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Integrating Agile with ITSM for Faster and Better-Quality Delivery

Integrating Agile with ITSM for Faster and Better-Quality Delivery

Friday, 01 October 2021

We now live in the digital transformation era, where technology advancements seem to appear every day. People can now access and obtain information everywhere in a short amount of time, which makes them inseparable from technology and the internet. As a result, organizations are now attempting to deliver services that can cater the constantly changing customer needs and expectations. Out of these fast changes, the agile methodology was created.


Agile is a mindset that drives flexibility and adaptability. It is important to implement agile as technologies advancements emerge in a fast cycle, requiring organizations to be flexible enough to quickly respond and adapt to changing customer demands. Thus, agile software development now has become the basis for advancing service management. The agile IT Service Management (ITSM) is simply an adaptation of the agile mindset in service management.


Main Advantages of Integrating Agile with Service Management

Integrating agile with service management brings advantages to organizations. When IT teams focus on keeping things as agile as possible, their workflow will be improved. With an agile mindset, they will later realize that not all problems need to be resolved as quickly as possible. Problems that slow down or even stop work will become priority items, while lower-priority ones will be put on the backburner until the team can address the problems. Effective selection and prioritization can provide added value to customers.


Furthermore, feedback loops can be improved as well. A feedback loop is a process in which some portion (or all) of the system's outputs is circled back and used as inputs, and by using agile, the loops are improved as they become shortened and amplified. Last, integrating agile with service management enables continual experimentation and learning. Agile ITSM framework allows risks to be rewarded, and time is allocated daily to find improvements and test possible problems. This continuous improvement can give advantages not only the IT team, but also everyone in the organization.


Key Values of Agile Manifesto to Achieve Agile ITSM

In 2001, the Agile Manifesto was developed to empower developers to speed up processes and drive more user-focused work practices, comprising four key values. To achieve agile ITSM can be inspired by these values. First, individuals and interactions over process and tools. In ITSM, people focus is more important than process and technology. It is highly important for agile ITSM to not only focus on the process and workflow set up, but also understand the users, their expectations and business alignment.


Then, working software over comprehensive documentation. The quality of IT services depends on the ability to deliver tangible business results and customer value. Process and technical documentation do not guarantee flawless business operations. Next, customer collaboration over contract negotiation. As IT is the single point of contact for any technical assistance, the service quality is more important than speedy recovery with unstable solutions. Thus, instead of rigid service level agreements (SLAs), a more collaborative approach of partnering with customers in service management should be adopted.


Last, responding to change over following a plan. Technology becomes outdated in no time and therefore, organizations need to be agile in adopting new trends. With the increase of end user expectations based on their personal service encounters, agile ITSM guarantees that organizations are ready to adopt changes without losing stability.


Conclusion

ITSM can certainly leverage agile to effectively deliver IT services and add values to customers. Agile ITSM along with the values of the Agile Manifesto enable organizations to be more flexible and adaptable to rapid changes. In this digital era, organizations must be able to cater changing customer needs, and agile ITSM is can make it happen.


Reference:

Louisnord, N. (2020, December 1). Agile ITSM Framework 101 | EasyVista. EasyVista. https://www.easyvista.com/blog/agile-itsm-framework-101-easyvista

Mathenge, J. (2021, May 5). Agile ITSM: How Agile & Service Management Can Work Together. BMC Blogs. https://www.bmc.com/blogs/agile-service-management/

Sankar, P. (2020, May 17). What is Agile ITSM. Freshservice Thoughts. https://freshservice.com/itsm/what-is-agile-itsm-blog/