One Area of growing investment is in IT Service Management Professional Certification. Ian has a long history of driving sound requirements in this space.

I was watching a trailer for the movie 300 and began to reminisce about the stories about the Spartans that I had read when I was a boy. As I remember it the most famous thing about the Spartans was the Battle of Thermopylae which occurred in 480 BC but also as I remember it there is much more to the Spartans than this famous battle. At Thermopylae 300 Spartans, supported by 700 Thespians and 400 Thebans, were charged with delaying a large Persian army from invading Greece, not dissimilar to the Alamo. So we have the Greek nation on one side of them and a vast Persian army on the other side. It was here that I came to the conclusion that ITSM are in fact the IT Spartans. ITSM are small in number with a large number of customers on one side and the nation of IT on the other side with ITSM charged with supporting both sides. The thought the occurred to me that If this is true can, ITSM draw any other parallels from the Spartans?

One of the key factors that underpinned the success for the Spartans was that they clearly understood their Identity. Being a Spartan wasn't just a birth it was an honour but that was just the beginning many hours of training and dedication were required before a recruit could claim to be a true Spartan. To be called a Spartan Warrior was one the highest possible accolades that could be attained in ancient Greece. Unfortunately too often ITSM doesn't have a clear Identity which means that staff cannot aspire to being part of a team or earning respect as ITSM warriors they just do their job no more no less. Until the last few years ITSM has been seen by IT, and too often the customers, of IT, as a necessary evil rather than as an important asset. For example not too long ago a CIO asked me 'Isn't Service Management just another name for a Help Desk'? No! Given this scenario it is hardly surprising that many ITSM staff lack an Identity. Over the last few years ITSM has started to become a recognisable Identity with which staff can relate with pride. If you are a senior ITSM officer you must understand that one of your main aims is to perpetually work on building and championing a Service Management Identity. It is not about lots of fancy graphics and sexy metrics it is about getting the message across that Service Management is an asset and that without IT will fail. Do you consciously strive to create an ITSM Identity?

The Spartans were well muscled and finely honed athletic warriors, a bit like me, who spent hours preparing and practicing so that when the time came they could cope with the fiercest of enemies. ITSM warriors are similar because they need constant training and education. It is important to differentiate between training and education, for example a Spartan warrior may have had education explaining their weaponry but it was the hours and hours of controlled training with those weapons that made them fearsome warriors. We have a plethora of wonderful sources to obtain education but training is often the real key to success if we are going to provide a consistent level of high quality services to our customers. Do you have structured plans for training especially on the job training? Do you have a graduate program? Recently I received an advertisement from Northampton University in the UK for ITSM graduate training, this is the sort of initiative that we need to encourage!

Spartans were famous for their lack of frills and comforts, the harder the conditions the happier they were. Even today when we say that something is Spartan we mean that it consists of the bare minimum, in fact, I was watching a television show recently in which the designer stated that 'the decor was minimalistic bordering on Spartan'. In ITSM we don't have large budgets therefore a 'Spartan' existence is thrust upon us rather than adopted through choice. It is therefore surprising that when you ask vendors of ITSM software they all tell you that most ITSM departments do not take advantage of many of the features that are supplied as part of the software. Why is this? Surely the less finance that you have available to invest in ITSM tools the more you should exploit the full power of those tools. Do you regularly discuss the technologies that you are utilizing in ITSM and ask staff which features they are not using and why they are not using them?

We know that the Spartans were famous for the bare minimum but one area where they did not skimp was the quality of their weapons. Even the best Spartan would find it hard to fight with a broken sword although you can bet that they would not have retreated. They would carefully choose their weapons and ensure that they were always sharp and well maintained. The same criteria should apply to the selection of tools and technologies used by ITSM after all these tools and technologies are the weapons that are need by the ITSM warriors to provide the highest level of support to their customers and the rest of IT. The Spartan weapons would have included; a pike, a helmet, a breastplate, greaves (forearm protectors), a shield and a short sword. Each of these weapons was important but together they were formidable. ITSM weapons include tools to support; Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Management and Event Management etc. Individually important but as an integrated suite they are formidable. Are you insisting that your future ITSM technologies must be part of an integrated ITSM suite rather than a disparate set of tools?

At the age of twenty, Spartans were enrolled as members in a syssitia (dining messes or clubs). A syssitia composed of about fifteen members and it was in these syssitia that they learned how to bond and rely on one another. This was one of the reasons why the Spartans were such a fearsome fighting force because not only did they fight for themselves but they also fought fiercely to protect their fellow syssitia members. Many of the tasks undertaken by ITSM require dedicated individual attention, e.g. a Service Desk Agent, ITSM staff need to recognize that they are part of a team and not just a collection of hard working individuals. I have seen many Service Desks where the rewards encourage individual success rather than team achievements. Do you make the effort to ensure that your ITSM staff are working as part of an integrated team?

At first the analogy of comparing ITSM and the Spartans may seem crazy but the more you learn about the Spartans the clearer the parallels become. Do some research on the Spartans and use your imagination to look for the parallel it will be fun and rewarding.

Please contact Malcom at : malcolm@malcolmfry.com

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Copyright© 2008- Malcolm Fry

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