Release And Deployment: An ITSM Narrative Account

by It Governance Publishing (Editor)

Deploying releases into production is fraught with difficulty With so many interested constituencies, processes can go wrong in more ways than they can go right. The problems start when requirements are gathered and, if unmanaged, can flow unchecked through the entire process, potentially delivering something that's bound to fail while, paradoxically, exactly meeting the specification. In Release and An ITSM Narrative Account, we follow the story of the release & deployment process in fictional form. Product overview Chris has got a new job as a release manager - but he's struggling. Parachuted into a large company to fix its release & deployment process after the catastrophic failure of its new app, Asgard, he finds himself battling an array of insular department heads who are all determined that whatever has gone wrong must be another team's fault. They all want the finger of blame pointed elsewhere, and Chris seems to be the perfect target - so they shout down his questions and suggestions as insubordination. How can he pacify his new colleagues, avoid getting fired and get the job done? Lessons from real projects in a narrative format This latest ITSM narrative from Daniel Mclean explains the common pitfalls of release & deployment in fictional form, with each chapter describing a difficult meeting with a different department head and featuring a set of pointers that our hero would have found beneficial. Based on the real-life experience of the author and other ITSM practitioners, Release and An ITSM Narrative Account exposes the potential pitfalls and explores how to handle the issues that come with such projects, all in the face of shifting organisational structures and changing management objectives. Contents Winning The Job Where Did My Job Go? Finance - Wisdom or Indifference? Bad Beginnings Requirements - Voice of the Business Sales - Heart of the Business Application Development Infrastructure - Physical Clouds QA - Guardians of the Gates Management Intervention Change Management - Short Circuit Release - Let Slip the Dogs of War Deploy - The End of the Beginning About the author Daniel McLean is an ITSM consultant with over 20 years' experience in IT. He has spent the last ten years designing, implementing and operating processes supporting ITSM. He was also a peer reviewer during development of the OGC ITIL v3 Service Strategy Best Practice. Daniel McLean's other ITSM narrative accounts are also available from IT Governance.

128 pages, Paperback

Published December 17, 2015

Reviews

[Roger K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book about ITSM, yet it's even more interesting because of how it challenges convention in the "business fable" category of books. The protagonist, like in previous books in the series, is fallible, at times unlikable, and regularly does things that make me cringe. Evil sometimes wins in the end. It's fascinating to try to figure out how much of this is deliberate and how much is happenstance.

In this book in particular, there is a sequence where the author is navigating busy traffic. It's an obvious metaphor for the common ITSM failing of trying to force through too much change at once, but it is not noticed by the protagonist, nor alluded to at all later. Was this intentional? Almost certainly, but why handle it this way. I would love to have an hour to pick the author's brain about this!

I recommend this book to ITSM consultants and those trying to drive change in their organizations, as it will prompt reflection of your own work and help remind you that you don't have all the answers.