ISO 20k GAQM p018-023

• SMS implementation should be viewed as a project that occurs within a specific timeframe to achieve certain goals.
• Avoid trying to meet all ISO/IEC 20000-1 requirements immediately; set realistic, smaller goals and use a phased, iterative approach.
• Project framework can be implemented using the nine-step program.

Step 1: Education

• Read ISO/IEC 20000 Parts 1, 2, and 3 to become familiar with the goals.
• These documents provide formal requirements and guidance for establishing an SMS.
• Training courses are available to explain Part 1 in detail.

Step 2: Management Support

• Securing support from top management is essential for successful ISO/IEC 20000-1 implementation, given their key responsibilities.
• Defining a service management policy that aligns with the organization's strategy.
• Establishing or endorsing service management objectives, focusing on specific targets for the SMS and its services
• Providing resources (financial, human, and technological) for designing, implementing, and supporting the SMS.
• Allocating responsibilities for SMS management.
• Ensuring the SMS achieves its intended outcomes through management involvement, crucial for compliance with ISO/IEC 20000-1.
• Without top management support, SMS implementation cannot succeed.

Step 3: Determine the Organization's Context

• Determining the organization's context is a fundamental starting point for establishing an SMS.
• Use SWOT and PESTLE analyses to identify relevant organizational aspects.
• Identifying relevant issues like competition, resourcing, market developments, and new product developments.
• Identifying relevant stakeholders who interface with the organization and their expectations.
• Examining the internal and external environment's influence on the SMS and services.
• Defining the SMS scope includes specifying what is included and excluded, described via an example, with its service management system of Happy Chick providing egg transport services from Groenekan, Netherlands.
• ISO/IEC 20000-3 offers detailed guidance of thinking when the scope involves multiple services, locations, suppliers, and customers.

Step 4: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

• Communication with stakeholders is crucial for SMS implementation.
• Adapt communication based on whether stakeholders are internal or external, their roles, and their information needs.
• What needs to be covered in terms of communication, awareness of the service management policy and objectives, and contributing to the SMS success.
• Determining what to communicate, to whom, and how, for anything relevant to the SMS and services.
• Documenting relevant policies, processes, procedures, and other information, to people working in scope of the SMS or other stakeholders.

Step 5: What Do You Have in Place Now?

• Service providers often have aspects in place that align with ISO/IEC 20000-1 requirements, like customer interaction and incident handling.
• Documenting these aspects is the initial step towards building a complete SMS.
• Create a baseline of existing aspects to form the foundation for expanding to the full scope of the standard.

Step 6: Gaps, Risks, and Opportunities

• Perform a gap analysis based on the established baseline.
• Assess if current practices meet each standard requirement; this results in a checklist of actions needed.
• ISO/IEC 20000-1 does not mandate a full, formal risk management process (like ISO/IEC 27001); awareness of risks impacting SMS outcomes is necessary.
• Document the risk management approach, acceptance criteria, actions to treat risks, and effectiveness of these actions.
• Existing risk management processes can be used for SMS-related risks.

Step 7: Implementation

• Use the gap analysis to build the SMS by addressing standard requirements.
• Prioritize actions, implementing them gradually, and designing service management processes.
• Processes should be efficient, minimizing waste, using methodologies like value stream mapping.
• Understand process interactions, where one process's output is another's input, creating a system of processes; visualize this and improve complexity.
• Establish performance targets for processes and measure efficiency to inform operation, evaluation, and improvement.
• Consistently communicate with all parties (step 3) when setting up service management processes.
• Clearly communicate how these changes will improve operations and customer experience.

Step 8: Operation

• The SMS and services reach a steady state but require ongoing maintenance to meet service levels and customer satisfaction.
• Monitoring and measuring the SMS and services, and reporting on them measures its effectiveness, including attainment of service management objectives and customer satisfaction.
• Monitoring determines SMS performance and needed improvements.

Step 9: Evaluation and Improvement

• Final step including elements from Clauses 9 and 10 of the standards.
• Handle nonconformities, any non-fulfilment of a requirement from ISO/IEC 20000-1 or the organization's SMS; take action to remediate the situation.
• A service not meeting agreed targets is handled via incident management.
• Setting up a Continual Service Improvement (CSI) aligns with ITIL for service improvement.
• The CSI program addresses both services and the SMS, and enables stakeholders to submit improvements for management consideration.
• Improvements can stem from audits or the risk management process.
• ISO published "A Practical Guide - ISO/IEC 20000-1 - IT Service Management" that provides guidance and advice to implement their SMS.

Implementing a Service Management System (SMS) based on ISO/IEC 20000 should be viewed as a project within a specific timeframe. It's best approached with realistic, smaller goals using a phased, iterative method. Management support is essential for the successful implementation.