Creating an Actionable ITSM Roadmap

While documenting the gaps and impacts, it is helpful to also record your observations and recommendations along the way. At the end of an assessment, which can span several weeks, these observations and recommendations are instrumental in establishing a well thought out and integrated set of solutions. With each recommended solution, be sure to relate the gaps that will be addressed by the solution. This will not only facilitate the business justification for the solution, but will also ensure that, in total, the combined solutions will address all the gaps.

To summarize: the assessment will lead to the identification of gaps and impacts. Your observations and recommendations will guide the formation of recommended solutions.

Where would we like to be?

Through the assessment, prioritization of gaps and eventual determination of recommended solutions, you have successfully answered the questions, “Where are we now?” and “Where do we start?” At this point, you will want to determine the desired state and a timeframe by which to achieve that state. As an example, if the assessment shows that your Problem Management process is currently at a maturity level of 1.5 (between Performed and Managed), then you should set your desired state to be 3.0 (Defined). Level 3.0 is actually the sweet spot where most organizations like to be. At this level, the process is well documented and being practiced consistently throughout the entire organization.

Typically, it takes about a year to progress from one maturity level to the next. So if you want to go from 1.0 to 4.0, it will take about three years. For most organizations, achieving a level 4.0 (Quantitatively Managed) or 5.0 (Optimized), is not necessary. Achieving these levels will cost exponentially more to implement and maintain and will only provide incremental benefits over a level 3.0. Organizations that need to operate at these levels are usually regulated or governmental, such as the aerospace industry or armed forces.

How do we get there?

Before you go anywhere, you’ll need senior leadership commitment and the funding to carry out ITSM initiatives and sustain an ongoing ITSM program. Without these prerequisites, your efforts—although well-intended—will be futile. Having solid evidence of your organization’s shortcomings, via the assessment, should certainly get management’s attention.

Having a strategy on how to overcome those shortcomings will be critical in gaining their support and getting the funding you will need. This strategy can be presented as a roadmap of related projects, each addressing specific gaps, all aimed at the following accomplishments: increasing organizational understanding and acceptance of ITSM; implementing and integrating highly effective infrastructure processes; enabling processes and increasing efficiency through automation; and increasing overall customer satisfaction through the delivery of high-quality and cost-effective services.

Each project on the roadmap should have well-defined scope, objectives, benefits, activities and dependencies, as well as projected duration, resource requirements and cost. The roadmap, which can span several months or even years, should clearly illustrate prerequisite projects that must be completed before others can begin.

To illustrate, if Change Management and Release Management projects are both depicted in the roadmap, the Change Management project should precede the Release Management project as Release builds off of and requires an effective Change Management process. There are many such logical progressions, so it is imperative that the roadmap be developed by people having the knowledge and practical experience of implementing ITSM and ITIL.