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Seven ITIL 4 Guidelines

A year ago, Axelos introduced the fourth version of ITIL, a library of best practices for managing IT services. One of its key sections is devoted to the guiding principles of ITIL 4 (The ITIL guiding principles).



Together with the value streams and practices that have replaced the “processes”, the seven guiding principles are the foundation of ITIL 4. These principles can be used by IT companies regardless of strategy, management approach or type of service provided. As the authors of the library emphasize, each of the principles is universal and fundamental. Together they embody the core ideas of ITIL and ITSM.

We already wroteabout some changes in ITIL 4 compared to the third version. ITIL 4 meets the realities of modern business, offering more flexible approaches than previous versions. The processes in ITIL 4 are non-linear, and the end result of each of them can initiate new processes for continuous improvement of the service.

In this case, the client is considered not as a consumer of the service, simply receiving the result, but as a partner. This helps the client to influence the quality and functionality of the services.

Just in the Fundamentals, the first of seven books in the new library, the ITIL 4 guidelines are described in detail. They are based on well-known techniques: Agile, Lean, DevOps, etc. That is, guiding principles help integrate best practices into a single management approach. IT services.

Focus on value


Focus on value


Value is a key concept in ITIL 4. This is what the client receives as a result of using the service.

The value of a car-sharing service or application for ordering a taxi is that the client can reach the destination on time and with convenience. At the same time, he is spared the risks of using his own car, such as breakdowns or out of place fuel.

The principle primarily refers to the creation of value for customers (consumers of services). But any service also affects the company's values, which are manifested in various forms: in profit, user loyalty, business growth, cost reduction. Everything that an organization does, directly or indirectly, must be associated with a value that affects all stakeholders.

Therefore, the service provider, first of all, needs to decide who are the direct consumers for it, who are the other stakeholders: partners, investors, contractors, etc. The

second point is understanding what exactly constitutes consumer value. For this, among other things, the company must know why the consumer is interested in its service, how this service or service helps the consumer achieve goals, what are his risks.

Another component of value is the experience that consumers gain when interacting with a product and supplier: User Experience (UX) or Customer Experience (CX). Experience can be objective (the client received what he wanted for the promised cost) and subjective (the client does not like the design of the application interface). Consumer experience needs to be managed.
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Start where you are


Sometimes, in an effort to optimize a product, the owner offers to abandon all previous developments and create a completely new product. For example, do not modify the mobile application code (refactoring), but completely rewrite it. But this approach often leads to unplanned time, financial and labor costs. So you can disrupt working processes, lose tools and employees who could improve the product. If the current developments can still be used - use.

Rate the atmosphere. Gather accurate analytics to avoid unreasonable decisions, missing deadlines, going beyond budgets, and lowering quality. Based on these data, it is already possible to make a decision that of the existing functionality of the service has value and will be reused.

Project managers and project managers do not have to be afraid to ask “silly” questions to performers - for example, developers or designers. Sometimes the opinion of a person who is not immersed in the context is useful.

Develop iteratively using feedback


Progress iteratively with feedback


Projects should be broken down into a series of iterations. So it’s easier to focus on and manage each of them. The main objective of the project and the tasks of its iterations, for example, to improve the service, is a constant assessment of compliance with current requirements. This allows you to adapt to changing circumstances and not lose focus on the main value.

At the same time, in order to correctly understand the progress and status of the project, the reassessment should be based on feedback from users of the service. The more channels and methods of receiving feedback - the better.

Sometimes a developer or provider has an outdated or specific vision of a service that does not meet the actual needs of the user. The results of the next iteration help to clarify new requirements, redefine priorities and initiate those works that will improve the service.

This is where well-established feedback is needed, which helps to better understand:

  • perception of a given value by the end user and consumer;
  • the effectiveness and efficiency of the value chain;
  • quality of service and project management;
  • quality of interaction within the company, as well as with partners and suppliers;
  • dynamics of demand for services and products.

Analyze the feedback received to identify possible risks and problems.

Thanks to the combination of an iterative approach and feedback, the team becomes more flexible, reacts more quickly to the needs of customers and business, earlier detects problems and reacts to them, improves the quality of service.
Working with user reviews is the ability to quickly respond to their requests. Let's say you make a travel app that is constantly improving. Gradually, in the App Store, requests from users accumulate that the application automatically calculates the distance traveled. The efforts of the development team are focused on adding this functionality.

However, this works if the application has no problems quickly adding new features.
It is worth mentioning that revision and reassessment is best applied without fanaticism. Excessive analytics, reflection, endless meetings can lead to "analytical paralysis", when all the forces will go not to the project, but to analyze the current situation.

Also, do not try to do everything at once: any new “feature” can be released in the form of MVP (minimally viable product) and gradually increase functionality.

Collaborate and increase transparency


Collaborate and promote visibility


Partnerships are better than isolation. It is appropriate to recall the important condition of digital transformation - the need to get rid of the “silo”, or “bunker” approach, when some department works as if in a vacuum: it focuses only on its tasks and is not aware of the company's values. Often this is not the fault of the department, since its processes and interaction with other departments are limited.

Another component of the principle is transparency. The processes and results of the work should be visible and understandable to all participants. The more people know what is happening in the project and why, the easier it will be to connect and help. When, for example, only a small group of employees is aware of a planned change, rumors and speculation appear. Silence leads to the fact that the rest of the team resists, also behind the scenes.

Decide on the circle of stakeholders within the company. It can be developers, external and internal suppliers, analysts, CRM managers - all those who are somehow involved in creating the organization's values.

Some participants may need to be more involved in the project. Others - act as reviewers, consultants or approvers. So, in software development, advanced companies connect several teams to cooperation at once: developers, testers, product owners, customers, users.

Think and work holistically


Think and work holistically


A holistic approach to management is the understanding that various activities of an organization are aimed at creating value.

No service or item used to provide a service is isolated. To follow this approach and ensure consistently high results, try to perceive any process as part of the value chain and comprehensively consider the processes, resources and practices associated with it.


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Keep it simple and practical


The principle of using the minimum number of steps to achieve a goal is considered obvious, but it is often forgotten. If an action, process, service or indicator does not produce a useful result and does not add value, discard them.
The car rental application collects a lot of data, including information about the time it takes the user to complete each form in the application to book a car. The study showed that these data are of little use, and the real value is the data on how much time the entire booking process took.

As a result, developers, removing the optional data collection function, simplify the application interface and increase its speed.
In the process of creating or optimizing IT services, it is better to start with the simplest possible model, and then gradually add new elements, actions or indicators - if they are really necessary.

It happens differently: the new process is perceived by employees as an extra waste of time. However, this new stage is important on a corporate scale and indirectly affects the value of the service. Therefore, employees should have a holistic view of the organization. Let individual teams or groups know how others influence their work and how they themselves influence others.

Keep a balance between competing goals - leadership goals and performer goals. Suppose a management wants to collect an array of data in order to make a strategic decision. Analysts believe that this process can be simplified, and the solution itself requires less information. And here you need to find a middle ground: get rid of everything that does not affect the final value.

Optimize and automate


Optimize and automate


Automation tools and technology help you perform repetitive, routine tasks, attracting people to solve complex solutions. However, automation should not be allowed for the sake of automation: sometimes human involvement is necessary to evaluate the key stages of the overall automated process.

Before automating, processes need to be optimized - within reasonable limits, taking into account financial, technical and other limitations. For optimization, ITIL, Lean, DevOps, Kanban and other practices are suitable.

An example of automation in IT is the use of the methodology of continuous integration and code delivery (CI / CD), when each change to the code is automatically tested at each stage of assembly. But automation also implies a more traditional approach - for example, reducing the amount of paper work in the service center by introducing biometric collection of client personal data.

Conclusion


In addition to knowing the ITIL guidelines, it is important to understand that they are interconnected. For example, if a company seeks to progress in an iterative approach and improves feedback, it should be done holistically, so that each iteration implies the achievement of a specific result. The same thing with feedback: it is the key to cooperation, which allows you to improve the service, make it more convenient for the client and ultimately increase its value.

When making any decisions, companies should be guided by a focus on values ​​and other principles that are appropriate for a particular scenario. The ITIL 4 guidelines are not precepts, but recommendations that you can adopt and adapt to yourself: ultimately, they are all based on appropriateness and common sense.

More information on the seven guidelines is provided in the ITIL 4 Foundation manual (no official translation into Russian yet).

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