Designing Training Strategy and Plan



Training Strategy and Plan

For

1 Introduction 3

2 Training Goals and Objectives 3

2.1 Training Goals 3

2.2 Training Objectives 4

3 Key Training Roles 4

4 Training Plan 5

4.1 Phase 1: Creating Awareness and Common Language 5

4.2 Phase 2: Before process design work begins 6

4.3 Phase 3: After process is designed and tool is configured but before implementation 8

5 Training Critical Success Factors 9

Introduction

is embarking on an IT Service Management journey using ITIL.

Developing and implementing an overall Training Strategy and Plan is critical to any ITSM improvement program. Providing ITIL training will afford a level of knowledge with a common language that assures that all stakeholders are “on the same page”. Training provides an excellent opportunity to align organizational change with the training effort to support behavior change.

One of the keys is that employees need to know why they are attending training and what are the expectations of them after they have attended training. One way to set expectations is to have a Senior Manager kickoff each ITIL training session with remarks as to why is implementing IT Service Management and why ITIL as a framework was chosen. The Manager should also be able to discuss where the organization is on their ITIL journey and what their role will be throughout the journey. Examples of this type of communication might include how individuals can expect to be impacted, what activities they will be expected to engage in etc.

In this way, staff will understand the importance of not only the training but the overall initiative to which the training is aligned.

The Training Strategy and Plan should address ITIL training and other training over the lifetime of the IT Service Management Program.

Training Goals and Objectives

1 Training Goals

Define the training goals. Examples are shown below:

• Create a level of understanding and awareness about IT Service Management, the ITSM program and ITIL

• Prepare key internal resources to become internal experts or consultants to the program and the process design teams

• Increase the ITIL knowledge level of our organization

• Ensure that xx% of the IT staff is certified at the Foundation level

• Ensure that xx% of the IT staff is certificated a a Practitioner or Intermediate level

• Identify the new skill and competence levels required to support the new processes

• Use training a as a vehicle for communication about the ITSM program

2 Training Objectives

The following training objectives support the training goals:

• Provide multiple opportunities to learn about IT Service Management and ITIL. This would include online overviews, internally delivered overviews, external delivered overviews, ITIL certification training etc.

• Provide ITIL training that provides a common understanding and language that is key to implementing IT Service Management.

• Provide generic process training on the newly designed processes

• Provide specific role based training for process roles responsible for executing the new processes

• Track and provide training updates on number of staff trained

.

Key Training Roles

Successful ITSM training will require having the right resources available at the right times in order to develop, deliver and provide ongoing maintenance to the training program. Following are key roles to be considered.

• Training Lead – Leads the overall training effort for the ITSM program. This person is responsible for ensuring that the additional training roles are filled during the ITSM program.

• Training Developer – Responsible for ensuring that the process and tool training is developed in support of the new process to be deployed

• Trainer – Responsible for the training that will be delivered in support of the new process that will be deployed or providing general ITIL or process awareness training.

• External Vendor – An external vendor will provide the certification and other training that is not capable of providing internally - e.g, ITIL Foundation, Practitioner, Service Manager course or the training around How to Manage Organizational Change and How to Develop Processes.

Training Plan

A training plan should consider that there will be different training requirements for different people throughout the program based on the project phase or individual process roles. The requirements may span from basic ITIL training to provide general ITIL awareness at the project outset to advanced ITIL training specific to certain processes as the processes are implemented up to Service Manager training targeted for those who will responsible for implementing the IT Service Management program.

Additional process and tool training will be required. This specialized type of training is conducted before the processes are deployed into the production environment. There are usually different types of process and tool training provided before deployment; generic process training, and role based process and tool training.

Additional training opportunities could include the following:

• Designing an IT Service Management Vision and Strategy

• Implementation Roadmap Training

• How to Manage Organizational Change

• How to Develop Processes

There are 3 phases associated with the overall training strategy. Those phases are outlined below.

1 Phase 1: Creating Awareness and Common Language

Phase 1 of the training plan typically includes overview or awareness sessions or initiating ITIL Foundation training to the IT Organization.

ITIL training at this stage should be offered with varying degrees of depth to different levels within A: executive, mid-level, process owner, program manager, project manager, design teams, and IT staff

Providing ITIL knowledge is critical to gaining buy-in and support for the ITSM Program. This can be done through multiple means.

• Hiring external vendors to provide an ITIL Overview and/or an Executive Overview

• Internally creating an ITIL Overview.

For the IT Service Management program it is recommended that train a select and targeted group of key resources at the Service Manager level. The participants could include the Program Manager, Global Process Owners and internal ITIL architect. The Service Manager course provides the necessary knowledge and experience required to implement IT Service Management within .

Sample list of courses or training programs which could be included in this phase of the strategy

• ITILv3 / ITIIL v3F Bridge

• 2 – 3 hour Executive Overviews (EOV)

• ½ day ITIL Overviews (IOV)

• ITIL Foundation course V2/V3

The following table reflects the alignment of the roles and different courses that would support in the first phase of their process improvement initiative.

|Course |Senior |Program |Process Owners|Process |Design |IT Staff |Others |

|Title |Executives |Manager | |Managers |Team | | |

| | | | | |Members | | |

|ITIL V3F | | | | | | | |

|ITIL V3F Bridge | | | | | | | |

|Executive | | | | | | | |

|Overview | | | | | | | |

|ITIL Overview | | | | | | | |

|Service Manager | | | | | | | |

2 Phase 2: Before process design work begins

Before the process design work begins it is important to provide the process owner and design team members with a level of skill in the process to be designed.

The design team will be responsible for designing high level workflows and activities, detailed workflows, procedures and work instructions as well as process policies that drive procedures. Additionally development of key management information metrics and tool requirements are critical pieces of the overall process design.

Therefore it is vital that the process design team gain a thorough understanding of the process they are designing. Pink Elephant proposes that a Practitioner Level course (focused on the process in-scope for the design work) be provided to each design team.

The following courses will support the above training goal for this phase.

• How to Design and Implement Processes (DIP) – this course taught by Pink Elephant consultants teaches the key phases and activities that are required for successful process design..

ITIL v3 Intermediary courses:

Operational Support and Analysis (OSA) – this course covers the practical application of Incident Management, Problem Management, Request Fulfillment, Event Management, and Access Management.

Release Control and Validation (RCV) – This course covers the key ITIL processes such as Change Management, Service Validation & Testing, and Release & Deployment Management to your organization.

Service Offering and Agreements (SOA) - this course covers the practical application of six ITIL processes: Service Level Management, Service Portfolio Management, Service Catalog Management, Demand Management, Supplier Management and Financial Management.

Planning, Protection and Optimization (PPO) – this course covers availability and capacity requirements, as well as the continuity and security of IT services, while managing demand and the risks associated with these services.

Continual Service Improvement (CSI) - this course focuses on the continual service improvement process and its key principles, methods and techniques.

|Staff |Senior |Program Manager |Project |Process |Process |Design Team |IT Staff |

| |Executives | |Manager |Owners |Managers |Members | |

| | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | |

|Course | | | | | | | |

|General Process | | | | | | | |

|Overview | | | | | | | |

|Specific Role | | | | | | | |

|Based | | | | | | | |

Timing is key when scheduling the process and tool workshops. Ideally, the training should be delivered just prior to going live with the new process. The following timeline illustrates this concept. It is always a best practice to go live in a limited pilot location to minimize any potential impact to the organization.

After the process start-date, two weeks should be spent in coaching the employees on the use of the new procedures. This coaching serves several important purposes. First, the coaching will function in a quality audit capacity to ensure that the new process and procedures are being followed. Second, during this period process functionality will be examined to provide information for the first review. In the case of a pilot location, improvement adjustments can be made for the full implementation of the new process before organization wide application.

Training Critical Success Factors

The following are critical success factors

• Ability to schedule training with accredited training organization

• Ability to schedule internal participants

• Ability to develop internal process and tool training

• Ability to deliver internal process and tool training

• Ability to identify internal trainers

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Adjust Procedures

and Republish

Procedure Review

Process Start

(2 Weeks Coaching)

Old Procedures

Workshop

New Process

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