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This is the first book to provide a coherent view and guidance for using the Six Sigma approach successfully in IT service organisations. It particularly aims to merge ITIL and Six Sigma into a single approach for continuous improvement of IT service organisations.
Six Sigma provides a quantitative methodology of continuous (process) improvement and cost reduction, by reducing the amount of variation in process outcomes.
The production of a product, be it a tangible product like a car or a more abstract product like a service, consists of a series of processes. All processes consist of a series of steps, events, or activities. Six Sigma measures every step of the process by breaking apart the elements within each process, identifying the critical characteristics, defining and mapping the related processes, understanding the capability of each process, discovering the weak links, and then upgrading the capability of the process. It is only by taking these steps that a business can raise the high-water mark of its performance.
IT is now a fundamental part of business and business processes; this book demonstrates how IT can be made to work as an enabler to better business processes, and how the Six Sigma approach can be used to provide a consistent framework for measuring process outcomes.
ITIL defines the what of Service Management; Six Sigma defines the "how" process improvement; together they are a perfect fit of improving the quality of IT service delivery and support. The Six Sigma approach also provides measures of process outcomes, and prescribes a consistent approach in how to use these metrics.
List of contents
Introduction
- What is Six Sigma?
- Why Six Sigma?
- Who could use Six Sigma?
- How to use Six Sigma?
- ITIL
- Aligning Six Sigma with ITIL
- Summary
1. Why Six Sigma for IT Service Management?
The Rise of Total Quality Management (TQM)
IT Service Management and Six Sigma
Summary
2. What is Six Sigma?
Definition of Six Sigma
Examples
DMAIC walk-through (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, Report)
Managing the Six Sigma project in practice
3. What is ITIL?
History of ITIL
What is the ITIL Framework?
The Heart of ITIL
Summary
Case study: Major European Bank
DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. Summary.
4. How can Six Sigma and ITIL be combined?
Why Six Sigma complements ITIL
Scenarios
Integrating Six Sigma with ITIL: Important Considerations
Integrating Six Sigma with ITIL: Differences and Similarities
Summary
Case study: How not to improve the Helpdesk
5. A Six Sigma Approach to IT Process Improvement
Role of IT processes in improving Business Services
What is IT Process Improvement?
Why should we consider IT process improvement?
When should we consider IT process improvement?
Introduction to IT process improvement approach
The Sigma approach to IT process improvement
IT process improvement phases
Managing an IT process improvement project
Introduction to IT Process Mapping
6. Best Practices of Applying Six Sigma in ITSM
ITIL Service Support
ITIL Service Delivery
ITIL Security Management
Software Development and Application Management
System Management/Infrastructure Management
Service Desks
Six Sigma for IT Outsourcers
Appendix A: Further Reading
