Move from Firefighter to Reliable Operator

IT departments in a firefighting state can’t gain control of their operations, deliver acceptable levels of service to the business, or sustain stability for infrastructure, applications, or staff.
Often, IT departments don’t have the ability to improve their service management simply because they are too consumed with handling incidents.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Before you can start this project, you need to douse the fire enough that you gain some breathing room. Our quick wins will help you initiate the process.
You must establish a stable environment before becoming proactive.

Impact and Result

You will experience improved maturity in the following processes:

Service Desk & Incident Management
Change & Deployment Management
Event & Problem Management
Capacity & Performance Management

Move from Firefighter to Reliable Operator Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should improve your service management maturity, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Move from Firefighter to Reliable Operator – Executive Brief

1. Assess the current state

Assess the current state of the organization’s service management processes and identify gaps.

2. Tackle the quick wins

Implement quick wins to douse the flames.

3. Move out of firefighting

Establish service management processes that will move IT out of firefighting mode.

4. Become proactive

Establish service management processes that will help IT become proactive.

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

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Guided Implementation 1: Assess the current state

Call 1: Assess the current state of reactive service management processes.
Call 2: Assess the current state of proactive service management processes. Identify your maturity level.

Guided Implementation 2: Tackle the quick wins

Call 1: Identify quick wins.
Call 2: Create a task force and implement the quick wins.

Guided Implementation 3: Move out of firefighting

Call 1: Identify process activities for service desk & incident management. Remove the hero culture.
Call 2: Identify process activities for change & deployment management. Communicate result to the business.

Guided Implementation 4: Become proactive

Call 1: Identify process activities for event & problem management. Build your capacities.
Call 2: Identify process activities for capacity & performance management. Communicate result to the business.

Authors

Paul Brown

Kimberly Jiang

Contributors

11 professionals contributed information that assisted with the development of this solution set. Due to the sensitivity of the information, they requested confidentiality.