PajMon Information Blog

Posts Tagged ‘project management’

In the summer of 2007, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) launched the new version of its best practice framework for Service Management – known as ITIL (R) V3 – and since then, has been busy putting its new qualifications scheme into place. The new top-level certification for the latest version is known as the ITIL Expert qualification.

It appears from figures recently published regarding the take-up of ITIL training however, that the new scheme may be already scuppered before it starts. The figures show a high demand for the V3 Foundation course, but almost no demand for the newer capabilities and lifecycle courses.

The large number of courses now required to be completed and corresponding examinations to be passed in order to obtain the expert qualification may, to a large extent, be responsible for the low demand at the intermediate level. The older V2 Service Sanager certificate could be completed, start to finish, in only 13 days whereas the new ITIL Expert qualification would now take up to 27 days to finish.

The version 3 scheme has 3 levels and an additional 4th level is planned. Is all this training really what people actually want and need or could it be just another money-spinner for the scheme administrators and the training providers? The answer from the market seems to be that the new courses are not wanted -at least for the present.

Also, whilst the old V2 qualifications scheme is still running, it makes little sense for people to pursue the new route to the professional qualification when you can also get it through the V2 route simply by doing a bridging course at the end. And this track is not only cheaper, but quicker and more convenient for most people.

So APMG really need to get their thinking-caps on to determine what can be done to rectify the situation. One thing that really needs to be considered soon is the shutting-down of the version 2 scheme. Thats what needs to happen as a matter of some urgency if the new scheme is to be taken more seriously by delegates and training providers alike.

Master Data Management is not, unfortunately, an overnight solution. It takes hard work, commitment, and diligent research to organize everything that makes up and MDM solution. But completing this task is greatly beneficial to an organization.

Master Data Management helps companies identify what is critical for running their business successfully. It makes sense that your most critical information should have the most stringent controls around it. When you begin MDM, the goal is to put tight controls, processes, and procedures around the data most important to the company.

Start at the beginning — what data should be in scope? What is the most important data that needs the most care and attending to? What data could you not live without?

If the data you decide on is order data, then you’ll need to have everyone in the organization agree that order data is what is in scope, and nothing else. You’ll likely then focus on order numbers, order dates, products ordered, etc.

Now that the scope is locked down, all stakeholders will need to buckle down and commit resources to the work that is necessary to be successful. Team members will need to research the critical data elements. They will need to determine how they are used across the organization, what definitions they take on, who owns or manages them who changes them, etc.

Once you have answered these questions, begin to organize the data and assign tasks for cleaning up any identified issues. This is a basic start for Master Data Management