ITIL is a best practice framework for IT Service Management (ITSM), enabling enterprises to bring about business change, manage risk, improve the customer experience, earn a return on investment (ROI), and gain other benefits from its implementation.
However, implementing ITIL in a real-world organization scenario comes with its own challenges:
- Resistance of senior management
- Misconception about ITIL as a rigid, inflexible guidance
- The ITIL Project comes with a closing date
- ITIL adoption does not need training or skilled resources
- Implementing ITIL for all verticals at once
- Adoption of ITIL for the wrong reasons
Read ‘Biggest Barriers for ITIL Adoption in an Organization’ for more information on these challenges
Put this methodology into practice in an efficient manner requires the use of certain tools and techniques, to bring on board all key IT service team members, stakeholders, and any other relevant personnel in the organization.
4 Tools and Techniques for ITIL Implementation
1. Training Programs:
ITIL training programs should be initiated for all IT service team members to enable them to understand the new processes, their role, and their contribution. Only with a thorough understanding of ITIL will employees be able to actively take part in its implementation, and that will come by providing them with access to the core guidance about all the five stages of the ITIL Service Lifecycle – Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement and ITIL V4 Foundation Course.
2. Workshops and Simulation Programs:
Internal workshops and simulation programs will allow team members to devise, execute, implement and improve the processes in a controlled environment. These simulations and workshops are beneficial as they ensure employees understand the ‘why’ of processes as well as the ‘how’. Additionally, through role-play exercises in these workshops, employees will have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities and the benefits of the ITIL processes, and why they are developed with a specific workflow.
3. Creating Use Cases for Future Reference:
A use case typically comprises a set of interactions between systems and users that take place in a specific environment and are targeted to achieve a particular objective. ITIL-based use cases play a role in guiding teams for the effective implementation of processes. The use case should be elaborate and cover the major and minor business scenarios, as well as the changes that have been implemented.
4. Vetting of Tools by Subject Matter Experts:
Approaching Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to verify, validate and provide inputs to the training processes is an important activity. Experts always provide a new perspective their guidance will enhance the tools. SMEs could also help in verifying if the use cases are good enough and cover all business scenarios. It is also advisable to let the expert test the toolset and provide inputs in terms of usage, structure, and user-friendliness.
Using ITIL training tools and techniques needs to be a continuous improvement plan. It is important to check whether the materials are updated, the releases are streamlined, and the new use cases are added. With time and with the help of these training tools, you will notice improvements in terms of how teams engage and communicate in conformance to the ITIL best practice guidance.
