The Blur between Service Management and Development

Someone recently asked me to clarify how service management handles the blur between management and development.    Great topic area.

While many perceive service management frameworks as affecting only the production environment, ITIL and others actually wrap best practices around an entire service lifecycle that starts with strategy and works its way through design, transition and operation.   Service management does acknowledge that there are already proven, trusted software development lifecycle (SDLC) approaches in use and that development may occur inside or outside the customer organization. Given that, there is more focus on service design than service development in ITIL and a recommendation to use the SDLC methodology of choice when developing.

Enter DevOps - a philosophical movement that recognizes that today's rapid development environment requires a stronger connection between development teams and operational teams.   Agile is quickly replacing the classic waterfall approach to development and operational teams are starting to learn and apply Scrum principles.     The bridge seems to extend beyond service transition. In the past, development teams would gradually wean themselves from direct involvement in the deployed service and operational teams would take the lead. Instead, social metrics and small, rapid code changes are keeping both sides engaged and communicating.   It's a slow evolution - but its happening!

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Four Service Characteristics

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