Operation and DevOps

DevOps is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims at establishing a culture and environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen rapidly, frequently, and more reliably. It’s about improving, communicating and collaboration. From a Service Operation perspective we are already part of the way there, so maybe it won’t take as long or require as much organizational change as we think.

Application management is responsible for managing applications throughout their lifecycle. Application management covers the entire ongoing lifecycle of an application, including requirements, design, build, deploy, operate and optimize. The application management function is performed by any department, group or team involved in managing and supporting operational applications. Application management also plays an important role in the design, testing and improvement of applications that form part of IT services. As such, it may be involved in development projects.

They are the custodians of technical knowledge and expertise relating to the management of applications. Working together with technical management (Cross Functional Teams) they together guarantee that the knowledge required to design, build, test, manage and improve IT services gets defined, developed and continually improved. They provide the actual resource that supports application in the service lifecycle. By undertaking this role they are ensuring that the resources being utilized are appropriately trained to take part in continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment, which means they must be included in any value stream map we create.

It is therefore imperative that they are part of the team who contributes to the development of the set of centralized platforms and tool services that will ensure the appropriate levels of collaboration and integration with the development teams by encouraging the breakdown of the wall of confusion.

For more information on Service Operations and DevOps please see http://www.itsmacademy.com/itil-so/ and http://www.itsmacademy.com/dofnd/

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