ITIL and DevOps: Getting Started White Paper
White Paper
White Paper
- White Paper
- Capabilities
- DevOps
- IT Services
- Processes
- Service management
- Value
- ITIL
June 29, 2017 |
29 min read
- White Paper
- Capabilities
- DevOps
- IT Services
- Processes
- Service management
- Value
- ITIL
Increased organization-wide awareness of the benefits of DevOps practices, including at board-level, is beginning to allow ITSM professionals to approach their service improvement initiatives with the requisite support from their stakeholders.
In Part 1 of this paper, we will explore the journey that organizations have taken when moving from reactive fire-fighting IT processes to a service-based approach of delivering value using IT capabilities, and the challenges this has presented. We will also explore the alignment of software development and ITSM, and introduce key DevOps concepts in the context of ITSM.
In Part 2, we will go into more depth to explore specific DevOps practices, and how to best leverage these to improve the organization’s ITSM capabilities. In addition, we will look at ways the service mind-set brings additional value to organizations who adopt DevOps practices.
Finally, in Part 3, we will finish with a suggestion for how IT operations teams could rethink their role in the wider context of the organization, to become true business enablers for the whole service delivery value chain.
You can read the Executive Summary below and also download the PDF for the complete Guidance Paper.
Executive Summary
The DevOps movement presents IT service management (ITSM) professionals with an invaluable opportunity to enhance the support they offer the organization. DevOps can help service management professionals to improve their service management practices, which in turn will improve the services the organization offers to the customer, which increases value. Organizations fully immersed in the culture of DevOps understand the invaluable influence of the service mind-set, with its positive impact on customer value and its benefits to the bottom line of the business.
As a rough approximation, there are three types of organizations who currently recognize the benefits of DevOps practices: the ones born in the world of apps, cloud computing, and automation by default; the ones already leveraging new technologies and practices to rebuild their existing IT capabilities; and the ones just starting their journey from the mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) world to the mean-time- to-restore (MTTR) world. It is very likely that your organization is in this third category. The majority of organizations are! In which case, this guidance paper is here to help you.
The DevOps philosophy encourages collaboration with the whole organization, including the end-to-end service lifecycle. Outside software development, DevOps practices are currently most mature within IT operations. This is where the quickest wins and the highest customer value are.
This paper explores the context of ITSM in modern-day organizations. It covers the improvement of practices over time and the challenges we are facing today. It then aligns the wider scope of ITSM to specific DevOps practices, and highlights key improvement opportunities, including tips on getting started. Not every idea in this paper is new but never before has it been possible for so many organizations to perform ITSM work so efficiently.
The last section of the paper provides a new view on the role of IT operations in the modern organization; a role that allows IT operations to fully utilize their expertise and become a trusted advisor and true business enabler.