Chapter 7: Business Skills for Technical Professionals

Which is true about service desks?

Service desks that use trend and root cause analysis proactively are able to justify and acquire the resources they need, when they need them.

As technical professionals advance to team leader or supervisory positions, they should be able to use techniques such as ____, to compare two or more potential solutions to determine an optimum solution.

cost benefit analysis

Who has ultimate authority over a project?

project sponsor

Which process is performed to determine why incidents are occurring so steps can be taken to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future?

root cause analysis

Labor and benefits usually represent how much of a service desk's overall costs?

60 % to 80%

____are the rules and standards that govern the conduct of a person or group of people.

Ethics

As most companies have process owners and managers, it is not important for technical professionals to be able to develop, document, or improve processes.

False

IT and business unification is a process aimed at ensuring that information technologies support corporate goals and objectives.

False

If you want to justify replacing a desktop computer with a laptop, you should perform a return on investment analysis.

False

Which is true about a presentation's objective?

Objectives enable you to set and manage your audience's expectations.

Which is true about projects?

One of the project manager's most important responsibilities is developing and maintaining the project plan.

Which is true?

Root cause analysis is an important step in the incident management process. Until the root cause of incidents is identified and eliminated, it is likely that the customer will continue to experience incidents.

Acceptance criteria are the conditions that must be met before the project deliverables are accepted.

True

Gantt charts are often used to illustrate project schedules.

True

Skills that are unique to the profession that the service desk supports, such as accounting or banking skills, are called ____.

industry knowledge

Which would be best to show how parts relate to the whole?

pie chart

When designing a presentation, which is correct?

-For some audiences, visual aids may be the only content you need to present. -Preparing a timeline ensures that the presentation you design can be completed within the allotted time frame.

When rehearsing your presentation, what is important to remember?

-When rehearsing, note where you should be at the halfway point of your allotted time. -That way, if you are ahead, you can add another example or two, or if you are behind, you can pick up the pace.

Which is an intangible characteristic?

-customer satisfaction -employee satisfaction

Which may be considered a project?

-installing a new computer -creating a set of new FAQs -moving an office

Data collected by service desk analysts is used to ____.

-track outstanding incidents and service requests -measure analysts' performance -measure customer satisfaction with the company

In its simplest form, a cost benefit analysis uses financial costs and intangible benefits.

False

One of the best ways to design a presentation is to begin with a flowchart.

False

Simply capturing data actually can prevent incidents and make it possible for companies to monitor and improve their services.

False

The business skills required to work for a nonprofit company are different than those required for a for-profit company.

False

The period of time over which the benefits of an investment are received is known as the investment period.

False

The project charter serves as an agreement between the customer of the project and the supplier about the project's end product.

False

To minimize scope deviation, many companies have a project change control process in place for reviewing and approving scope changes.

False

Trend and root cause analysis are most effective when done separately.

False

Typically, companies strive to place most of the emphasis on tangible, rather than intangible, goals.

False

Typically, people with strong technical skills are assigned the role of project manager, because they also have strong managerial skills.

False

When making a presentation, the "one size fits all" approach applies. Your presentation should be designed so that it applies to all types of audiences; technical and non-technical, management and non-management.

False

Which is true about some business skills?

Some business skills can be acquired by observing and inquiring about the activities that occur where you work.

As technical professionals are often involved in projects such as hardware or software releases, an understanding of project management concepts makes them effective team members.

True

Calculating ROI has many benefits, including greater credibility for IT and better alignment with the business. ROI can be a complex and time-consuming calculation; therefore, it is typically reserved for larger technology investments.

True

Cost per contact is the total cost of operating a service desk for a given time period divided by the total number of contacts received during that time period.

True

During your presentation, if answering questions and throwing off your timing is a concern, ask your audience to please hold their questions until the end. If you do answer questions as they are asked, remember to answer the question asked and only the question asked. Resist the temptation to go off on a tangent.

True

Good budgeting ensures that the money allocated for a particular project does not run out before the project is completed.

True

Many companies use top 10 reports to determine the types of incidents that require immediate action or warrant root cause analysis.

True

Today's service desk analysts are being challenged to ensure that a company's technology enables its employees and customers to achieve their business goals.

True

Trend reports make it possible to determine the most common problems and also make it possible for analysts to identify anomalies, or deviations or departures from the average or the norm.

True

Typically, service trends are negative.

True

Which is a report that describes the business reasons that a change is being considered?

a business case

When an improvement project begins, you should capture a ____, or starting point, that can be used to demonstrate the success of your improvement efforts.

baseline

Comparing the service desk's performance metrics and practices to those of another service desk in an effort to identify improvement opportunities is called ____.

benchmarking

Which would be considered service industry knowledge?

customer service skills

Justifying improvement initiatives typically involves stating the expected benefits in the form of goals or objectives and expressing those goals as what?

metrics

If a prospective service desk candidate doesn't have service experience, which prior job experience would most likely be considered relevant?

teaching

According to HDI, which has the highest cost per contact?

walkup

For large projects, you should create a _____, which is a task-oriented breakdown of the work to be done.

work breakdown structure