ITIL 4 Strategist: Direct, Plan and Improve (DPI)
Direct, Plan and Improve is the how of the ITIL 4 service value system: how direction is set, how work is planned and governed, and how the organization gets better over time.
Core concepts:
- Governance vs management. Governance evaluates, directs, and monitors, and accountability rests with the governing body. Management plans, executes, and controls within that direction. Trap: a scenario where an IT director approves a policy is described as governance - the director is managing within delegated authority.
- Directing means producing policy, controls, and delegated authority, not writing detailed delivery plans.
- Continual improvement model. Seven steps: what is the vision; where are we now; where do we want to be; how do we get there; take action; did we get there; how do we keep the momentum going. It rests on PDCA. Trap: skipping the 'where are we now' baseline and jumping to solutions.
- Measurement. Critical success factors describe what must go right; KPIs are the measures that show whether a CSF is being met. Lead indicators predict; lag indicators report. Trap: long KPI lists that cannot be traced to any objective.
- Organizational change management. People move through change at different speeds; communication, stakeholder engagement, and handling resistance are planned activities, not announcements.
- Value streams and practices. Improvements should target flow and outcomes, not just local activity; maintain an improvement backlog or register so ideas are not lost.
Worked rule of thumb
For any proposed measure, ask three questions: Which objective does it serve? Which critical success factor does it evidence? Is it lead or lag? If you cannot answer all three, it is a metric worth monitoring, but not a KPI worth managing by.