Ivanka Menken

As always on the first day of a course we discuss the importance of clear role descriptions and clear delineation between line managers, process owners, process managers, service owners and other stakeholders in the framework.

You really don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that without a clear description, your ITIL Service Management implementation will be a difficult one. There will be too much room for frustration, resistance and other negative emotions during the implementation phase.

So the tool that most consultants use is the RACI diagram (or ARCI diagram…) and every time when I do an exercise with it during any ITIL Service Management education program, we have major discussion about it.

First of all the discussion of responsible vs. accountable. What exactly is the difference? I usually talk about the breakfast analogy (you know… do you want to be the chicken or the pig?!) and usually people understand the difference.

The other discussion is about the activities that you describe in the RACI diagram – are they process activities or procedure activities.. especially this week, when we’re discussing the Service Transition processes, this discussion is an important one.. Policy & planning – is that for the entire process? or for individual releases… it makes a difference for the RACI diagram!

And last but not least… where are the customers and the end users???? Shouldn’t they be at least mentioned in the RACI diagram? At the very minimum be consulted or informed??

I truly enjoy these discussions as I know that it makes us better consultants, better implementers and because of this are able to offer a better service experience for our customers!

Oh man… I LOVE THIS STUFF!!!

(yes, that sounds kinda nerdy… doesn’t it?!)