aliando organises IT processes ...

… not.

aliando ist not yet another process framework for IT Service Management. Pretty much all what can be said on the architecture of IT Service Processes has been written down in readily available literature. You probably know most of it already.

Of what use is aliando then at all?

aliando is not for use. It only tries you hint you through these huge collections of can-doables. It shows you how to resolve modern conflicts in IT Service Management, and where to place your secret portals for shortcuts to immediate success … Not. It tries to sharpen your view, so you can tell for yourself which patches of these frameworks and management frameworks may be appropriate for your particular IT Service Management situation. If this isn’t enough, aliando finds people who can help you get started, but only that. We won’t do the job for you. Doing this, aliando focuses on innovative, fast paced product situations, or at least a combination of these with traditional Service Management environments.

Therefore the most prominent piece is some sort of interface between agile development methods like Scrum or XP and strategies of traditional IT Service Management as ITIL is. This is a fairly modern market requirement for which we found many question marks in people’s minds out there, and little dedicated literature to start out with. Because just yet another piece of engineering diagram will not do this job.

Don’t the frameworks already do this? The deal with sizing.

As a rule of thumb, the cake is a lie. Many frameworks nowadays end with certifications. And as part of the certification process, you also subscribe to the framework’s code of work ethics. Sometimes they require you to do this even explicitly. I’ve even encountered contradictory codes of conducts for different certifications, which was the reason, that although studying the syllabus for quite some, I finally left out on many. Lecturing at universities I cannot afford to subscribe to one particular code of conduct and credibly retain an independent approach. I’ve never seen a certificate doing any hardware, software or people work anyway.

The global trends point toward separation, not integration. This happens, because a theory today is not only one alternative way of thinking about things, but it is a complete school of thought, certification office, brand, market power, philosophy, social body, method of structuring your daily work routine and general code of conduct at the same time. Since parts of this force have been licensed to other organisations, defending them becomes mutual obligation. Thus we need something a little bit more open than yet another open framework, even if this means leaving the well known path of engineering-like diagrams, which our educational systems dictate us to prefer.

Things become even more difficult, if those frameworks are based on organisations which have been financed on borrowed funds. Investors want to see results, and usually define results in little else than terms of profit. It makes no difference whether this influence comes from financial influence on private companies, political lobbyism or academic sellout.

Well, as coming from the same society, aren’t you biased as well?

Of course I am and I hope I am. This is how the human brain works. I would have to fear myself if I weren’t. So I have to deal with it. I possess no “ultimate truth” or knowledge for the better. Besides, you’re free to go and do things as you see fit, at any time.

aliando merely deals with different aspects of our professional life and hopefully does it as well as others do their job in their part of the game. If it works, it sometimes makes you think, and then you start to see and do things different.

So what does aliando consider to be the basic principles to have in mind for agility IT Service Management?

There are, in fact, two of them:

A The Consequences of Complexity on Organisational Contingency	B The Consequences of the Cynefin model on Service Management	C A collection of common sense truths which usually are not so common