A post by our guest editor, John Worthington.
In two recent USM Professional Masterclasses—each filled with seasoned service management professionals—one theme kept surfacing:
“How do we map our familiar practices—like ITIL®, PMBOK®, or SIAM®—to the USM method?”
It’s a natural question. I asked it myself when I first encountered USM. After all, many of us have spent years working through practice frameworks—so the instinct to “map” them to this new method is strong.
But here’s what we discovered:
- ✅ Yes, you can map those practices to USM’s 5 processes and 8 workflows.
- ✅ In fact, that’s exactly what happens when you define routines using USM.
But if you start with the practice frameworks, you might be missing the point.
🔄 USM Flips the Script
Frameworks are great at providing adaptable practices. But they don’t offer a unified, universal management system to anchor those practices. That’s what USM provides.
Rather than endlessly stitching together frameworks and tailoring them, USM starts by establishing a stable management architecture—then localizes it to your context through clearly defined routines. This makes practice adaptation easier, more sustainable, and far less chaotic.
Once your routines reflect your specific teams, tools, and services, then you can map away—confidently and consistently.
🧠Practices Are Adaptable. USM Is Foundational.
Practice frameworks are meant to be adapted—it’s their strength. But when organizations start with a patchwork of frameworks and try to tailor them into cohesion, they often end up with complexity instead of clarity.
USM takes a different approach:
- It provides a clear, consistent, and generic management system that supports any practice, in any domain.
- From there, you can localize freely—but always within a stable system that endures even as your tools and teams evolve.
🪝 Time to Switch Ends?
If you’re still gripping your frameworks from the “tailoring and adoption” end, consider this:
- Start with a management system, not a set of practices.
- Build from principles and structure—not from templates and toolkits.
đź“Ś Here's a short blog post (written over a decade ago!) that expands on this mindset:
👉 The Wrong End of the Stick: Rules vs Principles
đź‘‹ Want to learn more?
Ask me how to get a link to our online USM Foundation class. It’s a great first step to understanding how USM can simplify and strengthen your service management approach—no matter which frameworks you’re currently using.
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If you enjoyed John's post and it made you think about improving your own organization, please check out his USM Professional profile and his personal website, or better: contact John for a free consultation.
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