project Managers

17 November

Email inboxes are overloaded. Reports longer than one page may go unread. We are awash with documentation, overloaded with available information.

Project managers: What did the Romans psychology ever do for us

05 November

In this blog, Sharon De Mascia explains the benefits of occupational psychology to project managers.

November 2015: Upcoming Events

02 November

It's November, and winter is upon us. If the cold gets you down, cheer yourself up with an event. We've found some of the best conferences and events occurring over the next month.

How to use User Stories as Placeholders for Requirements

30 October

In this post, Russ Lewis writes and follows a User Story from idea through to formal description, and eventually to testable requirement, he also explains how acceptance criteria makes work easier.

SIAM: Is it Emperors clothes or a New Wardrobe?

20 October

In this blog, Barclay Rae introduces the concept of SIAM, its main benefits and the issues it may face.

Resources for Learning about...Millennials at Work

13 October

Millennials are a hot topic in current news and thought leadership. The millennial generation consists of individuals born between 1980 and 2000. Millennials are the fastest growing age group within the work force.

October 2015: Upcoming Events

29 September

We hope you're hungry, because October is Pizza Month. Just in case you have some spare time, in between feasting, we've found some great conferences, seminars, and events occurring across the next month.

How to use your Service Catalogue as a portal to successful Service Management

22 September

Over the last few years one piece of work that I find myself delivering repeatedly is assisting organizations sort out their 'Service Catalogue'.

How to Live with Uncertainty in an Agile Project

16 September

In my previous blog (Planning Agile), I discussed the constituent parts of an Agile plan. This includes the backlog, the overarching plan, and the plans to address uncertainty (sometimes referred to as design plans). How, and when, uncertainty is resolved is critical to maximising value from Agile, and yet it is often overlooked within Agile projects.

Resources for learning about...DevOps

10 September

DevOps, as a term, has gained frequent usage in recent use. DevOps is an approach that aims to optimize communication and cooperation between software and IT teams. How does it do this? How does one adopt DevOps? Check out our favourite resources below to find out...

September 2015: Upcoming Events

02 September

September is, of course, Piano month. Just in case you're not too busy tickling the ivories, we've bought together a list of some upcoming conferences, seminars and workshops occurring across the globe during September.

Silver Bullet and the Lone Ranger: Best Practices in Project Management

26 August

I always marvel when organizations ask for training, support and consulting related to "best practices" in project management. Why? Because there are projects of a thousand different stripes and projects with a thousand-and-one different needs. Best practice is not a panacea. It's not universal. It's special. Project to project. Organization to organization. Each one needs something specific and different

Is Service Availability a 'no-win' situation?

19 August

Early in my ITSM career, I was responsible for the Service Catalogue and Service Level Management (SLM) processes. As part of our service delivery and support preparations, my colleagues developed measures, metrics, and reports for our first mock 'Service Level Review' meeting.

How to Build a Digital Strategy You Can Be Proud Of

12 August

Some organizations are just born digital. The likes of Amazon, eBay and Australia's REA Group (A real estate advertising company) come to mind. Nigel Dalton, the Chief Information Officer (CTO) of REA Group, has stated that they don't have a digital strategy because it is "all we do"

August 2015: Upcoming Events

03 August

August brings us Romance Awareness Month, but before you reach for the roses, check out this list of conferences, seminars and workshops we've found occurring over the next month.

The Service Desk - As good as the rest of the IT organization

29 July

I am often asked to review and make suggestions for improving IT Service Desks - I've been doing this for over 20 years. As a commercial engagement, this involves some pre-sales discussion, proposal and agreement - a sales process, which in itself is often enlightening.

Walk a Mile in Their Shoes: The 4 Step Customer Experience Programmes

21 July

When was the last time you went on to your company website to see how easy it was to undertake a transaction, whether to make a purchase or find the right contact for information? Do you know how your customers think and act? Do you know how your employees think and act?

8 Ways to Become a Better Professional

14 July

Becoming a successful professional is an important way to reach your long term career goals, such as a higher income and greater job satisfaction. Getting ahead doesn't have to be difficult. Use these 10 techniques to improve your capabilities and results this month.

Our 5 Favourite Leadership Slideshares of June

07 July

July 2015: Upcoming Events

26 June

July is Picnic Month, Ice Cream Month and, bafflingly, Horse Radish Month! More importantly, there are a wide variety of conferences, seminars, workshops and exhibitions taking place across the globe during July.

Agile Retrospectives: Questions & Answers

23 June

Retrospectives can be used to inspect and adapt the way of working in agile projects. In this blog post we introduce you to Agile Retrospectives and how to deploy them in your projects.

Part 3: Is your IT Department making the most costly mistake?

15 June 2015

Here, in Part 3, we go one level deeper to review what support elements need to be in place once a solution has gone live into the production environment. This is called the Operational Readiness Framework.

Part 2: Is your IT Department making the most costly mistake?

5 June 2015

In Part 2, we present what items should be checked at the end of each stage from the point of view of IT support operations.

Part 1: Is your IT Department making the most costly mistake?

15 May 2015

Does your IT operational organization can go into chaos when new IT solutions are deployed, experiencing untold amounts of unplanned labour, cost overruns, delays and service outages?

The Six Things You Need to Consider When Announcing Organizational Change

29 April 2015

ITSM is all about organizational change; changes in process, tools and people. Whatever the nature of the change is, there are important things to consider when you are announcing and communicating it.

Using ITIL® to Add Value

13 March 2015

If you have worked with a service management team either as a practitioner or in a leadership capacity there is a good chance that you have been asked by someone, "Is there a point to this service management stuff?"

Planning Agile

8 January 2015

Recently, at the end of a rather pleasant meal my dining companion glibly asked, "one day you'll have to explain to me how we can commit to a plan in Agile, and properly manage and control it".

Introduction to OBASHI® part 2 - OBASHI® in action

19 December 2014

So, who should use OBASHI and why? The short answer is any type or size of organization that wants to understand and optimise their dataflows.If any of these relate to your organization, OBASHI is going to be a very useful addition to your toolbox. It's the only methodology that creates a common picture for the business and IT to work from.

The Secret to Successful Onboarding

21 November 2014

I was recently challenged to explain the benefit to the customer of having access to the knowledge they need when they need it. In the normal course of things, the answers we tend to jump to at first are cost-and effort-related… resources and bottom-line expenses.

Introducing OBASHI®

06 November 2014

OBASHI is getting recognised for what it is - a simple, easy to adopt methodology that maps dataflow through a business and supports meaningful conversations about investment, improvement, and business outcomes.

The key to genuine benefits realization? Active management…

3 October 2014

The case for benefits management is usually premised on the belief that adopting defined practices will improve the realization of benefits from an organization's projects and programmes.

IT is Undergoing a Fundamental Change and We're Not Looking

30 September 2014

IT is undergoing a fundamental change in how it manages and operates itself. Without our realizing it, the primary role of IT as an engineering organization has been shifting to one of service integration.

What can Big Data do for your business?

12 August 2014

By Dr Chibisi Chima-Okereke MEng, MSc, PhD - Founder and CEO of Active Analytics

The Internet of Things has heralded an ever-increasing amount of exhaust data from sensors and devices linked through various networks. The outcome of this is that large amounts of data - including 'structured' data such as telemetry in motor vehicles, semi-structured data such as emails, and unstructured data such as tweets in micro-blogging sites - are now being generated,