A Case for Collaboration between ITIL 4 and DevOps

It’s time for ITIL 4 and DevOps practitioners to start cooperating seriously as organizations begin to apply Agile concepts to the service environment.

For both groups of professionals, this might be difficult since they might have preconceived ideas or just a general lack of knowledge about what each other does and the concepts they use.

The mindset of people, that what they are doing is a structured best practice that must be done “by the book” instead of taking a flexible and adaptable approach in quest of co-creating value for their business, has long been a source of disagreement.

Where should people start their journey toward true collaboration, then?

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A mutual embrace between ITIL4 and DevOps?

The service value system and value streams are at the core of ITIL4.

DevOps practitioners may not be aware that their work already fits under the service value system since it combines ITIL and DevOps concepts with a focus on transparency, collaboration, and following value from development to operations.

Unlike in the past, this method does not include “throwing things over the fence” from development to operations.

ITIL 4’s concepts of adaptability and guiding principles, such as a focus on value and progress iteratively with feedback, are reflected in the basic DevOps principles, which also include continuous improvement, team collaboration, and breaking down silos; essentially, embracing DevOps and Agile methods to improve the customer journey.

ITIL 4 and DevOps in practice

How can you collaborate with DevOps and Agile professionals as an ITIL4 Managing Professional and Strategic Leader who has also achieved certification in Scrum and DevOps?

For example, a project may start with a discussion of the project brief with the key stakeholders to identify what value means to them and what kind of result they’re after. In essence, the focus on the value guiding concept is what drives this. Following that, applying more ITIL 4 guiding principles involves:

Start where you are; for example, can we use the tooling we already have before making any improvements later on if necessary?

Progress iteratively with feedback: Adapt a product or service based on customer feedback as you build it, then give it back to the customer for additional feedback.

Collaboration and visibility promotion: Let’s start a conversation, get people out of their silos, and figure out how to work together in real-time.

Think and work holistically: to remind people of the importance of both internal and external perspectives, putting your job within a bigger context.

Keep it simple and useful: Is it possible to automate something without making it too complicated?

What should the ITIL and DevOps teams expect from their collaboration?

Teams should become more in tune with the people for who they are creating value by figuring out what that value is and producing more useful things. You should continue to provide value and make relevant changes throughout the process by maintaining the dialogue.

Instead of using a waterfall project strategy, which seeks to specify everything up front, it’s more important to focus on building the minimal viable product or service while being open to listening to consumer input and making adjustments as needed.

Actually, it’s about embracing change and being less protective of established procedures; in this new environment, businesses face constant pressure to adapt and stay current. People must be able to change to do this.

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