Undervalued Evaluation

I have been reading Service Transition and am struck again that one of the most undervalued processes is Evaluation. The purpose of Evaluation is to provide a consistent and standardized method for determining the performance of a service change. The actual performance of a change is assessed against its predicted performance. Any detected can therefore be understood and managed.

One of the goals of Evaluation is to provide effective and accurate information to Change Management. The objective is to:

Evaluate the intended effects of a service change as well as the unintended effects of the change. For example, does the change meet the requirements agreed to in Service Design? Does this change have any negative effects on availability, capacity, etc…?
Provide good quality outputs from the evaluation process so that Change Management can asses whether a service change is to be approved or not.

Triggers for the Evaluation Process:

Request for Evaluation from the Service Transition manager or Change Management
Activity on Project Plan

Inputs for the Evaluation Process:

Service Design package
Service Acceptance Criteria
Test results and report

Outputs for the Evaluation Process:

Evaluation Report for Change Management

The Evaluation Report which is passed to Change Management contains the following components:

Risk profile – a representation of the residual risk left after a change has been implemented
Deviations Report - difference between predicted and actual performance following the change implementation
Recommendations – A report to Change Management to accept or reject the change
Qualifications Statement - What effect did the change have on the state of the service?

The Evaluation process brings a tangible benefit to the business. Its helps ensure that customer expectations for the service change are realistic. By reporting on predicted performance and reporting on actual performance of the service change, Continual Service Improvements can be highlighted for future service changes.

I would highly recommend taking a closer look at this important process.

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