Which Path - Assessment or Audit?
W. Edwards Deming proposed that business processes should be continuously analyzed and measured to help managers identify and change parts of the process that need improvement. Based upon the Deming cycle, an organization should implement a continuous improvement model that includes the basic activities Plan, Do, Check, and Act. This continuous improvement process enables the IT organization to move to a higher level of maturity with a stronger alignment with the business.

What is the vision?
During the planning phase, first we determine the vision of the organization and align that vision with the high-level objectives of the business. It is important to understand the vision of the organization, because any processes we put in place must be aligned with the strategy of the IT organization and of the business.

Where Are We Now?
Then we need to assess where our organization is today. An assessment tells us where we are now compared against our vision and business objectives. If your organization is having difficulties understanding how well it aligns with business objectives, then the Assessment is the right offering for you.

Where Do We Want to Be?
After we assess the current environment against our goals, it is important to set targets on where we want to be. These goals should be targets that our organization needs to achieve in order to provide services aligned with business requirements.

How Do We Get There?
In order to achieve our new targets of performance, we have to implement process improvements. The ITIL Framework provides a group of processes focused on the support and delivery of IT services. A process-oriented approach ensures that we define inputs, outputs, goals, activities and performance indicators that enable process enhancements aligned with the business.

Are We There Yet?
An audit would then tell us how we have achieved towards our established goals. BlueprintAudits.com offers an audit for many of the individual ITIL processes. These audits will determine how mature your environment and how successfully you are supporting and delivering IT services.