ITIL and Scrum
I was wondering how people in a heavy ITIL environment manage to be agile. For me, agile is about small, autonomous units getting 'stuff done' with the minimal amount of documentation. ITIL seems hot on process and documentation and many 'managers' (service manager, delivery manager, demand manager and so forth).
Any thoughts, guys?
I was an agile coach on an ITIL based initiative a few years ago. The documentation was extensive. I blew the dust off some volumes to have a look. It was stuck on sone shelving behind the office Christmas tree, some tinsel, and some old unused binders if I recall correctly. It had been forgotten about for years even though they were notionally following the process. I left it there, they continued to pretend they were following it, and that is how they became agile.
Hi Ian!
Thanks for the insight, so basically you think the only way to be Agile in an ITIL environment is to 'pretend' to follow ITIL? :-)
ITIL based organisation can be Agile but will struggle without DevOps practices. Rather than spending all the time documenting rather spend time automating. Time spent wisely.
It's very different in ITIL 4. Gone are the lengthy processes and paperwork replaced with practices.
For example, the Product Owner would serve as the Change Authority in ITIL 4, which replaces the Change Advisory Board (CAB) from ITIL 3.
ITIL 4 now calls what was the change management process, the change enablement practice (it’s one of ITIL 4’s 34 management practices).
If you want to consult companies on Agile transformation or work for a company that embraces different frameworks like SAFe – then look into becoming certified. You can take courses in agile coaching and project management among others. PMP vs Scrum Certification
When I finished the ITIL4 "Foundation" version, after reading the cumbersome content of the "Professional version", I gave up and continued to learn ITIL4.
They have a high enough theoretical height, just like a farmer who wants to land on the moon, can only look up, can't touch.
At present, there are many frameworks of executive knowledge that can be used to practice and implement in the world. The most direct "out of the box" is Scrum!
I've been ITILF 3, ITILF 2011 and in 2020 ITILF 4 certified and I can say that ITIL 4 drops all the overkill in processes and documentation.
It's tailored to Agile working environments and seriously sized down.
Nowadays the study guide for the foundation level (all you really need in combination with some common sense) is only 42 pages.
For ITIL 3 and ITIL 2011 it used to be a full A4 ring binder (the widest model).