10 Tips for ITIL® Implementation
ITIL can help business leaders to streamline business processes or improve overall operations. There are many different ways to implement ITIL in a business or company. Here are some of the tips and recommendations on how to implement ITIL in your workplace.
Tip 1
Get yourself a GREAT Project Manager.
Be picky. Yes, I know they are hard to find, but look out for someone that can easily enlist people to just do the job. Don’t settle for less than the best. Pay them what they are worth. They should be natural leaders and have a natural command for authority. Acceptance amongst their pears and an optimistic outlook to the project is going to get you far.
Tip 2
Communicate:
This is not a top secret project so therefore no need to be so hush-hush about it. Risk is defined as the uncertainty of outcome. Now, the uncertainty of the intended outcome is then also a risk, isn’t it? Please communicate your plans at all levels. We need people to get excited about the project and don’t let them feel they were not part of the idea. Knowledge is power and we want power throughout the enterprise. From the moment we are born and for some of us even before, our parents try to communicate and teach us these vital skills. It’s part of survival and this is the last place where you want to drop the ball.
Remember that you have to identify your audience, know what you want to say, identify the need for communication (not just because…) and ensure that the communication path is set both ways.
Tip 3
Where does it hurt?
Identify your IT organisation’s pain points and a set a course of action for improvements. To start the ball rolling, identify those most painful – related to incident, problem and change management.
Enjoy the smiles on your colleagues faces when a brilliant band-aid or better, has been applied and sanity is restored!
Tip 4
Ensure you have a well defined baseline of your current capability of each process before you get carried away with an improvement project. Once you start making improvements/changes to your processes, there will be no means to prove your success if you haven’t measured it before. Document your current baseline and compare at a later state to show your improvements.
Tip 5
Password-changes – Mondays are best!
Do you struggle with high call volumes on Mondays? Even though self-help service is in place, the calls still keep coming…
Make a simple change in policy. Restrict password-change messages to appear only on Mondays and Tuesdays. This way they will be more likely to remember it by next Monday. Also, never implement password changes before a long weekend. A simple change in the policy can work wonders!
Tip 6
Stop… scope… creep….!
Just when you have just had your project finally approved, additional work hits your plate!
We have all had this issue, I’m sure. This will add cost, undefined risk and most definitely delay your project. How do you stop this? A good starting point is to clearly define and communicate what is in the scope and what is out of the scope. Put necessary boundaries in place!
Tip 7
Relationships are the Key!
To truly benefit from using ITIL consider each process and its link. We all know each process consists of inputs, activities and outputs. An input generally comes from a process and the outputs are then again needed for another. It is important when designing and building these processes to think how they link. There is no value in a process that stands alone. How we link in relationships is the key.
Tip 8
Training is vital!
Create a great Service Desk team by giving them the appropriate ITIL training they need to successfully fulfil their roles. Businesses require skilled people to make good decisions. The delay of a good decision by even a few minutes or seconds can have devastating affects on the business. A well trained and happy ITIL team at the Service Desk sets the tone for IT and provides effective communication for the users and customers alike. Don’t skimp on their training. Strengthen and support them with good skills so the rest of your IT organisation can optimise its resources.
Tip 9
Can I see the Menu?
Imagine going to your local supermarket and asking for a 5m x 3m sheet of steel? Or trying to buy a new set of tyres for the old tractor in the barn at the post office? So why do our customers sometimes come to us with very difficult and absurd requests?
You need to focus on what it is you do best to know and understand your customer so your services will be able to meet their needs. Many ITSPs rush in trying to fix processes and forget the most important step. What services do we deliver? If you don’t have a menu, the customers will just ask for anything and everything.
Tip 10
Welcome Bad News!
Have an open door policy to invite bad news. Welcome it and react in a positive manner. If you do, you will reduce the risk of finding the issues too late and incurring unnecessary cost.
We are promoting continual service improvement and helping educating our cutomers all at the same time.