One Comment on “which part of the Deming Cycle for improving services and service management processes?”

1. Michael McNeil says:

   May 28, 2014 at 11:34 pm

   From page 111 of ITIL3 Continual Service Improvement

   Service improvements are governed by the improvement
   lifecycle. The improvement lifecycle is modelled upon the
   Deming Model (see Figure 5.6) of Plan-Do-Check-Act. The
   model establishes a clear pattern for continual
   improvement efforts.
   ■ Plan – Establishes goals for improvement including
   gap analysis, definition of action steps to close the
   gap and establishing and implementing measures to
   assure that the gap has been closed and benefits
   achieved.
   ■ Do – Development and implementation of a project
   to close the gap. Implementation or improvement of
   processes and establishing the smooth operation of
   the process.
   ■ Check – Comparison of the implemented environment
   to the measures of success established in Plan phase.
   The comparison determines if a gap still exists
   between the improvement objectives of the process
   and the operational process state. Gaps don’t
   necessarily require closure. A gap may be considered
   tolerable if the actual performance is within allowable
   limits of performance.
   ■ Act – The decision process to determine if further
   work is required to close remaining gaps, allocation of
   resources necessary to support another round of
   improvement. Project decisions at this stage are the
   input for the next round of the lifecycle, closing the
   loop as input in Plan.