Failing is not an option…

As ((otrs)), the commercial organization behind the OpenSource Service Management Solution OTRS, is evolving over the last 5 years really successful we are facing more complex projects than we did a few years ago. Therefore the need for a project management framework like PMI or Prince2 is evident.

But from my experience, besides all the positive aspects going along with those frameworks, the negative aspects like exorbitant documentation, planning and communication are effecting your daily business more and more.

This leads to a schedule planned out with telephone conferences discussing functional specification hundreds of emails that need to be processed every single day of your life. The most extreme example I experienced in this case was a customer putting more trust in the underlying project plan than in the deliverables provided by my development team…

To break that circle I am naturally open minded to new ideas to improve project management and to implement a better understanding between the specialist division and the developer department. Lately I came across a method called “Scrum”. This method is trying to split a complex implementation project in smaller, easier to handle development phases called “Sprints” that have a duration of 4 weeks max.

The stakeholders provide their requirements in these sessions as “user-stories” that will be collected and documented in a “product backlog”.

Every single development phase start with a kickoff meeting where all user stories that need to covered / implemented within this phase will be transferred to the “sprint backlog”.

The communication with the customer will be covered within predefined cycles where to talk about feedback and reached or missed goals.

From my point of view this method has the capability to ease the stress of complex implementation projects and also provides a good chance to establish a very good  relationship and understanding in between the project sponsor and project contractor.

— Let’s scrum —

March 4th at 2pm I will make a speech at the CeBIT in Hannover, Germany presenting the latest & greatest Release of OTRS::ITSM which is version 2.0.

The speech will be about the Service Catalog as a central element in todays IT Service Management. Starting from the Service Catalog, as the spider in the web, I will present other related processes as Incident Management, Problem Management, Knowledge Management and for sure Change Management as well as how OTRS::ITSM integrates with the named processes.

Another Q&A of about 20 minutes will complete the session that will take place in the Convention Center of the CeBIT, room Heidelberg 2pm – 4pm.

— You will enjoy the session —

As we have just attended the 14th International Service Management Conference in Las Vegas, NV, the teams hopping to the next great exhibition, Cebit. The Cebit is known as the world foremost IT tradeshow taking place in Hannover Germany.

((otrs)) runs booth C37 in hall 2 where we will present OTRS::ITSM 2.0 and especially the brand new Change Management module that was just certified as ITIL compatible by Pink Elephant.

Besides the booth we have several speeches during the week March 2 until March 6.

— See you at the Cebit 2010 —