ITIL and DevOps in the Digital Transformation
Per-Åke Frostell
In the ever-changing digital world of business and IT, there is not either or - there will inevitably always be both and. I would like to share some experiences and new learnings which hopefully will raise some dialogue in this area where I have tried to do good things over the past two decades. Let's start off with a statement to get us going:
“-You should not set out to change from being an ITIL shop to a DevOps shop, you should apply new strategies and ways of working in a value-driven fashion. Transform in a way that makes sense to you and keeps you in an adoptive mode.” [Per-Åke Frostell]
ITSM and ITIL
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a process oriented best practice for developing and operating IT services for customers. The documentation of ITIL is a collection of best practices which has been used by companies over the last 30 something years to run their IT Service Management. The best practice collection is comprehensive and consists of five main parts described in a circle.
The flow starts with Service Strategy where an IT service is defined and described with regards to value-add, funding and business needs.
The second step of Service Design then further describes how the defined service should ensure quality and cost efficiency throughout the life cycle. Non-functional Requirements are setup and agreements are created on the level of service than can be expected to meet the customer requirements.
Step three, Service Transition, is then the process where expectations and requirements are verified before putting the solution into production.
Upon passing step three we are then ready for the fourth step, Service Operation, to operate the service. Here the agreed value is finally provided to the customer and the service is up and running.
Throughout the four-step cycle there is always room for improvements and adoption which is catered for in the fifth process, Continual Service Improvement. Wherever improvement areas are found they are fed back into the appropriate process step via the CSM work.
DevOps and Agile methodologies
As a counterpart to long development cycles and slow progress in delivering business value in IT initiatives, the past decades have also seen the up rise of the Agile Manifesto and DevOps. In these cultural movements focus is more on quick customer value delivery, relatively short iteration cycles and the built-in-value of being effective and efficient.
Agile is all about continuous delivery of customer value and prioritizing deliveries over documentation and processes.
Following the mindset of the Agile Manifesto collaboration with the customer, focusing on shorter value-driven delivery cycles and always prioritizing the delivery of working software are key success factors in every situation.
DevOps is developed in an Agile mind frame and focuses on Automation in all aspects. Development and Operations are in this framework combined and a significant part of DevOps are focusing on the first half, Dev. Topics like Continuous Integration, Continuous delivery and automated continuous testing are important in DevOps. We also see things like Automated proactive monitoring Improved collaboration and communication. Working closer to customer valued need in shorter delivery cycles and automating lots of steps previously seen as large manual efforts in systems development - this all sounds both as sound and rational ideas.
How to combine ITIL and new Agile and DevOps cultures
Having started out in development but then spent most of my professional years in operations and service management I would like to think that combinations of old and new theories and practices always works as a sound way forward. Yes, you have to continue to develop and learn and No, there is almost never just either or - but rather a combination of practices which will take your organization to new heights.
How the above mentioned practices and cultures combine in helping you to transform from business driven IT into a digitization of your business is by you adopting the most fitting culture or best practice where it's best suited. There are always guiding beacons to keep in mind though.
Continuously train and educate your whole organization. Without new inspiration creativity regresses and stagnation is around the corner.
Change your idea generation and development efforts to adopt more and more agile methods and ways of working. There are very many good things coming out from the global markets constant need for renewal.
Divide problem statements and challenges into smaller and more digestible batches. Try to get new good ideas up fast and in short cycles to see benefits and also learn quicker from shorter feedback loops.
Stay focused on delivering value in all initiatives. Always remember what problems you are trying to solve and for whom you are trying to solve them.
Embrace changes along the way and break down challenges so that the needed changes don’t have to affect the bigger scope.
Automate steps to gain momentum in your work and remove work that doesn't add value.
Continue to rely on the stability and predictive nature of your existing service operations.
I'm personally looking forward to see how Axelos will update ITIL 4 to a more contemporary model and try to adopt something seemingly old and rigor into something ready for a more agile digital world.
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