When planning to implement service management it is important to understand that it is a set in the information technology infrastructure library framework. The set is about the alignment of the organization’s needs and the IT provision requirements.

This set also describes how to implement or improve IT service management within the organization, it describes the steps needed to ensure that the organizations needs and IT requirements are satisfied as well.

Moreover, the planning to implement a service management set is essentially focused on the service management processes, as well as generically applicable to other ITIL sets.

The Continuous Service Improvement Program is one approach to implementing or approving service management. CSIP is defined as an ongoing official program undertaken within the organization to categorize and bring in measurable improvements with in a particular work area or work process.

All of the behaviors within a CSIP concerning one improvement can be visualized in general simply by using the meta-modeling technique. This often results in a process-data diagram which does not describe the constant development actions of the program.

The process-data activities:

* Creates Vision
* Analyze Your Organization
* Set Goals
* Implementation of IT Service Management
* Measure set goals

Now let us go forward and explore the actual steps involved with planning to implement a service management set.

Here we will go into further detail about the steps that we defined above. We will begin with Create Vision.

Create a Vision

As you can see from above the first step that is listed is Create Vision. This is the action of creating a CSIP vision statement. So what exactly is a Vision Statement? Well this is basically used to mission or objection of the CSIP.

Communication is very important here, an organization wants to make sure that all of the stakeholders are well education about the CSIP. It is also important that the vision statement also matches up the different methods that are used by the organization and IT.

Analyze Your Organization

Once the organization has created a vision it should then analyze itself, this refers to asking questions like “What is the status of our business right now?” and this needs to be answered before the organization can move forward.

A helpful method to determine the current status is the IT organization growth model. This is a model that determines the maturity level of the IT organization is based on the Process Maturity Framework or PMF, as well as the Capacity Maturity Model or the CMM.

How maturity is measured has a lot to do with the aspects that affect the organization. This could be anything ranging from strategy and processes to the culture and the people.

Perhaps equally important is understanding the stakeholders involved. Understanding who the stakeholders are can be accomplished by defining, identifying, and mapping them.

Also the individual needs of the stakeholders need to be identified and this can often result in a stakeholder assessment report. Next the current report and measurement systems will be assessed.

By knowing the current way of using and producing reports, facts, and figures the organization is give priceless insight on how well the organization is steered.

Set Goals

After the step of analyzing the organization we have set goals. This is about the agreement between the organization and IT pertaining the required and expected future roles and characteristics of the organization.

The first step in this activity that needs to be taken is the creation of a business case to explain the added value and the validation of the CSIP.

The business case is then determined but the present development of the organization and the organizational approach.

A stakeholder evaluation, which should have been conducted in the preceding activity, can be contributed to the center of attention on the consequences and the endeavor of the enhancement program as well.

Once you have created a business case, a gap assessment report should then be completes, the gap assessment report is meant to compare the current state of the organization with the future state of the organization. This will result in gaps. It also provides information about those gaps, risks, and the priority when deciding where to begin.

Once a gap evaluation report has been accomplished, there will be a need for understanding and intelligibility. This means that the tribulations and the subsequent steps will have to be offered to the stakeholders, to establish creditability for the evaluation and the support concerning the change.

The subsequent step is the construction for a plan for swift success. A swift success is a timely success in an enhancement program. In the plan for swift success short-range success should be acknowledged and attained to keep the enhancement program operating and to keep the commitment intensity high during the enhancement program.  Then the organization can set goals pertaining to the enhancement program in relation to the previously defined stakeholder needs.

A management tool for setting such goals and measuring the performance is known as the balanced scorecard.

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Implementing IT Service Management

When implementing the IT service management the first thing to consider is finding an answer on where to start. Before you can identify a process that needs to be improved, the first condition will need to be fulfilled; this means that the organization should have documented its current and desired state, which includes a completed gap assessment report. Identifying where to start depends on the level of maturity and the strategic goals of the organization.

It is also important to understand the interrelationships between all of the IT service management processes. Another issue which needs to be taken into consideration during the enhancement program is creating awareness of the change. This can often be done by making a communication plan; the plan will give an explanation of the IT policy to the stakeholders. Next the organization needs to consider how the changes are going to be achieved.

Here are eight steps that can be applied equally to a service management enhancement program.

* A sense of urgency is created
* A Guiding coalition is formed
* Creating a vision
* Communication of the vision
* Acting on the vision
* Planning for and creating swift success
* Consolidating enhancement and creating more change
* Institutionalization that change

The Organization’s culture is a key issue to be taken into consideration during organizational change; this is because organization change is able to support an implementation and is can also lead to confrontation. It is for that reason that the organizational culture should be managed in order to avoid issues like resistance.

A significant success aspect for a CSIP is the comprehensible definition of accountability, roles, and dependability in relation to the innovative processes and the presented organizational structure. Innovative processes and operational practices often do not fit within the existing organizational structure, because processes are often cross functional. More simply put, processes could run through the entire organization.

The final step that must be taken into consideration regarding the implementation of information technology service management is training. This training can contribute to a higher quality of service management and it can also lead to more productive and responsive employees.

Yet before setting up a training program the organization needs to be clear on who will be trained, when will they be trained, how the training will be presented, and what should be part of the training, all of these questions should be taken into consideration.