ITIL 4 ITIL-4-Foundation Release Date

Don’t start from scratch and build something new without considering what you already have. It’s almost always better to improve what you currently have than to throw it all away and start again, although you must also be able to recognise when a complete replacement is, in fact, needed.

Not only is this approach less wasteful than starting from scratch – because it preserves value that you already have – but it also helps you to keep your people on board. They’re much more likely to support the changes you need if their previous contributions have been appropriately valued.

Don’t rely on metrics and reports to tell you what the current situation is. When you carry out an assessment you should observe what is happening for yourself, and just use the metrics to support your observations.

You need to use all of your resources as effectively and efficiently as you can. This means that you should automate wherever you can, and use people only for tasks that can’t be automated. It also means that you need to think carefully about what you can automate and about the circumstances where only a person will do; and about simplifying those processes you do decide to automate to eliminate wasteful or inefficient steps.

You should always optimize the work BEFORE you automate it, as automating something that is inefficient or ineffective may just result in you doing the wrong thing faster!

The purpose of the continual improvement practice is to align the organization’s practices and services with changing business needs through the ongoing identification and improvement of services, service components, practices, or any element involved in the efficient and effective management of products and services1. This practice needs the right culture to be embedded across the entire organization, as it requires a shared vision, commitment, empowerment, collaboration, learning, and measurement2. References: ITIL Foundation - ITIL 4 Edition, page 15; ITIL® 4 – A Pocket Guide, page 34; ITIL® 4 Practice Guide: Continual Improvement, page 7.