- [Instructor] What do Agile improvement cycles look like
for the modern service desk?
How does the modern service desk use feedback,
visible management and ticket analysis
to drive Agile cycles of continual improvement,
both within and beyond the service desk?
Let's have a look at this now.
Agile improvement starts with analysis,
analyzing two-week intervals
to feed your Agile improvement sprints.
Don't just count tickets and channel volumes
and report the numbers, analyze the data.
What's it telling you?
Yes, report numbers and trends,
but also report your analysis.
That's your value add.
Always consider when you communicate your analysis,
the question, what action do I want the recipient to take
as a result of my communication?
If there's no clear action,
there's no reason to communicate.
And if there's a clear action, asking this question
can help you punch up how you present the data.
Look for trends. What's trending up or down?
What does that mean for us?
Look for outliers.
For example, the worst of the worst incident
and request workflows in terms of poor speed of service,
too many handoffs and extremely low satisfaction.
Look for the channels with the highest abandoned rate
and the lowest satisfaction.
Remember, you're managing end-to-end
because the customer experience is experienced end-to-end.
Collaborate with others to come up with improvement actions
and share the ones that you find with others who own them
and can action them within their own patches.
In a modern setting, we work in Agile ways on smaller chunks
in time box sprints.
We do this to increase the flow of value,
and because we know value as a function
of when our outputs are delivered.
And we do this because we're working
in a dynamic environment where we must adapt
to incoming changes in user needs
and what technology makes possible.
Working in this way makes for sharper focus,
quicker time to value, and leaving room
for sticking our head up to see what's changed
at more frequent intervals
so we aren't following plans lockstep down the wrong path
when the situation has changed around us
and rendered our plans obsolete.
Here's how to do it.
Since we're doing Agile improvement cycles,
we'll already have a backlog of candidate improvements
that came from a variety of sources.
For example, analysis we've conducted on,
for example, ticket data,
user feedback, and channel metrics.
For each issue or opportunity we identify,
we might identify one or more candidate improvement items
and put them in our Agile improvement backlogs.
One for us, the service desk,
and one for improvements suggested
to all other teams and tiers.
We choose which to include
based on our prioritization scheme to weigh the initiatives,
for example, based on effort, cost, payback,
and alignment with and support for our strategic drivers.
As we work, we seek to balance improvements selected
over all the key areas of concern to the service desk.
Said another way, we don't want to consistently
over or under represent certain areas in each sprint,
or we'll miss an opportunity to improve in all areas.
We'll use a prioritization scheme to weigh the initiatives.
For example, based on how much each will contribute
to the user experience, as well as the effort,
cost, benefits, risks and alignment and support
for our strategic drivers.
Now it's time to decide what improvement actions to take
within the two-week time box sprint period.
We'll need to look realistically at what time
and resources we have at our disposal
in order to choose a set of items to include in the sprint.
Now we sprint, we run the improvement sprint
within the allotted time box.
For this, we'll use a Kanban board like LeanKit,
and we'll move cards from the sprint backlog
to the to-do column, then to the doing column,
and finally to done as we progress.
We might employ Agile practices like a daily standup
to understand where we are and to unblock issues.
Here's an actual example
of what might go into an Agile sprint.
Note in the upper-right that this team tracks the area
that the initiative targets, for example, the service,
the channel, the people, the process or tool,
as well as the strategic pillar supported,
along with benefits, efforts and costs.
There can be much detail and justification
under each of these as much as is needed
to prioritize and to justify.