{"id":6547,"date":"2016-07-06T09:03:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-06T09:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiacademstg.wpengine.com\/20000academy\/?p=6547"},"modified":"2025-04-04T09:38:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:38:00","slug":"main-obstacles-during-iso-20000-implementation-and-how-to-overcome-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2016\/07\/06\/main-obstacles-during-iso-20000-implementation-and-how-to-overcome-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Main obstacles during ISO 20000 implementation and how to overcome them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is no doubt \u2013 it\u2019s a wonderful feeling once you get the OK for the implementation of a project you consider important. A lot of enthusiasm, energy and motivated people. Planning is, usually, the easier part. But, once you get the \u201cgreen light\u201d for the implementation, well, then your headaches start. It\u2019s the same with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ISO 20000<\/a>. If you have experience in IT Service Management (ITSM), reading the clauses of the standard seems understandable. And then you need to convert them in real life. That\u2019s when the difficulties begin.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are they?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s well known that fighting the issues that arise during any project implementation is a daily job throughout the project. It\u2019s the same with ISO 20000 implementation. I have seen many issues companies are facing while implementing the standard. So, here is an excerpt of the main obstacles people implementing ISO 20000 are facing:<br \/>\n<div id=\"middle-banner\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><script>loadMiddleBanner();<\/script><br \/>\n<div id=\"side-banner-trigger\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Motivation, or \u201cIt\u2019s just another ISO standard.\u201d \u2013 It\u2019s about acceptance of the implemented standard. That depends a lot on the organization\u2019s approach towards ISO (or any other) standard in place. If it\u2019s only about having a paper certificate \u2013 that\u2019s all the organization gets back. A lot of effort for the implementation, hassle to keep it up to date, and almost nothing in return. Very soon people will realize that, and no one will bother with the standard\u2019s requirements \u2013 because, \u201cit\u2019s there just pro-forma, anyway.\u201d Therefore, when the SMS is not actively used, there is no real benefit in daily operations. And, I agree \u2013 who would need that?<\/li>\n<li>No management support \u2013 you can have an IT service management (ITSM) team willing to implement ISO 20000, but it\u2019s your top management who needs to support the implementation and maintenance. What would you need from them? Financing, sponsorship in your business environment, and active participation once the SMS is implemented. And their support is needed as long as the SMS exists. Therefore, it\u2019s essential to include them as early as possible and create positive relationships right from the beginning.<\/li>\n<li>Funding \u2013 did you ensure enough funding for the implementation project? What did you include in the budget? The point is that you need to ensure that enough funds are available if you want to finish the implementation. So, what do you need to include? People costs include the sum of all hours your people will spend on the implementation. Maybe you will need some external workforce or knowledge you don\u2019t have. Maybe documentation (so you don\u2019t have to start from scratch) or a tool. By the way, a good tool is always a great help for an ISO 20000 implementation. It will decrease the number of documents you need to fulfill the standard\u2019s requirements and increase the efficiency of the SMS (e.g., information will be recorded only in one place \u2013 your asset data, which will be stored in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-portfolio-processes&amp;doc=configuration-management-database\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Configuration Management Database (CMDB)<\/a>, are used by several processes like\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=resolution-and-fulfillment-processes&amp;doc=incident-management-process\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Incident Management<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=resolution-and-fulfillment-processes&amp;doc=problem-record\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Problem Management<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=service-design-build-and-transition-processes&amp;doc=request-for-change-and-change-record\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Change Management<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>Knowledge \u2013 ISO 20000-1 (requirements for the SMS) has 256 \u201cshalls,\u201d meaning \u2013 requirements that you need to fulfill. Are you sure you have sufficient knowledge for all of them? Namely, if you direct the project in the wrong direction, and keep going for some time \u2013 once you realize what you did wrong it could be dangerous, because it could significantly delay the implementation or even cancel it. Implementation projects that take too long are usually never finished.<\/li>\n<li>Who is doing what? \u2013 Clarify existing and start delegating (future) responsibilities early. In that way you will collect all relevant information in a timely manner, and your people who will hold responsibilities once the SMS is implemented will have enough knowledge in the scope of their responsibilities. And, educate those responsible people. It will pay you back later.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>What to do?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to give a one-size-fits-all answer. Every organization is different and has its own approach. ISO 20000 can be implemented in all kinds of IT organizations, meaning that it leaves enough space for adaptation. But, on the other side, it will certainly require changes in the way IT organizations work. Additionally to the ideas presented above, here are a few tips that can help you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Avoid bureaucracy and make it practical \u2013 don\u2019t implement the SMS just to get the certificate. OK, maybe you need it for some reason, but once you have it \u2013 make it as useful as possible. To achieve that, avoid too much bureaucracy and make it pragmatic. Find out how to apply ISO 20000 requirements in your organization in a way that activities are managed, roles and responsibilities are clear, and records you collect are used and provide valuable information. That means to manage IT service creation and delivery. For example, once you implement Change Management, make it your standard for change implementation; i.e., do not allow any changes that are not planned, approved, scheduled, and implemented in a controlled environment (knowing who, what, when, how\u2026 etc.). In such way you will increase the number of successful changes, make users and customers happy, and gain respect from your management.<\/li>\n<li>Educate \u2013 everyone involved in IT service delivery and your SMS should know exactly what to do. A good idea is that people involved in the SMS gave general knowledge of ISO 20000 and deeper knowledge of their tasks, roles, and responsibilities in the scope of the SMS.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Once you have managed and implemented a usable SMS, as well as people who are knowledgeable about IT service delivery and their roles, management support will be the logical consequence. Once you get management support \u2013 funding will be no serious issue.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Organize as a project<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Project Management can be seen as inflexible or bureaucratic. But, it gives you an opportunity to control people, activities, and costs. And this is exactly what you need during the SMS setup (read the article <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2015\/03\/31\/itil-and-iso-20000-what-does-project-management-have-to-do-with-it\/\">ITIL and ISO 20000 \u2013 What does Project Management have to do with it?<\/a>\u00a0to learn more). Namely, many elements of the IT service delivery will be set during the SMS implementation (e.g., Incident Management, Change Management, measurements, improvement methodology\u2026 etc.), so the better you prepare your starting position, the easier it will be once the SMS is operational. And that\u2019s a chance that should not be missed.<\/p>\n<p><em>To implement ISO 20000 easily and efficiently, use our<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ISO 20000 Documentation Toolkit<\/a> <em>that provides step-by-step guidance for full ISO 20000 compliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no doubt \u2013 it\u2019s a wonderful feeling once you get the OK for the implementation of a project you consider important. A lot of enthusiasm, energy and motivated people. Planning is, usually, the easier part. But, once you get the \u201cgreen light\u201d for the implementation, well, then your headaches start. It\u2019s the same &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":17356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[400,366,530,537],"class_list":["post-6547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-implementation","tag-iso-20000","tag-project","tag-top-management"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18229,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6547\/revisions\/18229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}