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Showing posts with the label ITIL Best Practices

The ITIL® Maturity Model

Most organizations, especially service management organizations, strive to improve themselves. For those of us leveraging the ITIL® best practices, continual improvement is part of our DNA. We are constantly evaluating our organizations and looking for ways to improve. To aid in our improvement goals and underscore one of the major components of the ITIL Service Value System , Continual Improvement .   AXELOS has updated the ITIL Maturity Model and is offering new ITIL Assessment services. This will enable organizations to conduct evaluations and establish baselines to facilitate a continual improvement program. A while back I wrote an article on the importance of conducting an assessment . I explained the need to understand where you are before you can achieve your improvement goals. Understanding where you are deficient, how significant gaps are from your maturity objectives, and prioritizing which areas to focus on first are key to successfully improving. One method many organi

Co-Creating Service – Customer and Provider Responsibilities

Best practice has proven that to be dynamic and to consistently meet changing business requirements, services must be co-created with our customers.  I learned in a recent ITIL 4 certification class titled Driving Stakeholder Value (DSV)  that providers will start with a stakeholder map and follow up with a customer journey map. If you are not yet familiar with Customer Journey Mapping, I strongly recommend learning about this critical skill needed to enable the co-creation of services.  Once you have a stakeholder map and have mapped the customer/user journey, you will need to identify the roles required. In our example below, we use the two roles of customer/consumer and service provider. Each of these, although not the only stakeholders involved, is critical to the success of co-creation.  Notice a relationship is being established via these responsibilities  Both the service provider and the consumer have responsibilities.  An IT service provider, for example, manages resource

ITIL® 4 – Decoupling Deployment from Release Management Practice

ITIL 4 is an evolution of ITIL V3. Before we start talking about specific processes or practices, it is important to stress that the focus has shifted. ITIL 4 gives us a fresh perspective to service management and emphasizes the customer user experience, the approach to the overall service value system, the service value chain and value streams , and much more.  Download the What is ITIL 4 document from the ITSM Academy Resource Center and be sure to read past the first few pages for more information on the new perspective that drives modern service management. The emphasis is on value from the customer user experience and integrated holistic approach. That does not mean that the processes are going away. Today we refer to a process as a "practice". Practices are broader in scope than processes and include all 4 dimensions/resources including the process. Two processes or “practices” that have been decoupled in ITIL 4 are the Deployment Management practice an

ITIL® 4 Service Value System and DevOps

The Service Value System (SVS) and Service Value Chain as indicated in ITIL 4 Best Practices give you the big picture macro view that should be the start of every DevOps Pipeline . Without it, you could get swept into the undercurrent and potentially focus too much effort or misdirect resources towards the technical and automation aspects of continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD).  Components of the SVS include:  The ITIL4 Guiding Principles, Governance, The Service Value Chain, Practices, and Continual Improvement. A Service Value Chain and Value Stream Mapping (VSM) exercise provides all stakeholders with a high-level view of the end-to-end steps required for your DevOps Pipeline. Applying the concept of “Systems Thinking” to the overall CI/CD Pipeline is critical but without including the information/data and flow of work we truly miss the mark. This is where Lean  principles and VSM are helpful.  Notice in the above image from our Value Stream

ITIL 4 Guiding Principles - Optimize and Automate

Henry Ford did not invent the car. Providers of automobiles during the 1800’s were ok creating cars as toys for the very rich. Henry Ford, on the other hand, was interested in the experience of the common man and created an automobile that was within the economic reach of the average American. Ford developed a method of manufacturing that optimized his resources and lowered the cost of manufacturing. His motto was to simplify, simplify, simplify! Henry Ford knew how to apply common sense to new ideas. His ability to simplify and to optimize solutions to otherwise complicated and insurmountable problems made him the great pioneer of his time.  This blog is one in a series for the seven guiding principles from ITIL 4 best practices. To optimize means to make the best or most effective use of a situation, an opportunity, or of a resource. Get started on your journey today! Optimize and Automate!  The idea to “Optimize and Automate” is not new to manufacturing and the

Three Golden Keys to Unlock the Power of Your ITIL Qualification

These “Three Golden Keys” are powerful! They can unlock the power of your ITIL 4  Qualification and will accelerate your journey in the right direction as you achieve one goal after another! Believe in Challenging the Status Quo With ITIL 4  Get out of the box. It is a new world. Leaders and teams will succeed by creating an environment to challenge the status quo. You are free, give yourself permission to question the status quo of your organization and invite others to join you. We must stop doing the same thing over and over again and yet expect a different result. Use the idea of a Service Value System, Value Steams and the four dimensions and apply the ITIL Guiding Principles as you “Challenge The Status Quo”. Real change begins with YOU!  Keep The Momentum Going!  Getting your ITIL 4 Qualification is a huge milestone in your learning and career path. Once there, the real journey begins. Be sure to get the most value from your accomplishment and the be

Adapting ITIL V3 Processes to ITIL 4 – Practices for the REAL WORLD!

One of the leading questions following the release of ITIL 4 is “How do I Transition from ITIL V3 to ITIL 4?   Which translates to, how do you proceed to adapt existing processes to the new way of working?  The answer is… ITIL 4 for ITIL 4. What? That’s right! ITIL 4 has the best practice for “adapting” and might I include “accelerating” the ITSM processes that you have in play today. Below is an outline of principles, concepts and precepts from ITIL 4 guidance that will help. Ongoing Continual Improvement has always been a best practice. Therefore: How do you proceed to adapt existing processes to the new way of working? Each is discussed here at a very high level. First and foremost, START WHERE YOU ARE!  Continual Improvement - ITIL 4 is the next logical progression of your improvement cycle. Business Requirements are dynamic and therefore we must be dynamic in order to provision for evolving business and customer needs. We must be responsive (Agile) and ensure “S

ITIL 4 Guiding Principles – Start Where You Are!

START WHERE YOU ARE! This guiding principle is just common sense. We are either not moving and dying or we are moving forward and living. The guiding principles from ITIL4 best practices are universally applicable to practically any initiative, any size of organization, or type of service provider. There are seven “Guiding Principles” that can be adopted and adapted to suit any service management improvement. The one Guiding Principle that we will focus on here is simple yet powerful! That is “Start Where You Are”. Every organization that is in business has existing systems comprised of people, practices, and technology! Don’t forget to “Honor the Past”. There are a lot of people who have put a lot of effort (blood, sweat and tears) into helping to improve the capabilities within your organization. Don’t start from scratch and build something new without considering what you already have. It’s almost always better to improve what you currently have than to throw it all away

ITIL – Back to Basics for Agile and DevOps

ITIL advocates that IT services are aligned to the needs of the business and support its core processes. It provides guidance to organizations and individuals on how to use IT Service Management (ITSM) ­­­as a tool to facilitate business change, transformation and growth. Some are believing that ITIL has run its course.  In truth I believe the opposite is true.   In the past, and still today, many organizations believe that Best Practice and ITSM processes are focused on the Service Operation Lifecycle.   Implementation, process design, and ITSM tools have had a very heavy focus on processes like Incident, Problem, Change and Configuration Management. Few have yet to recognize or have not seen the value in the guidance for Service Strategy and Service Design processes and roles.   How did these get overlooked? In the last three or so years I have seen a bit more buzz about “Business Relationship Management”.   Less so for “Demand” and “Strategy Management” for IT Services. Few are