What is Continual Improvement?

Continual improvement should be applied at all levels of an organization. For increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of services, each person who does something in terms of service management and operation should be involved in the improvement and seek the opportunities to achieve it, regardless of the level that the person works or the importance of his/her position in the organization. All of the staff in an organization should keep in mind that continual improvement matters.

As continual improvement is very important in ITIL4, it is included in three separate parts of this standard.

• Continual improvement model which exposes a structure for improvement implementations. 
• Improve activity in the service value chain which supports the improvements to be done in the service chain.
• Improvement practice for daily improvement actions in an organization. 

The improvement model is a high-level basis that guides the organization to successful improvement efforts based on the organization’s vision. This model acts as an iterative set of activities which are divided into smaller manageable tasks in order to make the improvement implementation simpler to manage.

This model is acquired by higher levels of organization for the correct management of improvement. Using the model supports the directors to be ensured that the improvements are implemented aligned with the goals of the organization. As the model is designed to be iterative, it is possible to step backward at some states of improvement. Also, it’s important to assess and analyze the activities around the model and go back if necessary.