BRM, DevOps and Excellence in IT Service Management

To say that digital technology has changed the world is an understatement. Digital transformations are revolutionizing entire industries and reshaping every aspect of business. To stay competitive, businesses must accelerate the delivery of digital products and services. To meet business demand, IT organizations must accelerate the delivery of secure, high-quality and reliable software features and functionality (DevOps).

The thing about any transformation, whether it’s the digital transformation affecting the world, or the DevOps transformation affecting IT organizations and their business partners, is that it’s never only about the technology. A successful transformation requires shifts in peoples’ behaviors, mindsets, vocabulary, roles and reporting relationships. It requires changes to processes and to day-to-day operating procedures.

Perhaps most importantly, the ability to undertake and achieve any transformation is determined by whether, or not, the company’s leadership has articulated a clear business strategy and has fostered a culture that embraces innovation, collaboration, and experimentation, taking risks and learning from failure (The Third Way).

Here’s where Business Relationship Management comes into play. As a discipline, Business Relationship Management embodies a set of competencies (knowledge, skills and behaviors) that foster productive, value-producing relationships between an IT organization and its business partners. As a role, a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) is a link between a provider organization and one or more business units. BRM(s) work with business units to understand their needs and plans and to coordinate the delivery of IT services that meet those needs. Ultimately, BRMS help move the IT organization from being viewed as an order taker into a strategic business partner.

But herein lies the reality. Business unit leaders aren’t going to be willing to discuss strategic plans with BRMs until they can trust that the issues of today and this week (incidents, problems, changes, releases) are being taken care of. The road from service provider to trusted advisor to strategic business partner is built on a foundation of IT service management excellence.

The same can be said for DevOps. You sometimes hear that DevOps and IT service management (ITSM) aren’t compatible (but that’s another blog for another day). The reality is that organizations that are successfully adopting DevOps practices such as continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous testing are performing ITSM processes. Those processes are just so streamlined and, in many cases, automated that people don’t even realize that they are executing ITSM processes.

Will excellence in ITSM guarantee the elevation of the IT organization to strategic business partner? Not necessarily. But BRMs will never get a seat at the table when strategic conversations are happening without it.

Four Service Characteristics

Recently I came across several articles by researchers and experts that laid out definitions and characteristics of services. ITIL provides us with a definition that can help drive the creation of value-laden services: A means of delivering value to customers by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. An area that ITIL is not so clear is in terms of service characteristics. Several researchers and experts put forth that services have four basic characteristics (IHIP): Intangibility—Services are the results of actions not things. They have no physical presence and represent a logical set of elements. One way to think of service is “work done for others.” Heterogeneity—Also known as “variability”; services are unique items because of the mechanisms used to deliver services, which is people. Because the people element adds variability, the service is variable. This holds true, especially for the value proposition—not eve...

What Is A Service Offering?

The ITIL 4 Best Practice Guidance defines a “Service Offering” as a description of one or more services designed to address the needs of a target customer or group. As a service provider, we can’t stop there! We must know what the contracts of our service offering are and be able to put them into context as required by the customer. Let’s explore the three elements that comprise a Service Offering. A “Service Offering” may include: Goods, Access to Resources, and Service Actions 1. Goods – When we think of “Goods” within a service offering these are the items where ownership is transferred to the consumer and the consumer takes responsibility for the future use of these goods. Example of goods that are being provided in the offering – If this is a hotel service then toiletries or chocolates are yours to take with you. You the consumer own these and they are yours to take with you. ...

What is the difference between Process Owner, Process Manager and Process Practitioner?

This article was originally published in 2015. With the Introduction of ITIL 4, some of this best practice has changed. See ITIL 4 and the Evolving Role of Roles . Updated Definitions in ITIL 4: Process Owner: In ITIL 4, the concept of 'processes' has expanded into broader 'practices.' Consequently, the Process Owner is now often referred to as the 'Practice Owner.' This individual is accountable for the overall design, performance, integration, and improvement of a specific practice within the organization. They ensure that the practice achieves its intended outcomes and aligns with the organization's objectives. Process Manager: Now commonly known as the 'Practice Manager' in ITIL 4, this role is responsible for the day-to-day management of the practice. The Practice Manager ensures that activities are carried out as intended, manages resources assigned to the practice, and oversees the practitioners performing the work. Process Practit...

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