What’s in a CSI Register?

ITIL describes a CSI Register in section 3.4 of the Continual Service Improvement book. This discussion will focus on the simple example of a CSI Register that’s provided in Appendix B of the CSI book. In Appendix B of the CSI book there are several fields that are shown as part of a sample CSI Register. These fields are:

• Opportunity number
• Date raised
• Size
• Timescale
• Description
• Priority
• KPI metric
• Justification
• Raised by
• To be actioned by
• Date required by

I always like to keep in mind that when ITIL gives examples, such as this, that it is being illustrative. In other words, ITIL isn’t telling us that these fields are required in a CSI Register, instead it’s giving us an example of what one CSI Register might look like. ITIL is generally not prescriptive. In reality, the CSI Register at any given organization might look significantly different than the example given in the CSI book. The fields given in this example are important. When tracking improvement opportunities it’s useful that they have a unique number that can be used for reference. It’s a good idea to know when they were identified as an improvement opportunity. The “size” field given in the example can mean many things and I would tend to focus this on the amount of money that the organization has to spend to address the improvement opportunity. Timescale refers to the amount of time it will require to address the improvement opportunity. Description is intended to provide an overview of the improvement opportunity. Priority in this example refers to when the organization should address the improvement opportunity. KPI metric refers to how the effect of the improvement will be measured. Justification is the documented support for the improvement opportunity, raised by who made the organization aware of the improvement opportunity and actioned by is who is required to take action on the improvement opportunity. Finally, date required by is the date by when the action should be taken. Clearly, using this simple example given in Appendix B of the CSI book, an organization could easily use a spreadsheet as a way of tracking and managing improvement opportunity. In my next blog post, I will discuss why a more advanced tool might be useful for managing improvement opportunities. Related Courses: ITIL Foundation ITIL Service Lifecycle: Continual Service Improvement