Sumário > ITIL 4
Summary of Section 4.6: Continual Improvement
Overview
Continual improvement is a fundamental part of the ITIL Service Value System (SVS) and occurs at all levels of an organization, from strategic to operational. The goal is to ensure that all services and practices are aligned with the changing needs of the business.
Key Components
- ITIL Continual Improvement Model: Provides a structured approach for implementing improvements. It supports an iterative approach, dividing work into manageable pieces with separate goals that can be achieved incrementally.
- Improve Service Value Chain Activity: Embeds continual improvement into the service value chain, ensuring that every aspect of the organization’s activities is subject to continual review and improvement.
- Continual Improvement Practice: Supports day-to-day improvement efforts across the organization.
Continual Improvement Model
The model consists of seven steps:
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What is the vision?
- Define the vision for the improvement initiative, ensuring it supports the organization’s goals and objectives.
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Where are we now?
- Assess the current state through objective measurements to establish a baseline. This includes understanding existing services, user perceptions, people’s skills, processes, and technological capabilities.
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Where do we want to be?
- Perform a gap analysis to evaluate the distance from the current state to the desired future state. Set improvement objectives, critical success factors (CSFs), and key performance indicators (KPIs) that follow the SMART principles (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
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How do we get there?
- Develop a plan to reach the target state. This can involve straightforward actions or more complex, iterative steps. Designing experiments to test potential solutions can be part of this process.
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Take action
- Execute the plan. This may involve traditional or Agile approaches, depending on the nature of the improvement. The focus should be on achieving the desired results while remaining open to change.
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Did we get there?
- Validate whether the desired outcomes were achieved. Check both progress towards the objectives and their relevance. If necessary, take additional actions to complete the work, resulting in new iterations of the improvement.
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How do we keep the momentum going?
- Market the successes and reinforce new methods to ensure sustainability. Use organizational change management and knowledge management practices to embed the improvements into the organization’s culture and daily operations. If the expected results were not achieved, document and communicate lessons learned for future initiatives.
Guiding Principles and Continual Improvement
Applying ITIL guiding principles at every step of an improvement initiative increases the chances of success. Key principles include focusing on value, starting where you are, progressing iteratively with feedback, collaborating and promoting visibility, thinking and working holistically, keeping it simple and practical, and optimizing and automating.