Service Management Integration With Agile Practices

Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
Optimize the value stream of services and products.
Leverage the benefits of each practice.
Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Agile and Service Management are not necessarily at odds; find the integration points to solve specific problems.

Impact and Result

Optimize the value stream of services and products.
Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Research & Tools

1. Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Storyboard – Use this deck to understand the integration points and how to overcome common challenges.

Understand how service management integrates with Agile software development practices, and how to solve the most common challenges to work efficiently and deliver business value.

2. Service Management Stakeholder Register Template – Use this tool to identify and document Service Management stakeholders.

Use this tool to identify your stakeholders to engage when working on the service management integration.

3. Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Assessment Tool – Use this tool to identify key challenging integration points in your organization.

Use this tool to identify which of your current practices might already be aligned with Agile mindset and which might need adjustment. Identify integration challenges with the current service management practices.

Service Management Integration With Agile Practices

Understand how Agile transformation affects service management

Analyst Perspective

Don't forget about operations

Many organizations believe that once they have implemented Agile that they no longer need any service management framework, like ITIL. They see service management as "old" and a roadblock to deliver products and services quickly. The culture clash is obvious, and it is the most common challenge people face when trying to integrate Agile and service management. However, it is not the only challenge. Agile methodologies are focused on optimized delivery. However, what happens after delivery is often overlooked. Operations may not receive proper communication or documentation, and processes are cumbersome or non-existent. This is a huge paradox if an organization is trying to become nimbler. You need to find ways to integrate your Agile practices with your existing Service Management processes.

This is a picture of Renata Lopes

Renata Lopes
Senior Research Analyst
Organizational Transformation Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
Optimize the value stream of services and products.
Leverage the benefits of each practice.
Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

Common Obstacles

Culture clashes.
Inefficient or inexistent processes.
Lack of understanding of what Agile and service management mean.
Leadership doesn't understand the integration points of practices.
Development overlooks the operations requirement.

Info-Tech's Approach

When integrating Agile and service management practices start by understanding the key integration points:
Processes
People and resources
Governance and org structure

Info-Tech Insight

Agile and Service Management are not necessarily at odds Find the integration points to solve specific problems.

Your challenge

Deliver seamless business value by integrating service management and Agile development.

Understand how Agile development impacts service management.
Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies when integrating with service management.
Connect teams across the organization to collaborate toward the organizational goals.
Ensure operational requirements are considered while developing products in an Agile way.
Stay in alignment when designing and delivering services.

The most significant Agile adoption barriers

46% of respondents identified inconsistent processes and practices across teams as a challenge.
Source: Digital.ai, 2021

43% of respondents identified Culture clashes as a challenge.
Source: Digital.ai, 2021

What is Agile?

Agile development is an umbrella term for several iterative and incremental development methodologies to develop products.

In order to achieve Agile development, organizations will adopt frameworks and methodologies like Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum, Large Scaled Scrum (LeSS), DevOps, Spotify Way of Working (WoW), etc.

DevOps
WoW
SAFe
Scrum
LeSS

About Info-Tech

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