Agile is not the absence of ITIL!

Yahoo-Microsoft Merger Proxy Fight – May 14, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

As I alluded to last week, “It’s not over ’till it’s over” Carl Ichan Looking to Start Yahoo Proxy Fight Money – The Microsoft-Yahoo Merger may not be over. Billionaire…

Now in the ring Sun/Amazon! – May 04, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

The Sun/Amazon cloud may be announced soon. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz delivered a short keynote at Startup Camp in San Francisco, an adjunct event to the JavaOne Conference. According to…

Microsoft gives up on Yahoo? – May 04, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

“Cloud computing is far more than a concept. With Broadband Internet connections now all-but-ubiquitous and microcomputers and locally-run software now so trouble-prone, Cloud Computing’s time has come.” This is a…

IBM, Google and the Blue Business Platform – May 01, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Today was good !! This morning. there was a main session built around “CIO 2.0”. The basic premise was that CIOs have now earned a seat at the business management…

The coming cloud – April 30, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

I attended the IBM Public Sector briefing this morning. The IBM executives were clearly basking in a financial performance glow. After ending 2007 with increases in revenue, profit and earnings…

Google, Cloud Computing, and the US Intelligence Community – April 29, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Just arrived in Los Angeles for the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference. IBM is billing this as a “new” conference, but I have my doubts. I am, however, very interested…

Location Based Services – April 25, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

INmobile.org is a exclusive community for executives in wireless industry. As a member, I have the opportunity to participate in a number of interesting discussions about mobile and wireless technology.…

IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference – April 23, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

I just completed registration for the IBM Business Partner Leadership Conference. This is a new invitation-only conference being held this year in Los Angeles from Wednesday, April 30th through Friday,…

Telephone & Web = WOW !! – April 21, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

The power of the Internet and the web lies in its ability to provide access to information. The mobile web takes this one step further with its ability to provide…

The Power of Family Oral History – April 19, 2008

By G C Network | May 18, 2008

Although I just started this yesterday, I’ve decided to backdate this entry to last Saturday, April 12, 2008. That’s when my family had it’s 3rd Annual Black History Party. The…


 by
Jodi Kohut
ITIL (formerlyknown as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library) has been the best management practices framework of choice for world class IT Operations organizations.  The 5 stage framework: Service Strategy, Design, Transition, Operation, and Continual Service improvement allows for structured processes that support Enterprise Architecture, Service Delivery, and Security initiatives.  Structured and controlled planning and change are the bywords here.

 

A major driver of the cloud is efficiency and a betterallocation of technical resources. As a result, executives are considering more use of Agile or DevOps frameworks to speed up the delivery of valuable services to end-users. I’ve heard more than one of my colleagues speculate that this shift signals a move away from ITIL.  After careful consideration, I suggest there are three reasons why a “both and” approach will provide more benefit to the organization:


1.) Agile improves the delivery time of an ITIL- inspired service.  Using mature service strategy and design processes of ITIL, Agile teams can validate the architectural and SLA requirements prior to developing and releasing a product or change. 

2.) Continuous delivery means less risky changes for Service Transition.  Agile allows for the riskiest changes to take place first, and within a controlled development environment. Operations personnel are working more closely with Agile teams up front during service design and can have their needs considered during development. In short, continuous integration promotes (forces?) collaboration.

3.) Security operations are improved. The collaboration that using Agile within the bounds of ITIL necessitates enables security considerations to be embedded into the Service Strategy and Design processes.  Agile teams can deliver based on security aware requirements, rather than security teams having to secure an already developed service.

Contemporary cloud services provide the ideal place for Agile and ITIL to meet. First, teams can quickly provision cost-effective pre-production environments where building a continuous integration pipeline is possible.  Second, this cloud based pre-production environment provides a collaboration space for development and operations teams to work together to transition a service to the Operations team, already tested and secured. 

Organizations that find a way to integrate Agile and ITIL will likely see a realization of improved collaboration, resulting in less time to release secure and compliant services to end-users.

(This post was written as part of the Dell Insight Partners program, which provides news and analysis about the evolving world of tech. To learn more about tech news and analysis visit Tech Page One. Dell sponsored this article, but the opinions are our own and don’t necessarily represent Dell’s positions or strategies.)

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