Focus on value, and start where you are
Focus on value means every activity maps, directly or indirectly, to value for a stakeholder. Start where you are means assessing the current state and reusing what already works, rather than starting over.
Why it is like this
Both are correctives to how improvement programmes actually fail: work that nobody can trace to a stakeholder, and a greenfield rebuild that throws away working parts along with the broken ones.
Not to be confused with
Customer-centricity and conservatism. Start where you are also means measuring the current state directly rather than trusting the reports about it — the principle is about evidence as much as reuse.
In practice
"We'll replace the whole ticketing system" usually violates both: no stakeholder value is named, and nothing is measured before the decision.
Source: ITIL 4 Foundation (AXELOS / PeopleCert), 2019 edition — §4.3.1 and §4.3.2. Read on .
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Predict Check yourself
A team proposes replacing a working CMDB because "it is old". Which guiding principle does that most directly ignore?
Show the answer
Start where you are — assess and reuse what exists rather than beginning from scratch.
Age is not a measurement. The principle asks for an assessment of the current state before the decision, not after it.