Here is an exciting new approach to categorising and resolving any sort of transactional work. (In an IT context, it can be "tickets", such as requests or incidents on a service desk, problems, or changes; or even user stories to be developed). There is a book.
The world refuses to be standardised: there is other incoming stuff that we haven't seen before, that we don't already have a defined response for, that has to be handled as a case.
You can only industrialise that which you can standardise, i.e. make known: described, predictable, and repeatable. Only some of the world can be standardised.
Whether you are talking development, deployment, or response to situations, some of the world will always be unfamiliar due to change, or unpredictable due to complexity.
That's Standard+Case.
If your customers see your group as bureaucratic and inflexible...
If your staff feel process bound...
If your process doesn’t adapt to a changing world...
S+C addresses criticisms of process-centric approaches to managing responses that they don't deal with the undefined situations, and they don't allow customers and knowledge workers to be empowered to deal with them.
Buy the book:
And unlike some new-fangled theories, S+C does not seek to replace or change existing approaches: it expands and clarifies that theory to provide a more complete description of managing responses.
- Improve performance: improve responsiveness, efficiency, and effectiveness of your service responses
- Empower knowledge workers to use their creativity, expertise, and leadership
- Improve morale amongst your service desk and other responders
- Empower your customer to ask for what they need not what the rules say you provide
From a Standard+Case user organisation:
My first impression after just a week is that the 'standard guys' are very happy and the turnaround of tickets has improved. On the case side it is interesting as all of a sudden people are concerned about making it easier to work with cases. What tools do we need to put in place? How can we document our systems better?
To sum it up I think focus is the word that comes to mind. Less context switching.
From a book review (Karen Ferris, itSMF Fellow and author of the seminal Balanced Diversity: A Portfolio Approach to Organizational Change):
This book is an eye-opener and a must-read. I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone involved in situation response. This is a game-changer
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Standard+Case is a synthesis of our conventional "Standard" process-centric approach to responding, with Case management, a discipline well-known in industry sectors such as health, social work, law and policing. This description is written from the perspective of Service Management within the IT industry (so please excuse some ITSM jargon), but it can be applied anywhere.
It provides a good skills path for service desk analysts that fits well with gamification. And Standard+Case is applicable to Problem Management and Change Management (and Event Management...) as well as Service Desk activities. S+C applies to anything that requires a human response: there's either a standard response or there isn't.
This page provides some additional resources for readers and users of Standard+Case.