Chapter 13

Understanding Continual Service Improvement

THE FOLLOWING ITIL FOUNDATION EXAM OBJECTIVES ARE COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER:

• 2-11. Account for the main purpose, objectives and scope of continual service improvement
• 2-12. Briefly explain what value continual service improvement provides to the business
• Unit 3: Generic concepts and definitions:
  • 3-38. CSI register
  • 3-42. The Deming Cycle (plan, do, check, act)
• 4-9. Explain the continual service improvement approach
• 4-10. Understand the role of measurement for continual service improvement and explain the following key elements:
  • Relationship between critical success factors (CSF) and key performance indicators (KPI)
  • Baselines
  • Types of metrics (technology metrics, process metrics, service metrics)
• 5-9. State the purpose, objectives and scope for:
  • 5-91 The seven-step improvement process

In this chapter, we’ll cover the continual service improvement lifecycle stage. This is a separate stage of the lifecycle, but it doesn’t work in isolation. Perhaps even more than any of the other stages, this lifecycle stage affects the whole approach for service management. The desire to improve is often the driving force behind using the service lifecycle in an organization, although it may not be recognized as such at the start.

Following an ad hoc approach to improvement will take an organization only so far; the full benefits of a continual service improvement approach can be realized only when the actions taken are done so as part of a regular program.

It is important to understand the purpose, objectives, and scope of this stage so that the full benefits can be achieved. It is also a specified part of the foundation syllabus, and you may be asked questions about it in the examination.