Total Quality Management

Total Quality Management was initially applied to the Japanese manufacturing sector now IT service managers are using it improve the service provided throughout its lifecycle.

First we must define quality before we can measure and manage it. With Conformance Quality we have an established standard which must be met. It's like comparing an IT service to another that is known to be good. Gap Quality is a standard where a services are measured to determine whether they meet or exceed expectations. It's hard to measure those expectation and the level to which they are met because people perceive quality of service in different ways. Excellence Quality is a mutually agreed standard of the highest excellence for the service provided.

Value Quality is in my opinion,  is the most useful measure of how well a service is performing. Business Managers look at every part of their spending within  business in a simple way: ROI (Return on Investment). I have said in previous blog posts that I believe IT projects are like any other project and should be measured using the same rules. If a Project is not adding value to the enterprise, something has gone wrong in the conception, implementation, or monitoring of the project. Sometime issues are not identified in the project until much later. Those reviews could be used to identify the root cause of a problem. Steps can then be taken to remedy the root cause.

Re: An Overview of ITSM

The service sector in the industrialised world is responsible for the lion's share in the domestic product of those nations. Because all service industries use IT, those that provide it have had to focus on quality more and more.

Enterprises that have adopted ITSM have experienced improvements in their productivity because downtimes for service are much less than they used to be. They have implemented full or partial MOF or ITIL-like practices to benefit the businesses they are serving.

Introduction of uniformity and quality standards is probably a good thing. If a service user experience a interruption to their normal service, that interruption is always is handled by the same person - the Incident Manager. There is no ambiguity in clearly defined roles such as these and a RACI chart will confirm who is responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed. When everyone knows what is expected of them and what to expect, efficiency of the IT service is the result.