When ITIL was first introduced in the 1980s, the aim was to dramatically improve IT Service Management. It did. The problem is that ITIL and ITSM today still closely resemble what they did when they started, yet both business and technology have drastically changed since then. So are they fit for purpose in today’s more complex change landscape? We think not.
IT Service Management is struggling to accommodate the rapid rate of change in modern business. Businesses are having to make more frequent changes than ever before. ITSM was originally designed to protect the business, with a change advisory board meeting face to face once a week to agree on changes. Now, a more dynamic, real-time solution is needed if businesses are to remain competitive.
As we have often said on this blog, your resiliency is a must, not an option. Yet, when it comes to execution, 80% of incidents are still caused by change. Processes like ITIL are not enough to ensure the safe delivery of change. Putting the right tools in place to increase change capacity, increase the pace of change, and to do so with resiliency will help to solve this problem.
There is a plethora of tools and systems used in change management to keep records, log incidents, store data on recurring problems for continuous improvement, identify issues and much more. There needs to be a fit-for-purpose enterprise change management platform that brings these elements together and allows for the planning, execution and audit of change that involves humans and technology.
So what does this mean for ITIL and ITSM? They’ve made great improvements for managing change, but it’s just the beginning of what can be achieved in this area. There are still gaps in ITSM that are ripe for innovation and the introduction of automation and human and machine orchestration. Current ITSM can be the foundation for huge improvements in enterprise change.
Moving forward from ITIL and ITSM will require fit-for-purpose enterprise change management and empowered people.
Cutover's Work Orchestration and Observability platform brings together humans and technology to improve change, resilience, transformation and operational readiness. Download our fact sheet to find out more.