Agile service management – an overview
Agile service management – an overview
26. September 2022
Reading time: 8 minutes
Faster innovation cycles and increasing security risks lead to constantly changing requirements with a high degree of urgency. This is countered by bureaucratic and often slow processes within organizations. The result? At best, "only" dissatisfied stakeholders; at worst, noticeable competitive disadvantages in the market or even exploitable security gaps.
Rapidly changing conditions require flexible structures, because in order to meet the needs of business customers, IT organizations must be structured in a service-oriented manner. This is where agile service management comes into play. In this series of articles, we will show you exactly what is meant by agile service management, what benefits it promises, and how agile approaches can be sustainably anchored in the IT service organization.
In the first part, we start with an introduction to the topic of agility and agile service management, before we delve deeper into relevant agile frameworks. In the second part, we show how these frameworks can be integrated into IT service management and how agile service management can look in practice.
The agile manifesto and its principles
Agile originated in software development. In 2001, 17 developers met in a ski lodge in Utah and created an agile manifesto with 12 principles that are better suited to the increasing complexity of modern software projects than conventional approaches. Since then, agile has been used primarily in IT project management with frameworks such as Scrum and SAFe.Let's start with a definition:
Agility refers to the ability to move or think quickly and easily, solve problems and have new ideas.
It is important to understand that agile service management does not aim to integrate agility into existing best practices and processes, but focuses on providing the values, mindset and perspective you need to integrate agility into your way of working step by step. This is how you create higher acceptance and sustainable anchoring in your organization.
Introduction to agile service management
Before we bring agility into play, let's define the classic approach:IT service management (ITSM) is a process-oriented management approach that focuses on customer needs and IT services for customers (instead of IT systems) and continuously improves them.
If we combine what we learned above, we get the following definition:
Agile service management ensures that ITSM processes reflect agile values and have just enough control and structure to efficiently deliver services of value. These services are implemented in incremental steps, which promotes continuous learning and improvement.
Agile service management ensures that processes create value for customers, are holistically coordinated and interact smoothly with each other, and have only as many control instances as are needed to ensure speed, quality and compliance.
Agile approaches have numerous advantages over classic service management. It ensures that requirements are met more quickly and precisely, overcomes restrictions in processes, and increases the speed of improvements. It thus increases the efficiency of all processes. In addition, it promotes cooperation between development and operations through shared values and principles. In summary, an agile approach creates more value for customers.
Agile service management addresses two core issues of an organization:
Agile process engineering is the aspect of agile service management that applies an agile approach to process development.
Agile process development focuses on designing processes in such a way that they have a just sufficient level of control. Incremental processes support the rapid provision of IT services while maintaining compliance. The goal is to embed a mindset where service management is integrated earlier in the value stream.
Agile process improvement is the aspect of agile service management that aligns agile values with processes through continuous improvement.
Agile process improvement ensures that the implemented agility is continuously reviewed and adapted. It identifies impairments to the workflow and value streams and removes barriers. Central to this is that processes add value and that in practice just enough is deviated from and neither too much nor too little.
In-depth insight into relevant agile frameworks
Scrum
Scrum is a framework that uses an iterative, incremental approach to help teams generate valuable and adaptive solutions to complex problems. It relies on groups of people who collectively have the expertise to successfully complete a project - this does not mean that each individual must have all the skills, but that expertise is shared and learned from each other.Scrum is based on empirics and lean thinking. The former means that knowledge is gained from experience and further decisions are made on the basis of these observations. The second focuses on the essentials and thus reduces waste of time and resources.
Scrum is based on five values: Commitment, focus, openness, respect and courage.
Scrum values based on scrum.org
These values give the teams a direction on how to work with each other and how decisions are made. Only when these values are lived effectively can transparency and trust be created, and only then can Scrum be successful.
Scrum is based on incremental steps, so-called events or sprints, which take place regularly. At its core, a sprint consists of an idea that is turned into a value. A sprint has a fixed length of a maximum of one month and begins as soon as the previous one is completed. During a sprint, work is done towards the goal defined at the beginning. The sprint goal is a subgoal of the overall project that can be completed within the time period. This breaks down the complexity of the project into small, manageable steps and reduces risk. The end goal can be refined with each sprint and the team can respond to changing conditions.
The Scrum artifacts contain information that the team and stakeholders use to execute the project. They are based on Scrum values and are intended to provide transparency. The artifacts include:
The product nacklog: all measures (roughly described) that are required to complete the overall project
The sprint backlog: all measures (refined) that can be completed within the current sprint
The product increment: the definition of done
These artifacts serve to reinforce empirical learning and Scrum values.
Kanban
Kanban is a method whose origin can be found in software development. The term "Kanban" comes from the Japanese and means something like "signboard". The aim of the methodology is to limit the number of parallel works, the so-called work in progress, and thus to achieve shorter lead times. In addition, problems and especially bottlenecks should be made visible quickly.The Kanban board as a tool for the implementation of the method visualizes the individual work steps of a process such as a software development process. With the help of "signal cards", individual tasks or activities are mapped and moved on the Kanban board according to the progress of the process. By means of the Kanban board it is possible to identify and solve delays and obstacles. It also supports with the "Work in Progress" limit to complete existing activities before new ones are started.
The Kanban board visualizes the individual work steps.
Thanks to Kanban board, all people involved always have the number of tasks in view. This allows the team to collaborate optimally without losing sight of progress.
When using Kanban, the following principles help to provide orientation:
Rank where you are and respect existing responsibilities as well as priorities.
Based on your current state, determine changes you would like to implement.
Encourage your team to work together to achieve established goals and take ownership.
Lean
Originally invented at Toyota, Lean originated in production and had the goal of reducing waste. The targeted use of resources such as material, time or personnel is therefore the focus of the methodology, which considers the value chain as a whole and identifies the weakest link.Applied to agile service management, this means taking a lean approach, making processes and services more agile, and thus eliminating waste and bottlenecks within those processes. Mastering the "lean" approach challenges supervisors to look at their own work differently. The following aspects are particularly relevant:
The workplace: Look at working conditions on the ground and check facts for yourself, rather than relying on reports and board meetings. The workplace is a place where real people create real value. A personal visit is a sign of respect and provides opportunities to help employees generate value. The management revolution that the Lean concept has brought can be summed up in the equation "Job = Work + Kaizen" - "Kaizen" is a Japanese term that stands for continuous improvement.
Value through integrated quality: Customer satisfaction comes first - this understanding is absolutely central and is built into every step of the business process. Built-in quality means stopping the process at any questionable part or responding immediately when something goes wrong. In doing so, one should train oneself and others not to continue, pass on or accept faulty work.
Value streams through understanding of "takt time": By calculating the relationship between open production time and average customer demand, one gains a clear picture of the capacity needed to ensure production flow. This "takt" rhythm - be it one minute per car or two months for a software project - leads to the creation of stable value streams, where stable teams work on a stable set of products with stable equipment. "Takt time" thinking leads to a completely different view of capacity than traditional cost accounting and is the key to far more economical processes.
Flow through reduction of batch sizes: Every traditional business, whether manufacturing or service, is addicted to batches. The idea is that once the work is set up a certain way, we quickly produce as many pieces as possible to keep unit costs down. Lean thinking sees this differently. It seeks to optimize the flow of work to meet actual demand now, not imagined demand next month. By working hard to reduce changeover time and difficulty, you can get closer to the ideal of lean thinking, which is single-unit flow. In this way, the company's overall costs can be drastically reduced, as warehouses, transportation, systems, suppliers, etc. are no longer needed.
Pull to visualize the takt time through the flow: Pulling work from upstream at takt time through visual aids like Kanban cards is the essential element that makes it Lean Thinking.
The quest for perfection through Kaizen: The old sensei taught that the goal of lean thinking is not to apply lean tools to every process, but to develop the kaizen spirit in every employee. Perfection is not sought through better, smarter systems or lone wolves, but through a commitment to improving things together, step by step. The kaizen spirit, therefore, is about striving for one hundred percent improvement from everyone, every day, everywhere, rather than creating a single one hundred percent leap forward. Kaizen practice is what embeds deep lean thinking in people's minds and ultimately leads to complete change. Practicing kaizen together builds self-confidence and collective confidence that we can overcome our larger challenges and solve our problems together.
ITIL 4
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library, ITIL for short, has become the world's leading framework for the coordination, control and management of IT services. The latest version, ITIL 4, aims to significantly increase the efficiency and quality of IT services and their organizations through a process-based approach. This approach ranges from the service provider's strategy and the recording of customer requirements to operations and continuous improvement. ITIL focuses on the entire value chain. All elements should mesh optimally to generate value - this is summarized under the term "Service Value System".ITIL is based on seven fundamental principles to ensure successful service management across the entire value chain:
Focus on value – each activity must contribute to the creation of value
Start where you are – existing best practices are maintained and continuously improved
Progress iteratively with feedback – continuous improvement in small steps through feedback
Collaborate and promote visibility – create more clarity and transparency through open communication with team, stakeholders and partners
Think and work holisticaly) – take responsibility throughout the process
Keep it simple and practicle – The right measure in every process, every tool and all resources for efficient value creation
Optimize and automate – automated steps reduce error-proneness and thus save time and resources
Delivering services with ITIL 4 creates value for customers by helping them achieve desired outcomes without having to bear certain burdens or risks.
DevOps
DevOps stands for collaboration between the areas of software development (Dev) and system operations (Ops). The term encompasses both a cultural philosophy and various methods for automating and integrating the processes between the above-mentioned areas and their teams, with the aim of increasing the quality and speed of software deployment. At the heart of the approach is the empowerment of teams, their communication and automation.Under a DevOps model, development and operations are no longer isolated from each other, but collaborate across the product lifecycle and/or merge into a single team in phases. The DevOps tool chain provides the DevOps team with the fundamentals to automate and accelerate processes to increase reliability.
Adapted, the DevOps values also support other teams such as the security team. The approach supports making security an active and integrated part of the development process. This is also referred to as DevSecOps.
The DevOps lifecycle shows development (Dev) on the left and operations (Ops) on the right.
DevOps refers to an ongoing process consisting of six phases that merge into one another in an endless loop. This is why it is also referred to as the DevOps lifecycle. The left-hand side of the endless loop represents development, the right-hand side operations. Each phase of the lifecycle represents processes, skills, and tools for effective and efficient communication and collaboration to ensure consistent alignment, speed, and quality of outcome.
Admittedly, we haven't talked much about agile service management in particular so far, but you now have a basic understanding of the agile methods that underpin the framework. In the second part, Agile service management - insights into practice, we show in detail how agility can be integrated into IT service management and give you a very concrete insight into practice using project examples.
Author
Thomas Scherzinger
Thomas' consultancy focus lies on the introduction and improvement of IT service management, IT project management and the implementation and continuous improvement of sustainable new services for a modern workplace.
Thomas Scherzinger
Thomas' consultancy focus lies on the introduction and improvement of IT service management, IT project management and the implementation and continuous improvement of sustainable new services for a modern workplace.
