Apollo 13 - IT Governance

THE WORKSHOP

The Motto of the NASA Mission Operations Control center is:
‘RES GESTA PER EXCELLENTIAM’ – ‘ Achievement through excellence’.

With the ever increasing use and dependence upon IT to sustain and improve business performance, delivering IT operational excellence is becoming a critical capability for IT organizations.

IT organizations are faced with a need to both demonstrate ‘Compliance’ to regulatory controls and demonstrate ‘business value’ and ‘performance improvements’ through the use of IT and ITSM. In the words of Gene Kranz, the Apollo 13 Flight director, ‘Failure is not an option’. IT organizations that fail to demonstrate good ITSM governance practices will pose a unacceptable risk to business operations and will prevent the business realizing performance improvement and value through its IT investments.

The ‘Mission Operations Control – An IT Governance case experience workshop’ is an intense one-day training which makes use of the ‘Apollo 13 – an ITSM case experience’ business simulation. During this workshop participants will see, feel and experience the benefits of applying ITSM (IT Service Management) Governance best practices in order to mitigate the risks of poor IT practices and to improve and demonstrate performance in terms of ‘cost of ownership’ , ‘effectiveness and throughput of processes’, ‘customer satisfaction’. In 1970 Gene Kranz and his team delivered operational excellence…..Could you perform as well? Do you dare to try? Can you afford to fail?

We challenge you to become Apollo 13 mission control and translate IT Governance theory into practice to save the astronauts.

learning objectives

Depending upon the learning objectives of the participants, during this training the following learning objectives will be achieved:

• Participants will have a better understanding of the business drivers demanding ITSM governance and improvement needs.
• Participants will have a better understanding of how to use process assessments or audits such as ISO20000 to identify non-compliance and the impact upon business risk and business performance.
• Participants will have a better understanding of how to use a performance management mechanism such as the balanced scorecard to demonstrate performance and added value from ITSM processes.
• Participants will have a better understanding of how to design, implement, analyse, audit and improve processes aimed at reducing non-compliance issues and business risk, and at the same time delivering value to the business.
• Participants will learn how to justify ITSM improvement initiatives in relation to business drivers and demands.
• Participants will learn the importance of a good dialogue with the business for aligning ITSM initiatives to real business needs.
• Participants will learn how to co-operate and how to improve working processes by designing and implementing as a team.
• Participants will learn the importance of leadership, accountability, responsibility and ownership of process working to ensure results are achieved.
• Participants will recognize the consequences of poor ITSM governance and the impact upon the business.
• Participants will end up with a list of improvement needs relating to their own working environment.

TARGET AUDIENCE

• Employees requiring understanding of their role in contributing to IT organizational performance and IT Governance.
• Employees wanting to understand at a high level what IT governance is and how it affects them.
• Process managers responsible for implementing and managing processes.
• CIOs and Senior IT managers faced with a need to demonstrate control and added value of ITSM for the business.

ROLES

• Flight Director – represents senior IT management and is accountable for the success of the mission.
• Manager specialists – represents a ‘line manager’ responsible for managing a team of experts within Mission Control.
• Incident manager –process manager responsible for ensuring effective handling and resolution of incidents affecting the mission.
• Problem manager – process manager responsible for ensuring problems are analysed and removed.
• Change manager – process manager responsible for ensuring changes to the mission are well planned and executed.
• Capacity manager – process manager responsible for ensuring adequate capacity is available to support and enable the mission and keep the astronauts alive.
• CapCom – a small team responsible for communicating with the crew, representing a ‘service desk’.
• Technical specialists – responsible for resolving technical issues and for carrying out changes
• Mission Director – represents the business (Customer) and is the budget holder for the mission and sets the Key performance indicators(KPI’s) to be achieved.
• Crew – represent the business users of the infrastructure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Industry trends reveal:

• CIO’s continue to struggle to align, measure and mature IT processes. There is a demand to move toward operational excellence.
• Through 2007 more than 85% of IT operations organizations will be involved in IT operational process, Quality and governance initiatives.
• Global CIO’s will increasingly focus on implementing international standards ISO20000, ISO38500, ITIL, CobiT to demonstrate control of IT

  In this training, real life situations taken from the Apollo 13 mission are simulated. Participants will enact the roles of the Mission control team of Apollo 13. They will have to work together as a team, take decisions, agree and apply their own working practices aimed at ensuring business risks are mitigated, business continuity is achieved and Key performance targets are met. They will need to ensure clear tasks, roles, responsibility and accountability mechanisms are in place. The team will need to ensure their processes are ‘compliant and under control’ using ISO20000 checklists and that their processes are designed, managed and steered in order to realize a set of Key performance indicators (KPI’s). 

   

  The workshop consists of 4 rounds. In each round the team undergoes the following steps:

  • designing or improving their process;
  • applying their process;
  • analysing, reflecting and reporting;
  • prioritizing and agreeing improvement needs with the business. 

  During the 4 rounds actual events and situations experienced in the real mission will occur. The business demands and priorities will change as the mission progresses. Mission Control must ensure their processes are continually aligned to changing business needs through active dialogue with the Mission Director and by applying continual service improvement strategies. In 1970 we know Mission Control managed to successfully apply people, processes and supporting technology in saving the crew. The participants are faced with the challenge of performing as well as Mission control.

PRODUCT INFORMATION