1. CSI—The Lifecycle Stage
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2. CSI—Purpose
The primary purpose of CSI is to continually align and realign IT services to the changing business needs, by identifying and implementing improvements to IT services that support business
processes.
These improvement activities support the entire lifecycle approach. In effect, CSI is about looking for ways to improve process effectiveness, efficiency as well as cost-effectiveness.
Consider the following saying about measurement and management:
You can not manage what you can not control
You can not control what you can not measure
You can not measure what you can not define.
If ITSM processes are not implemented, managed and supported using clearly defined goals, objectives and relevant measurements and lead to actionable improvements, the business will suffer.

3. CSI—Objectives CSI Objectives are:
Review, analyze and make recommendations on improvement opportunities in each lifecycle stage;
Review and analyze Service Level Achievement results;
Identify and implement individual activities to improve IT service quality;
Improve cost of effectiveness of delivering IT services without sacrificing customer satisfaction; and
Ensure applicable quality management methods are used to support continual improvement activities.

4. CSI—Scope There are 3 main areas in CSI that need to be addressed:
Overall health of ITSM as a discipline;
Continual alignment of the portfolio of IT services with the current and future business needs; and
Maturity of the enabling IT processes for each service in a continual service lifecycle model.
To implement CSI successfully it is important to understand the different activities that can be applied to CSI. The following activities support a continual process improvement plan:
Reviewing management information and trends to ensure that services are meeting agreed service levels and that the output of the enabling ITSM processes are achieving the desired results;
Periodically conducting maturity assessments against the process activities and roles associated with the process activities to demonstrate areas of improvement or, conversely areas of concern;
Periodically conducting internal audits verifying employee and process compliance;
Reviewing existing deliverables for relevance;
Making ad hoc recommendations for approval;
Conducting periodic customer satisfaction surveys; and
Conducting external and internal service reviews to identify CSI opportunities.
These activities must be planned and scheduled on an ongoing basis. By default ‘improvement’ becomes a process within IT with defined activities, inputs, outputs, roles and reporting. CSI must ensure that ITSM processes are developed and deployed in support of an end-to-end service management approach to business customers.

5. CSI—Approach
Business vision,
mission, goals and
objectives
What is the vision?
Baseline
assessments
Where are we now?
How do we keep the
momentum going?
Where do we want
to be?
Measurable
targets
The CSI Approach shows that there are many opportunities for CSI. It also illustrates a constant cycle for improvement. This approach to improvement can be summarized as follows:
Embrace the vision by understanding the high level business objectives. Vision should align with business and IT strategies;
Assess the current situation to obtain an accurate baseline assessment;
Understand and agree upon the priorities for improvement based on deeper development of the principles defined in the vision;
Detail the CSI plan to achieve higher quality service provision by implementing ITSM processes;
Verify measurements and metrics are in place; and
Momentum for quality improvement is maintained by assuring changes are embedded in the organization.
Service and process
improvement
How do we get there?
Measurements and
metrics
Did we get there?
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6. Value to the business
There are 4 commonly used terms when discussing service improvement outcomes:
Improvements: Outcomes that when compared to the ‘before’ state, show a measurable increase in a desirable metric or decrease in an undesirable metric.
Benefits: Gains achieved through realization of improvements, usually but not always expressed in monetary terms.
ROI (Return on Investment): The difference between the benefit (saving) achieved and the amount expended to achieve that benefit, expressed as a percentage. Logically, we want to spend 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 subcomponent of VOI.

7. CSI and Service Strategy
Service improvement opportunities could be driven by external
factors, such as:
new security or regulatory requirements
new strategies due to mergers or acquisitions
changes in technology infrastructure
new business services to be introduced
Feedback from the other lifecycle stages will also be important.

8. CSI and Service Design
Design takes the strategy described in the first stage and
transforms it through the design stage into deliverable IT
services. Service Design is also responsible for designing a
management information framework that defines the need for:
Critical Success Factors (CSFs)
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Activity Metrics for both the services and the ITSM processes
New strategies, architecture, policies and business requirements will drive the need for continual improvement within Service Design.

9. CSI and Service Transition
As new strategies and design are introduced this provides an
excellent opportunity for continual improvement.
Service Transition is also responsible for defining the actual
CSFs, KPIs and activity metrics, creating the reports and
implementing the required automation to monitor and report on
the services and ITSM processes.

10. CSI and Service Operation
Every technology component and process activity should have
defined inputs and outputs that can be monitored. The results of
the monitoring can then be compared against the norms, targets
or established Service Level Agreements.
When a deviation between expected and actual deliverables is
identified, a service improvement opportunity is created.

11. CSI—Interfaces
For CSI to be successful, it is important to 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. The connection point between each of the core stages is the Service Portfolio.
The following slides look at the relationships between each stage and CSI.
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12. Don’t wait; improvements can start now!
CSI—All or Nothing?
At this stage, it is easy to assume that all aspects of CSI must be in place before measurements and data gathering can begin. However, this is not the case:
Measure now
Analyze now
Begin reviews of lessons learned now
Make incremental improvements now
Don’t wait; improvements can start now!

13. CSI and the Service Lifecycle
Service and Process Improvements, Guidance for Investments into IT and refreshed Service Portfolios
Service and Process Improvements, guidance for KPIs, metrics and reporting, refined SLRs, SLAs, OLAs & UCs.
Request for Changes, Service and Process Improvements, guidance and refinements for testing & validation.
Process and Function organization improvements, refined SLAs & OLAs, guidance for metrics and reporting
Service Strategy
Service Transition
Service Operation
Service Design 82 13

14. CSI—Processes
7-Step Improvement Process

15. CSI and Organizational Change
Improving service management means embarking upon an organizational change program. Many organizational change programs fail to achieve the desired results.
People generally do not like change, so it is essential that benefits are explained to all parties to obtain and retain support as the change occurs. Communication is key to ensuring a smooth transition from old working practices to new ones.
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16. Role Definitions
It is important to identify and differentiate between two basic role
groupings within CSI:
Production: focuses on CSI as a way of life within an
organization. Including permanent roles that deal with ongoing
service improvement efforts.
Project: reflects more traditional approaches to improvement
efforts based on formal programs and projects.
Production: typical roles would include
CSI Manager;
Service Manager;
Service Owner;
Process Owner;
Operations Analyst;
Measurement Analyst;
Reporting Analyst and
Quality Assurance Analyst.
These roles can range from having responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the IT infrastructure through to defining strategies, designing and transitioning new or changed services to the production environment.
Project : Taking a leadership position in the creation and adoption of processes and services, this groups includes roles such as executive sponsor, process owners, process design/implementation/re-engineering team members, process advisor and manager among others.
Further information can be found, in a separate document called ‘CSI Roles and Responsibilities’ within this tookit.

17. External and Internal Drivers
There are two major areas within every organization driving
improvement:
Aspects that are external to the organization, such as regulation, legislation, competition, external customer requirements, market pressures and economics
Aspects that are internal to the organization, such as organizational structures, culture, capacity to accept change, existing and projected staffing levels, union rules, etc.
A SWOT analysis (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) maybe helpful in illuminating significant opportunities for improvement. The strengths and weaknesses focus on the internal aspects of the organization, while the opportunities and threats focus on aspects external to the organization.

18. Service Level Management
Effective CSI requires the adopting the Service Level Management (SLM) process.
The process promotes a trusted partnership between IT and the Business and ensures that IT personnel participate at every level of decision making from data centers to boardrooms
SLM involves a number of steps:
Involving the business and determining its service level requirements
Identifying internal relationships in IT organizations, negotiating the terms and responsibilities of the internal relationships, and codifying them with operational level agreements
Identifying existing contractual relationships with external vendors; working with the supplier manager to verify that these underpinning contracts meet the revised business requirements
Using the service catalog as the baseline to negotiate service level agreements with the business
Reviewing service achievement and identifying where improvements are required, feeding them into CSI

19. CSI—The Deming Cycle
Continual quality control and consolidation
Plan
Project Plan Do
Project
Check
Audit
Act
New actions
ACT
PLAN
Business IT
alignment
CHECK DO
W. Edwards Deming proposed the Deming Cycle, with regards to quality improvement. This cycle is particularly applicable in CSI. The four key stages are Plan, Do, Check and Act, after which a phase of consolidation prevents the circle from rolling back down the slope. The goal of using the Deming Cycle is steady, ongoing improvement. It is a fundamental principle of Continual Service Improvement.
The cycle is underpinned by a process-led approach to management, where defined processes are in place, the activities are measured against agreed service levels and outputs are audits to validate and improve the process.
Maturity level
Effective quality
improvement
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Consolidation of the level reached
i.e. baseline
Timescale

20. CSI—Baselines
Baselines act as reference points for later comparison and can be essential for highlighting where improvements are required and where improvements have already occurred.
These baselines establish an initial data point to support or justify decisions regarding improvements.
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 KPIs.

21. Service Measurement—Value to the Business
There are four main reasons to monitor and measure:
To validate
To direct
To justify
To intervene
There are four main reasons to monitor and measure:
To validate – monitoring and measuring to validate previous decisions;
To direct – monitoring and measuring to set direction for activities in order to meet set targets. It is the most prevalent reason for monitoring and measuring;
To justify – monitoring and measuring to justify, with factual evidence or proof, that a course of action is required; and
To intervene – monitoring and measuring to identify point of intervention including subsequent changes and corrective actions.
Service Measurement is a key concept of CSI. Measurement of all the process metrics takes place throughout the Lifecycle stages. CSI uses the results of these measurements to identify and establish improvements.
Further information can be found, in a separate document called ‘Service Measurement & Reporting’, within this tookit.

22. CSI—7-Step Improvement Process
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.
Obviously, all the activities of the improvement process will assist CSI in some way. It is relatively simple to identify what takes place but the difficulty lies in understanding exactly how this will happen. The improvement process spans not only the management organization but the entire service lifecycle. This is a cornerstone of CSI.
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23. CSI—Knowledge Management
Knowledge Management plays a key role in CSI. During every lifecycle stage, data will be captured to enable us to gain a good knowledge and understanding of what is actually happening, this enables wisdom. Most organizations capture the appropriate data but fail to process the data efficiently. Wisdom leads to better and more informed decision making and improvement.
This applies when looking at IT services themselves or when drilling down to each individual IT process. Knowledge management is an essential factor of any improvement process.
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24. CSI—Benchmarking Benchmarking is a process used in management, where
organizations evaluate various aspects of their processes in
relation to best practice, usually within their own sector or industry.
Benchmarking allows organizations to develop plans relevant to adopting these best practices and become more competitive in the marketplace.
Benchmarking can be used in two capacities:
Benchmarking as a lever - Benchmarking is sometimes the only way to persuade organization in to adopting new methods and tools that improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Presenting the facts with the support of proven ‘best practice’ can combat resistance to change.
Benchmarking as a steering instrument - Benchmarking is a management technique to improve performance. It provides an ongoing method of measuring and improving products, services and practices against the best that can be found in any industry anywhere. It has been defined as ‘the search for industry best practices which lead to superior performance’.

25. CSI—Benchmarking Categories
Benchmarking is a great tool for identifying improvement areas
and evaluating improvement implementation activities.
Organizations can conduct internal or external benchmark
studies.
Improving service management can be as simple as: ‘Are we
better today than we were yesterday?’
These are incremental improvements.
An internal benchmark is when an organization sets a baseline at a certain point in time for the same system or department and they measure how they are doing today compared to when the baseline was set. E.g. Service Targets are a form of benchmark.
Comparison to industry norms provided by external organizations.
Direct comparisons with similar organizations.
Comparison with other systems or departments within the same company.

26. CSI—Governance
IT is forced to comply with sweeping legislation and an ever-
increasing number of external regulations.
IT organizations must operate under full transparency.
There are 3 main areas of governance:
Enterprise governance
Corporate governance
IT governance
There are 3 main areas of governance:
Enterprise governance – describes a framework that covers both corporate governance and the business management aspects of the organization. This achieves good corporate governance that is linked strategically with performance metrics, and enables companies to focus all their energy on the key drivers that move their business forward.
Corporate governance – concerned with promoting corporate fairness, transparency and accountability. The most recent example is the SOX act (2002) in the United States. Created in the aftermath of fraudulent behavior by corporate giants and state accountability provisions such as criminal charges and incarceration for non-compliance.
IT governance – responsibility of the board of directors and executive management. An integral part of enterprise governance and consist of the leadership, organizational structures and processes that ensure the organization IT sustains and extends the organizations strategies and objectives.