Hello All,
While exploring this Continual Improvement Management module, I have created the below template for my reference. It might help you while configuring yours.
CIM Lifecycle
When an Improvement initiative is first created, it is in a state of New. This is where very basic information is added like description and a business justification for the request.
The mandatory fields are:
- Short Description
- Business Justification
The Business Service and Business Process fields are used to identify the associated area and to create reports based on IT Services and Processes. These fields will be automatically populated if they are coming from an existing Service or Service offering record; however, they do not need to be mandatory to progress.
Accept or Reject the improvement request
At the New state, it is necessary to identify if the improvement initiative aligns with the business strategy, sets the right priority, and identifies who will be the Improvement Coordinator before sending it in the next phase of the lifecycle. The Improvement Manager should list themselves as coordinators if the organization does not have identified process-specific coordinators.
A purpose-built user interface called ‘Workbench’ is available for Improvement Managers and Coordinators. It allows them to monitor, plan, approve, and review the improvement initiative backlog using a mobile-friendly card-based layout. The CIM Workbench has flexible filtering and supports drag-and-drop functionality to execute CIM process in an Agile fashion.
The Improvement Manager can use the workbench UI or form UI and decide to reject the request if it is not clear or does not align with business strategy by providing a clear reason in work notes. Once rejected, the initiative is marked as canceled.
Establishing Priority
The improvement initiative is selected manually by the Improvement Manager after assessing the business justification, effort involved, expected benefits, and strategic alignment from the improvement request.
Once the mandatory fields are populated, the Improvement Manager is expected to click the Accept button. This will move the improvement initiative into the Accepted state of the lifecycle where it will go through planning and prioritization.
Before sending it for the approval, the following fields are mandatory:
- Approver Group
- Improvement Metric and Target Review Date
- CIM Task
The Approver group is the group that will review the request and provide the approval.
Organizations that do not have a formal approval process can disable the assess state via CIM – Administration – Properties:
When the “enable approval” property is unchecked, the initiative can directly move to the “Approved” state and is ready for the next phase which is implementation, resulting in the abbreviated state flow below:
Once the mandatory fields are populated, the Continual Improvement Coordinator is expected to click the Assess button. This will move the initiative into the lifecycle where it is considered ‘live’ and something that requires attention.
At the Assess state, a member of the approval group is primarily assessing the initiative to determine whether it is worth doing or not.
The approval request goes through standard ServiceNow approval workflow. The default workflow requires only one team member approval. Once approved, the request moves to the “approved” state where it is considered ready for the implementation.
At the Approved state, the improvement initiative is ready for start the implementation work. The Improvement Coordinator is expected to click on the Implement button. This will move the initiative into the lifecycle where it is considered ‘In Progress.”
The Improvement Coordinator may now need to engage one or more teams to investigate and make the requirement improvement. This is achieved using CIM Tasks.
CIM Tasks and Phases
The parent improvement initiative record remains assigned to the Improvement Coordinator throughout the entire process. The Coordinator creates and assigns individual tasks to the various support teams depending on the area of improvement. Each team will capture their findings in their individual tasks and the Improvement Coordinator will review and coordinate those activities.
CIM Phases allow grouping related tasks for ease of tracking progress rollups. The progress rollups happen automa
tically. Percent-complete rollups are based on the duration of the task. Progress rollups happen to the phase level and the parent record level.
The CIM task can also be linked to other tasks. For example, the Improvement Coordinator can create or relate one or more Change Requests to show the clear path to resolution.
All task activities can happen in parallel by different teams and the progress automatically rolls up to the CIM phase levels.
Once all CIM tasks are implemented, the Improvement manager clicks on the “Review” button to send it for review where it will be evaluated by the Improvement Manager.
In review state, the Improvement Manager will review the improvement achieved against the improvement target and acceptance criteria. The Improvement manager can decide to add some more tasks if goals are not 100% achieved and click the ‘Implement’ button to move the initiative back to In-Progress state.
When goals are met to a satisfactory level, then the Improvement Manager clicks on the ‘Close’ button to move the initiative to the Closed state. Once an initiative is marked Closed, you cannot move back it to any previous state.
At the Closed state, the following fields are mandatory:
Closure Code:
- Successful: The initiative met the defined goals and acceptance criteria
- Unsuccessful: The initiative failed to meet the defined goals and acceptance criteria
- Withdrawal: The initiative is closed without finishing the work
Closure Notes: The Improvement Manager adds the required notes and summary before closing
Achieved Outcome Category: Selected to create a report based on following available categories:
- Cost Reduction
- Revenue Generation
- Time Saving
- Customer Satisfaction
- Quality Improvement
Note: Once an improvement initiative is marked as Closed, it cannot be re-opened. A new initiative can be created to finish any incomplete work in the future if deemed appropriate.
If you need more details on this module please refer below link
Thank you for reading.
Please mark my article as helpful and bookmarked it for future reference.
Regards,
Priyanka
good stuff .. .the only thing I've added to mine is the "rejected" which returns it to "accepted" state. That was a big concern with our audience ... what if it isn't approved? There was a legitimate concern that it would be either cancelled or closed. Displaying the return to "accepted" state addressed that concern.
