• by Vikram Gajjala

The 7 ITIL Guiding Principles

The ITIL Guiding Principles is one of the most crucial elements of the ITIL Service Value System. A guiding principle is a recommendation that generally offers universal guidance to an organization and applies in different circumstances even if its goals, strategies, and management structure change. The 7 ITIL Guiding Principles are derived from the 9 Guiding Principles outlined in 2016's ITIL Practitioner course. They create an environment where the actions that are taken are appropriate to address existing problems. Also, the guiding principles create an environment for sound decision-making.

1. Focus On Value

All organizational activities should be aimed at value for itself, its customers, and other relevant stakeholders. Knowing the exact customers and stakeholders receiving services is essential. In addition, the organization needs to establish the perception of value according to the customers. Next, it is necessary to understand what constitutes value from the consumer's perspective.

To have a successful implementation of this strategy, consider the following best practices:

• Have an idea of how service consumers utilize each service.
• Motivate all employees to prioritize providing value.
• Delivering value should be the main focus in doing normal operations and carrying out improvement initiatives.

2. Begin with what you have

This hugely comes in handy in a situation where an improvement opportunity has presented itself. Here, organizations are advised to avoid removing what has been done before. While building something completely new is a desirable process, it contributes to the wastage of time and resources. A better strategy would be to leverage the existing resources and techniques.

Successful implementation of this best practice requires organizations to:

• Visualize a result and use your customers' expectations as the foundation.
• Always determine if the existing conditions can be capitalized on and expanded.
• Integrate risk management into their operations.

3. Use feedback from your customers consistently.

This insight will help organizations organize their operations to perform more efficiently. Here, these organizations can therefore handle their activities in a timely fashion. Using feedback is a continuous affair, and it should be used before, during, and after each activity. Insight from customers gives organizations a valuable tool to identify improvement opportunities and risks in their environment.

To real maximum benefit from this best practice, organizations need to observe the following:

• Use the insight to make little, continual changes
• Getting feedback is a must because of the dynamism that characterizes their environment.

4. Collaboration can boost their visibility and authority

Collaborations involve working closely with the right people. Joint projects create a platform where organizations can acquire valuable expertise, knowledge, and resources that they may find hard to access.

An organization gets different types of input from other stakeholders, which means it can make the best decisions regarding its operations. To get a more seamless working relationship with others, organizations need to be proactive in identifying and managing all the existing stakeholder groups they work with.

For more seamless collaboration, an organization has to remember that:

• Collaboration does not entail consensus
• Communicating clearly with their customers is essential
• Visible data is integral for accurate decision-making.

5. Think and work holistically

A holistic approach is crucial to the success of an organization. There is no way that a process can successfully work alone. The organization's output to deliver to all its important stakeholders will be significantly affected if it fails to integrate its operations and allow them to work in unison, as a whole, rather than separate segments.

A holistic approach to service management requires an organization to have end-to-end visibility of how demand is captured and converted into output.

Some of the best practices organizations need to observe here include:

• Always relying on collaboration for a more seamless, holistic experience.
• Incorporating automation into their operations.

6. Keep it simple and practical

An organization is advised to use the fewest steps possible to attain its goals. First, outcome-based thinking should be adopted to provide practical solutions that generate valuable outcomes. Any unproductive action, process, or service should be eliminated.

Organizations need to be cautious about contrasting objectives. For example, managers may wish to have a lot of data. However, the service teams might face constraints in prioritizing the collection of this data. Thus, striking a balance between any competing objectives is essential.

7. Optimize and automate

Organizations must maximize the value of the work done by their human and technical resources. Here, they can use technology to scale up and perform repetitive tasks. When combined with human intervention, automation can help an organization build more resilience and robustness.

To perform effective optimization, organizations should:

• Analyze the current state of the suggested optimization
• Decide on what its future priorities are
• Ensure their optimization comes with enough stakeholder engagement and commitment.
• Consistently monitor the impact of optimization

Automation gives the organization the chance to streamline its manual tasks. Efficiency is improved significantly, minimizing human error and reducing costs.

Final Take Away

The 7 ITIL Guiding Principles represent a framework that firms can leverage to achieve greater efficiency. Every organization should integrate these into their daily operations to remain successful in the long run!