I realise the game of rugby might not be the most obvious analogy which springs to mind when you think about Service Management but hear me out.

Rugby, for me, has always been a great spectator sport; I have more the physique of the ball and not the man mountains of players. I marvel at the discipline these giants display for the game and how the game does not descend into a bar room brawl with so much muscle and will to win in such a small area.

When I think about great IT customer support, it is all about the skills of the individuals and the hand over to other support teams. How skill and great hand overs to other support teams can win or lose the IT support game. IT support is always a battle between resolving the issues efficiently without taking too much time and customer frustration increasing.

Picture the field, the IT organisation vs Customer Frustration and Time. The whistle blows, it is game time!!! The ball goes into the IT service desk scrum and the incident ball comes out to the IT organisation’s support team, the first line engineer is running with the incident ball only to be put to ground by Time. Over the top comes support from the second line teams, the ball is handed over to the second line engineer seamlessly, the engineer side steps Customer Frustration with clear communication. Oh no, Time comes in, tackles the ball and is now running with it, second line support chases the ball down. Time’s lead is growing with Customer Frustration following up quickly behind but Time is skilfully tackled by second line and runs the ball back, the final ball is handed over to the third line engineer. The fastest and most experienced players on the field with lightning footwork the ball goes down for the try and the incident is resolved.

Without great hand over’s of the ball, Customer Frustration and Time would get the ball and the value for money for all the business areas, who have paid money to see the IT organisation win, isn’t seen. If the support individual cannot hand the incident ball off to each other, individual player must try and jink past the opposition to try and close the incident. This sometimes will work based on the skill of the individual support engineer and the ease of which the incident could be closed, but sometimes it will not. If the IT organisation can win with individual skill, great hand over’s and team work then the business areas sees the value of paying to come support the IT organisation.

The other thing I enjoy about rugby, and most other sports, is the analysis of all parts of play, the breakdown and repeats of every tackle, shot, space the players should of used etc.

This is the area, where the service management team comes in, the coaches. They can take apart the play; they see the 1st line engineer fumbles the ball on pick up. A work around could be designed for the present game but a problem could be created to go away and really analyse the issue to come up with a fix, maybe a grip on the some gloves or a textured ball to make it less slippery. Communication between the second and third line support teams might be poor so the ball was intercepted and needing to be won back. Encouraging better communication between the two leads to be better and more fluid play.

Various areas of improvement could be categories, like in the ITSM tools, to be later broken down into target areas eg running down the line, communication, creating space etc, which can be work upon away from the game in set areas of expertise.

The service management team can also look at the agreements between the various team members showing who is going to take the hand off ball and who is going to come and protect the ball. This goes some way to designing an OLA. An agreement between the IT organisations showing how an incident should be handled, the support timings and items covered by the agreement. This should be in a format, that in the heat of play, can be easily understood and quickly.

Documenting how set piece of play should be played. Making sure all team members know what is required and how to do something is also an important part of the Service Management team’s job.

IT service management is all about creating value for the business areas and the best customer experience. The play might not be the finish article and individuals and team might need some work, but if the IT organisation is committed to ITIL and service management, they will work at these areas, making small and large gains and improvements. Reminding why the business areas pay for their IT organisation and the value it creates.

Hopefully I have gone some way to try and convince you that rugby and IT service management are not too dissimilar after all.

Thankyou for reading my post. This is my opportunity to blog about a subject I love but am still learning. These posts are my way of showing how I understand the subject, however, I would encourage you to leave comments, did you agree / disagree with the post? Did I not explain something well enough or incorrectly? Do you want me to blog about another subject within ITIL? All feedback helps me to understand more. Thankyou.