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ITIL Process Owners - Continuous Improvements [1 comment]

ITIL General
ITIL Continuous Improvements Process Owners Change
Throughout ITIL regardless of what version one references, there is always the mention of continuous improvements or sometimes referred to as the 'Act' in the 'Plan-Do-Check-Act' approach provided by the Deming cycle.
 
The introduction of ITIL into any organization is not prescriptive and consequently is open to interpretation and shaping in support of the organizations business. As ITIL processes are introduced and new or altered working practices are implemented, further refinements and improvements often become visible. Appointing a 'Process Owner' for each ITIL process should enable an overall end-to-end view of the process to be established, as opposed to the process participants having a view and interaction with a 'section' of the process. The ITIL Process Owner can assess the impact of any potential improvements upon the whole process and, where appropriate, consult other Process Owners who interface to the process being improved or amended. Needless to say, there maybe others in the organization that also need to assess the potential improvement and as you would expect the ITIL Change Management Process should be utilized to facilitate such activities.
 
If you have any comments or can add additional value to the article then please leave a comment below.
 
 
 

1 VISITOR COMMENT

2011-08-12 by "nsara24"

Much has been said about roles of process owners and key success factors for process improvements will be an appointment of process owners. But what are the attributes and qualifications of a person whom we want to appoint as process owners ? It is difficult to find someone who is a subject matter expert on all service management (ITIL processes).
Reply on 2011-08-12
Many thanks for your comment submission.

I have given your comment some thought and provided my opinion from the experiences I have encountered during my ITIL career.

It is almost impossible to track down a single resource that has practical experience across all the ITIL areas, especially as the lifecycle covers five core publications. Obviously in the past the main focus of ITIL was around the Support and Delivery aspects of a service covering its transition from development into the production environment via Release and Change Management.

Another consideration is that the implementation of the ITIL Lifecycle is a considerable undertaking in both time, resources and budget. The various processes are invariably dependant upon or interface to other processes. More often than not elements of ITIL best management practice will exist within your organization, therefore it may be a matter of identifying an existing member of staff to become ITIL qualified and potentially take on the role of a process owner, may be with some additional support.

Another approach I would suggest is the engagement of ITIL consultants on contract, either on an individual basis or via an ITIL Consultancy. Obviously there is the issue of cost associated with such an approach. In addition there is the need to clearly state the scope of the engagement to avoid 'scope creep' and increased costs. I would also consider pairing members of your organization to work alongside the consultants enabling the transition of knowledge to occur and thus overtime reducing the dependancy upon the external third party.

I woud also consider breaking the initiative into phases, possibly identifying or appointing process owners associated to a specific area of the lifecyle. Do you focus on an area that is not currently performing well or do you focus on an area that perhaps could provide significant benefit.

So in answer to your query. Attempt to engage resources who have an understanding of ITIL, preferably practical experience and has possibly managed or engaged with other ITIL areas. You may wish to employ some one who has experience of implementing ITIL into various organizations and perhaps can 'fast-track' on certain aspects of an implementation from lessons they have previously learnt.

I hope this helps and we would welcome any feedback you have on the opinions expresed above.

steve@itilnews.com

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Tags; ITIL, Process Owners, Continuous Improvements, Deming cycle, ITIL process, ITIL Change Management
 
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