Who is the audience?

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Today someone posed the rather straightforward question of who is the true audience for MOF, and why we'd focus entirely on the IT pro? That's a very good question and it raises the point that I don't think we've done a good job to date in articulating our views on the target audience. As we've been defining our requirements for the MOF Update, we've been looking at three core groups as the consumer of our framework:

  • The IT Pro
  • The IT Strategist (or Manager, or Service Manager)
  • The CxO

Now obviously, at this point we're covering a rather broad spectrum of the IT populace and I don't want to suggest that we'll be trying to address each group equally with our deliverables. Yet there is a reason to address content to each level. Starting at the bottom and working my way back up, the CxO is important as it's here that we have to show how Microsoft can help them achieve value, increase the value of IT, ROI, governance, etc. If the CxO isn't bought into the value proposition of the framework as a whole, then it becomes difficult to implement in the organization, due to lack of resources and executive support. 

 

At the strategist level, we have to demonstrate the overall lifecycle and process flow. This is the traditional audience, consumer, and champion of IT service management and it's critical that these people believe in and understand both what we're doing and why we're doing it. They are close enough to the technology to understand the problems and removed enough to see the service as a whole.

 

Lastly, we come to the IT pro. Here is where the actual work gets done. The IT pro is the "doer," the one who performs every action that is described in the processes defined by the framework. As these are the people who are working hands-on with our technology every day, it should be our company's goal to do everything we can to make their lives’ easier, to reduce complexity and minimize problems. If the IT pro doesn't understand the why behind the processes they're being asked to implement, if they don't see the value to their day-to-day jobs, then the processes are very likely to fail.

So, if you were to ask today what the breakdown of our deliverables should look like for the above audiences, I might say 10% to the CxO, 40% to the Strategist, and 50% to the IT pro.  But instead, I'd rather ask you.  What do you think of the above?  Are we on track with our thinking about the different audiences that need to be addressed?  If so, what do YOU think the breakdown should be?  Why?  Click on Comments below and let us know your thoughts!

Thanks,

Jason Osborne

Frameworks PM