ITIL 4 Guiding Principles – Keep It Simple

Keeping it Simple is one step towards creating a world where people get up in the morning and are inspired to go to work and love to do the work that they do. The more complex something is, the more there are ways for it to go wrong. We as an industry of service providers must become educated and stop the insanity! Getting the education and the certification is a wonderful first step but once qualified we must adapt those learnings to make it simple and “Keep IT Simple”

“Keep it Simple”, one of the seven ITIL 4 Guiding Principles is a topic we have written about many times over the years. It is anything but simple. We must acknowledge that IT services are comprised of many complex systems and if there is a way to make them even more complex IT Professionals in general seem to have that idea down to an ART.

So; How did we get that way. Business requirements are dynamic and are consistently evolving even as you read this line. Over a period of years and in many cases decades the systems that support those requirements have evolved. Historically IT professionals adapted to the bureaucracy that they were wedged into in order to survive. A bureaucracy typically refers to an organization that has multi-layered systems and processes. These systems processes and procedures were designed to maintain uniformity and control. Keep it simple! We need just enough process, just enough governance, and just enough incremental ongoing improvements to make it simple and to keep it simple. Processes overtime in many cases became over-engineered and while they might gain the control needed for compliance and regulatory demands, they tend to slow down the flow of work, create roadblocks and sometimes become a major impediment to getting quality and value delivered on time. It really hurts our capability when the process becomes the goal rather than the outcomes that generate real value! Monolithic applications, legacy systems, and siloed cultures all add the complexity for the delivery of services to customers.

DevOps and Agile professionals are adapting to new ways to remove waste and to increase the flow of work for all value streams using LEAN practices. Applying one "ity bitty" micro improvement (simple) can sometimes have an extreme impact to the agility of your value streams and to the overall value potential. Notice the ity bitty?! Take one small improvement opportunity to simplify a process or system and break that into many other small increments of improvement. Prioritize and pick one. Work fast to integrate that change into the process and then start again. Remember you can not implement a process. It is an ongoing emerging set of activities which hopefully evolve with the dynamic needs of the business and customer.

Deming says: Plan, Do, Check Act! Agile says “one increment “or iteration of work at a time. ITSM best practice says that with Continual Improvement you must “Keep The Momentum Going”. All will require an outside-in perspective with ongoing feedback loops to help us prioritize the next step towards “Keeping IT Simple” one of the DevOps Principles is “Shortened and Amplified feedback loops. The sooner the better. If a process, service, metric, report or anything that is in play today does not add value, take corrective action or eliminate it! Keep it simple and adopt ITIL practices and then adapt keeping it simple and speaking "simple" as you co-create with others.

Make it Simple and Keep it Simple! … Keep the Momentum going and inspire others to greatness!

...educate and Inspire

Four Service Characteristics

Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.” Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL 4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group. As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions 1. Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. ...

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

This article was originally published in 2015. With the Introduction of ITIL 4, some of this best practice has changed. See ITIL 4 and the Evolving Role of Roles . Updated Definitions in ITIL 4: Process Owner: In ITIL 4, the concept of 'processes' has expanded into broader 'practices.' Consequently, the Process Owner is now often referred to as the 'Practice Owner.' This individual is accountable for the overall design, performance, integration, and improvement of a specific practice within the organization. They ensure that the practice achieves its intended outcomes and aligns with the organization's objectives. Process Manager: Now commonly known as the 'Practice Manager' in ITIL 4, this role is responsible for the day-to-day management of the practice. The Practice Manager ensures that activities are carried out as intended, manages resources assigned to the practice, and oversees the practitioners performing the work. Process Practit...

Search