Product Development
I recently had an extremely productive discussion with a software development team (dev team) and an interesting point came out of this discussion.
Firstly, let me highlight that I am an advocator of ‘fast delivery’ therefore, I am 100% supportive of agile/scrum methodologies, principles and practices and embracing these methodologies within the service management framework to ensure total transparency.
Secondly however, it became apparent that the dev team were focusing primarily on the functionality of the application (the product), and overlooking many functional (utility) and non-functional (warranty) values which make-up the service (end-to-end).
This oversight impacts operational efficiency from the provider’s perspective and in turn, service experience from the consumer’s perspective. For example, when in design mode, there appeared to be less of a focus on the service (end-to-end) such as,
Opportunities for automation and shift left
How operational costs could be reduced
Data integration (point-to-point and publish-to-subscribe)
User and Customer access (product and service)
Business intelligence and reporting
and more…
In conclusion, when designing something we should design with a service mindset, we should map the journey, e.g., we must not forget that a service relationship comprises of both the service consumer and the service provider with a view of co-creating value. Co-creating value is not one-directional it is bi-directional or multi-directional. More importantly, dev teams and ITSM teams should work transparently within the same framework, and this also includes project management teams too!
I have composed one approach "Customer Journey Mapping", in MP4-video voice-over format. This is published on the "its Doozie Digital Shop"