USM Best Practice

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The question our USM coaches and trainers get asked most often is: how is it possible that USM is so simple on the one hand and on the other hand can be successfully applied within every service organisation at every level? The answer is in line with the Albert Einstein quote mentioned in the title: make it as simple as possible (which is, by the way, extremely complicated) but make sure that after this simplification process it contains exactly what is needed to work in all circumstances.

And USM has succeeded in doing just that. USM contains only 5 processes that encompass all the work of the service organisation:

• Agree: Contract management (CTM)
• Change: Change management (CHM)
• Recover: Incident management (INC)
• Operate: Operations management (OPS)
• Improve: Risk management (RIM)

The process model below shows the USM process model including the relationships between the processes and the activities per process.

And then there are just 8 workflows that string these activities together in a predefined, logical order. And that includes the improvement workflows. This means that USM not only provides the building blocks that play a role in the management system of every service organisation, but it is also the standard working method for the integrated improvement of services with these building blocks.

In risk management, it is easy to see how this simplification works. Instead of creating processes for each best practice in risk management, such as availability management, capacity and performance management, information security management, service continuity management but also problem management, in USM this has been reduced to one risk management process that identifies risks in all areas. Although the subject is different each time, the process is essentially the same.

Moreover, in this way you integrate the handling of all risks for the benefit of one common goal: the customer’s interest. The overview below shows the way in which 34 ITIL4 practices recur in 5 USM processes.

ITMG advises and supports in setting up and optimising service organisations with USM and also supports your company by providing professional USM training.

For more information, please feel free to contact the IT Management Group

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