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In his previous interview (Using Best Practices in IT), Xavier Van Lindt explained how Best Practices prevent communication problems encountered by IT. In this second article, Xavier presents how Best Practices help to avoid IT security problems. Indeed, the second problem observed which joins the first point on the lack of communication is security. Security is the result of effective communication between business management and IT. IT security is only in alignment with the security needs mentioned by the business. Here too, the impact is spread over the 3 hierarchical levels of the company (strategic/tactical/operational). It is therefore governance that will make it possible to know what the needs and requirements of the businesses are with regard to security. Several Best Practices address the topic of IT security. In the ITIL 4 framework, security is studied in the strategic modules ITIL Direct Plan and Improve and ITIL Leader Digital & IT Strategy. In DevOps, there is a module dedicated to security, which is one of its fundamental principles, DevSecOps. Contrary to popular belief, IT security is not just a design concern. It is not enough to put passwords, firewalls, or ISPs. DevOps modules teach that security is present in everyday life when you are in the RUN (production). During a run, the overarching concept of safety is called observability. It is often forgotten that it is essential to observe everything that is happening in order not to miss anything in terms of safety. IT Security is not just about hacking, phishing, or spamming. IT Security is also about the availability of data, in addition to confidentiality and integrity. DevOps, through its SRE, Continuous Delivery, and DevSecOps modules, focuses on measuring everything that happens in production to be sure to guarantee availability.  

IT security incorporated in Best Practices

The master benchmark for security remains the ISO 27000 series. ITIL mentions security as a practice, but DevOps, in a very operational way, focuses on observability and culture. In DevOps Foundation and DevSecOps security is not just the role of the CISO but the concern of ALL members of the organiSation, which makes it a cultural phenomenon. Safety is not technical, it is above all cultural and comes from the profession. Everyone needs to be involved, which is well mentioned by DevOps. Thus, what we will expect from the CISO (Chief information security officer) is not simply to evoke security policies (as mentioned in the ITIL 4 training) but also an evangelization of the entire IT department. As well as of users and customers at the level of different security aspects (strategic or operational tactics). Safety is everywhere and concerns everyone. Since security is not just a matter of politics, mechanisms or systems must be designed, tested, and supervised in operation. In order to keep Safety in line, we must communicate! There are 5 universal concepts found in DevOps, ISO, and ITIL repositories, to protect the information the organization needs to run its business:

• Confidentiality: access to data limited to authorized persons
• Integrity: accuracy throughout the system
• Availability: data available when, where, and for whom.
• Authentication: ensure the identity of the requester
• Non-repudiation: being able to prove the action carried out.

However, the DevSecOps framework broadens the topic, makes security a cultural aspect in addition to being technological, and places a huge focus on observability. Knowing everything that goes on in day-to-day production is an integral part of safety. Unfortunately, even though almost all companies have observability tools, there is not always someone in front of the screens to see what is going on. Or you do not really get to see what you should see, so the issue returns. ITIL calls this practice “event management”; DevOps, “observability” but above all DevOps focuses on the criticality of security and event management. For a professional who would like to run security, I recommend ISO 27000 training and for the professional who wants to understand the security issue as a whole, I recommend DevSecOps training instead.  

Xavier van Lindt

Xavier is Senior Consultant and accredited trainer ITIL 4 Foundation & Intermediate, ITIL v3 Foundation, Practitioner & Intermediate, ITIL MALC, ITIL Expert, DevOps Foundation, ISO20000 Foundation, Lean IT Foundation, Lean, Kaizen, Scrum Master, DevOps Leader, DevOps SRE, DevOps continuous delivery, Integrated Service Management (ISM).

Hospitals are going through a period of change and reform, facing the challenging task of delivering transformation while protecting quality, the effective use of resources, and continuing productivity. This change is unrelated to the current situation regarding Covid-19. The hospital sector shared its need for a framework to manage and control the delivery of change across the portfolio, program, and project management. The aim is to build its capabilities to manage the implementation of transformation objectives both effectively and efficiently.  

Why Is Project Management Important in Healthcare?

A number of statistics show the enormous size of the healthcare industry and its impact on the overall Swiss economy. (Figures provided by the Swiss Federal Statistical Office https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/en/home/statistics/health.html) These statistics underscore how much work is required in healthcare project management to continuously improve operations in such a large industry. Healthcare costs in Switzerland amount to 11.7% of GDP, making it the second-highest in Europe. In the 2018 Euro Health Consumer Index survey, Switzerland was ranked first and described as having an excellent healthcare system. For this reason, healthcare project management has become even more important in recent years. This is largely due to safety concerns: an ineffectively managed healthcare project can lead to patient health problems.  

Challenges Of Healthcare Project Management

Project management in healthcare is distinct because it takes complexity and risk to a whole new level. Here are some of the primary reasons it’s different than other industries:

1. Funding and Optimization
2. Quality and Efficiency
3. High Discipline Diversity
4. Lack of Skilled Resources
5. Deficient Change Methodology

1. Funding and Optimization

Project management aligns money with activity. It ensures you have the funding for your efforts at various stages of a project. To derive the greatest benefit from the available finance the project must be optimized, which means allocating exactly the right amount of space towards, operating theatres, diagnostic suites, public areas, and other facilities to design the most cost-efficient arrangement.

2. Quality and Efficiency

The cost-reducing force of managed care has galvanized numerous mergers and acquisitions in the hospital and medical group sectors in an attempt to gain economies of scale and offer a more economically attractive service. There are harsher and more serious ramifications if projects go over budget or off schedule because patients’ well-being may be at stake. Any mistake or lack of process can have a detrimental effect on patients. Quality control is a major part of project management: in healthcare, all opportunities should be considered for efficiency from the project’s inception. This includes ensuring that the architectural and engineering designs are aligned to the budgetary and functional goals of the project. The increased demand for healthcare combined with rising costs has put more pressure on the industry to deliver economical, high-quality services. Trying to find the balance between efficiency and quality places even more importance on the need for better project management.

3. High Discipline Diversity

High-technology care is provided by very specialized health care professionals. Teams of multiple disciplines, especially if they have not worked together before, are likely to lack a common language. People from the same discipline share a common meaning for the words they use and understand each other. But, when a number of disciplines are involved—surgery, physical therapy, social work, nursing—people may use the same words and incorrectly assume they mean the same to everyone around the table. In communication terms, what occurs is the erroneous translation: a person from one discipline encodes a meaning for a term but someone from a different discipline decodes a different meaning. As a result, the message is not understood. This is particularly difficult to address in the health care team because of the apparent simplicity of the terminology. Perhaps the safest assumption the project leader can make at the start of the effort is that people from different disciplines do not understand each other and that giving and receiving feedback is crucial. Asking apparently obvious questions can be very useful until a common language is achieved within the team. The project manager must ensure that team members overcome their functional unfamiliarity and have to confront the skepticism and suspicion between functions before the team can work effectively.

4. Lack of Skilled Resources

As health care’s landscape changes, so do the type of resources required on successful projects. The current trend of adopting the Project Management Office (PMO) framework does not always equate to the ability to successfully lead multi-organization projects, work side by side with clinicians to change care delivery, or assess the impact of a significant regulation. A project team without the necessary skills and experiences, including health care industry expertise, will ultimately fail. → Read more about the setup of a PMO in the hospital sector in this interview.

5. Deficient Change Methodology

The pressure to change rapidly is especially palpable in health care, as organizations that historically ‘grew into’ change now must employ change methodology to be successful. Often, projects do not include a workstream dedicated to preparing the organization for significant change. Change communication is particularly challenging due to the political dichotomy between physicians and administration. The result is a lack of understanding, acceptance, and ultimately adoption of the change, leading to failed project outcomes. A range of other issues is affecting the evolving industry — issues for which project management is increasingly vital. These issues include the following:

• Decreasing payments from government health programs and private insurance companies have compelled healthcare organizations to find ways to save money.
• New and complicated systems for electronic health records on patients need continual monitoring and improvement.
• New technologies also need tracking and improvement.
• New regulations continue to emerge.
• There is greater scrutiny from outside groups, including the government, health insurance companies, and patients.

 

Benefits of Healthcare Project Management

Strong project management helps improve healthcare and the healthcare industry in a number of ways. Project management can do the following:

Ensure

• that the technical composition of the project team is based on the project objective. If the objective is to reduce costs, ensure that all members are knowledgeable about cost measurement and accounting.
• that team members are at a high enough level in their respective organizations that recommendations have a high probability of being implemented.
• that the politics of integration are not underestimated. Only when team members appreciate that all stand or fall together can the actual project work begin.
• that team members genuinely relate to each other as peers. Hierarchy must not interfere with the peer relationships of the team. The person(s) who directs the team in solving a particular problem should be that member with the relevant knowledge and experience, rather than the person at the top of the implicit hierarchy.

Improve

• the quality of care by improving processes used to provide that care.
• communication among healthcare staff caring for patients.
• organizational planning.
• budgeting, as strong project management directly aligns resources with important work.
• processes that are established to decrease the risk of lawsuits — in large part because improved processes increase the quality of care.
• relations with stakeholders, including insurance providers, government agencies, patients, and others.
• staff productivity.
• the mitigation of the risk and prevent legal issues from arising.

PMI’s PMP certification underwent a major change in 2021. Unlike in previous years, the Exam Content Outline (ECO) balances the certification content between the traditional method of project management and the management of ongoing projects in Agile or Hybrid mode. In fact, currently, half of the 180 PMP exam questions are about Agility. Among the new concepts introduced in the official training material of PMI, we can highlight the Product Minimum Viable (Minimum Viable Product – MVP) and the Minimum Business Increment (MBI). These concepts are widely used and come from the field of ‘Lean Startup’. Within the new PMP training, they are included in the context of Agile methods.  

Origin and definition of the MVP 

MVP stands for Minimal Viable Product. Frank Robinson introduced the concept of MVP in 2001 and sees it as the result of the process of parallel product and customer development. Robinson has found that the team spends a lot of time adding features that do not add value, which creates additional risk. The solution is therefore to find the right size of the product for the company and for the customer. This should be enough to drive customer adoption and customer satisfaction. In 2011, the term was repeated by Eric Ries in his Best-Seller “The Lean Startup” which presents his experiences in the creation of startups. He defines MVP as a new version of the product that allows the team to gather as much knowledge as possible about customer needs and validate them by testing hypotheses. The goal is to minimize the effort and time in product development. Eric Ries cites Dropbox as an example that used this concept and created a 3-minute video to explain how the product works. In a single day, the signatures of the people involved went from 5,000 to 75,000 without having the product. MVP also allows for rapid feedback from clients on their interests and preferences without engaging in a cumbersome and haphazard development process that may ultimately be out of line with their expectations.  

MVP in project management

A 2013 Standish Group study on IT development projects shows that only 20% of features are frequently used by customers and 50% of features are used very little. For the remaining 30% of the features, they are sometimes used and do not really help improve customer perception. The results are consistent with the Pareto principle which is based on the following law: 80% of the effects are the product of 20% of the causes. Thus, the adaptation of this rule shows that 20% of the functionalities achieve 80% of customer satisfaction. It should also be remembered that the first principle underlying the Agile Manifesto is to satisfy the customer by quickly and regularly delivering high added value features. The above results clearly show the importance of MVP in product design and development based on the concept of “minimal” and “viability”. PMI also finds that creating an MVP inspires the team to achieve the goal of the project. When the results are too abstract or too far apart, teams can become discouraged or overwhelmed. Minimally viable products create short-term urgency and a sense of accomplishment. All of these are valuable for the client, but also for the project team. The idea of ​​an iterative process is to create a version of a raw product and at the same time seek customer feedback. Thus, desired changes and design issues are identified at the right time. Each cycle is an opportunity to improve the product in an iterative and/or incremental way. We can thus understand why this concept is taken up a few decades later, in the management of projects in Agile mode which is based on the prioritization and organization of the functionalities in Backlog and on the segmentation of the product in iterations that deliver the functionalities with strong added value first.  

Characteristics of an MVP

1. Adequate value perceived by the customer:

The MVP must create sufficient value among customers that encourages them to use it.

2. Assurance on future profits

The MVP must also retain the first customers giving assurance and visibility on the development of the expected benefits.

3. Continuous improvement

The MVP is an iterative process that is part of a continuous improvement process in the sense that we have access to customer feedback which can be integrated over time into the future development of the product.  

Successful MVP examples 

1. Zappos

Zappos launched in 1999, the success story of Lean Startup. Its founder had the idea of ​​selling shoes on the internet. The idea did not seem very promising in the sense that the shoes should be tried on before they are purchased. Through a basic site, it showed pictures of shoes from nearby stores. With each order placed, he bought the shoes, repackaged them, shipped them, and provided after-sales service himself. Following the increase in sales, he was able to convince investors to finance his startup, which was subsequently bought out for $ 1 billion by Amazon.

2. Uber

At the time of its creation, Uber combined drivers available to carry passengers with people wishing to travel. As it developed, the company added other features to meet other customer requirements.

3. Airbnb

For Airbnb, two young designers knew that an important convention was being organized in San Francisco and that the rooms would not be available. They then rented the rooms in their apartment with basic services (Air bed and breakfast) hence the name of the company. This is how they invented a new concept of the rental by eliminating intermediation.

4. Amazon

Amazon started out exclusively by selling books online through a simple web page before diversifying its offering to its customers. Its concrete examples show the importance of MVP in the incremental creation of value and in the control of the risk of non-compliance until the delivery of the final product.  

Prioritization techniques

One of the fundamental characteristics of agile approaches is the maintenance of a product backlog that reflects the list of desired capabilities, written in the form of user stories. This list is prioritized by presenting the elements with the highest commercial value first. Among the prioritization techniques mentioned in the context of PMP certification, we can mention:

• MoSCoW method: classify the functionalities in the categories Must Have (vital), Should Have (essential), Could Have (Comfort), and Won’t Have (Later). This method identifies an MVP.
• Kano method: identification of the really essential capacities from a classification of the functionalities or capacities in the categories Basic, Performance, or attractive.
• Pairwise comparison: consists of comparing each pair of user stories to determine the priority US.
• 100 points method: each stakeholder distributes a total of 100 points over the different user stories, which allows them to be prioritized.

 

The Minimum Business Value Increment (MBI) 

Some projects improve or revise products that are already in service. As such, an MVP is not necessary to assess interest. Using the concept of minimum business value increment (MBI) is more viable. MBI is the smallest amount (increment) of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business.

• Minimum: the smallest amount of value that can be achieved. Focusing on a minimum accelerates the realization of value and facilitates the management of work (time, cost …).
• Business: deliver value from a business perspective, aimed at customers and aligned with the business strategy of the company.
• Increment: the realization is done in an incremental way to validate the achievements and avoid waste and the risk of non-conformity of the final product or service.

The MBI provides a common guideline and direction within all of the company’s teams. Definition, implementation, and commissioning work are focused on delivering a high added value increment. It thus makes it possible to sequence the list of jobs based on the realization of value as the basic criterion. The use of an MVP is therefore justified in the case of the discovery of certain elements of value and in a context of innovation (new customers, new products, and concepts). Whereas the MBI is used in the case where the customers or the product already exist and one wishes to improve the existing offer.  

Haykel Kchaou

Haykel is an accredited PMP, PMI-PBA, PRINCE2 trainer with over 15 years of field experience and PMI Authorized Instructor.

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in project and program management. He has carried out end-to-end IT projects in multicultural environments. As Programme Manager and PMO, Jeff organized the P3O installations at NEC Computers and Fortis Bank. He managed the program offices of the largest transformation programs of NEC Computers and BNP Investment Partners. He is a multilingual trainer for AgilePM, PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, and MoP, able to provide courses in both English and French.  

What is your current function? What are you working on at present?

These are changing times. Last year, I did a lot of bespoke Project Management training for a major international client of QRP. And last year, I was also an author! I used the lockdown to finish a book that I had been working on for 10 years. This year, I am marketing my book. I am also delivering various QRP courses.  

How did you build a career in Project Management?

I started off in the UK as a programmer and business analyst. When I moved to France, I became an IT project manager. The projects got bigger and bigger – I ran two big projects in Argentina and the USA. And I innovated: in the mid-’90s, I introduced Agile techniques into a global project. The next career move was to become program manager of the worldwide Y2K initiative for NEC Computers. Then I moved sideways. After Y2K, I set up an IT PMO for NEC Computers and I was program office manager (PMO) for two major business transformation programs.  

What is the biggest problem or challenge today in Project Management that you have found in your career?

The biggest challenge is to get an entire team of project managers to use a common project management method. There is a huge payback if everyone uses the same method. But it is hard to do – the method has to be simple but effective, and there has to be strong engagement.  

What advice would you give to the PPM community?

Whatever your role in PPM, build a real Community of Practice to share and develop your good practices. That means practices that really work in your organization. Proven solutions, not textbook solutions.  

Could you tell us about your book “Lean3 Project Management”?

When I was working at NEC Computers, a senior manager introduced Lean Manufacturing into the company. It was sensational: a huge, positive change. Ever since then, I have been trying to work out how to transfer the best of Lean Manufacturing into Project Management. Many concepts will not translate – the factory is based on repetitive processes whereas each project is a one-off. So I was panning for gold. It was hard to find, but, yes, there were nuggets waiting to be found… I started writing a book ten years ago, and the answers came slowly, year by year. By 2019 I had a working draft – and some clients who were thinking along the same lines as me, to test out ideas. In 2020, during the Covid lockdown, I had time to bring everything together, and publish the book. I am really pleased with the final book. The subtitle of the book is “Lean Project Management for repeated project success”. My vision is the Project Factory, where project management is industrialized and success is repeatable. My book is the starting point for that vision.  

A final word?

I started working with QRP International in 2006, when it was a 3-man start-up. Today, 15 years later, QRP has grown considerably. I am still a QRP trainer. Over the 15 years, I have given a huge range of training courses in 13 countries and have worked with some really great clients. It has been a truly interesting journey.  

Jeff Ball

Jeff has over 25 years of experience in project and program management. He has carried out end-to-end IT projects in multicultural environments. As Programme Manager and PMO, Jeff organized the P3O installations at NEC Computers and Fortis Bank; He managed the program offices of the largest transformation programs of NEC Computers and BNP Investment Partners. He is a multilingual trainer for AgilePM, PRINCE2, MSP, P3O, and MoP, able to provide courses in both English and French.

With the adoption of the ITIL 4 framework, the concept of a service life cycle on which ITIL v3 was based has been replaced by a more holistic approach. The processes in ITIL 4 have been replaced by 34 practices. This change has given organizations more freedom to define tailored Service Transition processes. The Service Transition Manager is responsible for planning service transactions for operational use and coordinating the necessary resources. He/she must oversee and control all changes to a product’s lifecycle so that changes are made with minimal impact on IT services. In particular, a Service Transition Manager must approve products, determine that new, modified, or discontinued services meet operational expectations and do not have a negative impact on customers, users, and the company. The Service Transition Manager must also verify that the service works in both foreseeable and abnormal situations and can be supported in the event of failures and/or errors.  

Main responsibilities of the Service Transition Manager

The Service Transition Manager is responsible for managing all the complexities related to old and new services. He/she also manages the unintended consequences irremediably related to the modification of services and service management processes or the introduction of new services. The tasks also include the management of changes to existing services (such as expansion, reduction, change of supplier, modification of requirements or availability of skills, transfer of services to and from other service providers) and management of deactivations and interruptions of services, applications and/or other service components. Specifically, the main responsibilities include:

Speed up decision making

A Service Transition Manager must be able to speed up many processes if there is a need. In order to do so, the service transition manager must be able to plan and manage changes efficiently and effectively. He/she should also see to it that the adoption and management of the change and the effectiveness of the standardization of the transition activities are promoted well.

Stakeholder communication

One of the main tasks of a Service Transition Manager is communication with stakeholders. The goal is to ensure that transactions take place smoothly and without incurring blocks or problems. Defining a clear and linear communication plan is certainly a fundamental part of the profession.

Track data & provide management information

It is essential to keep track of all the steps of a transaction, whether it is a combined global plan or an individual transition plan, or even release plans. Only when it is clear what the goals of a transformation are, it is possible to understand what data is needed. Gathering all the information from the beginning will make it easier to progress quickly into the more advanced stages of a job.

Budgeting and accounting for service and resource transaction activities

In larger organizations, a Service Transition Manager may also be hired for budgeting activities for their areas of expertise.

Management and coordination

Among the main responsibilities of a Service Transition Manager, there are certainly all the management and coordination activities on multiple levels. Obviously, it is not about managing all the requests in the IT field but mainly those involved in the activities of Service Transition and the provision of Early Life Support (ELS), resources that can include people, test environments, hardware, and software licenses. Risk management is one of the key tasks of this role. Then there is the coordination of service transition activities between projects, suppliers, and service teams (in collaboration with project managers and other staff, if necessary).

Guarantee quality

The Service Transition Manager must ensure that the final delivery of each service transition meets the agreed customer and stakeholder requirements specified in the service design package. It is the duty of the Service Transition Manager to ensure that service changes create the expected business value.

Maintenance and monitoring of progress

The Service Transition Manager is held accountable for maintaining and monitoring progress for every aspect of the service transaction: change, configuration, test, release and deployment, and any intermediate steps. It must also monitor progress in actions and work to mitigate possible risks.

Organizational knowledge 

In-depth knowledge of the organization and its potential value and the identification of all the people involved within the IT organization. How to best use this knowledge and support the employees are certainly extremely important skills for a Service Transition Manager.  

Why is a Service Transition Manager essential within an organization?

The role of the Service Transition Manager is to accompany the services and products from the construction or modification phase to the operational one. Ensuring that everything takes place with the least possible number of errors and obstacles. The role of conjunction between the organization and the customer is essential to ensure constant quality standards and to ensure customer satisfaction and improve various aspects of the work team.

Xavier is Senior Consultant and accredited trainer ITIL 4 Foundation & Intermediate, ITIL v3 Foundation, Practitioner & Intermediate, ITIL MALC, ITIL Expert, DevOps Foundation, ISO20000 Foundation, Lean IT Foundation, Lean, Kaizen, Scrum Master, DevOps Leader, DevOps SRE, DevOps continuous delivery, Integrated Service Management (ISM).  

What is your background, your current position and your mission?

I studied electrical engineering and after my graduation, I followed a job opportunity to work as a computer maintenance technician. This is when I entered the IT branch. I have worked 43 years in the IT sector and am currently a consultant and trainer in Western Europe and Africa.  

What are the recurring issues that you see in IT services?

Communication in the broad sense of the term is still the Achilles heel of various departments. Professionals do not communicate enough, they communicate badly or not with the right people. Generally speaking, communication takes place in a reactive rather than a proactive form. There is of course a communication problem between IT management and business management, but the communication problem is, unfortunately, a global problem, which exists at all levels.

Communication in ITIL

If we analyze the ITIL V3 decision-making level scheme, companies are organized like pyramids. The communication problem I am talking about is a global problem for the company, it is present at each level and between each level. This lack of effective communication leads to many misunderstandings and shortcomings but above all a lack of trust between the stakeholders. This is a big issue because trust, found in the concepts of ITIL and DevOps, is the key to the success of IT-based businesses. In an ITIL environment, communication is more than ever at the centre of the challenges. ITIL 4 offers a framework focused on process automation, optimization of collaboration and communication across the enterprise, as well as the integration and development of service management beyond IT ( such as HR, finance or customer support). Why such an emphasis on collaboration? Simply because collaborating means working together for a common goal. Collaboration is only possible if you communicate effectively. At the strategic level, effective communication between corporate management and IT leadership is critical to ensure that the IT department is and will be well aligned with corporate strategy. IT needs to deliver value to its customers, which is one of the 7 ITIL guiding principles: put value first. This principle is accompanied by a set of components and activities described in the Service Value System (SVS) and implemented by the organisation to enable value creation. This system exists and works only if communication is effective. The practice of relationship management allows the IT department to understand what value means for its interlocutor and its satisfaction criteria with respect to the IT deliverable. The modules of the ITIL 4 Strategic Leader course, namely DITS and DPI, provide a link between the management of the company and the IT management. It is through communication at the governance level that an organisation will be able to align IT governance with corporate governance. Communication allows you to know the business rules to apply in computer programs to be aligned. It is the company that communicates whether the deliverable must be compatible with such or such software, the rules to comply with GxP, the Basel II / III agreements and the national rules to be observed. At the tactical level, communication helps identify customer needs and requirements to establish SLAs. Circumstantial communication is needed at all levels, whether strategic, tactical or operational, with different circumstances and different stakeholders. At the operational level, it will be necessary for the employees of the service centre, who are in contact with the users, to communicate correctly and effectively to know who is the interlocutor, what is the reason for his call and what are his expectations in terms of value. . The ITIL 4 Foundation and ITIL Specialist Create Deliver and Support modules allow the operational level to better understand aspects of communication between stakeholders.

Communication in a DevOps environment

In a DevOps environment, we find communication in two (culture and sharing) of the 5 perspectives and values ​​of DevOps, based on the “CALMS” model:

• Culture
• Automation
• Lean
• Measurement
• Sharing

Communication in Scrum

In a Scrum environment, there are the different meetings that build internal trust in the development team: . Daily Stand up meeting It optimizes team collaboration and performance. This meeting also facilitates alignment with customer needs. . Sprint planning The creation of a plan collaboratively by all members of the Scrum team. This meeting also facilitates alignment with the PO and customer needs. . Sprint review This meeting is held at the end of the Sprint to inspect the increment achieved and adapt the Product Backlog if necessary. During the Sprint review, the Scrum team and stakeholders discuss what has been done during the Sprint. To conclude, each best practice has its own way of addressing the issue, but communication is omnipresent and at all levels, whether in an ITIL, DevOps or Agile/Scrum context.  

What are some concepts that you think are relevant to study in the near future to develop as a professional?

Lean, Agile, DevOps and ITIL 4 are the essential foundations. What would be interesting would be to create very in-depth and practical training modules that take the best of the 4 Best Practices, but based on profiles/professions. For example a module for user support, one for transition, one concerning relations between internal customers (SLA) and external customers (contracts) and a last on the management of operations. The professionals who follow a module like that could learn the best of the 4 methods and benefit from the experience of the trainer to deepen the practical side. I think it would be better not to train in ‘silo mode’ but rather to follow a transversal training where professionals can find examples of their daily life, sometimes agile, sometimes a little less. This training would allow, in addition to being motivating for the participants, to really train the staff and to respond to another big issue in IT services, namely the search for talent. → Also read: Communication in virtual projects