The Role of Process Practitioner

A quick update: Introduced in 2019, ITIL 4 has shifted its focus from processes to holistic practices. These practices typically have multiple processes, whereas earlier versions of ITIL defined a practice area as a single process. The responsibilities of Practice Practitioners are aligned to the activities of one or more of the practice’s processes, and so the spirit of this original blog is still applicable.

The role of the Process Practitioner is by far one of the most critical, and is sometimes overlooked in lieu of roles such as Process Owner and Process Manager. Don’t misunderstand, Process Owners and Process Managers are important and are keys to success, but the Process Practitioner role is where the rubber meets the road. This is the role assigned to individuals who perform the work on a day-to-day basis.

ITIL has always emphasized the need for clearly-defined roles and responsibilities and process activities. It's the Process Practitioners who carry out these activities. Without trained and skilled Process Practitioners, work might get done, but there is no guarantee that the desired outcomes will be achieved.

These Practitioners likely hold different job titles. And they may fill different roles in different processes. Think of a role as a hat that an individual wears when involved in a process.

Their responsibilities when wearing that hat may include:

Carrying out one or more process activities
Understanding how their role adds to value creation
Working with other stakeholders to ensure contributions are effective
Ensuring inputs, outputs, and interfaces for activities are correct
Creating or updating activity-based records

Process Practitioners can be internal or external staff, suppliers, consultants, and even potentially users and customers. They are the "doers" of the process, and their activities may involve collaborating with other teams and the activities of other processes.

However you choose to define your Process Practitioners, this role must be considered when designing, implementing, and managing your processes. Their experience is essential to how the process will be perceived.

One way to include Process Practitioners when designing processes is to build and manage a RACI matrix. A RACI matrix maps roles and responsibilities to tasks or activities. Including Process Practitioner roles when defining RACI matrices can help determine workloads and potentially identify process bottlenecks. The feedback that is provided by Process Practitioners is crucial for any organization that wants to continue to evolve with ever-changing business requirements and customer needs.

A good starting point is to ensure that Process Practitioners understand how what they do contributes to the organization's IT Service Management (ITSM) goals and why that is important. The ITIL 4 Foundation course enables IT professionals to learn the basics of ITSM (the what) and the business value of well-designed and delivered products and services (the why).

In the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme, a Practice Manager designation is available for professionals who want to prove and validate their skills in specific practice areas. Each of the ITIL 4 Managing Professional and Strategic Leader courses also introduces a set of practices that are relevant to the focus of the course.

Click here to learn more about the ITIL 4 Qualification Scheme.

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)
ITIL Practitioner: Change Enablement
ITIL Practitioner: IT Asset Management
ITIL Practitioner: Monitor, Support and Fulfill
ITIL Practitioner: ITIL 4 Practice Manager eLearning (15 titles available)

Our advisory services also include Process to Practice Workshops in which we help your team to successfully and rapidly assess and improve your selected service management practices.

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