ITSM and Agile
We currently (or are attempting to follow) and ITSM based method of IT delivery. There seem to a LOT of tollgates, documentation and processes involved here....to me this seems to against the spirit of Agile.
How do people feel about this? One of the differences is that our organisation does little in the way of internal development but more 3rd party products that integrate into our systems. But I'm not sure how that makes a difference.
Can Agile and ITIL/ITSM co-exist?
What service improvements would you hope to achieve by doing so?
Agility could improve responsiveness in a rapidly changing situation, while a reduction in lead times might make the case for increasing lean efficiencies.
Our current environment is *very* document and process heavy. The irony of the situation being that most people don't read any of the documentation and it's seldom kept up to date Likewise the process tollgates we have a 'tick the box' exercises IMO. We also employee an army of service delivery managers, technical writers etc to compile this stuff,
I like the agile mentality of working software of comprehensive documentation. I'm not sure where Agile sits in relation to the over use of process tollgates and such,
@Jason Pearce, which industry are you in? Any external regulations around it?
Hello
I am in pharma. Yes, we do have certain tollgates we must/should pass through, but surely over documenting is bad? I read this article here;
https://www.cio.com.au/article/465436/can_infrastructure_agile_/
Seems what they did there to make themselves more agile was reduce hefty documentation requirements
Our current environment is *very* document and process heavy. The irony of the situation being that most people don't read any of the documentation and it's seldom kept up to date
Perhaps there should be a review of the extensive documentation you are producing:
- Why is such documentation rarely referenced by others? Is it truly valuable?
- What would be the benefit of keeping documentation up-to-date if it is rarely referenced? If it were maintained, would it be referenced more?
- Are there any alternatives to producing mounds of documentation? What could be produced/maintained in its place that would be current and usable by others?
I like the agile mentality of working software of comprehensive documentation. I'm not sure where Agile sits in relation to the over use of process tollgates and such,
The critical consideration is what can gates and documentation guarantee which a provably “Done” increment of release quality cannot.
Regulatory frameworks notwithstanding, usually the more quality assurance is built into and around the product itself, the fewer promissary notes and gates will be required.