Planning Your IT Service Management Project - Need For an ITSM Assessment

Implementing IT Service Management is like going on a journey. Before you embark on your journey, you will need to define your end point or desired state. This means defining the vision and mission, goals and objectives for the project.

The ITIL books, ISO20000 standard and other frameworks are like your map and compass. However, to plan your journey, you need to know your starting point. Hence the need for an ITSM assessment. The determination of "where we are now" through an ITSM assessment creates a known starting point for the planning and implementation team. The results will often point out gaps and key issues and top priority areas which need to be addressed first and foremost to improve IT Service effectiveness and business value. It also gives you a better understanding of your organization's constraints, capabilities and resources. It will help to identify who needs to be involved and who are the stakeholders. Therefore, the output from the assessment will guide you as you plan your ITSM implementation journey.
The output will often help determine which ITSM implementation approach to use and which ITIL process(es) to implement first. This is often a question that is commonly asked. The planner, using the findings from the assessment, can then outline the projects and actions that will enable the IT organization to improve IT service delivery. All this is done while still needing to maintain the day to day IT operations.

Some IT organizations perform an ITSM assessment to provide supporting information needed to justify service management initiatives. It shows the how bad the current situation is, what are the problems areas and the implications if these problems not resolved and therefore justifying the need for an ITSM project.

The assessment is also called a baseline assessment as it will allow us to compare the "before" and "after" snapshots of the situation. The ITSM project or journey is often broken up into several parts or phases. Baselines are often conducted at the beginning and end of each phase so that achievements and quick wins can then be demonstrated to the project sponsor, senior management, and other stakeholders whose support is crucial to help the organization down the rest of the IT Service Management path. Any deviations can also be reported, corrected and overall strategy validated. This is an important part of keeping the momentum going and ensuring that the end point is reached and desired state is achieved.