What are the steps in ITIL continual service improvement?

Answer 1

Step 1: Clarify the vision, taking into account both the business and IT vision, mission, goal and objectives, and ensuring that everyone has a common understanding. Visions are aspirational and represent a desired state.

Step 2: Assess the current situation and establish a baseline of exactly where the organisation is currently. This can be challenging and there is a need to be honest, which is why external input can be useful.

Step 3: Define steps towards the vision based on priorities for improvement and setting measurable targets. It is usually impossible to leap from wherever you currently are direct to the state represented by the vision.

Step 4: Document an improvement plan, using service and process improvement techniques.

Step 5: Monitor achievements, making use of appropriate measures and metrics as defined earlier.

Step 6: Maintain the momentum by ensuring that improvements are embedded and looking for further improvement opportunities.

Answer 2

Once a Service Management solution has been implemented, it is not a good idea to sit back and think that the job has been done. It is a good idea to think about how the service can be improved to benefit both the organization and the end customer. All aspects of the environment will be continually changing, and the service provider must always continue to seek improvements. Continual Service Improvement is responsible for ensuring that these improvements are identified and implemented. The performance of the IT service provider is continually measured and improvements are made to processes, IT services and the IT infrastructure in order to increase efficiency, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

Answer 3

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) aims to deliver business value by ensuring that the Service Management implementation continues to deliver the desired business benefits (and if possible add value to the service)

Answer 4

CSI has the following objectives:

• To review, analyze and make recommendations on where improvements could be made at any point throughout the lifecycle.

• To review and analyze service level achievements against targets.

• To identify and implement individual activities to improve service quality and the efficiency and effectiveness of service management processes.

• To improve the cost-effectiveness of delivering IT services without impacting customer satisfaction.

• To apply quality management methods to support continual improvement activities.

CSI must be an objective for everyone in the organization, but improvement activities will only happen if they are properly managed. A senior responsible owner must be appointed and they must possess the appropriate authority to make things happen. This is not a trivial role, since improvements may mean significant disruption of current work patterns.

Improvement activities need to be planned and scheduled on an ongoing basis and their effects monitored to ensure that the desired improvement is achieved. Ideally, the culture of 'improvement' will become embedded within the organization.