From ITIL to Next-Gen Service Management
Continual service improvement is built on the Plan-Do-Check-Act approach developed by W. Edwards Deming. This is applied in the CSI approach, as follows:
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What is the vision? What is our long-term objective?
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Where are we now? What are the current values of our KPIs?
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Where do we want to be? What are the desired KPI values?
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How do we get there? What’s the plan?
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Did we get there? Do the KPI values after implementation of the plan meet our objectives?
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How do we keep up the momentum? Let’s go back to the beginning.
CSI uses a 7-step process to monitor how data is gathered and used:
If continual service improvement is carrying out its role as it should be, there will be improvement suggestions coming from all areas of service delivery. If an organization is not likely to have adequate resources to implement all of the suggestions, it is necessary to take note of the improvement opportunities, understand the impact, scope, and resource necessities, and place in order, their implementation. Continual service improvement uses the CSI register as a tool to document, analyze, and strategize for improvements.
As organizations depend more on IT services, it is imperative that IT organizations continually gauge and improve their IT services and the IT service management processes that support those IT services. A formal, hands-on continual service improvement (CSI) practice is essential to meet and accomplish service level agreements.
To implement CSI, establishments need to inculcate the right attitude and drive the right behaviors until they turn out to be second nature. IT providers must set in a culture of measurement that constantly tests the value, quality, performance, and agreement of the services within their portfolio and implement improvement inventiveness that result in the sought after business outcomes.
By description, alignment requires bringing together two distinct entities, often with contrasting goals and objectives. However, in today’s multifaceted IT environment, it is more challenging to understand the difference between an IT service and a business service. Along with this alignment, IT must become a fundamental part of the business. Instead of having disconnected goals and objectives, there must be a single, integrated business operation that operates with fitting technology.
Continual service improvement for IT is recognizing an IT area that is significant for the business and looking for ways to improve it. ITIL defines CSI as a stage in the lifecycle of a service. Continual service improvement ensures that services are aligned with the varying business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to IT services that sustain the business processes.
Continuously monitoring the performance of the IT service provider and then improving the processes, services and infrastructure enables increased efficiency and effectiveness.