How to conduct a Service Management Gap analysis

Course Code: 7018

How to conduct a Service Management Gap analysis

Utilize ITIL® best practices to identify performance levels of service management processes and activities and to create improvement plans

Course Code : 7018

Overview
Schedule classes
What you'll learn
Outline
Prerequisites
Who should attend
Certification

Overview

This four-day course focuses on the gap analysis activity described in the ITIL® Continual Service Improvement volume. One of the ways that an organization can begin an adoption of ITIL best practices is through a gap analysis. A gap analysis compares the current state of an organization to the ITIL best practices and clearly demonstrates what the organization is doing that matches or exceeds best practice guidance, what the organization is doing that falls short of best practice, and produces a report indicating short, medium and long-term next steps. Additionally, healthy organizations regularly conduct gap analyses to understand how they are progressing and to quickly identify potential areas of improvement. This course demonstrates how an organization can conduct and create a gap analysis on its own, and how individuals can develop the skills necessary to perform a gap analysis.

Schedule Classes

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Course Delivery

This course is available in the following formats:

Live Classroom
Duration: 5 days

Live Virtual Classroom
Duration: 5 days

What You'll learn

Service management

Gap analysis
Service management audits
Identifying improvements
Creating an improvement road map
Creating a continual service improvement register
Identifying stakeholders
Defining improvement deliverables
Continual improvement
Scheduling and managing assessment activities

Outline

Module 1: Course introduction and overview

Module 2: Review of key service management concepts

Accountability, boundaries and consistency
Cost-effectiveness and quality
Stages of the service lifecycle
Services
The service portfolio
Processes and functions
A brief discussion on the processes defined by ITIL
Roles and responsibilities
Exercise 1: Understanding the basic service management concepts

Module 3: Continual service improvement overview

Purpose and objectives of continual service improvement
The continual service improvement approach
The continual service improvement register
Critical success factors and key performance indicators for continual service improvement
Metrics and measurement for continual service improvement
Exercise 2: Understanding continual service improvement

Module 4: Gap analysis overview

The Gap Analysis Activity as described in the ITIL Continual Service Improvement book
Where a Gap analysis fits into the continual service improvement approach
A practical Gap analysis methodology
Comparing the current state to the desired state
Audit of intent
Audit of action
Identifying where the organization is meeting or exceeding best practice
Identifying where the organization is falling short of best practice
Describing specific improvement actions
Creating the initial continual service improvement register
Exercise 3: Understanding the Gap analysis activity

Module 5: A phased approach to conducting a Gap analysis

Phase I: Planning
Phase 2: Discover and review background information
Phase 3: Conduct stakeholder interviews
Phase 4: Draft Gap analysis
Phase 5: Complete final deliverables
Exercise 5: Understanding the phased approach to conducting a Gap analysis

Module 6: Phase I – Planning

Setting the scope of the Gap analysis
Establishing the Statement of Work
Identifying the Gap analysis stakeholders
Agreeing to questionnaire content
Agreeing to Gap analysis format
Creating a Gap analysis project plan
Establishing a formal communication plan
Defining deliverables
Scheduling assessment activities
Gap analysis kickoff
Sample Gap analysis scope statements

Exercise 6: Setting the scope for a Gap analysis

Module 7: Phase II – Discover and review background information

What is an Audit of Intent?
Identifying and reviewing Intranet and other internal information stores
Identifying and reviewing existing policies and process descriptions
Identifying and reviewing existing service and service documentation
Identifying and reviewing existing process diagrams and flowcharts
Identifying and reviewing documented roles and responsibilities
Identifying and reviewing key process outputs
Identifying and reviewing existing communication plans
Identifying and reviewing continual improvement activities and plans
Identifying and reviewing relevant management and customer reports
Exercise 7: Conducting an audit of intent

Module 8: Phase III – Conducting stakeholder interviews

What is audit of action?
Interviewing service owners
Interviewing service managers
Interviewing process owners
Interviewing process managers
Interviewing practice owners
Interviewing other stakeholders
Documenting interviews and issuing follow-up requests
Incorporating follow-up information

Exercise 8: Conducting Gap analysis interviews

Module 9: Phase IV – Draft Gap analysis

Drafting an intermediate assessment for review
Reviewing the draft assessment with key stakeholders
Creating an initial continual service improvement register
Validating the initial continual service improvement register
Validating the draft Gap analysis
Exercise 9: Managing the draft Gap analysis

Module 10: Completing final deliverables

Drafting a final Gap analysis
Providing short, medium and long-term recommendations
Delivering an initial continual service improvement register
Conducting a formal Gap analysis review meeting
Discussing next steps
Formally closing the project
Exercise 10: Delivering a final Gap analysis

Module 11: Automation, tools, technology and implementation considerations

Typical Gap analysis scope statements
Best practices for audits of intent
Best practices for audits of action
Best practices for conducting Gap analysis interviews
Best practices for delivering Gap analysis results
Best practices for building a continual service improvement register
Best practices for managing a Gap analysis as a project
Best practices for managing a Gap analysis as a project within an overall service management program
Typical challenges and how to overcome them
Exercise 11: Conducting a Gap analysis

Module 12: Summary

Review of concepts learned
Questions and answers

Prerequisites

Participants for this course need to have foundation level understanding of ITIL® service management best practices. They also need to have experience working in organizations using various IT service management processes.