The ITIL Value System · Topic 2 of 5
The Seven ITIL Guiding Principles
The seven ITIL guiding principles, from focus on value to optimize and automate, how each is used, and how the principles interact with each other.
- 3 min
- Seven principles: focus on value; start where you are; progress iteratively with feedback; collaborate and promote visibility; think and work holistically; keep it simple and practical; optimize and automate.
- Value is determined by consumers and other stakeholders.
- Feedback matters before, during and after work.
What it is
The guiding principles are recommendations that can guide an organization in all circumstances, whatever its goals, strategy, type of work or management structure. They are universal, they are not ranked, and they are usually applied together.
How it works
The seven principles
| Principle | Key idea | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Focus on value | Everything the organization does should link, directly or indirectly, to value for itself, its customers and other stakeholders | Learn how consumers use services; weigh internal savings against the value consumers perceive. Value is decided by the consumer and other stakeholders |
| Start where you are | Do not start from scratch without considering what already exists | Observe and measure directly ("go and see"); reuse what works after evaluating the risk of reusing it |
| Progress iteratively with feedback | Work in small, manageable sections that can be completed and improved | Gather feedback before, during and after each iteration; speed only matters if the result is still useful |
| Collaborate and promote visibility | Working together across boundaries produces better buy-in and long-term success | Share work openly; involve the right people at the right time; avoid silos. Collaboration does not need full consensus |
| Think and work holistically | No service or element stands alone | Consider the effect of a change on related services; avoid optimising one part at the expense of the whole |
| Keep it simple and practical | Use the minimum number of steps needed to achieve an objective | Think in outcomes; do fewer things but do them better; remove steps that add no value |
| Optimize and automate | Make the best use of the organization's resources | Optimize as far as reasonable before automating; automate repetitive tasks with clear rules; keep human intervention where it adds value |
How the principles interact
- The principles interrelate: for example, iterative progress works best with visibility of each iteration's results, and optimising before automating reflects keeping it simple.
- An organization should judge which principles are relevant to a situation, rather than applying them in a fixed order.
- They apply to any type of work, not to one practice only.
In scenario questions, find the action described. Measuring what exists first is start where you are; small reviewed steps are progress iteratively; sharing with stakeholders is collaborate and promote visibility; removing unnecessary steps is keep it simple and practical.
How the exam asks about this
- "A team observes and measures what already works before designing a replacement." Start where you are.
- "What should happen before an activity is automated?" Optimize it as far as is reasonable.
- "How do the principles relate to each other?" They interrelate and are often applied together.
What to remember for the exam
- Seven principles: focus on value; start where you are; progress iteratively with feedback; collaborate and promote visibility; think and work holistically; keep it simple and practical; optimize and automate.
- Value is determined by consumers and other stakeholders.
- Feedback matters before, during and after work.
- Optimize before you automate.
- Principles are universal, not ranked, and applied together.
Automating a poor process just makes a poor process run faster. That is exactly what optimize and automate warns against.
Common mistakes
Ranking the principles. They have no order of importance.
Requiring consensus for collaboration. It is not needed.
Starting from scratch by default. Existing work may hold value.
Check yourself
Who determines whether a service is valuable?
The service consumer and other stakeholders.
What does keep it simple and practical recommend?
Using the minimum number of steps needed to achieve an objective and removing work that adds no value.
What does think and work holistically say about services?
No service or element stands alone; each depends on and affects others.
Topic 2 of 5 in The ITIL Value System
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