So unlike
the Billy Joel lyric “Love you just the way you are”, we can never be satisfied
with our processes being just the way they are.
As the organizations that we are engaged by continually change and
mature to meet customers dynamic requirements, our processes must be
continually assessed, measured and matured to ensure that they stay relevant
and deliver value long into the future.
This takes real time, effort and resources. Organizations cannot possibly move from being
informal or ad-hoc to having a fully integrated ITSM program in a short period
of time. Just being able to gather the
correct components (people, process, technology and information) can be a
lengthy process and, of course, there is the decision of which processes do I
begin with.
The saying
“Rome was not built in a day” really applies in this situation. We must begin from the perspective that each
level of maturity forms the foundation for the next level of maturity. Trying
to jump over levels will almost always lead to a process that is not fully
baked and not being properly aligned to support the appropriate levels of
service delivery. As Certified Process
Design Engineers (CPDEs) we must make sure that our processes are well embedded
within the organizations culture and that the appropriate level of capabilities
are provided to those that will be working within these processes.
The first
step that we want to take is to assess what the current level of maturity is
and ask if it is necessary for us to take on the endeavor of moving to the next
level of maturity. As a side note there
are many different models and techniques that can be used to assess process
maturity such as ITIL PMF, CMMI and ISO/IEC 15504. The assessment will help us to baseline our
strengths and weaknesses and then allow us to recommend improvement
opportunities, define priorities and finally prescribe next steps. Assessments can be conducted by the Process
Owner, Process Improvement Team or some independent party.
A sampling
of some of the high level maturity characteristics that might be identified and
defined during this assessment could be cost effectiveness, procedural
compliance, knowledge capture, business alignment, data capture and process
compliance. At each level of maturity
these characteristics, along with challenges and transition steps to the next
level of maturity, will be discussed.
To gain knowledge and certification in Process Design follow this link http://www.itsmacademy.com/cpde/
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