ITIL® Practitioner – Looking at the nine guiding principles

 Jun 02, 2017

We recently ran a webinar about ITIL®, explaining the fundamental principles of an Information Technology Infrastructure Library, and why it is fast becoming the most widely adopted approach to IT Service Management in businesses today.

I wanted to share with you today something we run through in the ITIL® Practitioner Course, and can be very useful for people starting out, or already using ITIL®.

When organisations are trying to improve their presence in the market place, changes are made by improving processes or changing the methodologies of carrying them out. By considering the practitioner guidance, one of the first things we come across will be the nine guiding principles to assisting in making these improvements.

These nine guiding principles are exactly as written; they should be used to guide the organisation through to achieving the desired change. They are not specific to any one area, nor too general that they cannot be applied. They have come from the wisdom and experience of practitioners who have used them in real live environments, so they have become best practice.

The nine ITSM guiding principles are:

1. Focus on Value

In ITSM, everything should deliver value to the customer and it is the customer who decides what is valuable to them.

2. Design for Experience

All services and processes should be designed from the start to create a satisfying end-to-end experience for the customer or end user.

3. Start where you are

It is not necessary to start from scratch. Consider first what is available and can be built upon. This will go a long way to improving what already worked.

4. Work Holistically

None of the services or components stands alone. Services can be very complicated structures and may have child processes. They all need to be considered, designed, deployed, managed and improved with an awareness of the whole.

5. Progress Iteratively

It is very important to resist the temptation to do everything at once. Break the tasks into bite sized chunks so that each task delivers something useful and keeps going. Small efforts combining for great change.

6. Observe Directly

Any decisions need to be based on information that is as true and correct as it can be. If possible, go to the source of the activity and observe it directly.

7. Be Transparent

Honesty is the best policy about what is happening in the organisation so that rumours will not compete with the truth and people can participate and speak from a position of knowledge.

8. Collaborate

It is vital to work together collectively towards a common aim. Teamwork will create shared commitment and results will benefit from considering different positions.

9. Keep it Simple

Do only what is required to deliver consistent desired outcomes. Eliminate that which is not required.

 “All experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Thomas Jefferson US President

In other words, change is difficult! People don’t like to change the things they adapted to, even if the things they know are not working well. Change is often the biggest obstacle in any organization.

By adopting an ITSM approach, practitioners will introduce new services and processes – all of which may require people to change their behaviours and routines. By looking at the 9 guiding principles, the required changes can be implemented in a way that works. We can create a promise of service management benefits.

New Horizons Australia runs a number of ITIL® training courses, for all skill levels, from beginners through to experts. Click here to find out more or contact us for a chat. 

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About the Author:

Itvinder Mankoo  

With nearly 20 years in the IT training industry, Itvinder is one of New Horizons’ most experienced Infrastructure trainers. Throughout her career as a technical training consultant, Itvinder has successfully imparted knowledge and expertise to numerous IT professionals in the areas of Server Operating Systems, Messaging, Collaboration and ITIL®. Ensuring her knowledge and delivery capability is up to date with the latest technologies, Itvinder has recently become qualified to deliver training programs in System Center 2012 and SharePoint 2013.

With her extensive skill-set, Itvinder brings a thorough mentoring capability to the classroom where she can advise on technical issues and challenges often beyond the scope of the course curriculum. A very approachable and experienced training professional, Itvinder has the ability to quickly establish credibility with students at all levels.

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