THE FOLLOWING ITIL INTERMEDIATE EXAM OBJECTIVES ARE DISCUSSED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• ✓  The challenges facing CSI
• ✓  The appropriate critical success factors for CSI
• ✓  The risks associated with implementing CSI

This chapter covers the last topic in the CSI syllabus. The learning objective for this chapter is to gain an understanding of the challenges facing CSI, the use of appropriate critical success factors (CSFs) for CSI, and the risks associated with implementing CSI.

Continual Service Improvement Challenges

CSI will be challenging for all organizations; some challenges will be unique to a particular organization, and some will be common to all. A major challenge will always be the introduction of cultural and behavioral changes across the organization, as we have discussed. Improvement using the seven-step improvement process requires a significant investment in resources and the appropriate tools. Attempting to implement CSI with inadequate resources, budget, and time is a major challenge. Another related challenge is when there is a history of overcommitting staff who are allocated with other work. This will inevitably lead to an inability to deliver on time or to budget; although this is damaging for any project, if CSI is still attempting to prove its value, it could be disastrous. It is essential that the managers responsible for allocating the resources understand the time commitment and the particular data-gathering and analysis skills that will be required.

Successful CSI, as we have discussed, means changing people’s behavior, often against their will (at least initially). Job roles may change, there may be new tools to get used to, and effective reporting means that any failure to follow process becomes visible. If staff are resistant to the changes, it is essential that CSI has the commitment of senior managers, who will use their authority to ensure that the changes take place; management support is therefore a key critical success factor, and implementing CSI without it is a major challenge.

If the service management processes are immature, or missing, the information, monitoring, and measuring necessary for CSI is likely to be inadequate or missing completely. This presents a challenge to CSI in trying to answer the “Where are we now?” question. The CSI manager needs to start with what information is available and make processes and reporting an area for early improvement.

Another possible challenge is the existence of information and knowledge within the organization that is not captured, validated, and shared due to a lack of knowledge management. A lack of clear corporate objectives, strategies, policies, and business direction will make it difficult to identify CSI initiatives that support business objectives; similarly, a lack of IT objectives, strategies, and policies will make justifying CSI as a means of achieving the IT vision difficult.

If the IT provider does not have a good relationship with the business and has little communication with them, it will be difficult for them to appreciate business priorities and the impact of IT failures on the business. This in turn will make it difficult to prioritize actions; there is a danger that priorities will be set that suit the IT department rather than the business.

Another possible challenge when implementing CSI is staff resistance, as we discussed in Chapter 49, “Implementation of Continual Service Improvement,” in the section covering the softer aspects of successful organizational change. Staff may feel that their current behavior and practices are being criticized and become defensive. The discussion in that chapter about achieving cultural change suggested some approaches to overcoming this challenge.

There may also be technical challenges—inadequate or nonexistent tools or tools so complex that no one wants to use them, even if they have the skills. Gathering monitoring data may be hampered if there are a large number of different types of technology to monitor. Finally, CSI initiatives may require suppliers to improve their performance. While service improvement plans may be agreed on at service level reviews, if targets have been missed, many suppliers see no need to improve as long as they are fulfilling the terms of the contract. Over time, these contracts should be changed to include a commitment to improvement, such as reducing downtime or costs by a stated percentage each year.

Critical Success Factors

Let us now consider some of the critical success factors (CSFs) for successful continual service improvement:

• The appointment of a CSI manager
• The adoption of CSI within the organization, with visible management commitment (meaning ongoing, visible participation in CSI activities)
• The provision of sufficient and ongoing funding for CSI activities
• Clear criteria for prioritizing improvement projects
• The adoption of the service lifecycle approach
• The commitment of sufficient time and resources to enable staff to be involved in the improvement activities alongside their “day job”
• The provision of the appropriate technology to support CSI activities, as discussed in Chapter 48, “Technology Considerations”
• The adoption of best practice service management processes

Continual Service Improvement Risks

In the last section of this chapter, we look at the risks in continual service improvement. We considered management of risk in Chapter 46, “Continual Service Improvement Methods and Techniques.” Here we are considering the risks associated with the implementation of CSI as a process within an organization. The main risks are as follows:

• Being overambitious and trying to improve everything at once. Be realistic with time lines and expectations.
• Failing to discuss improvement opportunities with the business. The business has to be involved in improvement decisions that will impact them, and if they do not understand the reasons behind the actions being taken, they may even be hostile to the changes.
• Neglecting to focus on improving both services and service management processes.
• Failing to prioritize, leading to effort being spread too thin to be effective or emphasis given to areas that are not aligned to business priorities.
• Insufficient technology, making the essential data gathering difficult or impossible.
• Insufficient resources. The work involved in implementing CSI is considerable, and its success is at risk if insufficient resources are allocated.
• When improvements are made, failing to ensure that the required knowledge transfer regarding the new process takes place through education and training as close to the launch of improvements as possible. If this is not done, the staff will not know the new process and the benefits will not be achieved.
• Failing to perform all of the steps of the seven-step improvement process, leading to poor decisions on what and how to improve based on poor data.
• Taking on CSI initiatives randomly in an adhoc manner due to the absence of a formalized approach.
• Insufficient monitoring and analysis taking place, leading to difficulties in identifying the areas of greatest need.
• Staff resistance.
• Poor data hampering the production of a compelling business case for improvement, leading to a failure to achieve the necessary funding for improvement initiatives.
• Lack of ownership of the process.
• Focusing on IT improvements without clear understanding of business needs and objectives.

These risks are likely to affect the success of improvement initiatives that are carried out reactively, without any overall structure in place. The guidance given in the ITIL Continual Service Improvement core volume provides an alternative approach: a thought-out, logical process for gathering and analyzing data, identifying opportunities in line with business requirements, and following through so that the benefits are realized.

Summary

In this chapter, we discussed the following topics:

• Continual service improvement challenges
• Continual service improvement critical success factors
• Continual service improvement risks

Implementing CSI is not an easy task; changing attitudes and values never is. You should not wait to fix something when it is broken. You should spot the issue by analyzing the available data and proactively take the necessary steps to improve. Undertaking a SWOT analysis (examining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) so that you understand the risks and challenges before you start to implement CSI is critical. You can then devise mitigation strategies for the risks and identify how to best overcome the challenges. Knowing the CSFs before undertaking CSI implementation will help manage the risks and challenges.

We have now completed the entire syllabus for the continual service improvement lifecycle stage course. This also marks the end of this book; we have now completed the entire syllabus for each of the Intermediate Lifecycle courses. If you have used this book to support your study of each of the intermediate lifecycle stages and have successfully passed each exam, you will now have enough credits to sit the final course “Managing Across the Lifecycle,” the final step in your journey to become an ITIL Expert.

Exam Essentials

Understand the challenges faced by continual service improvement staff. Understand the difficulties that may be encountered when attempting to analyze data to establish a benchmark if the tools are inadequate. Be able to describe the difficulties in achieving cultural change.

Understand the critical success factors that need to be in place if successful continual service improvement is to take place. Understand the importance of visible management support and the involvement of the business in setting priorities.

Understand why the involvement of the right people is a critical success factor. Be able to explain the difference between the number of people involved in CSI (as a resource) and the skills and motivation of those involved (as a capability). Success requires the right number of staff with the right skills and knowledge.

Know the risks encountered in the continual service improvement stage. Understand how these risks might be mitigated, in particular the danger that the implementation of CSI may lose momentum.