When I’m working with clients on ITIL awareness training or conducting an ITIL maturity assessment, there’s always a tension between ‘what the official ITIL book says’ and ‘how can we implement ITIL in the real world?’

For example, the ITIL maturity model defines four levels of maturity - Repeatable, Defined, Managed and Optimized. So for a given ITIL Process, such as Configuration Management, we assess the client?s current state and assign a score. Looks really simple, on paper.

But in the real world, it’s not so clear. For example, ITIL assumes (or at least strongly recommends) that you have consistent company-wide policies and processes. But very few real-world IT shops have common processes - whether ITIL-driven or not - even between adjoining departments within IT. So- how do you score the company on the maturity scale?

You would be correct if you answered: “with much debate”.

That’s why it’s so important to get past ‘the official ITIL Configuration Management Process’, for example, and instead ask questions based on KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). For example, in Configuration Management one of the usual KPIs is the accuracy of the CMDB (Configuration Management Database) as measured by periodic audits of the data. This is a specific number, arrived at by a specific, defined process that nobody can argue with.

So when you’re considering your ITIL maturity level, think in terms of measurements, not in terms of comparing the descriptions of your processes with the text in the ITIL books.

Till next time, keep up the good work and remember - what gets measured gets improved.

Scott Braden

Download Evergreen’s white paper on developing the business value of ITIL, including the development of metrics, at “Developing the Business Value for ITIL”.