Service management in an agile world

Has service management gone out of fashion? It seems that other market trends are making more noise. In fact, anything that is not agile or that does not use blockchain is quickly dismissed as outdated. In this sense, some people believe that service management is obsolete, no longer necessary. Others think that service management solves “old IT” problems and is no longer relevant for the “new IT”, driven by digital transformation and including DevOps, Lean, or Agile practices. There are also some who believe that service management frameworks are, or at least have been, too prescriptive, rigid and bureaucratic.

But leaving trends aside, service management is, and always will be, necessary. However, it should be suitable for both static and local “old IT” and dynamic and hybrid “new IT”. So, recently released updates of different service management frameworks and standards try, with varying degrees of success, to adapt to the challenges of the new IT.

For example, the latest editions of ITIL , IT4IT or VeriSM define models that attempt to accommodate “new IT” concepts. To do this, they broaden their scope and adapt their practices to new market needs.

As for the ISO/IEC 20000, it appears to remain more or less unchanged. It is still a list of requirements grouped into (what were previously) processes for managing services … or perhaps not.

The ISO 20000 in an agile world

In the article Service Management in an Agile World, posted on LinkedIn, we address the particular case of ISO 20000. We explain the criteria that the editorial team of the standard has followed during the latest revision. We also discuss how ISO 20000 requirements have had to adapt in order to still be suitable in an agile world.

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