Assessing Practice Capability – Part 3 – Analyzing and Acting on Results

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 assessment models – a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), the ITIL Maturity Model, and ISO/IEC 33020 – define distinct capability levels that describe the degree to which a practice is established, managed, and continually improved.

To identify the current capability level for each practice within the scope of your assessment, compile the collected participant scores and evidence for each of the assessment criteria. Then, analyze those results.

The level at which all of the criteria are being achieved with supporting evidence reflects your current capability level. This is not about counting votes or producing an average score. It is about looking for a consensus. If participants disagree on whether a criterion has been fully or partially achieved, next steps might include reexamining the evidence or clarifying participants’ interpretation of the criteria. It is the responsibility of the lead assessor or facilitator to either drive the group to a consensus based on evidence or, when that is not possible, declare that the lower rating prevails.

The capability level provides a baseline of the current state, but the analysis does not end there. The criteria that are being partially achieved or not achieved at the next capability level represent performance gaps that need to be filled. They may also represent untapped potential – areas where capability exists but is not being fully leveraged. For example, a practice that partially achieves data capture may already have tools in place but lacks the data quality, consistent usage or integration needed to produce meaningful information. In such a situation, a small improvement could make a big difference. Similarly, if communication or collaboration scores are low because teams lack a shared vocabulary, introducing a common language through targeted training can reduce confusion and misunderstanding, improve collaboration, reduce rework, and accelerate the adoption of best practices across the organization.

Look for themes or patterns that show where opportunities exist to fill those gaps or tap the potential such as:

• People (e.g., clarifying roles, providing needed education and training, addressing cultural debt)
• Processes (eliminating waste, optimizing workflows, introducing or removing controls)
• Technology (automating activities, integrating tools, leveraging AI or machine learning)
• Information (improving data quality, enhancing reporting and analytics, promoting knowledge sharing and making knowledge accessible)

These improvement opportunities may extend beyond a single practice, exposing dependencies and shared enablers that, when improved, strengthen an end-to-end value stream or the overall service value system. These opportunities may also represent areas that warrant experimentation to determine the best approach.

Optimally, all improvement opportunities are captured in an improvement register or backlog and then prioritized based on the value they deliver. Considerations include:

• The assessment scope and objectives
• Your ITSM roadmap

An ITSM roadmap often begins as an output of a maturity or capability assessment. Particularly if the maturity of the organization’s service value system is in scope.

An ITSM roadmap is a strategic plan that outlines how an organization will evolve its IT service management capabilities over time. It connects the current state of the organization’s service value system and ITSM practices to a desired future state, showing the sequence of initiatives needed to achieve stated objectives.

At the same time, a roadmap can serve as an input for future assessments. In this case, the assessment results feed directly into the roadmap, shaping the initiatives and priorities needed to close gaps and move toward the desired state.

The key is to remember why the assessment was performed – what problems need to be solved or what goals and objectives have been set – and allow those to influence how improvement opportunities are prioritized.

How improvement opportunities are prioritized in the context of your assessment objectives, improvement action plan or roadmap can vary.

Agile Service Management

In an Agile environment, the results of a practice capability assessment are most useful when translated into the same taxonomy teams already use to manage and prioritize work - typically epics, stories, and tasks. Each epic links directly back to a business goal or capability objective, ensuring that improvement work stays aligned with why the assessment was done in the first place. Each epic is then decomposed into user stories, which describe specific desired outcomes from the perspective of the team or customer. Finally, tasks capture the concrete actions needed to realize those stories (e.g., updating workflows, integrating tools, conducting training, or collecting new metrics).

This structure turns abstract findings into actionable, testable work items that can be prioritized in sprints. Every sprint is an iteration that progresses the service management practice forward. When one iteration is completed, the next set of tasks is prioritized and planned as needed by the business.

Lean Improvement Loops

Lean improvement loops are short, focused cycles of improvement or experimentation that drive continuous progress through learning, iteration, and observation. They are rooted in the scientific method and use methods such as the Deming Cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)), Kaizen, Toyota Kata, or the ITIL Continuous Improvement Model. The aim is to make small, evidence-based changes, evaluate their impact, and refine as needed rather than implementing sweeping changes all at once.

• The first loop or iteration typically assumes existing roles, activities, and tools - focusing on optimizing what already exists. This initial pass serves several important purposes. It helps teams build confidence in the improvement approach, allows quick wins, and reinforces the what and why of practices. Because the underlying structure is already familiar, the focus can be on eliminating waste, clarifying handoffs, improving communication, and reinforcing accountability.
• Subsequent loops or iterations may introduce deeper changes such as redefining roles and responsibilities, redesigning workflows, or integrating new tools. As maturity and capability grow, the improvements may cascade up and out – and may eventually require changes to organizational structures, job descriptions, and performance metrics to reinforce new ways of working.

Lean improvement loops ensure that the changes that flow from practice capability assessments are both manageable and measurable. They help to nurture a culture of continuous improvement and learning, while at the same time minimizing the change fatigue that can occur when organizations attempt too many changes at once.

Managing the Change

Regardless of approach, careful consideration must be given to the people side of improvements. When practices are introduced or significantly changed, people must learn new skills, embrace new technologies, and adopt new behaviors.

Make changes with people and for people… not to people. 

Both individual and team roles and responsibilities may change, workflows may change, modern technologies may be introduced. All of these changes will affect how teams collaborate and communicate.

Organizational change management (OCM) activities must help to prepare, motivate, and equip individuals and teams to embrace and accelerate new ways of thinking and working.

Communication is key, but communication alone is not enough to sustain momentum.

Capability assessments provide the perfect opportunity to celebrate what is working and fix what is not. Openly share both the results of the assessment itself and the results of improvement efforts and experiments. Celebrate progress, learn from failures, and strive always to align your improvement efforts with broader strategic objectives.

A capability assessment is not a destination. It is the moment when evidence-based insight starts you on a journey towards meaningful change.

Other relevant blogs include:

ITIL Maturity and Practice Capability Assessments

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 1 – Planning and Preparation

Assessing Practice Capability – Part 2 – Conducting Assessments

Relevant ITSM Academy certification courses include:

• Certified Process Design Engineer (CPDE)
• Value Stream Mapping Fundamentals (VSMF)
• ITIL 4 Foundation (a prerequisite for all advanced ITIL 4 courses)

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

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 introduce a set of practices that are relevant to the focus of the course.

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