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Agile_ITSM - Ingredients for Success! - Part 1 of 2

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Dynamic

We the service provider must meet the “dynamic needs of the business”!

Someone recently asked me “What does that mean exactly?”  If that is what we are all chasing after and that is what we as service providers must understand and meet, then what is it?!

The business demand for speed and productivity is not decreasing in any way.  The dictionary definition of “dynamic” is:
  • Always active or changing
  • Having or showing a lot of energy
  • of or relating to energy, motion, or physical force
This would mean that the needs of the business are constantly changing.  We can attest to that in our own experience.  So the question really becomes " How do we quickly adapt to that need?"

Agile

Being agile would mean that we are flexible so that we can adapt to change. We have to start looking at the provisioning of a service as a consumption cycle. Products are produced but a service is consumed.  Once consumed the demand for that service will increase or morph to a slightly different demand for different business needs.

As a service provider we must be “agile” enough not only to see that the dynamic need is shifting but also be able to provision for it fast!. 

In today’s environment we can use frameworks such as “SCRUM” and apply them not only to software development but to all stages of the service lifecycle so that every player in the value stream is playing on the same team with the same agenda and target in mind. SCRUM originated from a rugby term.  All players on the team instinctively know what to do based on where the ball is.  Their role is dynamic.  Each player is not only playing their role or position but they are shifting and changing until all players are working together as one “entity” for a common goal!

Process and Technology

Understanding that we must be “agile” and open to new ways to meet the “dynamic” need of business and services does not infer that we do not have a need for process, technology or the best practice that enables them. We do however need to have a major shift in culture within every stage of the service lifecycle so that we empower through “Process and Technology” to optimize our capability. Doing so will allow the service provider to provision bigger, better, faster, and more services than ever before to meet service requirements and the “dynamic” needs of the business!

Ok, so far this recipe for success includes the power to be “Agile” to meet “Dynamic” business requirements with the support of “Process and Technology”.  There is one more very important ingredient and it is the most important one in the recipe for success. You may have guessed it.  Stay tuned to the ITSM Professor for “The Service Providers Recipe” part 2… The secret ingredient!

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