Adopting the ITIL seven “Guiding Principles” for service providers could be the best way to establish a healthy organizational culture. All “Guiding Principles” are powerful but today are some thoughts on just one and that is “FOCUS ON VALUE”.    ITIL 4 best practice guidance says to focus on value.  Getting level set on what VALUE is for your business partners, customers and consumers is critical to every strategic, tactical, and operational action! To understand this better let’s start with the official definition of a service. “A service is a means of enabling value co-creation by facilitating OUTCOMES that customers want to achieve without the customer having to manage specific costs and risks". If this is so, then there is a direct correlation between VALUE and OUTCOMES. When it comes to defining “VALUE” we must get OUT of “IT”.  An “OUTCOME” is what we deliver. It is not the activities within the value delivery stream but rather the RESULTS of all people,

One of the leading questions following the release of ITIL 4 is “How do I Transition from ITIL V3 to ITIL 4?   Which translates to, how do you proceed to adapt existing processes to the new way of working?  The answer is… ITIL 4 for ITIL 4. What? That’s right! ITIL 4 has the best practice for “adapting” and might I include “accelerating” the ITSM processes that you have in play today. Below is an outline of principles, concepts and precepts from ITIL 4 guidance that will help. Ongoing Continual Improvement has always been a best practice. Therefore: How do you proceed to adapt existing processes to the new way of working? Each is discussed here at a very high level. First and foremost, START WHERE YOU ARE!  Continual Improvement - ITIL 4 is the next logical progression of your improvement cycle. Business Requirements are dynamic and therefore we must be dynamic in order to provision for evolving business and customer needs. We must be responsive (Agile) and ensure “Stab

START WHERE YOU ARE! This guiding principle is just common sense. We are either not moving and dying or we are moving forward and living. The guiding principles from ITIL4 best practices are universally applicable to practically any initiative, any size of organization, or any type of service provider. There are seven “Guiding Principles” that can be adopted and adapted to suit any service management improvement. The one Guiding Principle that we will focus on here is simple yet powerful! That is “Start Where You Are”. Every organization that is in business has existing systems comprised of people, practices, and technology! Don’t forget to “Honor the Past”. There are a lot of people who have put a lot of effort (blood, sweat, and tears) into helping to improve the capabilities within your organization. Don’t start from scratch and build something new without considering what you already have. It’s almost always better to improve what you currently have than to throw it all awa

What is changing in your organization? The easier question might be what is not changing. We live in an accelerated world. To say that business and customer requirements are evolving is an understatement. It is a volatile time and the Co-Creation of services between service providers and customers as defined in ITIL 4 is the type of guidance  that could help. Studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between customer engagement in value co-creation and customer satisfaction.  There is no room for an “Us and Them” environment. Engagement means that we vet the requirements with the customer to ensure needs but also that the customer will engage and play a role in the design, development and delivery of the product or service. They won't necessarily get down in the weeds with the developers and techies, but they absolutely should have a strategic and a bit of a tactical role to play throughout.  Beyond the consumer/customer and the service provider, there

In the early days of DevOps, there was a lot of debate about the ongoing relevancy of ITIL and IT service management (ITSM) in a faster-paced agile and DevOps world. Thankfully, that debate is coming to an end. ITSM processes are still essential, but, like all aspects of IT, they too must transform. Recent updates to ITIL  (ITIL 4), as well as increased interest in site reliability engineering (SRE), are providing new insights into how to manage services in a digital world. Here's a look at ITIL 4 and SRE and how each underpins the "Three Ways of DevOps," as defined in The Phoenix Project, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford.‎ What is ITIL 4?  ITIL 4 is the next evolution of the well-known service management framework from Axelos. It introduces a new Service Value System (SVS) that's supported by the guiding principles from the ITIL Practitioner Guidance publication. The framework eases into its alignment with DevOps and agile through a bi-mo

There are some misconceptions about ITIL ® 4 and its use of the term ‘practice’ vs. ‘process’ as a component of its recently introduced service value system. One misconception is that processes aren’t important anymore. Another is that organizations think they must completely redesign their tools in order to accommodate this change. Neither is true. Let’s begin by taking a look at how ITIL 4 defines these terms. Process: a set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs [to accomplish an objective]. Processes define the sequence of actions and their dependencies. Practice: a set of organizational resources designed for performing work or accomplishing an objective. Practices include resources based on the four dimensions of service management which include: organizations and people, information and technology, partners and suppliers, and value streams and – wait for it – processes.   Both processes and practices focus on achievin

Testing starts with the first line of code!   It is NOT a downstream activity. DevOps testing has a critical role to play in a Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Without integrated testing DevOps simply will not work!   With the advent of DevOps and the movement to breakdown silos between developers, QA, security, and operations, it becomes critically important that all members of an IT team - regardless of what tools they use, or role they play - understand the essentials of testing. Every member of your development team should also integrate to ensure Compliance and Audit outcomes!   It is a new world.   In this new world, we can leverage from existing but must be open to walking through new doors of opportunity. Understanding traditional test strategies is helpful but when and where, and most importantly how we proceed with our test strategy must shift.   Knowing how to code is not enough, Quality Assurance in and of itself is not enough.   We cannot afford to have our products

What is an ITIL Expert?  An evangelist?  A champion?  A coach? D.    All of the Above .  Holding the ITIL Expert designation (or being an expert in ITIL) means that an individual has a broad and balanced understanding of ITIL concepts and is able to effectively apply and integrate that knowledge to the benefit of an organization. So, what happens when ITIL evolves? ITIL 4 has been introduced and now it’s time for ITIL Experts to evolve their knowledge as well. But that doesn’t mean simply expanding their knowledge of ITIL. ITIL 4 provides the guidance organizations need to address changing service management challenges and to utilize the potential of modern technology. This includes integrating Agile, Lean and DevOps concepts and understanding how these concepts influence new ways of thinking and working. So how do we bring these concepts together? Agile Service Management describes how to adapt Agile and Scrum values and practices to ITSM process design and improve

Testing starts with the first line of code!   It is NOT a downstream activity. DevOps testing has a critical role to play in a Continuous Delivery Pipeline. Without integrated testing, DevOps simply will not work!   With the advent of DevOps and the movement to break down  silos between developers, QA, security, and operations, it becomes critically important that all members of an IT team - regardless of what tools they use, or what role they play - understand the essentials of testing. Every member of your development team should also integrate to ensure Compliance and Audit outcomes!   It is a new world.   In this new world, we can leverage from existing but must be open to walking through new doors of opportunity. Understanding traditional test strategies is helpful but when and where, and most importantly how we proceed with our test strategy must shift.   Knowing how to code is not enough, Quality Assurance in and of itself is not enough.   We cannot afford to have our

Continuous Delivery Architects are engaged in the design, implementation, and management of DevOps deployment pipelines. This infers the inclusion of all tools and tech to support Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Testing, and even Continuous Deployment.  Subjective viewpoints and misunderstandings of what is involved and how to orchestrate a pipeline can lead an entire organization in the wrong direction. Every “Continuous Delivery Architect” should consider formal education and certification to ensure that they do not proceed in error. I see in practice that the emphasis is on the tooling and although that is a key element, even more critical is the process flow, the APIs, and the inclusion of practices to ensure things like security, compliance, and resilience are built into the orchestrated automated pipeline. Let us not forget the importance of CULTURE and the role that plays. There are three primary ingredients for continuous delivery: Au

The Practice Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is a discipline that incorporates aspects of software engineering and applies that to operations with the goal of creating ultra-scalable and highly reliable software systems. It is an Explosion!  If you have taken any classes including ITIL4, DevOps, Agile, or Lean , you have probably heard how critical Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is to the Value Streams and Pipelines that deliver products and services to this world. New concepts like understanding “Error Budgets” and the creation of anti-fragile environments are explored. You only need to visit one of the job sites and do a search on “Site Reliability Engineering” to see that there is a huge uplift in demand for Site Reliability Engineers. Try it! T he Role As a Site Reliability Engineer, you'll build solutions to enhance availability, performance, and stability for the resilience of services. You will also work towards a Continuous Delivery Pipeline by automati

That is not a typo!   Alan Nance of CitrusCollab recently spoke about The Anatomy of an XLA in an ITSM Academy webinar.   I learned that the days of SLAs are behind us and the future lies with digital experience and eXperience Level Agreements (XLAs).  If this is the first time you have heard of XLAs then this is a sticky-note moment.    By that I mean; find a sticky note, and write down today's date.   Now write down XLA.   Remember that this is the day that you heard it and you heard it here!  XLAs are the foundation of a fresh and optimistic approach to managing the business of technology. Research for yourself and staff members. Learn and explore more about XLAs! A little history: “Service Management exists to guarantee a valuable experience to customers and colleagues. Despite years of implementing best practices, the reputation of most technology departments is below par in the eyes of business leaders. Consider that 90% of CEOs feel they aren’t meeting their custom

As leaders, we need to understand the people that we are leading.   It is critical to understand that this is a new world and if we are to lead the global enterprise into a successful future, we need to understand the strategic, tactical, and operational objectives of our organization and also that we must have a passion for learning. “A Dash of Neuroscience“ is one of many topics introduced by the DevOps Institute for the newly updated DevOpsLeader course .   This information is taken from that course and is just a smattering of what you will learn as you prepare for your certification. Learn how to optimize speed to value as a DevOps Leader.   Live in a perpetual world of learning Many people feel their brains limit their potential and prevent them from learning.   However, learning can change our brains in terms of function, connectivity, and structure.   Our brain shapes our learning but learning shapes our brain, and research has shown that simply knowing about brain pla

Is your organization transforming with AGILE, ITSM, DevOps or LEAN and looking forward to optimizing a Continuous Delivery Pipeline?  Do you want to be a Continuous Delivery Architect? This is an amazing and exciting time where you can dream and build upon what you have and develop the “COMB” shaped skills that will shape your future! The “2019 Upskilling Report for Enterprise DevOps Skills” reinforces that organizations not only need “T” shaped skilled practitioners or even “PI” shaped skillsets. Many high-performing organizations are looking for individuals that have “COMB” shaped skillsets. An individual with “COMB” skills would have a broad base of knowledge forming the top of the comb and then also have multiple expertise areas which gives the shape of a comb. You can start developing your skillsets or those of your team to shape individual career opportunities and also to shape the future of your organization. Expanding your skills is particularly needed for those involv

The Age  of Architecture   Architecture is one of those universal roles that no matter the job, it's critical you have a good understanding of the architecture to be successful in both development and operations. As with any architectural role, there are so many moving parts that if you can’t see the machine for the cog you’ll never be able to master your craft. The problem seems that because of the siloed nature of the business, no one but those in architecture gets the lay of the land, it is in this challenge that continuous Delivery Architecture was created to help ALL practitioners understand not only the big picture but the why and how every component is vital to success. What’s In The Toolbox To help you get an idea of the sheer quantity of tools that will be at your disposal I’ll give you the highlights reel. It starts with what we call a collective body of knowledge. This is a collection of materials (books, blogs, websites, etc.) to help you on your journey to lear