Page 57 - ITIL® Foundation 3.15

The six steps of the CSI Approach are:
1) Embrace the vision of the customer by understanding the high-level business objectives. A proper understanding of the vision will align the business and IT strategies.
2) Assess the current situation, obtain an accurate, unbiased snapshot of where the organization is right now. This baseline assessment will represent the organization’s current position in terms of the business, organization, people, process and technology.
3) Understand and agree (with the customer) on the priorities for improvement. This agreement will define the expected improvement both near-term and long-term. The agreed deliverables can then be measured at the end of a specific time-frame.
4) Detail a specific plan of improvement or achieving alignment with the business objectives. This alignment can only be brought about by the delivery of high quality services that meet the customer’s need. Control of service delivery can only be achieved through some form of implementation of ITSM processes.
5) Verify that measurements and metrics are in place to ensure that milestones were achieved, processes compliance is high, and business objectives and priorities were met by the level of service. This measurement will verify meeting the targets identified in step 3.
6) Step Six should ensure that the momentum for quality improvement is maintained by assuring that changes become embedded in the organization. This normalization step is extremely important. If the changes are not solidified, participants may revert back to the old ways of doing things, and all improvements will be lost.
The activity of using the CSI Approach to communicate with the business, identify misalignment, identify the goal, identify where we are, and where we need to be going, should be done at the macro level and at the micro level. Micro iterations should move the IT organization closer to the Macro vision of alignment with the business.
Notice that the CSI Approach contains 6 steps. Each is repeated to continually validate that we are aligned with our customer’s (the business) current objectives. Customer objectives often will change and IT is often the last to be informed.
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