News in the Spotlight
Promotional benefit in April: 20% off all BMPK packages!
Not long until the BMPK and you still have no ticket? Then it's high time, especially since you can currently save money: Until April 28, you can get a 20% discount on all BMPK packages - even on trade fair tickets! Simply enter the code ITBEST in the order process and the discount will be deducted automatically. Please note: The discount only applies to tickets, not to examination fees.
We are one: Celebrating the we
SERVIEW and UnitedCreation are one - and we celebrated that vigorously at our Spring Festival. Would you like to take a look behind the scenes? Then we'll tell you more about our joint celebration:
On March 4, the Lufthansa Conference Center in Seeheim-Jugenheim - incidentally the venue of the soon-to-be-held BMPK23 - experienced this family reunion of a special kind. Colleagues from all over Germany gathered here to celebrate with each other at the SERVIEW and UnitedCreation Spring Festival, to exchange ideas and to learn more about the future of the recently merged companies. Our management had to be especially careful in their descriptions, because any mention of company names that suggested a separation between SERVIEW and UnitedCreation was rigorously punished. After all, the motto of our joint Spring Festival was WE ARE ONE. Of course, that's how our team wanted to be treated.
In addition to impulses from the management and divisional heads as well as a quiz with surprise prizes, we were pleased about a lot of mutual inspiration and open exchange. And of course we also took the opportunity to tour the location. After all, not every team member knew the Lufthansa Conference Center, where the SERVIEW Congress BMPK23 with the largest European trade fair for IT best practices takes place in May. After this tour, we are more convinced than ever: This will be the highlight of the year!
Finally, we enjoyed a meal together and, as always, elected the innovator of the past year: Annabel Jäckel defended her title from the previous year and proudly accepted her trophy before the entire team moved on to the exuberant party in the evening. We will see each other again soon - at the latest at BMPK23 from May 22 to 26!
Unique opportunity: Largest European trade fair for IT best practices
The BMPK23 is so much more than a trade congress - because the largest trade fair for IT best practices, which takes place at the same time, also has it all! And the best thing is: You can experience the trade fair for as little as 76 euros! Because who books to 28.4., saves full 20% on the regular entrance price of 95 euro. A top deal!
At the BMPK, the top players for software solutions from the areas of IT and enterprise service management, (agile) project management, test management, ERP and many more will meet to answer your questions in person. Here you will experience industry giants such as Atlassian and ServiceNow in direct exchange on almost 50 exhibition spaces. Find out from international trailblazers like PeopleCert, discover the latest consulting and training services from SERVIEW, and make dozens of valuable industry contacts. It's in your hands - visit the largest and most spectacular trade fair of its kind in Europe for only 76 euros and advance not only your organization, but also your own career!
BMPK23: 10 unbeatable reasons to be there
Do you want to be on the winner's podium? Educate yourself, network and noticeably advance your organization? Then we have ten unbeatable reasons for your visit to BMPK23, the gigantic congress for IT best practices with the largest trade fair on the subject in Europe! You can't miss this highlight, because at the BMPK ...
- Learn all the latest developments in industry-leading best practices - from ITIL® 4 about Scrum and SAFe®, ISTQB®, DevOps and Lean to PRINCE2® and IREB®.
- See how leading companies are revolutionizing the way their IT organizations work.
- Benefit from the experience that other IT organizations bring to the table when implementing agile service and project management.
- Gain a comprehensive market overview of the top software solutions available at Europe's largest trade show.
- Deepen your knowledge in workshops and practical presentations and get inspiration for tackling current challenges.
- Gain a competitive edge through targeted training with globally recognized certificates.
- Expand your network and make valuable industry contacts.
- Give your career a positive boost with red-hot know-how.
- Meet like-minded people to talk shop, discuss, share and celebrate.
- Escape your routine for a few energetic days out of the office!
Does that sound like professional exchange, excitement and action? Then book your ticket now and get started!
Attend BMPK and earn CPD points for your continuing education.
Did you know that you can earn CPD points on the BMPK? The "Continuing Professional Development Program" from PeopleCert® is designed to ensure that your expertise is always up to date. For all global best practice certifications, recertification is required within three years of the original award date. You can collect CPDs for this, among other things - also at the BMPK!
There are 15 points for participation in the congress. You register these yourself with MyAxelos and enter them under "Community". You will need a confirmation of participation as proof, which you will receive at the service desk.
Agile and project management
SAFe® 6.0: New version and German language update
Scale Agile with the latest best practices: The Scaled Agile Framework is available in a brand-new version as of this month! Not only have numerous updates been made to SAFe® 6.0, making the framework faster, better and more cost-effective. There have also been changes to the exam languages, as both training courses and documents, and even the subsequent exam, are finally available entirely in German. You can experience the Leading SAFe training according to the new version standard with us as one of the first providers already since the beginning of April. Thus, you can be sure that your SAFe training will provide you with the current practices, methods and practical tips you need for your everyday agile life. Book your Leading SAFe 6.0 training now - or read about the most important innovations in the framework in our blog!
Best Practice Basics: What is DevOps?
DevOps is considered a miracle cure for fast delivery and better quality in software products. But what does DevOps actually mean? Find out quickly and compactly in today's Best Practice Basics.
"DevOps" is a portmanteau of "development" and "operations" and describes a dynamic approach in which software development and IT operations are interlinked. The close cooperation within the framework of DevOps is intended to accelerate the delivery, deployment and improvement of products. While special methods and tools are emphasized, above all a so-called DevOps culture is required to successfully apply the approach.
But what does it mean to cultivate a DevOps culture? The basis for this particular corporate culture is the assumption that collaboration and shared responsibilities lead to better results. Agile thinking and lean concepts, but also a lot of automation measures, are linked to an incremental development process, i.e. development in short, repetitive cycles, for this purpose. This promotes short release intervals and continuous learning. In addition, DevOps teams can react faster and more efficiently to changed or new requirements. As a result, changes are integrated on a regular basis, updates are continuously provided, and processes are inexorably improved. While there is something in every development and deployment environment that can be further optimized. However, the special feature in a DevOps culture is that this potential is exploited and improvements are actually and continuously made.
In short, organizations reap several benefits when they adopt DevOps:
- Increased collaboration
- Strong automation
- Short release cycles
- Increased product quality and thus
- More satisfied customers
Shared responsibilities mean that each team member is involved to some degree in all phases of the product lifecycle. For example, developers are not solely responsible for the development of new features, but also for the impact of their changes on the stability and performance of live operations. Conversely, IT operations staff are involved in planning and development phases to ensure governance, security and compliance at this early stage. The result is higher product quality as each team member thinks outside the box. And last but not least, the broader scope of tasks means that knowledge is dispersed and shared, which prevents "silo formation".
Would you like to learn more about DevOps and its culture? Then take a look at our info page on DevOps - or visit us in one of our DevOps trainings!
Manage projects with Scrum? No, thanks!
Do you know this fatal approach? In order to finally bring "this agile" into your own projects, you train one person to be a Scrum Master and then let them do "agile project management with Scrum". A bad mistake! Because neither is Scrum suitable for this project, nor does the Scrum Master necessarily have the tools required for it. Why this is so and what you should do instead to integrate agile thinking and working methods into your projects, we reveal here!
Let's first find out why we can't manage projects with Scrum. To do this, let's look at what Scrum actually is and can do: Scrum is a framework for developing products of value in uncertain and complex environments. Scrum can do that, it is top notch at that. But the framework has its limitations. After all, there is a reason that the words "project" or "management" do not appear in this definition. And why? Because Scrum is development-oriented, that is, implementation-oriented. In small incremental loops, a product gradually emerges that should offer the greatest possible value for the customer. Scrum doesn't tell us anything about how several teams work together on it, how the financing of the project is justified, what governance or dependencies look like in the overall context - or, for that matter, about a project that is NOT an ongoing development. Because that's not what it's made for. This is where agile or hybrid project management methods such as PRINCE2 Agile shine instead.
All levels in view: This is how it works
In project management, we can identify three levels at which action is taken: steering, management and implementation.
At the steering level, the project is anchored in the organization. Here there is an overall view of the big picture and how the project is integrated into the company's strategic development plans. This is done, for example, through the steering committee. Among other things, the topic of governance has its place here. Everything is looked at in an overarching way and made to work. In addition, the justification of the project takes place here: Did it add value to the organization? Were the funds spent on it worth it?
The situation is different at the management level. This is where the overall planning of the project takes place. We plan the deployment of the teams, manage dependencies and synchronize progress. In other words, this is where the strands from the implementation teams come together.
These operate at the implementation level, where the main focus is on how the project is put into practice. Agile methods such as Scrum, Kanban or Lean approaches have their place here and are successfully applied by the teams in practice. This is a good idea because many small developments usually take place at the implementation level, which only come together at the management level.
The established project management method PRINCE2® Agile turns this idea into a holistic concept across all three levels: Different teams can work with different methods in PRINCE2 Agile at the implementation level - depending on which working method leads to the best results. The big challenge, which agile approaches often do not cover, is bringing together the resulting subproducts and coordinating the teams with each other. The resulting complexity in different dimensions cannot be handled by agile approaches alone, as discussed at the beginning. PRINCE2 Agile, on the other hand, is able to do this because it also specifically considers the steering and management level in order to be able to precisely control dependencies and to obtain a common release date at the end. This is how hybrid project management with PRINCE2 Agile emerges from the fusion of classic project management and agile adaptations.
Hybrid project management rocks!
We can best describe PRINCE2 Agile with the term "hybrid project management". Because "agile project management" is actually misleading. After all, agile frameworks do not involve the above-mentioned important control levels from project management at all. They focus on implementation, which in turn classic project management methods such as PRINCE2 do not specify in detail. We therefore prefer to call the amalgamation of frameworks such as Scrum and methods such as PRINCE2 hybrid project management. In this way, we can clearly emphasize that PRINCE2 Agile combines two ways of thinking without "making project management agile" per se.
The advantage of this is that in hybrid project management with PRINCE2 Agile, the agile ways of thinking and acting ensure greater flexibility in implementation. The project management components, on the other hand, enable complexity and deal with dependencies so that the organizational context can be maintained and everything can be financed.
The combination of both worlds makes projects possible in which the framework conditions are in place, but the overall product is not known from the outset. This also means that the details of development with PRINCE2 Agile are largely left to the teams. Agile self-organization takes the place of many management activities. In addition, reporting and other reporting measures become more informal overall.
PRINCE2 Agile thus combines the best of both worlds. When combined, the hybrid PRINCE2 Agile approach gives us a project that ...
- ... where the goal is complex but basically definable. Basic framework conditions are specified, but most of the details emerge over time.
- ... where the design of the details is the responsibility of the individual development teams.
- ... where each phase of the project is considered a timebox, after each of which review and adjustment takes place.
- ... where an overarching control of the content dependencies is necessary. For this purpose, a project manager coordinates the groups among themselves and represents the overall picture so that all teams can work together profitably.
- ... where the development teams work agilely - for example with Scrum or Kanban.
- ... where reporting and progress monitoring are proactive and more informal.
You see: Smart organizations don't even try to manage a project with Scrum. They reach with a sure hand for a fusion of agile implementation and an agile-adapted project management method. But this was just a brief glimpse into the world of PRINCE2 Agile. If you would like to learn more, feel free to drop by a PRINCE2 Agile Foundation training!
Service Management
New certifications: ITIL® Master & Practice Manager
In the second half of 2023, service management will experience a huge boost with ITIL 4. New training and certifications will enable an even broader base for everyone working with the leading framework.
The majority of the new training courses are explicitly tailored to important practices and their application. Anyone who learns at least 5 of the relevant practices in the new training courses and also completes the established "Create, Deliver & Support" course can now call themselves an ITIL Practice Manager. To make this possible as efficiently as possible, we are offering compact courses starting in the second half of the year, each with 5 of the 15 practices offered, such as "Monitor, Support & Fulfil" - so that you can achieve the new status with just two training courses.
The coveted title of ITIL Master, on the other hand, is yours once you have completely mastered ITIL 4: To do this, you combine completed exams from the Managing Professional, Strategic Leader and Practice Manager courses. Thanks to some overlaps, this means that if you are already a Managing Professional and Strategic Leader, you only need to attend one compact course to become an ITIL Master!
But there is also something happening in the title-independent extension modules: With "Business Relationship Management" and "IT Asset Management", two exciting topics are expanding the ITIL training horizon. The ITIL Overview Training is a beginner-friendly overview training that is designed to make it easier for you to get started in the world of ITIL 4. In this way, you can decide whether you want to make use of the world's leading framework for service management even before you start an ITIL Foundation.
Webinar: All about the ITIL 4 Master
Would you like to learn everything important about the ITIL 4 Master, the Practice Manager and the new training courses at first hand? Then tune in live to our free expert webinar! Here, Managing Director Michael Kresse will answer all your questions competently and to the point, explain the new certification scheme and dive into the world of ITIL 4 with you. The event starts on April 21 at 11 am. Register quickly and be there!
Highspeed Briefing: Finding the right software
Are you looking for the right ITSM or PM software for your company and want to fire up the engine even before the largest European trade fair for best practices? Then be sure to attend the Highspeed Briefing at BMPK23! At this morning event, powerful expert input and a delicious breakfast merge to form a dynamic start to your day at the congress and trade fair.
With Performance Packages 2 and 4, you will experience the concentrated power of leading software manufacturers, who will present impulses on current challenges and solutions in a total of nine briefing sessions. Each session lasts 45 minutes and you decide which topic interests you most. Immediately afterwards, you can clarify your detailed questions at the trade fair.
In this way, you combine arrow-quick knowledge growth with an exciting start to the BMPK day. To participate in the high-speed briefing, you need one of two tickets:
- In Performance Package 2, you will experience the Highspeed Briefing in addition to all the benefits of the main congress and trade show.
- With the Performance Package 4 you not only secure the Highspeed Briefing as well as all advantages of the main congress and the trade fair, but additionally 2 official training days in ITIL 4, Scrum, PRINCE2®, SAFe® 6.0 or another exciting topic!
Register now and discover exactly the software that best suits your business!
Submit your project now: SERVIEW BESTEXPERT Award
Preparations are in full swing, the first applications have already been received - we are looking forward to the SERVIEW BESTEXPERT Awards! Do not hesitate and submit your project, because the expert jury will select 5 nominees from all applications. These lucky teams will be allowed to present themselves and their project at BMPK23 and have the chance to receive the accolade as absolute pioneers of IT:
- Nominated teams will receive 5 tickets for the entire main congress (2.5 days) worth around 5,000 euros to experience BMPK23 together.
- They present their project on stage for about 5 minutes to convince the attending professional audience.
- The team that combines the most votes from the audience will receive the coveted trophy and the title SERVIEW BESTEXPERT 2023.
Apply now with a short project description and show everyone what you are made of!
Press release: Have courage!
The presentation of the SERVIEW BESTEXPERT Award has always been a matter close to my heart. Ambitious projects, unique personalities, exciting innovations, but also comparatively small projects that have overcome considerable hurdles and thus prevailed against a Goliath of grown old structures - this and more we have already been able to award in the past.
In many organizations, successful projects do not receive the necessary recognition. "Quick-quick to the next project, just don't look back!" is then the motto. Teams too seldom get the opportunity to celebrate their success, to look at it retrospectively, and thus to raise it to a standard for the future. But we want to change that: The SERVIEW BESTEXPERT Award is the lighthouse that shows you yourself, all organizations, specialists and managers what you have achieved with your team - and spurs us all on to keep surpassing ourselves.
I can't wait to learn more about your project - and to present you with the SERVIEW BESTEXPERT Award at BMPK23 in May! Therefore, don't hesitate, but boldly submit your project - without bureaucracy, just with a short description - and show what success looks like in our industry!
Your Michael Kresse
Managing Director and Owner SERVIEW GmbH
Consulting and
SERVIEW Certifiedtool
Moving partnership: USU and SERVIEW
We are on fire for our brand new implementation partnership with USU Solutions: We are very excited about this great step, which we decided to take after a profitable exchange. Together, we're going to make even more of a difference for our customers! Of course, you can find out more about our joint plans at BMPK23, where USU will have its own booth that you should definitely visit. We are also planning to announce our next steps, which you can already look forward to!
How to Implement ITSM: Creating a Vision
In the last MAG, you learned why a leading coalition is critical to the success of an ITSM implementation. You read about the competencies and characteristics the coalition should combine and the broad challenges it will face. Today, let's talk about what the first important steps of service management implementation look like, in other words: How does your leadership team start the organization's implementation journey?
One of the first actions of the leading coalition should be to jointly develop a vision for service management. It answers the question "What do we gain?" This is based on a solid understanding of the business requirements and its key business processes and objectives.
The vision is the formulated impetus for action. As a rule, it stands in contrast to the perceived actual situation. Combined with the formulations of the sense of urgency ("What if we do nothing?"), the vision ("What do we gain?") forms a powerful and sustainable tool:
- As a guiding principle and objective, it points the way to all those involved in the service management project
- It motivates employees to take targeted action and venture out of their comfort zone
- It assists in coordinating the actions of many different people
- It transparently presents the goals of senior management
Thanks to all these advantages, the vision is not only the basis for developing a business case to justify the project and its budget. It also forms the basis for deriving consistent SMART goals. SMART stands for "Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound." In short, goals are defined in such a way that the progress of the ITSM project can be objectively verified.
Just as important as the content of the vision itself is the explanation and communication of the vision. Every stakeholder should be able to understand and communicate the vision. A vision that cannot be explained in five minutes is not goal-oriented and precise enough. Based on the "sense of urgency," the vision should be communicated to all stakeholders through a wide variety of channels and using a wide variety of media. In doing so, you must take care to design the communication in a way that is target group-oriented and adapted to the medium used in each case.
The goal behind all of this is to motivate, inspire, foster the necessary energies, and convey the commitment required to transform the organization. As mentioned in a previous issue, a service management implementation is not a sprint, but a marathon. The project must have long-term, goal-oriented support from all stakeholders to truly succeed. For this, a coordinated communications strategy is crucial, which we will discuss in detail another time.
The important thing to remember when communicating your vision is that a vision is more than just a string of management phrases. Precisely because the long-term goals and perspectives of different service providers are often similar, it is important to do justice to your individual organizational culture and your employees when formulating the vision. This requires sensitivity, experience and fine-tuning in the formulation. Only in this way can you strike the right note and turn your service management vision into a long-term successful and unique composition that your employees will be happy to follow as a guiding star.
Take the next step fearlessly: SERVIEW Maturity Assessment
You want to know exactly where you stand - and how to take your service management that decisive step further? Then use the ITIL® 4 Maturity Assessment and put your ITSM implementation to the test!
During the professional site assessment, we check and describe the maturity level of your service management according to the current standards of ITIL 4 Practices. Are your processes set up appropriately? Is the focus on value creation or rather on bureaucracy? Are your processes as digitalized, standardized and automated as they need to be today? You can find out all this transparently through the innovative ITIL® 4 Maturity Assessment. As a result, you will not only receive an unadorned picture of your status quo, but above all clear recommendations for action as well as a customized roadmap to develop your service organization in a targeted manner. Contact us!
Excellent: 4me
Congratulations on the certification: 4me met the strict evaluation criteria of our seal of approval for outstanding software - and emerged successfully from the review! As a result, 4me now proudly bears the SERVIEW CERTIFIEDTOOL award in the category "Agile Product Development (Scrum-compatible)" and will be used even more often in agile environments in the future. Congratulations!
Events
At a glance: The BMPK23 Congress Brochure
Five days with a packed agenda: A varied program full of highlights awaits you at the BMPK! If you want to get an overview, take a look at our congress brochure: Here you will find compact explanations of the most important highlights and specials, plus information about keynote speakers, performance levels, and much more... Browse through and be carried away!
"The best community event in the industry": What do attendees say about BMPK?
After a three-year break, we are eager to let it rip at this year's BMPK! We still have fond memories of the last congress - and many participants expressed their enthusiasm afterwards:
"The perfect mix of information, entertainment and networking. Standing ovation for the organizer, congratulations for this event!" P. Stanjeck
"One of the highest quality conventions I have ever attended. Definitely will be back!" J. Hergert
"As a Serview Congress dinosaur, I have been able to experience many of your events - it was definitely one of the best! Great atmosphere & conversations with potential new customers, existing customers as well as the other vendors. Definitely the best community event in the industry. Thanks for the great organization." K. Durmeyer
Of course we are very happy about such positive feedback, this year's BMPK will surely be an unforgettable experience!
7 exciting workshops, your choice!
Wednesday is workshop day at the BMPK! Here you deal with current IT topics and exchange ideas in the group. Performance Package 3 includes a half-day workshop of your choice, we offer the following workshops on May 24:
- Getting the ITIL4 Engine Running: Key Core Practices in Use
- From danger zone to shortcut: our secret tips for your ITSM tool selection
- Projects in the fast lane: The fact check on common project management methods
- Demanding best performance, but how? Practical exchange around requirements management
- Value creation across the board: Focused value streams in practice
- Grandstand view of ITIL4: The compact overview for management
- Test drive with TOGAF: discovery tour through the prominent framework
Seven highly exciting topics, just pick your favorite!
Fast-paced exhibitor rally: answer quiz questions and scoop top prizes
Get into conversation with as many exhibitors as possible: This pays off twice at the BMPK! Because in addition to professional input, you can also collect the answers for our exhibitor rally - and with a bit of luck, scoop one of three grand prizes:
- Price: Power Plate training device
- Price: E-Scooter
- Price: Playstation 5
And this is how it works: In your participant documents you will find a questionnaire with one question about each exhibitor participating in the rally. You will receive the answer at the booth of the respective exhibitor. Fill in all the answers and hand in the questionnaire at the BMPK23 Service Desk by 11:00 a.m. on May 26 - and you will be entered into the prize draw.
The draw will take place on Friday around 13:30 on the BMPK23 stage. All attendees who have filled out their questionnaires correctly and on time will be entered into the draw. Good luck!
Peter Maffay Foundation "Walk & Run": Register now and do good!
After a day at the congress with lots of input and discussion, do you feel like getting some exercise? Then lace up your running shoes and head for the starting line: On May 24, 2023, the "Walk & Run" will take place as part of the BMPK to benefit the Peter Maffay Foundation.
Starting at 6:30 p.m., you will run at the pace of your choice through the natural landscape of the Odenwald. Whether as an individual starter or with colleagues in a team: Everyone crosses the finish line as a winner, because we run for the welfare of disadvantaged and traumatized children. Of course, the "Walk & Run" is free of charge for all congress participants, SERVIEW takes over the starting fee. All proceeds will be donated to the Peter Maffay Foundation.
By the way: If you want to do something good even before the BMPK, you can make a financial contribution here.
The next issue will be published on
May 11, 2023
