When we’re working with clients to help them map out a long-term plan for ITSM (IT Service Management) using ITIL best practices as a guide and benchmark, one of the most important questions is “Which ITIL process should we work on first? Second?”

Well if you read my blogs, you’ll know my answer is going to depend on the results of the assessment, which makes heavy use of ITIL KPIs and metrics that IT and the business would like to see improve.

What’s not always so clear for clients is how to translate a business requirement or SLR (Service Level Requirement) into specific process changes that are needed to meet the goals.

For example, most businesses I’ve worked with in the past few years are looking for some combination of improved speed for IT to deliver changes, without hurting service quality and while keeping costs under control. Some of you are laughing already, as you recognize the old joke about ’speed, quality, price – pick any two.’

But, it is in fact possible to improve all three, at the same time. One of the most common examples I see is in the areas of Change, Configuration and Release Management. These three ITIL processes are very tightly linked, so that we frequently recommend that clients begin their SIP (Service Improvement Program) by focusing on these together, or at least in a very compressed time frame.

Next time, I’ll tell you why – till then, keep up the good work, and ask yourself “of the Changes our shop puts into production, how many are on time, on budget and produce no unknown errors?”

Scott Braden

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