ITSM

ITIL is the world’s most used IT Service Management (ITSM) approach. ITSM refers to how IT teams manage the end-to-end delivery of IT services to customers. This includes all the processes and activities to design, create, deliver, and support IT services.

The core concept of many ITSM strategies and frameworks is the belief that IT (both hardware and software) should be delivered as a service. An ITSM scenario could involve requests, audits, various types of paperwork, but above all, should be governed and form part of a repeatable workflow.

ITSM doesn’t just benefit your IT team. ITSM principles can improve your entire organization. ITSM leads to efficiency and productivity gains. A structured approach to ITSM brings IT into alignment with business goals, rather than having it exist as a secondary entity to other business operations.

Common benefits of ITSM include:

  • Aligning IT with business priorities
  • Enabling cross-department collaboration
  • Bringing IT teams and development teams together through tried-and-tested project management approaches
  • Empowering IT teams to continuously improve
  • More efficient IT services
  • Responding more quickly to major incidents and preventing future ones.

ITSM processes

ITIL v4 recently shifted from a set of recommended ITSM processes and introduced 34 new ITSM practices. The purpose was so that elements such as culture, technology, information, and data management are always brought into consideration, creating a holistic way of working. This more comprehensive approach better reflects the realities of modern businesses.

Modern IT service teams should use organizational resources and follow repeatable procedures to deliver consistent, efficient service.

Core ITSM processes are described below.

Service Request Management

Service request management handles all customer service requests (like buying software, scheduling software updates, and hardware updates).  Service request management relies on repeatable processes and the collection of information to ensure reliable outcomes every time.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the process of collecting, sharing, and managing information collected by organization.  Every time a process or task is completed, it is important teams know what went right and what went wrong so that corrections can be made and the same services can be streamlined further for future use.

IT Asset Management

IT asset management ensures assets are deployed, maintained, and upgraded on schedule. All valuable items in your organization should be tracked and monitored to make sure they’re being used as effectively as possible.

Incident Management

Incident management responds to unplanned events and service interruptions to restore the service to its operational state as soon as possible. This process must be ready to quickly respond to and resolve issues.

Problem Management

Problem management identifies and manages the causes of incidents in an IT service. Incident Management responds to issues, Problem Management makes sure they don’t happen again, and eliminates the root causes.

Change Management

Change management ensures standard procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to IT infrastructure. Effective change management provides transparency to avoid bottlenecks while minimizing risk.

ITSM software and tools

ITSM software enables IT, teams, to align with business needs and take a strategic approach to organizational change, transformation, and growth. There are a wide variety of ITSM software tools available in the market, from standalone applications to platform services.

ITSM vs ITIL vs DevOps

IT teams use a variety of frameworks to guide their work. The most used are ITSM and DevOps, but there are numerous others like COBIT, SIAM, IT4IT, Lean, etc.

ITSM

As mentioned above, IT Service Management is simply how IT teams to manage the delivery of IT services to customers. An approach to ITSM can be structured to align one or more ITSM frameworks and strategies.

ITIL

ITIL focuses on aligning IT services with business needs. ITIL can help organizations adapt to ongoing transformation and scale. ITIL v4 guides teams to a holistic, business, and customer-value frame of reference, and encourages a more flexible approach based on how your team works. The ITIL v4 principles promote collaboration, simplicity, and feedback.

DevOps

DevOps emphasizes accelerated IT service delivery enabled by agile and lean practices. DevOps improves collaboration between development and IT operations teams, so organizations can build, test, and release software faster and more reliably. The promised benefits include increased trust, faster software releases, and ability to solve critical issues quickly, and better management of unplanned work.

Though DevOps includes many processes also seen in ITIL and other ITSM approaches, the DevOps concept is founded on building a culture of collaboration between teams that usually function in siloes. Much of the ethos behind DevOps is about moving away from old divisions and working together.

There is confusion about what ITSM and DevOps deliver and how they could work together. Modern, high-performing teams realize that they need to both be able to work smarter and quicker, but still require process and control.

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