1. Continual Service Improvement & ITIL V3

2. Continual Service Improvement Phase
This phase is responsible for managing improvements to IT Service Management Processes and IT Services.
Processes:
7 Step Improvement Process
Service Measurement
Service Level Management

3. Continual Service Improvement
7 Steps to Service Improvement

4. Continuous Improvement –control and manage quality
Plan Do
Continuous improvement is a part of every process in ITIL. The CSI Improvement Process is based on the Deming Cycle of Continual Improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act)
Implementing ITIL/ITSM is an ongoing activity, where you improve quality through incremental steps.
Some of the items that occur during each of the 4 phases:
Plan:
Scope, requirements, objectives, Roles and Responsibilities
Do:
Funds, Policies, reports, managing, changing
Check:
Monitor against plans, survey, report
Act:
Policy on improvement, assess, implement
Act
Check
Source: Deming
Quality Assurance
Improvement

5. 7 Steps to Service Improvement
Identify
Vision
Strategy
• Tactical Goals
• Operational Goals
1. Define what you
should measure
7. Implement
corrective action
6. Present and use the
information, assessment
summary, action plans, etc.
2. Define what you
can measure
3. Gather the data
Who? How? When?
Integrity of data?
4. Process the data
Frequency? Format?
System? Accuracy?
5. Analyse the data
Relations? Trends?
According to plan?
Targets met?
Corrective action?
Goals
The Deming Cycle is transformed into more detailed steps and actions to be taken for the improvement of IT services and IT Service Management processes. Like the Deming Cycle, these steps need to be taken in sequential order.
© Crown Copyright 2007 Reproduced under license from OGC

6. Continual Service Improvement
Service Measurement

7. Service Measurement – Value to business
Responsible for defining how to measure IT Service Management and IT Service improvements. Coordinate the data collection for measurements from the other processes and functions.
There are four main reasons to monitor and measure:
To validate
To direct
To justify
To intervene
Service Measurement is a key concept of CSI. Measurement of all the process metrics takes place throughout the Lifecycle phases. CSI uses the results of these measurements to identify and establish improvements.

8. Baselines A benchmark used as a reference point for later comparison.
Examples
An ITSCM Baseline can be used a starting point to measure the effect of a Service Improvement Plan.
A performance Baseline can be used to measure changes in performance over the lifetime of an IT service.
A Configuration Management baseline can be used to enable the IT infrastructure to be restored to a known configuration if a change or release fails.
It is important that baselines as documents are recognized and accepted throughout the organization. Baseline must be established at each level: strategic goals, and objectives, tactical process maturity and operational metrics and KPI’s.

9. Types of Metrics
There are 3 types of metrics that an organization will need to
collect to support CSI activities as well as other process
activities:
Technology Metrics
Process Metrics
Service Metrics
Technology Metrics: often associated with component and application-based metrics such as performance, availability etc
Process Metrics: Captured in the form of KPI’s and activity metrics for the service management processes. They help to determine the overall health of a process. 4 key questions KPI’s can help answer are centered around quality, performance, value and compliance. CSI uses these metrics to identify improvement opportunities for each process.
Service Metrics: The results of the end-to-end service. Component metrics are use to calculate the service metrics.

10. Tension Metrics
The job from any support team is a balancing act of three
elements:
Resources – people and money
Features - the product or service and its quality
The schedule
The delivered product or service therefore represents a balanced trade-off between these three elements. Tension metrics can help create that balance by preventing teams from focusing on just one element.
If an initiative is being driven primarily towards satisfying a business driver of on-time delivery to the exclusion of other factors, the manger will achieve this aim by flexing the resources and service features in order to meet the delivery schedule. This unbalance focus will wither lead to budget increase or lower product quality. Tension metrics help create a balance between shared goals and delivering a product or service according to the business requirements within time and budget.

11. Scale of measurement
In general, a metric is a scale of measurement defined in terms
of a standard, i.e. in terms of a well-defined unit.
The quantification of an event through the process of
measurement relies on the existence of an explicit or implicit
metric, which is the standard to which measurements are
referenced.
Metrics are a system of parameters or ways of quantitative assessment of a process that is to be measured, along with the processes to carry out such measurement. Metrics define what is to be measured. Metrics are usually specialized by the subject area, in which case they are valid only within a certain domain and cannot be directly benchmarked or interpreted outside it. Generic metrics, however, can be aggregated across subject areas or business units of an enterprise.

12. Business Models Metrics used in several business models, including
CMMI, are used in Knowledge Management (KM).
These measurements or metrics can be used to track
trends, productivity, resources and much more.
Typically, the metrics tracked are KPIs.

13. How many CSF’s and KPI’s?
It is recommended that in the early stages of a project only two
or three KPI’s for each CSF are defined, monitored and
reported on. As the maturity of a service and service
management processes increase, additional KPI’s can be
added.
Based on what is important to the business and IT
management the KPI’s may change over a period of time.
In addition, as service management processes are
implemented this will often change the KPI’s of other
processes.

14. Next step The next step is to identify the metrics and measurements
required to compute the KPI. There are two basic types
of KPI:
Qualitative
Quantitative
Qualitative example:
CSF=Improving IT service quality
KPI=10% increase in customer satisfaction rating for handling incidents over the next 6 months.
Metrics required:
Original customer satisfaction score for handling incidents
Ending customer satisfaction score
Measurements:
Incident handling survey score
Number of survey scores.
Quantitative example:
CSF= Reducing IT costs
KPI=10% reduction in the costs of handling printer incidents.
Original cost of handling a printer incident
Final costs of handling a printer incident
Costs of the improvement effort.
Time spent on incident by 1st and 2nd level operatives and their average salary
Time spent on Problem Management activities
Time spent on training 1st level operative on workaround
Cost of call to 3rd party vendor etc

15. KPI’s An important aspect to consider is whether a KPI is fit for
use. Key questions could be:
What does the KPI really tell us about goal achievement?
If we fail to meet the KPI, does it mean we have failing to meet our goals?
How easy is the KPI to interpret? Does it help us decide on a course of action?
When do we need the information? How often? How will it be made available?
To what extent is the KPI stable and accurate?
How easy is it to change the KPI?
How can we measure the KPI now?
To become acquainted with the possibilities and limitations of your measurement framework, critically review your performance indicators with the above questions in mind before you implement them.
Some example KPI’s of the value of service management and Service Level Quality Metrics are available in separate documents, within this toolkit.

16. Goals and Metrics
Each phase of the service lifecycle requires very specific
contributions from the key roles identified in Service Design,
Service Transition and Service Operation, each of which has
very specific goals to meet. Ultimately, the quality of the
service will be determined by how well each role meets its
goals, and how well those sometimes conflicting goals are
managed along the way.
Therefore, it is essential that the organization finds a way
to measure performance – by applying a set of metrics to
every goal.

17. Service Quality Metrics
Organizational or process metrics can be further broken
down into product quality metrics and process quality
metrics. Product quality metrics are the metrics that
support the contribution to the delivery of quality products.
Process quality metrics are the quality metrics related to
efficient and effective process management.
Examples of service quality metrics are available in a separate document within this toolkit.

18. Using organizational metrics
To be effective, measurements and metrics should be
woven through the complete organization, touching the
strategic as well as the tactical level.
To successfully support the key business drivers, the IT
Service Manager needs to know what and how well each
part of the organization contributes to the final success.
It is also important, when defining measurements and goals that support the IT service strategy, to remember that measurements must focus on results and not efforts.
Focus on the organizational output and try to get a clear idea of what the contribution is. Based on the process goals and the quality attribute of the service, goals and metrics can be defined for each role in the processes of the lifecycle.

19. Service Measurement
It is no longer sufficient to measure and report against the
performance of an individual component such as a server
or application. IT must now be able to measure and
report against end-to-end service.
There are 3 basic measurements that most IT
organizations utilize:
Availability of the service
Reliability of the service
Performance of the service
In many cases when an organization is monitoring, measuring and reporting on component levels they are doing so to protect themselves and possibly to point the blame elsewhere.
Service measurement is not about placing blame or protecting oneself but is really about providing a meaningful view of the IT service as the customer experiences the service.
Being able to measure against a service is directly linked to the components, systems and applications that are being monitored and reported on.

20. Measuring at component level
Measuring at the component level is necessary and
valuable, but service measurement must go further than
the component level.
Service measurement will require someone to take the
individual measurements and combine them to provide a
view of the true customer experience.
Too often we provide a report against a component, system or application but don’t provide the true service level as experienced by the customer.
It is possible to measure and report against different levels of systems and components to provide a true service measurement and an example of this is available in a separate document “Availability Reporting’, within this toolkit.

21. Developing a Service Measurement Framework
A challenge many organizations face is the creation of a
Service Measurement Framework that leads to value
added reporting.
It can prove difficult at first but the result over time prove
that it is worth the effort.
Keep in mind that service measurement is not the end
result, in itself. The end result should be to improve
services and also improve accountability.
Step 1: Understand business processes and identify which ones are critical to the delivery of value to the business. IT goals and objectives must support the business goals and objectives. Remember Service Measurement not only looks at the past but also the future. The output of any Service Management Framework should allow individuals to make operational, tactical or strategic decisions.
Whether measuring one or multiple services the following steps are key to service measurement.
Origins – Defining what success looks like. What are we trying to achieve and how will we know when we have achieved it?
Building the framework and choosing measures – what do we need to measure that will enable us to make strategic, tactical and operational decisions? What measures will provide us with the data and information we need? Setting targets for all measures. This could be set by your SLA or OLA that have been agreed internally within IT.
Defining the procedures and policies – define the procedures for making the measurements and determine the tools to be used to support gathering of the data and other management activities. Identify roles and responsibilities for service measurement – who will do what? Define any policies necessary to support service measurement. Decide the criteria for continual improvement initiatives. Consider when targets should be raised.

22. Critical elements of Service Measurement Frameworks
For a successful Service Measurement Framework the
following critical elements are required:
Integrated into business planning
Focused on business and IT goals and objectives
Cost-effective
Balanced in its approach on what is measured
Able to withstand change
In addition, Performance Measures that are:
Accurate and reliable
Well defined, specific and clear
Relevant to meeting objectives
Do not create negative behavior
Lead to improvement opportunities
Performance targets that are:
SMART
Defined roles and responsibilities:
Who defines the measures and targets?
Who monitors and measures?
Who gathers the data?
Who processes and analyzes the data?
Who prepares the reports?
Who presents the reports?

23. Creating Reports
The most essential starting point when creating reports is to
know:
Who is the target audience of the report?
What will the report be used for?
Who is responsible for creating the report?
How will the report be created?
How frequently is the report to be created?
What information will be produced, shared or exchanged?

24. Reports Reports can be set up to show:
Results for a service – supporting reports would be the individual measurements on components
Health of a service management process – this report will have certain process KPI results
Functional reports – such as telephony reports for the Service Desk.
Examples of three different types of report can be found within this toolkit:
Service Measurement Reporting.

25. Continual Service Improvement
Service Level Management

26. Service Level Management
GOAL:
To ensure that that the levels of IT service delivery are achieved,
both for existing services and new services in accordance with
the agreed targets.
Service Level Management is a critical element of Continual Service Improvement. Why embark on any service improvement initiative if the customers and the business are satisfied with the levels of service received? Because business requirements change!

27. Activities of Service Level Management
Development
Delivery
Service Design
Continual Service Improvement
Determine Requirements
Design & Plan Process
Negotiate & Agree
Monitor
Report
Evaluate
Improve
Service Level Management (SLM) is a process that is found within two Service Lifecycle phases.
Within Service Design, Service Level Management is concerned with:
Design and plan process
Determining Service Level Requirements (SLRs)
Negotiating and Agreeing upon SLAs, OLAs and UCs.
Within Continual Service Improvement, Service Level Management is concerned with improving services and processes through constant:
Monitoring (executed within Service Operation)
Reporting
Evaluating
Improving
The major focus of Service Level Management within Continual Service Improvement is identifying potential service improvements.
Source: the Art of Service

28. Reporting
Once the SLA is agreed and monitoring begins, focus must be given to
producing Service Achievement Reports.
Periodic reporting should include:
Details of performance against SLA targets
Trends in Service Levels
Specific Actions being undertaken to improve service quality
Internal IT performance reviews and Supplier reviews
Any changes that need to be made to documentation
Source: OGC (Service Delivery),

29. Reviewing and Evaluating
Periodic review meetings must be held on a regular basis with:
Customers to review service achievements and to preview any issues for the coming period.
Internal IT groups and Suppliers to review OLA’s and UC’s
Actions for responding to SLA breaches or identified weak areas
should be minuted and reviewed at the next meeting to ensure
that action items are being followed up and properly implemented.
Source: OGC (Service Delivery),

30. Service Improvement Programme (SIP)
SLM should coordinate with Problem and Availability Management to instigate a SIP to identify and implement necessary actions to restore service quality.
SIP’s can also identify initiatives including:
User awareness and training programs system testing improved documentation standards
Source: OGC (Service Delivery),

31. Service Improvement Plans (SIP)
Service Improvement Plans are formal plans to implement improvements to a process or service.
The identified improvements may come from:
breaches of Service Level Agreements
identification of user training and documentation issues
weak system testing
identified weak areas within internal and external support groups.

32. Responsibilities and Skills
Senior enough to represent organization; with authority to do what is necessary
Manages Service Catalogue, SLA’s, UC’s, OLA’s
Identifies and manages improvements to services and processes
Analyzes and reports on SL Achievements
Skills:
Relationship Management
Patience, tolerance and resilience
Understanding of the Customer’s business and how IT contributes to the delivery of that product or service

33. KPI’s Statistics: Number/Percentage of services covered by SLAs
Number/Percentage SLA’s supported by UC’s & OLA’s
Number/Percentage of service targets being met
Yes/Why Questions:
Are service level achievements improving?
Are customer perception statistics improving?
Are IT costs for service provisions decreasing for
services with stable (acceptable but not improving) SLAch?
Yes/Why Questions:
Implementing effective and efficient Service Level Management should produce “Yes” answer to each of these questions.
If the answer is no:
If the answer is “No” to any of these questions, the very next question that should be asked is “Why?”.
From this we can investigate where the process is deficient and begin a plan for improvement. Communicating this to the business also gives them a better understanding of the complexity of providing the services and more importantly allows the business to be actively involved with assessing the costs, risks and plausibility of will be needed in order to bridge the gap.
If the answer is yes:
If the answer is “Yes” to any of these questions we should still ask ourselves “Why?”.
From this we can communicate to the business the reasons we were successful and thereby market the value of IT to the business.
Remember: Communication, communication, communication.
A Service Level Management Review Excel document is available within this toolkit.

34. Challenges Monitoring of pre-SLA achievements
Targets that are achievable
SLAs based on desire and not achievable targets
Insufficient focus, resources and time
Inadequate seniority of SLM staff
Underpinning contracts ignored
SLAs too long, not customer focused
Improvement actions not adhered to

35. The Continual Service Improvement Model
Items to consider:
Vision aligns with business and IT strategies
Obtain an accurate baseline assessment.
Understand and agree upon the priorities for improvement.
Verify measurements and metrics are in place.
Momentum for quality improvement is maintained by assuring Changes are embedded in the organization.
What is the vision?
Where do we
want to be?
How do we get
there?
Did we get
Where are
we now?
How do we keep the momentum going?
Service &
process
improvement
Measurable
targets
Baseline
assessments
Measurements &
metrics
Business vision,
mission, goals
and objectives
This links in with the 7 step improvement process, also conducted
within CSI –as discussed this morning.
It emphasizes the fact that there are many opportunities for CSI. The
model illustrates a constant cycle for improvement.
Additional info for Items to consider list:
Embrace the vision by understanding the high level business objectives.
Access the current situation to obtain an accurate and unbiased snapshot of where the organization right now. This baseline assessment is an analysis of the current position in terms of the business, organization, people, process and technology.
Based on a deeper development of the principles defined in the vision. The full vision can be years away but this step provides specific goals and a manageable timeframe.
Detail the CSI plan to achieve higher quality service provision by implementing ITSM processes.
Verify that measurements and metrics are in place to ensure that milestones were achieved, process compliance is high, and business objectives and priorities were met by the level of service.
Finally, the processes should ensure that the momentum for quality improvement is maintained by assuring that changes become embedded in the organization.
© Crown Copyright 2007 Reproduced under license from OGC

36. The Continual Service Improvement Model
What is the vision?
Where do we want
to be?
How do we get
there?
Did we get there?
Where are we now?
How do we keep
the momentum going?
Service & process
improvement
Measurable
targets
Baseline
assessments
Measurements &
metrics
Business vision,
mission, goals and
objectives
The Continual Service Improvement Model summarizes the constant cycle for improvement. The questions require close interactions with all the other ITIL processes in order to achieve Continual Service Improvement.
Relationships within the Service Lifecycle:
What is the Vision? Service Strategy, Service Portfolio
Where are we now? Baselines taken using Service Portfolios, Service Level Management, Financial Management for IT etc.
Where do we want to be? Service Portfolio, Service Measurement and Reporting.
How do we get there? CSI and all ITIL processes!
Did we get there? Service Measurement and Reporting
How do we keep the momentum going? Continual Service Improvement.
© Crown Copyright 2007 Reproduced under license from OGC

37. CSI – Implementation Issues
Identify and fill critical roles and responsibilities e.g.
CSI Manager, Service Owner, SLM and reporting analyst.
Governance
CSI and Organizational Change
Communication and Strategy planning

38. CSI -value to the business
For CSI to be successful, it must provide improvement opportunities throughout the entire service lifecycle.
There is much greater value to the business when service improvement takes a holistic approach throughout the entire lifecycle.
Improvements
Benefits
Return on Investment
Value of Investment
Four commonly used terms when discussing service improvement outcomes:
Improvements – outcomes that when measured against the baseline, show a measurable increase as a desirable metric
Benefits – Gains achieved through realization of improvements, usually but not always in monetary terms.
ROI: Return on investment – Difference between the benefit (saving) achieved and the amount expended to achieve that benefit, expressed as percentage. Logically we would like to spend a little to save a lot.
VOI: Value on investment – Extra value created by establishment of benefits that include non-monetary or long term outcomes. ROI is a subcomponent of VOI.

39. CSI and the Service Lifecycle
Service and Process Improvements, Guidance for Investments into IT and refreshed Service Portfolios
Service Strategy
Service and Process Improvements, guidance for KPIs, metrics and reporting, refined SLRs, SLAs, OLAs & UCs.
Service Design
Continual Service Improvement
Request for Changes, Service and Process Improvements, guidance and refinements for testing & validation.
Service Transition
Service Operation
Process and Function organization improvements, refined SLAs & OLAs, guidance for metrics and reporting