ITIL: Continual Service Improvement

Continual Service Improvement is one of the five new ITIL® Service Lifecycle books published on 30th May 2007.

Continual Service Improvement is not a lifecycle stage, but a wrapper used throughout the whole service lifecycle. It has inputs and outputs for all lifecycle stages. It focuses on the overall health of Service Management within the organisation.

Continual Service Improvement is the continual alignment and adjustment of IT Services to meet the changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to IT Services that support Business Processes.

The main purpose and objectives for Continual Service Improvement include:

• the overall health of ITSM as a discipline
• the continual alignment of the portfolio of IT Services with the current and future business needs
• the maturity of the enabling IT processes required to support business processes in a continual Service Lifecycle model
• review, analyze and make recommendations on improvements across all lifecycle stages
• manage the improvement activities

The scope of CSI is to:

• introduce the concepts and principles of CSI at a high level, ensuring buy-in
• define the value of CSI to the organisation
• define how and what methods and techniques will be used

CSI has a cycle which covers the following steps:

• understanding and embracing the high-level business vision
• assessing the current situation and baselining the analysis
• determining the priorities for improvement
• determining the detailed plan for improvement
• verifying that measurements and metrics are working
• ensuring that changes are embedded into the organisation

The Service Lifecycle