In this video, we discuss personal brand for Major Incident Managers.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 95 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>Why do you think you communicate during Major Incidents? Take a moment. What is the purpose?
Hopefully, you got something along the lines of Stakeholder confidence. To establish and maintain stakeholder confidence.
Let's take that a step further; why do we want to establish and maintain stakeholder confidence?
It is a fundamental part of our role to instil confidence in others, so you can assure them that we and the operation are doing everything required to resolve the Major Incident. And, when stakeholder confidence is low, we see many behaviours begin to manifest that are counterproductive to resolving the Major Incident as quickly as possible.
For example:
There are many more, but all of these slow down the swift resolution of a Major Incident, undermine the Major Incident Practice and cause chaos in information flow. We need one source of information; if many side conversations start, you end up with different understandings of where we are and what's happening, creating confusion.
It is important to clarify that although we observe these behaviours from stakeholders, they do not do it to make your life harder. At least 99.9% of the time, they do it from a place of good intent.
They want the same thing we want - a well-managed major incident that is dealt with and resolved quickly and effectively. By the nature of Major Incidents, there is a heightened level of concern for the business and its customers, as there should be. These behaviours manifest because they are trying to get confidence in the running of the major incident, which we, as the Major Incident Manager, have failed to give them.
Something we should have done has meant they are not confident in the management of the major incident, so they are taking action to make progress and create their own sense of confidence.
Does your head of service management want to be pulled away from all of the other tasks they have to do, to help deal with escalations or drive a major incident forward? No, they would love nothing more than to sit back and tell stakeholders, "my Major Incident team is exceptional. They've got this. Let them do their thing."
Side note:
I should caveat this. Sometimes there are legacy issues - You come in, or a new Major Incident team is set up, the standard is excellent, and everything is managed well, but the previous Major Incident team was not great. Stakeholders may take time to adjust and be comfortable letting go of control or working in new ways. This requires giving them time and ongoing conversations to get there.
Why do we formally communicate
The two reasons we formally communicate and issue comms:
To get action:
This one is self-explanatory. Although it should be said, you must be clear if you are asking for action. That may be engaging the operational teams. It should always be clear and understandable.
To impart information:
This is the one that catches many people out. When we are issuing comms, we are largely trying to impart information. We are informing stakeholders of what is happening and what actions we are/going to take. Ultimately, we are demonstrating progress towards the resolution to instil confidence and keep them informed.
What happens when you issue a comms update that says the same thing as the last one?
All the negative stakeholder behaviours manifest. Leadership may join your bridge call and ask for status updates, they may start trying to take over and drive the Technical teams forward, escalations from customers may come in, and people start going direct to the technical teams and pulling them off the bridge call.
Why? Because they didn't see any progress. Even if that update was justified, nothing has changed- the action was always going to take two hours, and we have hourly updates to the stakeholders, who are not in our world and don't see all the action or the hard work going on behind the scenes. They need to understand why some actions may take hours. For some stakeholders, their only touchpoint and source of information may be that single comms update. If that is all they see and it demonstrates no progress, then, of course, their confidence may be knocked when the business might be losing hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds each hour.
The solution
First of all, always consider your comms updates. Are you doing one of the two things - Getting action or imparting information?
Second, the stakeholder mindset, think about them, and their reactions. One or two key people may need an individual phone call now and again to maintain their confidence. This isn't possible for all stakeholders but a key customer representative or the service manager/director for an affected account etc. Over time if handled correctly, those people will have more trust and confidence in your consistent performance and may not need that anymore.
Next, always impart information.
That may mean giving them new information. We are usually at the top level of what we share with stakeholders via comms. That means there is usually information we have not shared and additional actions taken or we are planning on taking. Even if the main action is to wait another hour for a key action to be taken, lead with that the current activity is still underway, then add the new information to the update.
We are never dishonest with our comms, so the actions must be valid and accurate, but it is simply dropping down a level of information that gives them new information and a feeling of progress. This, in turn, helps to prevent behaviours they take that slow down the resolution of a Major Incident. We are managing their confidence and ensuring that the Major Incident progresses effectively.
Visit our site: https://www.majorincidentmanagement.com
MIM® on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MajorIncidentManagement
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to developing, managing, and delivering our qualifications in The Global Best Practice IT Major Incident Management®.
We work with leading organizations around the world to unleash their talent and effectiveness. We are shaping the future of Major Incident Management. With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
Adam Norman is the Founder and CEO at MIM®. He is the world’s leading expert in The Global Best Practice IT Major Incident Management®.
Connect with MIM®
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MajorIncidentManagement
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/official-major-incident-management
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/major_incident_management/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/major_incidents
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Officialmajorincidentmanagement
Podcast
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/09OSzRQ3JXTQTHHtWUvKju
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/mim-podcast/id1485594836
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS82OTM2NTIucnNz
]]>
The quantity and quality of information they capture and hand over to the major incident practice determine many things, that ultimately, have a huge impact on the successful management of the major incident.
If we fail, as an operation to effectively capture the right information, and the right level of information at the start of a major incident then we cannot manage stakeholder confidence via sending quick, effective comms that inspire confidence, and we may not know which Technical Resolving Groups to engage. Costing us valuable time.
When Service Desk handovers to the Major Incident Team are of poor quality then we essentially cost the business money, time and our major incident practice reputation and goodwill are affected.
In The Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® [link to website] we split the Major Incident Process into 3 phases.
We do this because there are sub-objectives in each phase that Major Incident professionals need to focus on to be effective. We cannot simply fix the issue and not manage stakeholder confidence or let them know about the major incident.
The first phase, the Initial 15 minutes, is where the Major Incident Team are receiving the handover from the Service Desk, engages the Technical Resolving Groups and issues initial comms.
The industry standard was 30 minutes from handover to issue comms and engage the Technical Resolving Groups, but MIM® helped companies to shift this standard to 15 minutes (MIM® Annual Report 2021, 2022). With the right tools that enable speed and automation. With the right process and culture, 15 minutes is more than achievable. However, only if we receive a good handover from the Service Desk. Without a strong handover the 15-minute phase becomes a >30 minute or a 1-hour phase.
So what is actually going on here? Why do we get poor handovers?
Before we talk about the ‘why it occurs’ let's highlight behaviour that makes the situation worse and how to avoid it.
The worse thing a Major Incident Manager can do is kick back a handover to the Service Desk.
If our key objective as a Major Incident Manager is to resolve Major Incidents as quickly as possible while maintaining Stakeholder confidence then this behaviour is in complete opposition to our objective.
No matter how bad the handover you received from the Service Desk is, it will take them longer to go away and acquire more information to give you a good handover than it will for you, the Major Incident Manager, you know, the one with all the experience, contacts, knowledge and experience of major incidents, to get the information yourself.
It also has a secondary effect. Over time it causes a contentious relationship between the Major Incident Team and Service Desk, which is not what we want or need to perform.
As frustrating as it may be you should run with it and correct the poor handover outside of the live major incident. If you kick it back, it will cause additional downtime that could have been avoided.
As I say, we do need to fix poor handovers for the benefit of everyone and the Operation, but doing it during a live major incident is not the right place to address it.
Now, why do poor handovers occur?
Essentially, when someone(s) is not doing what you want professionally there are several potential causes:
How do we address these three things and improve the Service Desk handovers:
Change your perspective
As Major Incident Managers we are responsible for everything related to a major incident. Including the Service Desk Handover. We need to support them if we want to improve the handover.
Build better relationships
Forge better relationships based on mutual support, understanding & improvement.
Build better mechanisms for success
Provide or help to create mechanisms that ensure success & consistency.
Such as checklists for every member of the service desk & onboarding packs (when someone joins the service desk they get a Major Incident pack with instructions, knowledge & why it is important / the cost of downtime when it goes wrong, videos and how-to guides).
Train the Service Desk
Train the Service Desk staff on how to accurately capture major incident information & support them with ongoing training. Give them a regular event to attend, ask questions and develop their knowledge about major incidents.
Exception reporting
Work with the Service Desk management to capture poor handovers, identify why they were not at the correct standard, and then offer more support and training. Continue to monitor. Identify increases or decreases in performance and respond accordingly.
This is not exhaustive, there are many ways to improve the Service Desk handover for Major Incidents. It is a common challenge, but one that is easily fixed with some consistent effort and strategic thinking.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>What do you when the technical resolving groups are not contributing to your bridge call? Nothing but silence. Our CEO Adam Norman talks about a quick solution to take control and get the teams talking.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>We cover how Major Incident Managers should be engaging with cyber security. Yes, they have special requirements, confidentiality, restrictions on comms and often additional process steps, but they are another technical specialist, with subject expertise and we are still leading a major incident.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>Major Incident Managers need to train like Navy Seals during downtime. In this video, our CEO, Adam Norman explains how to stay sharp and be prepared for even the worst outages.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>In this video we talk about how to hire Major Incident Managers that fit your specific culture and team. Our CEO talks about setting values for your Major Incident Practice and how to apply them to identify the right fit for your practice.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 90 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>Conflict Management is particularly useful for Major Incident Managers. Major Incidents are past paced, often high stress, and occurrences of conflict can be highly charged. Major Incident Managers must master the 5 styles of conflict management so that they understand their options to effectively navigate conflicts.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 80 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
www.mimcloudacademy.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>In our (MIM®'s) Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® Training and Certification programmes we teach leadership and communication skills to create effective leaders during major incidents. In this short video, we talk about 3 leadership styles and when they should be used.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 80 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
www.mimcloudacademy.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>In MIM®'s Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® Training and Certification programmes we teach psychometric profiling for better communication and leadership outcomes. We discuss what psychometric profiling is and how it can help you to be more effective.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 80 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
www.mimcloudacademy.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>In our (MIM®'s) Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® there are 4 core principles which if understood and internalised can help guide your behaviour in any major incident situation you may encounter.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 80 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
www.mimcloudacademy.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>In our Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management®, we split the Major Incident Process into 3 phases, in this video we talk about the primary objective of Major Incident Management, the 3 phases and the sub-objectives of each of these phases.
About MIM®
MIM® is the professional body dedicated to Global Best Practice for IT Major Incident Management®.
We are transforming the way companies, professionals and IT Operations, reduce major incident downtime.
Our methods and techniques save millions for companies around the globe, supports leading IT specialists and maximises collaboration.
With clients in more than 80 countries, including the world’s largest business and consumer brands, we drive major incident innovation to protect businesses.
www.majorincidentmanagement.com
www.mimcloudacademy.com
Connect with MIM®
MIM® Podcast
]]>
In the latest version (2020) of MIM®'s, The Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management®, stakeholder confidence is a crucial addition to the primary objective of Major Incident functions.
Whilst the training has always included managing stakeholder relationships and leadership skills for Major Incident Managers, previous versions didn't explicitly include the objective of stakeholder confidence,
The primary objective of Major Incident Management® in earlier versions of our Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® Training and Certification programme: namely 2016, 2017 & 2019:
The objective of Major Incident Management is to restore normal service operation, as quickly as possible via workaround or permanent fix.
The difference may seem minor, but the sentiment is a fundamental shift in mindset.
Following the Major Incident Process is relatively simple, yet managing multiple relationships with diverse groups of people, who are often geographically dispersed, comes with far more complexity. This is a critical factor for successful Major Incident functions and leaders.
When we lose the confidence of Stakeholders, several short and long-term issues can begin to occur. For example:
Learn more about The Global Best Practice in IT Major Incident Management® and how thousands of professionals and companies are powering up their Major Incident services.
]]>
For the purposes of this post we will focus on the most common types. For those of you that are new to the world of IT or have not got to grips with the ever-growing, ever-changing acronyms in this industry we have detailed some definitions.
An MSP is a company that exists specifically to provide IT services and products to other organisations that choose to outsource their IT services, either in part or completely.
There are several variations in the way in which an MSP can deliver a Major Incident Management service:
There are pros and cons to each of these models. Whilst a shared service is often less costly, it can result in a service that is not as focused or as available as a dedicated team would be. A dedicated major incident service will cost more, but delivers a dedicated team whose knowledge of the end customer’s business is enhanced, which, when coupled with increased focus and capacity, results in a more effective delivery.
Where an organisation’s IT service are provided in-house and all or some of the staff work directly for the end user business.
There are three Major Incident Management models that an in-house IT operation can provide:
Mirrored Major Incident Management is often seen in large organisations that have complex IT services that are delivered by many suppliers. Finance companies often have several IT suppliers and therefore use the mirrored model.
In the mirrored model, the in-house team provides all of the internal communications to end users, whilst also managing and monitoring their supplier’s major incident teams. This adds a layer of control for the end user organisation.
The fully outsourced model means that the organisation is completely reliant on its suppliers for effective service delivery when a major incident occurs.
Deciding which Major Incident Management model is most appropriate for your organisation requires you to analyse the business needs, the resources and finances available, and the potential impact of major incidents on your business.
MIM® is the Global Best Practice IT Major Incident Management Training and Certification provider. Learn more about Training, Consultancy and our other services here
]]>Before fully directing all of the operation’s resources, people and activities, it is best practice to validate the major incident. However, our advice would be to engage the primary Technical Resolver Group before validation in order to avoid losing essential resolution time.
There are several, often quick ways to validate that a major incident has occurred:
Validation avoids wasting time, effort and resources. Here are some examples of instances that may have initially been flagged as a major incident, but following validation, could be down graded:
Note: If, during the initial 15 minutes, the major incident has already been resolved, whether with or without action, the incident ticket should be retrospectively updated to ensure the historical information is available to the Technical Resolving Groups and Problem Management.
]]>
A long-standing debate in the industry, should Major Incident Managers be technical?
This question seems to be firmly dividing with very few people being undecided, they either strongly believe that yes, they should be, or no they should not.
Well, we believe the answer is no, they should not be technical, but really it requires a little more explanation than that, and it depends…
It depends on the size of your organisation and Operations.
In an ideal world, and one that most large Managed Service Providers and enterprise In-House Operations find themselves in, there would be dedicated Major Incident Managers, who do nothing but focus on Major Incident Management.
After all, the cost of downtime to these businesses is often huge. Dedicated Major Incident Managers not only pay for themselves by effectively managing several major incidents but provide large, ongoing cost savings throughout the year by continually reducing major incident downtime.
But this is only considering the direct financial impact, they also protect the organisation from:
In these organisations it is likely there are more resources available and it is easier to justify Major Incident Managers who only focus on Major Incident Management.
But….smaller Operations often struggle to justify a dedicated Major Incident Management team. The result is that Technical staff are often the Duty Managers and they fulfil the role of Major Incident Manager when a major incident occurs as well as dealing with the technical aspects.
There is nothing wrong with this, as long as you understand the trade- offs and the additional time it may take to resolve the major incident if a technical person is working on both the fix and the Major Incident Managers activities.
It also depends on what you mean when you say a Major Incident Manager should be technical? What do you mean by technical?
If you mean they have been a technical specialist delivering 3rd line support in a specific product area for many years then no, they do not need to be this technical.
A Major Incident Manager is in leadership role, they are there to lead, co-ordinate resources, facilitate, and to manage stakeholders, often in times of extreme stress.
The skills and traits required to be an excellent Major Incident Manager are predominately soft-skills, not technical skills.
They need the ability to learn new technical concepts quickly and translate technical jargon into plain speak for stakeholders, and they need the ability to filter information quickly and tailor their communications to the recipients. So, they do need some technical knowledge, but how could they possibly be technical enough to a level where they understand personally, how to investigate, diagnose and resolve the plethora of products and technologies that exist.
Even skilled and knowledgeable Technical staff end up focusing on specific products and specialising because there is too just much for one person to be competent in every technical discipline.
By attempting to be Technical enough to investigate, diagnose, and fix a major incident a Major Incident Manager may inadvertently lead the Technical teams in the wrong direction, as well as shift their own focus from stakeholder management and leadership.
Part of the role of a Major Incident Manager is to protect the Technical Resolving Groups time, ensuring they have the ability to focus on investigation, diagnosis, problem solving and workarounds without distraction. This ultimately leads to quicker resolution and reduced major incident downtime.
If the Major Incident is either trying to play the role of Lead Technical Manager as well as Major Incident Manager, then you can be certain that each of the roles ends up delaying the other, increasing the time to resolve.
Stopping work on diagnosis, or workaround implementation to issue formal communications to stakeholders, or informal communications such as phone calls, direct face to face updates takes valuable time away from the speedy resolution.
Or the technical work delaying the issue of timely communication, this then has an impact on Stakeholder’s confidence, the knock-on effect of wavering stakeholder confidence during a major incident is usually many more direct phone calls from the stakeholders to the Major Incident Manager (and possible the Technical staff also), each Stakeholder looking for reassurance that everything is in hand. Ironically, dealing with these calls takes additional time, potentially delaying the resolution of the major incident even more.
A Major Incident Manager will naturally pick up an understanding of the Operations infrastructure, and we believe that they should spend time learning their Operations, spending time outside of major incidents with the technical teams to increase their knowledge, but they should let the Technical teams perform the technical work.
By keeping the two roles separate, both the technical work and the stakeholder management can happen simultaneously, ensuring that major incidents are resolved as quickly as possible
]]>Whilst the role can be thrilling, it is also easy to let a few bad habits seriously impact on your credibility and career. Here are 3 common mistakes to keep a check on and avoid:
It can be difficult to strike the right balance; your primary objective is to restore normal service operations as quickly as possible, and often that means being assertive.
However being too dominant with Technical Staff might get you the result you need for this Major Incident, but can cause damage to your long- term relationships. Major Incident Management is a team sport and to succeed everyone needs to be onboard and performing at their best, not just for the immediate major incident but on all future major incidents.
Learning the different communication styles of others and how best to engage with them will see your major incident mean time to resolve (MIMTTR) drop significantly as you perform more effectively as a team.
Mistakes happen. End Users, Managers, Senior Exec’s, colleagues, are all often understanding of mistakes. However, even the most tolerant of people will lose their patience if the same mistakes keep happening over and over again. It might be something simple, like poor spelling and grammar (a major no-no, in the world of critical communications), or repeatedly failing to meet agreed communication update deadlines, or incorrectly capturing an impact, more than once. Whatever it is, when you recognise your mistake, own up to it, but have a plan in place to ensure it is not repeated and that best practice is put into place.
The best Major Incident Managers take full accountability for everything relating to a major incident. It ensures ownership and breeds excellence.
The Service Desk didn’t send you enough information, or a clear impact – you own the Major Incident Process, work to obtain the right information to deal with the immediate incident at hand and then afterwards, for the longer term, work with the Service Desk to help them improve their initial assessments of major incidents.
Technical staff made a mistake implementing a workaround and consequently made the impact worse – you own the major incident, it’s on you. Be honest, put plans in place to help limit the frequency of such errors, but protect the Technical Staff and own the consequence.
Major Incident Management is a leadership role and therefore you are responsible for everything during a major incident, whether or not it was you who independently caused an issue. Total ownership is difficult, as is cultivating such a culture, but it is the best way to behave in order to build trust between teams, encouraging you and your team to always take proactive action for collective success.
MIM® is the Global Best Practice IT Major Incident Management Training and Certification provider. Learn more about Training, Consultancy and our other services here
]]>In this video Charlie talks about his 10 rules of success, it struck us that the Major Incident Management community would benefit from his wisdom.
A shortened version of his 10 rules are:
The video was created by Evan Carmichael. The full video is around 10 minute and can be watched here https://youtu.be/l1EMkanyz5Y
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