Continual Service Improvement: Best Practices & Processes for ITIL CSIWhat is Continual Service Improvement? Continual Service Improvement (CSI) uses a metrics- driven approach to identifying opportunities for improvement and to measure the impact of improvement efforts.
Although CSI is a phase of the lifecycle and is documented in a separate ITIL publication, CSI can be effective only if it is integrated throughout the lifecycle, creating a culture of continual improvement. CSI should ensure that all participants in service delivery understand that identifying opportunities for improvement is their responsibility.
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An important task for CSI is to identify which metrics out of the thousands that are created daily should be monitored. This is done by identifying, for each service or process, what the critical success factors (CSFs) are.
A public wiki site dedicated to the ITIL approach to IT and customer support and management. Www.itilhelp.com COBIT IT Assessment/Audit Tool Introduction The goal of information technology certification programs is to provide alignment for IT infrastructure. EMS Management System Audit Checklist. These checklists are provided for general guidance in verifying compliance to the ISO 14001 Standard and internal procedures. The Request for Change (RFC) is formal request for the implementation of a Change. It is to be submitted to Change Management for any non-standard Change. The RFC is. Free ITIL Templates: Officially ITIL licensed. The ITIL document. Goal: “Restore normal service operation as quickly as possible and minimize the adverse impact on business operations, thus ensuring that the best possible levels. Question: In our IS/IT department there are discussions to introduce ITIL ® or BS15000. Does it make sense still to purchase this simple release checklist?
CSFs must be present if a process or service is to succeed. It is recommended that each process or service have identified no more than three to five CSFs (one or two in the early life of a service or process). To determine whether CSFs are present, it is necessary to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that represent the degree to which the CSF is present.
Again, it is recommended that each CSF be measured by no more than three to five KPIs (one or two in the early life of a service or process). It’s important to keep in mind that, although most KPIs are quantitative, qualitative KPIs, such as customer satisfaction, need to be considered as well. CSI is based on the Plan- Do- Check- Act approach developed by W.
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Edwards Deming. This is implemented in the CSI approach, as follows: What is the vision? What is our long- term objective? Where are we now? What are the current values of our KPIs? Where do we want to be? What are the desired KPI values? How do we get there?
What’s the plan? Did we get there? Do the KPI values after implementation of the plan meet our objectives? How do we keep up the momentum?
Let’s go back to the beginning. CSI uses a 7- step process to guide how data is collected and used: Define the objectives. Determine what to measure. Collect the data. Process the data. Analyze the data. Present and use the information.
Implement improvement. If CSI is performing its role properly, there will be improvement suggestions arising from all parts of service delivery. The organization is unlikely to have enough resources to implement all of the suggestions, so it is necessary to capture the improvement opportunities, understand their impact, scope, and resource requirements, and prioritize their implementation. CSI uses the CSI register as a tool to document, analyze, and plan for improvements. As businesses depend more on IT services, it is vital that IT organizations continually evaluate and improve their IT services and the IT service management processes that enable those IT services. A formal, proactive continual service improvement (CSI) practice is required to meet and achieve service level agreements.
To implement CSI, organizations need to instill the right attitude and drive the right behaviors until they become second nature. IT providers must embed a culture of measurement that continually tests the value, quality, performance, and compliance of the services within their portfolio and implements improvement initiatives that enable the desired business outcomes. By definition, alignment requires bringing together two separate entities, often with disparate goals and objectives. However, in today’s complex IT environment, it is becoming more difficult to determine the difference between an IT service and a business service. Modern Siren Program By Rori Raye Blog.
As the lines blur, alignment is no longer enough; IT must become an integral part of the business. Rather than having two separate organizations with disconnected goals and objectives, there must be a single, integrated business operation that functions with appropriate technology. Many people have a personal continual improvement plan (although they may not call it that). For example, perhaps they decide they want to become more physically fit. First, they must define what “more physically fit” means to them.
Then they measure their current fitness level and set goals for where they want to be. They may then decide to start walking half a mile every morning.
Once they accomplish that for two weeks, they might increase the distance to one mile. After a month of walking one mile, they might increase the distance to a mile and a half, and so on. They measure their progress at regular intervals to determine where they are in relation to their goals. Once they meet their physical fitness goals, they select something else in their lives that they want to improve, and the improvement process begins again. CSI for IT is just that: finding an IT area that is important to the business and looking for ways to improve it. ITIL defines CSI as “.
CSI ensures that you align services with changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to IT services that support business processes. You continually measure the performance of the IT service provider and then make improvements to processes, services, and infrastructure to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
CSI is a guiding factor and key focus in the new ITIL Practitioner program, launched in February 2. The service management lifecycle. The service lifecycle approach includes four key stages: 1. Service strategy is about designing, developing, and implementing service management as both an organizational capability and a strategic asset.
Service design focuses on ensuring IT services offerings fulfill the objectives of the business and the customer. Service transition centers on risk management, knowledge management, change management, service asset and configuration management, and related areas. Service transition creates a smooth ride from strategy, design, and development to operation. Service operation strives to manage operational priorities, such as availability of IT services. Improving the user experience and the quality of existing IT services is at the heart of the value delivered by CSI. While the other four stages are best performed with agility, CSI is most effective when you embed it in each of these lifecycle stages. Why ITIL Continual Service Improvement?
Continual Service Improvement is the fifth publication in the ITIL series, but don’t take this to mean that this is the last stage of the ITIL lifecycle. Rather, it should be an integral part of every stage. If you have areas needing improvement, you can follow the CSI process, enjoy some quick wins, and demonstrate to the business that it can trust IT. This will open doors and enable you to start working with the business on further strategic initiatives, which, of course, is the service strategy component of the ITIL lifecycle. Summary. Implement a CSI program so that you can take optimal advantage of your IT capabilities and resources. Find ways to make IT even more efficient, beneficial, and cost- effective so that it can continue to drive business value. CSI will also help you demonstrate value with metrics.
Improvement can be made across the ITIL lifecycle with each stage of the lifecycle support giving feedback to the other stages for collaborative coordinated improvements. Identify the strategy for improvement. Define metrics. Gather data. Process data. Analyze data.
Use the data for improvement decisions. Implement improvements. Special attention should be given to economic value of improvements, because all organizations have to recover cost for service delivered in order to exist. Financial management concepts and metrics pertaining to ROI, TCO, VOI, and ROA help here.
BMC's Complete Guide to ITILIntroduction to ITIL.
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Guide. Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Guide. Introduction. IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) provides a framework of Best Practice guidance for IT Service Management and since its creation, ITIL has grown to become the most widely accepted approach to IT Service Management in the world.
This compact guide has been designed as an introductory overview for anyone who has an interest in or a need to understand more about the objectives, content and coverage of ITIL. Whilst this guide provides an overview, full details can be found in the actual ITIL publications themselves. This guide describes the key principles of IT Service Management and provides a high- level overview of each of the core publications within ITIL.
What is an ITIL? ITIL is a public framework that describes Best Practice in IT service management . It provides a framework for the governance of IT, the . This focus is a major factor in ITIL’s worldwide success and has contributed to its prolific usage and to the key benefits obtained by those organizations deploying the techniques and processes throughout their organizations. Some of these benefits include: increased user and customer satisfaction with IT servicesimproved service availability, directly leading to increased business profits and revenuefinancial savings from reduced rework, lost time, improved resource management and usage improved time to market for new products and servicesimproved decision making and optimized risk. It was originally developed in the late 1.
Britain’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), now known as the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Rather than a rigid set of rules, ITIL provides a framework that companies can adapt to meet their own needs. Organizations need not implement every process, just those that make sense and fit into the way the organization wants to do business in the future. Some processes may be abandoned later when post- implementation reviews show limited value, while others may be implemented as gaps are uncovered or needs change. ITIL breaks down IT functions into discrete, full- function components that span the enterprise, called services. These services have been designed in a building block manner so they can be provisioned easily either internally or through the use of an external service provider. In each case, best practices for the delivery of the service are identified and they are addressed at three different levels: Strategic - Long term goals of the particular service and high level activities needed to accomplish them.
Tactical - Specific processes that guide the tasks and activities needed to perform and provision the service. Operational - Actual execution of the processes to provide the service to the customer and end users. Successful completion of the Operational tasks means that Strategic goals are accomplished within the expected time frames. ITIL Versions. ITIL was published between 1. Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) in the UK on behalf of the Central Communications and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) – now subsumed within the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Its early use was principally confined to the UK and Netherlands. A second version of ITIL was published as a set of revised books between 2.
The initial version of ITIL consisted of a library of 3. IT service provision. This initial version was then revised and replaced by seven, more closely connected and consistent books (ITIL V2) consolidated within an overall framework. This second version became universally accepted and is now used in many countries by thousands of organizations as the basis for effective IT service provision. In 2. 00. 7, ITIL V2 was superseded by an enhanced and consolidated third version of ITIL, consisting of five core books covering the service lifecycle, together with the Official Introduction. ITIL Version 2. ITIL Version 2 consists of the following ten titles: 1. Introduction to ITIL2.
Service Support. 3. Service Delivery.
Planning to Implement Service Management. Security Management.
Business Perspective. ICT Infrastructure Management.
Application Management. Software Asset Management. Small- Scale Implementation. ITIL Version 3. ITIL Version 3 Portfolio includes: The OGC required products.
These are the OGC Core Reference material and a range of OGC derived products. All products that are OGC- required are . An eighth describes how to implement ITIL. Each of these volumes is described in more depth below.
Version 2 focuses on aligning business units with the IT organization using technology- oriented processes. As mentioned above, the current iteration of ITIL breaks down IT services into seven components. These are: 4. 1. Business Perspective. IT’s activities have value only to the degree they support the organization’s business goals. This area covers the interaction between Business and IT and how business requirements are gathered and translated into IT resource requirements. Business Perspective owns the processes that ensure all work performed by IT has been reviewed, approved by management and prioritized. The major disciplines in this area are: 4.
Service Delivery. Service Delivery breaks down into the following major sub disciplines: Service Level Management. Perhaps the most important set of processes in ITIL, Service Level Management (SLM) processes establish clear service delivery standards, providing the means to objectively measure how well IT is meeting business requirements. The major components of SLM are the Service Catalogue, Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Operational Level Agreements (OLAs). The foundation of SLM is the Service Catalogue, which defines each service provided by the IT organization, including the deliverables, the details of each service provided, and how service delivery performance is measured.
The Catalog services form the basis for generating the SLAs and OLAs, and provide the foundation for building the infrastructure services . Capacity Management. Once an organization has defined the services it needs, it can then begin calculating exact items it needs to achieve those service levels.
This leads into the next area: Capacity Management . Together with the business units, finance, and service support, the capacity planners build the annual infrastructure growth plan. Capacity planning gets involved very early in the application life cycle to assist in determining the implementation and ongoing support costs of applications or releases. Activities in this area are proactive rather than reactive.
The discipline is further broken down into three areas following the Strategic/Tactical/Operational model: Strategic. Business Capacity Management - Looks at understanding future business requirements and growth, and how they impact SLAs and infrastructure resources. Tactical. Service Capacity Management - Looks at applications and the business processes they support from an enterprise perspective, examining resource consumption patterns and cycles to ensure services can meet SLAs. Operational. Resource Capacity Management - Looks at resources from an individual infrastructure component perspective. Financial Management for IT Services These processes are directed toward the financial aspects of running the business of IT .
This includes: Budgeting - Short- and long- term planning of the expenditures needed to maintain and improve services that align with business plans. IT Accounting - Cost analyses of future projects, gaining approval of expenditures and staying on budget. Chargeback - Recovering costs from Customers for services provided. Availability Management. This area reviews business requirements for availability of business systems, catalogues them and ensures proper contingency plans are in place and tested on a regular basis to ensure business services are restored as quickly as needed in the event of an IT infrastructure component failure.