Xtreme Velocity - Accelerating Change Management

Although Agile, DevOps and automation for Continuous Delivery (CD) techniques are on the rise, service providers are still at risk for not having the necessary velocity to meet demand. In the same way that we recognize that we can NOT silo our IT teams, we must also recognize that as providers of services we must not silo our processes. ITSM processes, including Event Monitoring, Problem Management, Release and Deployment Management, Test and more, are not going away. The integration of ITSM process must be considered throughout the entire value stream and CD pipeline. None more so than “Change Management”. Certainly the need for Change Management is increasing not decreasing.

What must go away are over engineered, bureaucratic and outdated process activities. We must begin to radically rethink the way we incorporate change into the CD pipeline. Our mission overall is to deliver a “Quality” product or service.

Ok then, what is “Quality”? Quality not only infers that the service is fit for purpose but also must ensure that it is released into a stable, secure, compliant and available environment. If not, it does not matter how brilliant the product appears, how much functionality or how easy it is to use. To accomplish this Change Management must be accelerated.

Techniques for Accelerating the ITSM Change Management Process:

Maximize the number of standard changes. This means more pre-approved, pre-authorized changes
Oversee the quality of the DevOps pipeline
Introduce Policy as code “I like this one, think about it! “
Embed and automate communication into the process
Proactive collaboration vs restriction or rejection
Accept user stories/backlog items as RFC’s

And… the most important one is:

Integrate the ITSM Change Management system into the DevOps toolchain

Automate the creation of change records

Automate notifications as changes move through the pipeline

Automate electronic approvals (email, apps, other…)

Build and Automate change models (workflow scripts)

Accelerating Change Management means that we will have to do away with long wait times, hand-offs, laborious documentation and more. DevOps and Continuous Delivery require ITSM processes to enable Xtreme Velocity.

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