Agile meets ITIL

A common question in Service Management circles recently asks; “How do we demonstrate the real value of Service Management without it just seeming like bureaucracy?” To address this challenge, iCore has been researching the use of ‘Agile’ methods to bring ‘stuffy’ ITIL processes to life for customers.

‘Agile’ is a methodology most likely to be employed in the strategy or higher level design phases during the lifecycle of a project. Although it is here that it is most highly visible and recognised in the industry with the associated project management exams, certifications, and professional bodies, it is also relevant further down from these strategic levels. It is important to recognise that ‘Agile’ techniques are not just reserved for use at a low level coding stage or as a project checkpoint method; as a methodology ‘Agile’ has grown well beyond its humble origins in the software development world. ‘Agile’ techniques and methods can and should be adopted at different levels of an IT operation, and at different stages of the service lifecycle to obtain maximum business benefit.

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Making the RITE Decisions

Tony Probert, European managing director at Cherwell Software cites the changes necessary before IT will be of use for survival in the new economy.

What would be the ‘holy grail’ for real change in the realm of Information Technology? It would be to enable management to harness the necessary information to proactively make the right business decisions – at any time, from anywhere – and thereby truly align IT with business objectives. Is there any hope of this? Are there any external factors today to give us optimism that real change, from an IT services and support context, is possible? Yes there are, but of course it won’t be easy.

Too often, IT ‘change’ is defined as spending money on new technology and hoping it will solve organisational problems. It won’t. Before any technology is considered, the people of the organisation must understand and be passionate about its underlying corporate mission, strategy, and specific objectives. To attain that vision, you’ll need to understand and implement appropriate processes. Note that you do not need to invent entirely new processes, any more than you need to invent a different type of hammer to build a new piece of furniture. Rather, you need to choose from the toolkit of tried and true business processes that already exist, selecting and customising them for your organisation. Only then should you look at technology that facilitates your vision and your processes – and does not just collect data for data’s sake.

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How to buy an ITSM software solution….

Over many years training people in Service Management, I have regularly been asked “Can you recommend a good IT Service Management tool?”, and my response has always been “What do you want it to do with it, and how much money have you got to spend?”  My response is often greeted with a glazed expression.  I suppose I could have just named half a dozen popular software tools, but would that really have helped them?  I often explain that it’s like buying a car; you have a limited budget, and usually some very basic requirements like number of seats and engine size.  The trick is then finding the right make and model at the right price.  Unless you are a seasoned purchaser of cars, the vast majority of people often only undertake a single 10 minute test drive, be easily influenced by a slick salesman’s patter and normally forget to ask about servicing costs and intervals and the cost of spares.  Unfortunately we don’t often make very good purchasing decisions.

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Remote Monitoring in the Cloud

Cloud-based remote monitoring and management enables more effective use of resources, facilitates profitable cross- and up-selling and builds strong customer relationships. Critically, it enables clear differentiation with vastly reduced investment in resources or staff training, hence delivering a rapid return, according to Phil Bousfield, vice-president of product engineering at GFI Software.

Value added resellers and member service providers are increasingly turning to remote monitoring and management (RMM) technologies in a bid to improve managed service delivery and achieve differentiation. Yet recent research reveals that traditional on-premise RMM solutions are proving too time consuming and expensive to implement, as well as incurring significant ongoing costs and thus fundamentally constraining both the quality of service delivery and return on investment.

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Keeping in the pink

A ubiquitous brand in the realm of ITIL and ITSM, VitAL editor Matt Bailey talks to Pink Elephant UK’s new chief executive Marcus Harris about the trials and challenges in the service management industry as we enter the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Established over 30 years ago, as an independent, global professional services organisation for IT managment, this year Pink Elephant celebrates 21 years in the ITIL experience business. It is the world’s number one supplier of ITIL and ITSM conferences, education, consulting and support services. According to the company, to date, close to 200,000 IT professionals have benefited from its expertise. It has championed the growth of ITIL worldwide since its inception in 1989 – longer than any other supplier – and was selected as an international expert to contribute to the ITIL v3 project – as authors of v3’s Continual Service Improvement book and through representation on the International Exam Panel.

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