“ There’ s something happening here, but what it is ain’ t exactly clear …”
IT Service Management( ITSM) implementations have long been a bit of an enigma.
On one hand, ITSM guidance has been touted as a way to design and deliver effective and efficient services. In many companies, however, ITSM became IT Process Management implementations because services were never being defined.
ITSM guidance has always been to“ adopt and adapt”, but then organizations look for out-of- the-box solutions to address their unique, specific organizational needs.
ITSM is intended to manage services across their complete lifecycles( plan, design, build, run, retirement), but many ITSM implementations consist of only the“ run” processes.
But change is in the air.
ITSM is evolving
The past few years in the ITSM industry have been interesting. If you haven’ t noticed, ITSM is going through an evolution.
The ITSM toolbox is expanding ITIL ® is and continues to be a strong framework for ITSM. But the ITSM toolbox is expanding to include methodologies such as DevOps, Agile, and Lean IT. DevOps works to break down barriers( whether real or imagined) between the Development and Operations teams within many IT organizations. DevOps leverages Agile, Lean IT and( yes) ITIL to enable faster delivery of smaller units of work. Agile promotes an iterative approach to delivering software. This same approach can and should be used for service design and delivery. Lean IT focuses on the elimination of waste, the visualization of work, the improvement of flow, and continual improvement. All great tools to have in your ITSM toolbox.
Technology that moves ITSM to a new level Technology has made a dramatic leap over the past few years. The capability now exists not only to support or enable many ITSM activities, but to do so at the speed of business.
In my post on All Things ITSM, I discuss the potential impact from the convergence of technology. With the Internet of Things, we have sensors on machines, detecting issues in real-time and exchanging that information with other machines. Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that provides computers with the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can teach themselves to grow and change when exposed to new data. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern
22 itSMFI Forum Focus— December 2016