Excluded from an ITIL project

Dear Bob …

My company is currently looking at ITIL as the end all-be all of process development. Let me explain further that I work for a subsidiary of the parent company, not headquarters.

I’m the poor schmuck who is responsible for our problem management system. I brought this thing in nearly a decade ago and have done all the development and support.

I know the very basics of ITIL. I’ve been spending more time on learning it since I found out just how brainwashed headquarters management is on it. What I’ve learned confirms that we’re in pretty good basic compliance already. We just don’t use the ITIL terminology.

On to the problem. Management has decided that our current product does not meet our needs if we’re going to go ITIL. They’ve put together a team to define the business requirements. Guess who isn’t on the team?

So now I’m torn. Do I strong-arm my way onto the team so I know what they’re looking for or do I sit back and wait for them to provide a list of functions that may or may not be feasible in any product? From what I’ve found out about the team they’ve built there’s no one on there that actually understands what needs to happen ‘under the hood’ to make ITIL work.

Any suggestions?

– Outside the tent

Dear Outsider …

I think you’re asking the wrong question, or perhaps you’re asking the right question, but prematurely. A better place to begin might be to define more clearly what your personal goal is — what you’d like to see come out of this.

Let’s start by acknowledging that if the folks responsible for the ITIL initiative had the good sense that God gave rice they’d have included you in the effort. After all, you’re the person who made the current system happen (I presume it’s handling the basics of incident management competently). Unless your departure is part of the ITIL plan it’s hard to imagine anything about the effort that’s improved through your exclusion.

While that analysis explains whatever bemusement, indignation or resentment you might feel about the situation, it doesn’t define your goal. Here are some possibilities:

• Vindication: Many in your situation, deep down (or sometimes right there at the surface) are looking for acknowledgment by management that they’ve done you wrong. In those rare situations in business where graciousness and good manners guide action, this would be an achievable goal. The desire for vindication is certainly understandable under these circumstances. It has two disadvantages: The odds of success are small, and the return on investment is miniscule.

• Project success: If this is your goal, it’s admirable. It means you’ve been able to dispassionately assess the situation, recognize that the effort’s chances of success would be improved through your inclusion, and are looking for the best strategy for making it happen.

The challenge here: No matter what your actual goal, you will, from the perspective of those making the decisions, appear to be looking for vindication. Unless they’re just too stupid to live they must recognize at some level that they’ve insulted you. Since they know this, they’ll interpret any request you make to be included as an expression of your feeling of insult, not your desire to help.

• Job preservation: You’re responsible for the current process and the system that supports it. You’re not part of the replacement effort. Concern over your employment status at the end of it all is a perfectly valid and reasonable concern.

Even better, this is a concern that is entirely reasonable to raise as an issue. So my advice is to use this as the starting point for a productive conversation. Talk to your boss. Explain that since your name is on the old way of doing things and you aren’t part of the process of figuring out the new way of doing things, you need to know if you should be starting to look for another opportunity.

If not, you’d appreciate some insights as to when and how you’ll be brought into the process, to reassure you regarding your future with the company.

Whether the answer is clearly thought out, noncommittal mumbling, obvious improvisation, or a deer-in-the-headlights look, you’ll learn something useful while getting your point across in an inoffensive way.

– Bob