Enable Continuous Improvement of IT Services through ITIL

One of the major benefits, if not THE benefit of				cannot manage it, you cannot improve it. Not having a
process orientated approaches to managing your IT				process and tool to measure your IT department's
services and infrastructure is that it enables continuous				performance, is like an athlete not having a stopwatch
improvement.				to measure how fast he goes around the track. The
This means that you are never totally satisfied with				athlete will not be able to know his weak points where
the current state of affairs and that you always want				he needs improvement, if he does not measure his
to improve your services. I mean, it is the way life is to				performance. He will also not be able to know if his
always set higher standards or aim for higher goals,				performance improves or degrades over time, without
otherwise life can become a little boring.				using a stopwatch and recording the times.
The reason why ITIL enables continuous improvement				If something as simple as running around a track uses
is that it allows you to measure all work that is done.				a system of measuring and recording to continuously
That is why it is so important to record everything.				improves, why are so many IT departments not doing
Technical people normally hate it to do documentation				the same thing?
and even worse, they hate it to document everything				Once you have a mature process and are able to
they do, while they have more important stuff to				measure the output of the process, you can start to
attend to like fixing a critical server. The benefit of				apply quality improvement methodologies. A well
having everything recorded outweighs the hassle of				known methodology is the Deming cycle, which is a
recording it by far. Unfortunately it usually takes a while				continuous circle of planning, doing, checking and acting.
to realise these benefits which make it even more				First you plane the process that needs to be followed,
difficult to get the techies recording the stuff. There				and then you get the people to follow it (do). When
are of course several positive ways of getting them				people follow the process you can measure it (check).
to do it, but I will not go into all of that right now.				The measurements will be used to make informed
Anyway, now that you have everybody following a				decisions to act upon to ensure continuous
strict process and recording everything they do, you				improvement.
can start measuring everything. By measuring it, you				To conclude, managing IT services without a
can make informed decisions and take actions to				structured process based approach like ITIL, is like an
improve it.				800m athlete not knowing how far 800m is and
If you don't measure it, you cannot manage it. If you				without a stopwatch.