We have all been to the conferences where we present to an audience or sit in a room as part of the audience. The good speakers try to engage the audience into discussion but rarely are there enough people who are willing to step up and become part of that session.
For folks just beginning or in at an intermediate level of experience, I can totally understand why they might be hesitant to engage in a room of 100+ people. The problem however is that even people just getting started have something to contribute because they will ask the questions that some of us more experienced/senior professionals have maybe not dealt with in years. These questions foster discussions that lead to deeper thought about the topic or the seed for new thought on how to address it. So, I implore everyone at the conferences to engage with the speaker/presenter and become part of the discussion. Don’t just sit there absorbing a power point presentation, become part of the session not just an observer.
For those who have more experience and have been in the trenches for many years, it is even more important to find vehicles to have these discussions. These vehicles help challenge the norm of ideas which in many cases have become stagnant and on some cases never really ever worked. So what options exist for those of us who are past the beginner and intermediate levels of discussion? Up until now, they really didn’t exist at an industry level but that seems to be changing thanks to itSMF USA & HDI.
This year, Fusion 13 has established a track called “The Expert Focus” which based on its description, hopefully will foster this VERY important need.
The Expert Focus
This track is for the experienced service management professional who wants to go beyond the traditional presentations surrounding ITSM. Academic studies, value realization road maps, adoptions and implementations…think you’ve heard it all? Well, not yet! Attend the dynamic, “out of the box,” and interactive sessions in this track to prepare yourself for the future and evolution of ITSM. ( http://www.servicemanagementfusion.com/conference/tracks.aspx )
This track does not appear to be for those who are just getting started, looking for simple answers or looking to just consume versus contribute. It is for those of us who seek to find like-minded professionals to have serious discussions about how to solve major challenges in our industry and with our companies and/or clients. Those of us comfortable with challenging other ideas on how to solve problems with the intent of finding better solutions for all involved.
With this in mind, I submitted the following abstract to this new conference track. It will NOT be a Death by powerpoint style session. I will engage and challenge participants and expect them to do the same of each other.
System Thinking: The Keystone to CMDB Data Quality, Success and More – A Facilitated Discussion from the TrenchesAsk most anyone in Service Management and they will tell you essentially the same thing about CMDBs; “They’re difficult to implement, cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to even get started with”. Strangely enough though, those same people will inevitably tell you they absolutely “need one” and “have to put one in place”. Some might even admit they don’t really know what one is. If CMDBs are so elusive and difficult, why is everyone still trying to do it? There has to be value somewhere in doing it, no?
In this open discussion amongst experts living the nightmare, we will visit the real challenges of implementing a CMDB. The facilitated discussion will delve into data quality & reconciliation challenges, component based approaches versus Systems Thinking, and finally the best ways to try and quantify CMDB value.
This session is not for those that want to sit back and write down overly simplistic answers that are not executable. There are no “easy” answers to a CMDB solution. It requires work and more importantly an understanding of “why”. Are you up to the challenge of this participatory discussion? Take the first step with us as a group towards increasing our industry’s CMDB successes.
Please let me know what your thoughts are on the abstract and ideas on what to include in the session. I have formed a loose structure of what I want to cover but let’s start the discussion now and make this session at Fusion 13 a real value to everyone involved. This assumes of course that the abstract gets selected as part of the conference. If it does not, we will need to look elsewhere to continue the discussion.
Thank you in advance for your input,
Carlos