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Knowledge Centred Service & ITIL 4
By Aprill Allen
ITIL 4 has been launched and the Foundation material is in the early stages of being disseminated. I’ve done the training and taken the exam, and while it’s fresh in my mind, I wanted to note down how well-aligned ITIL’s new guiding principles are with KCS. Even more so, than the connections that were obvious in past versions of ITIL. The principles of one support the practices of the other.
1. Focus on value – KCS requires changing our perspective from activity-based goals to value creation through better use of knowledge.
2. Start where you are – I take the view that KCS practices can be adopted at any stage of an organisation’s maturity—small or big. Everyone has something to gain from learning how to capture the customer’s context and describe an environment accurately, so that search and self-service work better.
3. Progress iteratively, with feedback – your agents can tell you what parts of the knowledge workflow are janky, and your consumers can tell you whether your self-service is truly helpful. Listen to them.
4. Collaborate and promote visibility – KCS is team ownership of knowledge. Everyone ensures its health and usefulness and the more you trust your agents, the more engaged and effective, they’ll be.