Top 10 Success Considerations For

ITSM Programs A Checklist For ITSM Program Success

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When establishing an IT Service Management (ITSM) improvement program, the

most common questions that arise tend to be: “How do we get started? What is the

goal? What critical knowledge do we need from People, Process, Product and

Partners perspectives etc. This is understandable, especially, since the ITSM program

is a people project, supported by tools and processes. However, many times, this

program is mistaken for ITSM tool implementation, or process documentation

projects. To understand why this is a mistaken identity, lessons from hundreds of

customer engagements will be elaborated upon.

Sometimes, well-intended ITIL initiatives also fall short of expectations due to skipping

over minor factors during the initial assessment. This can be avoided by using a high-

level checklist to identify if a gap exists in your current or future ITSM program

strategy. Only through such assessments can critical gaps be filled and a roadmap be

developed to fill those gaps in a logical and strategic manner.

In this white paper, Top 10 Considerations For Successful ITSM Programs, author

and ITIL expert Troy DuMoulin provides an excellent summary of key considerations

you and your IT Service Management process improvement teams need to consider

to ensure successful outcomes.

Executive Summary

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Table Of Contents

1 The First Step ................................................................................ 4

2 Evaluation Checklist For ITSM Programs .............................….. 6

2.1 Project Governance Plan ........................................................ 6

2.2 People Plan ............................................................................ 7

2.3 Process Plan ........................................................................... 8

2.4 Technology Plan ...................................................................... 9

3 About Pink Elephant ……………................................................... 11

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1) THE FIRST STEP

So you have taken the ITIL® Foundations course and possibly even one or two of the

intermediate level certifications and have now been asked to setup and establish an

IT Service Management (ITSM) improvement program!

Congratulations, you have been entrusted with a key element of your organization’s

plan to improve service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Now the key question is: How do you get started on this major task and what critical

knowledge do you need to consider from a People, Process, Product and Partner

perspective?

The First Step Is To Understand The Goal!

ITSM programs are really people change initiatives, but that they are frequently

mistaken for an ITSM tool implementation or process documentation projects.

Because of this mistaken identity, many frustrated IT leaders have invested significant

resources, time and money and received very little benefit or return for their efforts. To

avoid becoming an unfortunate statistic, it is critical that you start your journey with a

good understanding of the goal you are being asked to achieve and to make sure

others especially your manager does as well.

The following lessons-learned from hundreds of customer engagements provide

insight into why this to goal is often not understood or realized:

• ITSM/Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) projects are actually

transformation programs requiring significant shifts in behavior and cultural change

across multiple groups that need to define new ways to work in a common manner

• Process documentation is not worth the paper it is printed on without the political

ability and organizational will to enforce its use

• An ITSM tool alone will never enforce new behaviors or best practices

• Most organizations fail at their initial process improvement efforts by focusing on

the technology or tool elements of the project and underestimate the effort

required to address the less tangible people and governance issues required to

support transformation effort

• Most projects reveal clear, early people-related warning

signs that the project is at risk but these signs were

missed, ignored or not managed

• IT professionals prefer to focus on the tangible project

deliverables that are within their control rather than

wrestling with the people challenges related to attitude,

behavior and culture

Certainly these two elements are necessary and even

critical but they are still only enablers – not the goal

itself.

The Goal of ITSM is to get disparate functional

groups to work in a common manner based on accepted

industry best practices to deliver services that their

customers want and value. ITSM is a people project supported

by tools and processes, not a tool or process

project supported by people!

• Documenting processes is a necessary step due to a quirk of human nature that

believes that unless a practice is written down, agreed to and enforced, it remains

un-defined and open to argument and interpretation

• The Service Management tool certainly contributes to the goal by lifting the

process from paper and making it tangible, visible, measureable and hopefully

more efficient (though not always the case)

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Contrary to popular belief

and practice, ITIL projects

are not all about

documenting processes or

buying and configuring an

ITSM tool!

The first step is to realize that the true goal of an ITSM initiative is to establish a

common and efficient approach for the various functions within the IT value chain in

order to deliver stable and reliable IT Services to the customer. Process

documentation and the underlying IT tools are simply a means to an end, not the end

themselves.

To avoid repeating these common mistakes, your ITSM program must target the true

goal, have the leadership support and address critical success factors.

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2) EVALUATION CHECKLIST FOR ITSM PROGRAMS

The following tables represent a high-level checklist for you to use when developing

or evaluating your ITSM program approach. Use this checklist as the basis for

determining if a gap exists in your current or future ITSM program strategy.

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2.1. Project

Governance

Plan

Checklist

1) Effective Project

Controls &

Roles

You are applying formal Project Management practices,

resources and have controls, and project governance is in

place

The membership, authority and effectiveness of the projects’

sponsorship and senior steering committee match the

organizational scope of the project

People’s time, resources and funding are available to the

project for the full lifecycle (Plan, Build, and Deployment)

2) Management Of

Change Strategy

Both internal and external stakeholders have been identified

and included in a formal management of change plan to

move attitude, behavior and culture to the future state

There are ongoing practices to identify, assess and manage

people risks related to the project

3) Integrated

Project

Plans

The process, tool and management of change aspects of

the program are managed as one integrated and

interdependent work tasks

There is a clear understanding of which process and tool

elements must be designed and configured as shared

across multiple process areas

4) Continual

Service

Improvement

(CSI) Strategy

A CSI strategy and process is defined, including the

definition of a consistent and effective measurement

framework to ensure the processes continue to meet

business needs

You have identified specific people within the organization to

develop ITSM subject matter expertise, to support current

and future service improvement

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2.2. People Plan Checklist

5) Awareness &

Communication

Strategy

The vision is clear, and there is widespread understanding of

the vision and objectives of the program as it relates to

strategic business and enterprise IT goals

A plan and means exist to build to an adequate level; the

knowledge ITSM principles to support the ITSM program

objectives and deliverables

Key stakeholders have been identified and their individual

communication needs defined and scheduled into the overall

project plans

An education/certification plan is approved and funded to

equip the project resources with the knowledge needed to

design and/or review the project artifacts and deliverables

Deployment workshops have been scheduled and

developed to train IT staff on the company specific process,

policies, tasks, and tools required as part of their jobs

6) Ongoing

Process

Ownership &

Management

Roles

New process ownership and management roles are defined

and resourced at the start of the program, and included in

the design, build and deployment tasks of the project

An ongoing process governance structure/council has been

established to provide oversight and approval to proposed

changes and to support future improvements

External suppliers are integrated into the process ownership

and management structure

There is a plan and means to adjust the department,

individual and external contract reward systems to align with

ITSM goals

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2.3. Process Plan Checklist

7) Policies,

Processes,

Roles & Metrics

The goal and objectives of the processes have been defined

and agreed to

Enterprise polices have been defined to establish

expectation and support compliance

High-level workflows have been documented and

incorporated into training and communication deliverables

Process integration is understood and incorporated into

requirements management, design and automation activities

Detailed role descriptions have been documented

establishing the accountability, responsibility, and

communication expectations for the new and changed roles

Detailed procedures, business rules, escalation policies, and

process forms have been defined as required, based on the

workflow, and automation requirements generated from the

high-level process documentation and roles

Key process classification structures, artifacts, decision

criteria, work instructions are defined – (e.g.: priority matrix,

categorization criteria, risk matrix, service catalog structures

and Configuration Management Database object models)

Critical success factors and key performance indicators

have been selected to support the process and policy goals

and objectives

Process measures are presented on management

dashboards and reports, and support continual process

improvement

2.4. Technology

Plan

Checklist

8) The Tool

Supports ITIL

Best Practices

The tool requirements are driven by process requirements

and not the other way around

Where possible all process participants use the same tool

Current and future process integration requirements are

taken into account for selection

Process module integration is understood to be of higher

value than best of breed point solutions

Tool customization is avoided where the proposed change

will break the original intent of the software

9) Ongoing Tool

Administration

& Improvement

Structures &

Processes

A function has been established to install, configure and

administer IT Management tools used by enterprise IT

processes

A process exists to receive, assesses, approve and prioritize

changes to the ITSM tool

10) Tool

Configuration

& Testing

Done In

Parallel With

Process

Design

The tool configuration is done in parallel, and in coordination

with the process design and documentation efforts

Separate development, production and training

environments exist to support new or updated process

design development and testing without impacting

production

The development environment is used to prototype and test,

process and policy designs as part of the process-building

phase

Testing plans include process, technical and user

acceptance testing, based on functional requirements, non-

functional requirements, and usability criteria

Testing plans include integrated testing to determine the

impact on other processes already deployed within the tool

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2.4. Technology

Plan

Checklist

10) Tool

Configuration

& Testing

Done In

Parallel With

Process

Design

Testing plans include process, technical and user

acceptance testing, based on functional requirements, non-

functional requirements, and usability criteria

Testing plans include integrated testing to determine the

impact on other processes already deployed within the tool

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Pink Elephant – World Leaders In Transforming IT Services www.pinkelephant.com © Pink Elephant Inc., 2013. The contents of this case study are protected by copyright and cannot be reproduced in any manner. Pink Elephant and its logo, PinkVERIFY, PinkSCAN, PinkATLAS, and PinkREADY are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Pink Elephant Inc. ITIL® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited.

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3) ABOUT PINK ELEPHANT Pink Elephant is proud to be celebrating 20 years of ITIL experience – more than any other

supplier. Operating through many offices across the globe, the company is the world’s #1

supplier of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education and consulting services. To date, more than

350,000 IT professionals have benefited from Pink Elephant’s expertise. Pink Elephant has

been championing the growth of ITIL worldwide since its inception in 1989, and was selected

as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL V3 project as authors of V3’s Continual

Service Improvement book and through representation on the International Exam Panel. For

more information, please visit www.pinkelephant.com.

Service Lines

Pink Elephant’s service lines each provide different, but complementary business solutions:

PinkCONSULTING: Using the ITIL best practices approach as a springboard, Pink Elephant

provides end-to-end solutions – from assessments, to strategic planning to implementation,

continuous improvement and beyond. Experienced consultants work hand-in-hand with

customers every step of the way

PinkONLINE: Use Pink Elephant's online ITIL Implementation Tool Kit and gain access to

various services that support a service management improvement program, including

PinkATLAS, containing over 1,000 process deployment documents

PinkEDUCATION: Pink Elephant is the most prolific creator and widespread distributor of ITIL

training, and leads the way with education based ITIL V3’s service lifecycle approach. Pink is

internationally accredited with EXIN, APMG and PEOPLECERT, independent examination

institutes that manage the ITIL certification program. The Project Management Institute (PMI)

has also recognized Pink as a Registered Education Provider

PinkCONFERENCES: Pink Elephant is the world’s largest producer of ITSM conferences and

delivers several major events per year to thousands of IT professionals