Continual Improvement
A component, a practice and a habit
Continual improvement appears three ways in ITIL 4: as an SVS component, as one of the management practices, and as the improve value chain activity. Improvement is everyone's responsibility, at every level of the organization.
The continual improvement model has seven questions, and questions usually test whether you know the order and the purpose of each:
- What is the vision? - the end goal and the scope of improvement.
- Where are we now? - baseline; measure the current state objectively.
- Where do we want to be? - target state, measurable and time-bound.
- How do we get there? - plan the improvement, its tasks and dependencies.
- Take action - execute the plan.
- Did we get there? - measure the result against the target and evaluate.
- How do we keep the momentum going? - embed the gain, communicate, and identify the next opportunity.
Work is iterative: steps can be revisited and step 7 feeds back into step 1.
Worked example: ticket backlog is high. Vision: users resolve issues themselves. Where are we now: 40% self-service use. Where do we want to be: 70% in two quarters. How: knowledge articles, portal redesign, training. Take action: publish and promote. Did we get there: measure again against the 70% target. Keep momentum: report results, refresh the backlog review. Note how a measurable baseline and target make the later measurement possible.
Traps: describing the model as strictly sequential and one-pass; skimping on where are we now (without a baseline, did we get there is impossible); forgetting step 7; assuming improvement is a quarterly project rather than a continuous activity; treating an improvement register as optional paperwork.
Rule of thumb: baseline → target → measure. Any improvement question without a baseline cannot prove success.