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Operational Manager

Training Description
MISD Operational Manager Certificate

Description

 ‘Mastering IT Support Delivery’ Curriculum
Career Level 3, Operational Manager Certificate
Course code MISD-OMC

Introduction

 MISD-OMC provides skills and practices in the operational management of an IT support workgroup; thus is for any manager in charge of a group involved in the chain of receipt and resolution of user or systems support enquiries. It impacts the heads of all technical workgroups in Production ICT either in an ITSM or ECSM context. That includes Service Desk, Helpdesk, Desktop Support, Communications, Network and Infrastructure, Business Applications, Operations and DevOps, and may also include Development, where they are used in a support context.

Qualification Gained

 MISD Operational Manager Certificate

Delivery

 Classroom of no more than 16 attendees, led by qualified, expert tutor. Interactive engagement of scripted topics and associated quizzes, culminating in written examination

Duration

 3 consecutive days

Materials Provided

 Copies of slides and associated text

Learning Objectives

 The syllabus comprises three main subject areas:

  • Workgroup leadership, consisting of orchestration of department resources and representation of the workgroup to the business, both as service provider and for dovetailing with shadow IT and vendor-provided escalation routes
  • Man-management, including staff development, setting and monitoring production and productivity expectations, governing workload variety, skills redundancy, scheduling non-reactive work, motivation and job satisfaction
  • Informed decision-making, including key performance indicators, critical success factors and other statistical analyses to get beyond service levels into throughput parameters; and to match service delivery with customer satisfaction

Successful candidates should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of principles and techniques in the following areas:

  • Lead the department from the front, to represent it according to your vision for its position, role and standing to its host organisation, clients and users.
  • Anticipate demand and orchestrate resources both within and outside the immediate workgroup to meet that demand in accordance with true need and affordability.
  • Orchestrate manpower and other resources to ensure the workgroup’s entire workload is appropriately staffed so that nothing gets missed and all priorities are met, for both reactive and project work
  • Identify, measure, monitor and act upon key performance indicators and use statistical functions against these to inform management decisions in correcting and improving service, not just after-the-fact (Management Information) but also in real time (Decision Support); use these to regulate and improve workload throughput as a vital contribution to eventual achieved service-levels.
  • Use a seven-stage skillset management programme to commoditise technical knowledge so that it can be imparted at the appropriate level; use this to eradicate Single Points of Failure, remove bottlenecks, increase skills redundancy, increase departmental service versatility, and replace management technical responsibilities to increase management involvement and quality.

Where to get qualification

Who Should Attend

 Heads of all and any IT technical workgroup where IT support resolutions are part of the typical workload, especially where that work comprises interaction with end users and corporate authorities, including but not limited to Service Desk, Development, Desktop support, Network or Communications specialists, applications support specialists

Organisational Benefits

 The MISD Operational Manager Certificate is the core of the MISD curriculum. It reflects the essential truth of any workgroup with a responsibility competently to deliver a consistent, high quality service, in line with the needs of the business. That truth is simply that the most effective way to build a successful workgroup is for it to be led by an able manager.

Technical skills may be in abundance. Staff may be willing and motivated. But if the manager does not know how to orchestrate these advantages into a delivered service, then perhaps the most we can hope for is a disorganised group of individuals doing their best.

The benefit to the organisation is the confidence in knowing that vital technical services are in the hands of competent, trained, qualified leaders, using proven techniques and leading motivated, skilled staff in the delivery of output oriented toward the business.

Individual Benefits

 This qualification is in management, not technology. Unlike a technical specialisation, management is a horizontal skillset, applicable almost anywhere. Acquiring that skillset is advancement in itself – but furthermore, it opens up a broader panoply of career opportunities because of its universality.

The job of the successful manager is full of reward. It is knowing that by your actions and decisions, the staff who work for you and around you are getting more out of their jobs and their working lives by following a leader who runs the workgroup in their interests as well as those of the business. It is knowing that the department’s customers are getting the right services, properly delivered. It is seeing how your staff are appreciated by their customers. It is in the satisfaction of developing staff skillsets and knowing that their growth and advancement are the results of your policies and decisions.

MISD Operational Manager provides the ‘how to’ of running a successful support workgroup, in the form of interlinked methods and techniques that have been developed, tested, and proven over several decades in a range of industries. The successful candidate in this training receives a portable qualification and direction in career advancement.

Prerequisites

 Candidates must be able to demonstrate numeracy to adult skill level International PIAAC & IALS Level 4, England NQF & Wales CQFW Level 2, Scotland SCQF Level 5.

Optional Prereading
  • DeMarco, Tom and Lister, Timothy, ‘Peopleware – Productive Projects and Teams’
  • Blanchard, Kenneth and Johnson, Spencer ‘The New One-Minute Manager’

Examination Format
  • In classroom invigilated by tutor
  • 40 multiple choice questions over maximum of 60 minutes (80 minutes in non-first language English locations)
  • Pass mark 28/40 (70%)
  • Results within 2 weeks; examiner’s decision is final
  • In case of failure, 2 maximum examination retakes; thereafter, examination opportunities require entire course retake

Next Steps

 MISD Career Level 4, Support Strategy Manager Certificate