What is Continual Improvement Model in ITIL? | Article 11

In my previous articles i have given information about multiple ITIL practices for ITIL 4 Foundation examination. In this article I would like to give you information about another important practice for ITIL : Continual improvement practice and give more information about continual improvement model in detail. You will get at least 50% of questions of ITIL 4 Foundation examination from these multiple practices. So If you want to pass this exam with good score you require to complete these practices in detail.

Article contains :

1. What is Continual improvement with purpose statement
2. Continual improvement model with examples
3. Steps of Continual improvement model in detail

What is Continual improvement with purpose statement?

In simple words continual improvement is the process which is used to improve the products, services and processes.

The purpose Statement of Continual improvement :

The purpose of Continual Improvement is to continuously align with the changing business needs.

Keywords to remember : To continuously align with the changing business needs.

Continual Improvement Model for ITIL Exam

In this section I would like to give brief on Continual improvement model with its multiple steps. I would like to give you multiple steps information in detail.

The Continual improvement model will help organization for improvisation of process. The continual improvement practice will used to improve the organization process day-by-day. Lets discuss every step of continual improvement model.

Step 1 : What is the Vision?

The first step of continual improvement model is to define the vision. If your organization does not have any vision then it will not be helpful to the organization to grow and show the improvement. So every organization should have a goal to achieve. There should be some objective to the organization .

Example :

If we are getting 70 incidents per month in Logistics solutions area applications. The vision of logistics solution area is to reduce incidents by 30% in next 3 months. So that is the vision for continual improvement process.

Step 2 : Where are we now?

In step 2 We need to perform where are we now and need to perform the baseline assessment. What is mean by baseline assessment. It is nothing but critical reference point to assess or change in business.

Example :

We need to check and assess where are we now? We need to check the last 12 month incidents and calculate the average incidents for log solutions area. If the average incidents are 70 per month then our vision will be to reduce the incidents.

Step 3 : Where do we want to be?

This step will give you information about where do we want to be in continual improvement. We need to perform the gap analysis in this phase to know about the multiple gaps. You can use benchmarking or swat analysis methods as well to get the forecasting of where do we want to be in future. We need to define measurable targets in this phase.

Example :

I would like to give the example of same logistics solution area where we are getting 70 incidents per month. In next 6 months our target is to reduce incident up to 30% and approximately 40 average incidents will have to come. Here the measurable target is to reduce incident count up to 30%.

Step 4 : How do we get there?

This is another important step of continual improvement which will give you information about how do we get there by defining the detailed level improvement plan. The improvement plan will contain the rigorous monitoring to reduce incidents or any change implementation to reduce number of incidents according to our vision.

Example :

If we require to reduce 30% incident count we need to check which are different strategies we need to use to reduce the incident count.

Step 5 :Take Action

This is most important phase of continual improvement where we require to take action to execute the plan. This is the phase which is used to execute the improvement actions in detail. We need to focus on the metrics and improvement actions.

Example :

To reduce the incident up to 30% we need to execute the improvement actions. As an example if we are using some monitoring technique to reduce the incidents or if we deployed any change to reduce incident we need to calculate its metrics as well.

Step 6 : Did we get there?

This is another important step for continual improvement model where we need to check whether we have achieved the goal or not. If we have not achieved goal what are reasons behind that. We need to evaluate metrics and KPIs in this phase.

Example :

Here we need to check whether we have reduced the logistics solution area incidents up to 30% or not. We require to check that in detail and if not what went wrong we need to check in this phase.

Youtube Video :

These are multiple steps of Continual improvement model. I hope you like this article. If you like this article or if you have any issues with the same kindly comment in comments section.