itSMFI 2017 Forum Focus - June Forum Focus ITSMFI | Page 11

Applying the Agile
Mind-set to
Service Management
By Dolf van der Haven
Agile is a widely used (and misused) expression that needs some clarification in order
to convey its meaning in the context of Service Management. Agile is popularly
associated with DevOps, Scrum, iterative working, submitting and prioritising User
Stories and many other aspects that are mostly practical implementations of its core
meaning. What I want to focus on is how to take the Agile mind-set as it was
originally conceived by the early developers of Agile practices and apply this to
service management, rather than take elements from the various Agile frameworks
out there and try to apply those to Service Management, hoping that eventually you
end up with something you can call Agile Service Management.
The Agile Mind-set
The Agile mind-set has been expressed in terms of the Agile Manifesto
and its related Principles. The following is a quote from the Agile
Manifesto [1] of those principles which have been slightly reworded
for the context of services:
“We are uncovering better ways of providing services by doing it and
helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:
•
•
•
•
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working services over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on the right [e.g. Processes
and Tools], we value the items on the left [e.g. Individual and
Interactions] more.”
“We follow these principles:
•
•
•
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early
and continual delivery of valuable services.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development.
Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive
advantage.
Deliver working service enhancements frequently, from a cou-
ple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the
shorter timescale.
Business people and the service provider must work together
•
11 itSMFI Forum Focus—June 2017
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
daily throughout the service lifecycle.
Build services around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need, and trust
them to get the job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying
information to and within a development team is face-to-
face conversation.
Working services are the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The
sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a
constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good
design enhances agility.
Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not
done - is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge
from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become
more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behaviour
accordingly.”
In the project management and software development worlds, a
number of methodologies, such as Scrum and eXtreme
Programming (XP) have been developed that have looked to
incorporate these Agile principles. The Service Management world,
however, has been much less influenced by Agile, even though a
number of efforts are increasingly being made, e.g. [2] and [3]. The