The 'Start where you are' guiding principle advises against starting from scratch without first considering what is already available. It emphasizes the importance of observing and measuring the existing services, processes, people, and tools to understand the current state fully. This direct assessment allows an organization to identify what can be successfully reused or leveraged in any new or improvement initiative. By doing so, organizations can save effort, accelerate progress, and build upon existing strengths rather than discarding potentially valuable resources.

A. Focus on value: This principle ensures that all improvement activities are linked to creating value for stakeholders, not specifically about assessing and reusing existing assets.

C. Collaborate and promote visibility: This principle is about working together and sharing information to achieve better outcomes, rather than the initial assessment of the current state.

D. Progress iteratively with feedback: This principle advocates for breaking work into smaller, manageable components and using feedback loops, which describes how to proceed, not where to begin.

1. AXELOS. (2019). ITIL® Foundation

ITIL 4 Edition. TSO (The Stationery Office).

Section 4.3.2

'Start where you are': "When engaging in any improvement initiative

do not start over without first considering what is already available to be leveraged... The current state should be investigated and observed directly to make sure it is fully understood." This section explicitly states that "services and methods already in place should be measured and/or observed... to properly understand their current state and what can be reused from them."