Which are guiding principles of ITIL 4?

We used to tell people: “Don’t focus on the technology you are managing; focus on services you enable or support with the technology.”

Now, we must take the next step because of the issues we see involving organizations and services: organizations focus on what they do, not on what their customers obtain from it. They are then surprised to see these customers leave because they don’t get the outcomes expected.

You may remember the old joke about selling holes, not drills. Well, in fact holes are not what people need either. What are the holes for – ventilation? Hanging a picture? Fixing a wardrobe? That’s why we should focus on ‘why’, rather than ‘what’ – and from the customer’s perspective, not the organization’s.

Who should receive value from the organization?

Service consumers should receive the value being co-created, but even this is not a homogenous group. Users have different needs and priorities from those of customers and sponsors – and service providers should understand both.

Plus, the service relationship should be valuable for the service provider organization. The best service providers also think of society and the environment and aim to enable value for the wider ecosystem.

To understand whether the right people are receiving value, practitioners need to follow other principles: collect and process feedback, collaborate, be transparent, understand the starting point and the journey, holistically.

What does the customer define as value – and how must everyone focus on it?

To be clear on what the customer defines as value, some service providers have the luxury of regular direct conversations with customers, even before the service design. Others have to make assumptions and experiment, by applying methods such as design thinking. Above all, it’s important to empathize, listen to the communities and collect feedback.

Once you have that clarity, it’s about ensuring that everyone involved in the co-creation of value should focus on it. Fundamentally, it’s a cultural thing: first and foremost, leaders need to demonstrate they are following the principles and encouraging the right behaviour. Also, promoting ITIL 4’s Guiding Principles across the organization should help embed focus on value, among the other principles, within the enterprise culture.

The success of embedding a focus on value is evaluated by tracking and measuring stakeholders’ satisfaction and loyalty. Exactly how to track and measure these will be described in ITIL 4’s ‘Drive stakeholder value’ publication, which will give you a lot of ideas!

Read Tatiana Peftieva's first blog post for AXELOS, 6 reasons why ITIL 4’s guiding principle of collaborate and promote visibility is important.

There are seven guiding principles in ITIL 4, and they are studied in detail in the below sections. With this, one can easily adapt to the newer concepts like Agile, Lean, and DevOps, which all improve the value of the business. Want to speed up your career but don’t know how to start? Choose Invensis Learning ITIL Foundation Course. ITIL 4 Foundation is an entry-level service management certification course that helps explore the end-to-end IT service model for creating, delivering, and continually improving services that align with the enterprise’s strategy.

Why Guiding Principles?

When a model or framework is designed and developed, it will be used by numerous groups of people across the world. A set of principles or guidelines is provided to make it standard and support the people using it. Thus, the guiding principles are the most useful for guiding the people using them in their organization and projects. There may be any difference in goals, infrastructure, strategies, and the type of work performed in the organization, but the guiding principles will be applicable. In addition, these principles will support all the actions that are planned and decisions that are taken in an organization. The principles will be for people of any level and any type. The business problems arising in an organization can be solved by following these principles. Furthermore, IT capabilities rise in tandem with the growth of business value.

ITIL 4 Guiding Principles

The following are the organizations’ recommendations for utilizing the Information Technology products and services effectively.

Focus on Value

When working on any progress or an activity, it should create some value for the stakeholders or the organization. The task at hand should be able to provide value for the organization’s stakeholders. In most cases, the users and the customers should value as the other stakeholders. The value creation and focus should be positive for each of the stakeholders. It should not create any negative impacts on the stakeholders in any case. The value here does not only refer to the financial value but also the Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX). The way the stakeholders utilize the products and services should identify initially to provide the value accordingly.

Start Where You Are

Before starting anything, you must understand where you are standing. The jump you take must be creating any value and have some benefit from it. It would be best if you did not start from the beginning when you have the existing model. The availabilities are for as long as they are acceptable to save money and effort. These principles will reduce the waste produced as the existing products or services are utilized effectively. You should be clear on the current situation and how to proceed with new things. So, it is advisable to make a thorough analysis of the situation before starting anything new.

Progress Iteratively with Feedback

Completing anything in a single stretch looks good. But not all clients and customers will not like it. To avoid this situation, you should use iterative improvements in your projects. Taking the small steps with a better position from the feedback is the recommendation from guiding principles. It would be best to ask for feedback and suggestions from the customers and users of the product or service. It also helps you to complete the tasks on time with customer satisfaction. The revisal of any changes and implementation during the process should not affect the value. Your focus on the product or service should not diverge in any case.

Collaborate and Promote Visibility

When you are working in an organization, collaboration plays a vital role. Trust matters along with the collaboration as several teams are participating. The collaborated teams should be capable of progressing with the right capabilities. The right people gather at the right time and with the right skills. Hence, it improves the effective relationship and active collaboration among the team members. The guiding principles highly recommend communication and visibility among the teams. Moreover, the relationship between the internal stakeholders is increased here, with which the value of the business is developed.

Think and Work Holistically

Working alone and with silos will not create success. With agile teams, the main focus is to collaborate and share knowledge among the team members to increase the rate of success. Eliminating the silos among the project teams with effective communication and collaboration is important. Therefore, you should focus on system thinking to eliminate silos and work toward achieving business value. The decision-making is made flat as the hierarchies are removed from the organization. The actual value and focus of the product or service will attain with the help of this guiding principle.

Keep it Simple and Practical

When you complicate things, the more the chances of failure occur. Keeping things simple will make them easier to complete. The number of steps or progress taken to reach the focus should be minimum so that time and costs will also be less. The rules for the operations will define to make them simple. The value creation from the process is assessed earlier, and the least steps to secure it are utilized. It is preferable to perform a few things well rather than a lot of things badly. Keeping things simple will also make people enthusiastic and work towards completing the project. 

Optimize and Automate

The value of work maximizes with the available resources. Therefore, every possible process for automation changes to reduce the use of several human resources. With this, you can reduce the cost and time spent on the project. Furthermore, automation will be the key to implementing Agile and DevOps. In addition, automation aids in the effective execution of complex decisions. Testing and development will also be easier with automation. In addition, automation reduces the errors and issues in every process. Thus, optimizing the business with better decisions will help to increase value and productivity.

ITIL 4 Foundation Certification

This certificate will introduce ITIL 4 and a clear understanding of how the ITIL 4 framework works. The concepts and terminologies used in ITIL 4 for IT service management are studied during this certification course. If you are willing to work towards the growth of your organization with a new service management culture, then the ITIL 4 foundation course will help you. So, professional people interested in enriching their skills and knowledge in ITIL can join ITIL 4 Foundation course.

With this, you can also improve your understanding of modern IT and digital services available in the market. It helps in understanding value streams and their impact on the speed and efficiency of the projects. In addition, you can improve your knowledge of behavioral principles and service management with the new Information Technology services and products.

Conclusion 

As Information Technology products and services are increasing day by day, it is essential to understand how it is developing and their impact on the business. To understand it in a better manner, ITIL 4 has been developed as a framework for professionals and organizations. In conclusion, the above guiding principles gives an effective understanding of the ITIL 4 framework, which helps in improving business growth and development.

Invensis Learning is one of the top organizations providing ITIL 4 certifications. At Invensis Learning ITIL 4 Foundation course and ITIL 4 Managing Professional course are provided by experienced trainers. If you are a professional looking to improve your skills in Information Technology Service Management, then you are at the right place. ITIL 4 Foundation certification will help you search for career opportunities and salary growth.

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Billie Keita

Billie Keita is known for her exemplary skills in implementing project management methodologies and best practices for business critical projects. She possesses 10+ years of experience in handling complex software development projects across Europe and African region. She also conducts many webinars and podcasts where she talks about her own experiences in implementing Agile techniques. She is a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) and PMI Project Management Professional (PMP)®, and has published many articles across various websites.