When ITIL 4 was introduced, one of its biggest - and most misunderstood - shifts was moving away from processes to a broader, more flexible concept: practices .   See also What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager, and Process Practitioner? In earlier versions of ITIL, each process had a clear sequence of activities, inputs, and outputs. That approach helped organizations standardize service management but often led to rigidity,  especially as digital transformation accelerated and work became more cross-functional. ITIL 4 recognized that service management isn’t just about what we do, but also who , how , and why . A practice is a holistic set of organizational resources -  people, processes, information, and technology -  working together to achieve outcomes. Processes still exist, but they now sit inside practices rather than defining them. What This Means for the Service Management Office (SMO) For many SMOs, this shift...

The cloud has changed everything. The way we build, deliver, and manage services looks nothing like it did when ITIL first emerged.  Traditional frameworks were designed for centralized, relatively static infrastructures. Today, most organizations live in the dynamic, distributed reality of cloud computing - where scalability, automation, and speed rule the day. ITIL 4 bridges that gap beautifully. Its Service Value System (SVS) connects governance, Agile, Lean , DevOps , Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) , and continual improvement into one integrated approach. I often describe ITIL 4 as moving from rigid processes to flexible, value-driven practices . Nowhere is that shift more evident than in the cloud. New Realities in Cloud Environments Cloud computing gives us extraordinary power: elastic scalability, self-service provisioning, and global reach. But it also introduces new challenges. Resources appear and disappear in seconds. Ownership lines blur between custome...

Whether or not an organization has formally adopted a framework such as ITIL , IT service management (ITSM) practices are doomed if you fail to recognize the need for continual improvement. Capability assessments  can be used to determine how well your practices are established and improving, and they serve as a diagnostic tool for continual improvement. A capability assessment typically involves a straightforward set of activities. Plan and prepare – define the scope, objectives, and participants of the assessment. Define and organize the supporting elements of the assessment model. Conduct the assessment   – collect input through interviews, workshops, observations, or surveys and validate evidence against the defined criteria. Analyze, interpret, and report out the results   – aggregate the findings to identify the current capability level. Identify gaps, improvement opportunities, and options. Formulate prioritized recommendations for ...

Part 1 of this series explores the activities involved in planning and preparing for practice capability assessments . This blog focuses on conducting assessments.  Organizations typically use three broad types of practice capability assessments, each differing in purpose, depth, and rigor. Self-assessments – internally led, often using surveys or worksheets where practitioners rate their own practices. Helps to raise awareness of strengths and weaknesses and capture a baseline Facilitated assessments – led by a neutral internal facilitator or cross-functional team (e.g., a Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE), a process improvement team or members of a Service Management Office (SMO)) that guides stakeholders through structured discussions and consensus-based scoring exercises. Provides a shared understanding of capability across stakeholder groups Independent or formal external assessments – conducted by experienced consultants, certified assessors or acc...

Before you can chart a course toward higher capability levels, you need to know your current position. A capability assessment provides that orientation. It is the moment you unfold the map and mark, “You are here.” Capability assessments reveal not only how well individual practices are established, but how deeply they are embedded into the organization’s culture. They are not about chasing a number. They are about obtaining a clear, evidence-based understanding of where your capabilities stand. Well-scoped and well-conducted assessments shine a light on both strengths and weaknesses, and perhaps most importantly, they allow you to determine where targeted improvement will create the greatest value. Assessments transform perception into data and data into direction. Once you have gathered scored criteria, evidence, and data from across the organization, now comes the part of the assessment process where insight begins to take shape. Each of the most widely used asse...

With the introduction of ITIL 4 , some concepts have changed in ways that affect how service management assessments are performed. (1) Focusing on practices vs. processes ITIL 4 has evolved to focus on holistic practices vs. isolated processes. By definition, a practice is a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. In ITIL 4, each practice includes resources based on the four dimensions of service management. One of those dimensions is ‘ value streams and processes ’, and so while processes are still an important component of service management, they are now considered in a much more holistic context. (2) Assessing practice capability vs. maturity In 2021 AXELOS (now a part of PeopleCert) introduced the ITIL Maturity Model . Organizations can use this model to objectively and comprehensively assess their service management capabilities and the maturity of the organization’s service value system (SVS). In this...