What ITIL4 Means for You and Your Team
As every company evolves into a software company, your role as an IT professional shifts from supporting the business to driving differentiation. To stay competitive in this world, it's time for IT teams to embrace agile approaches that prioritize ease of use, collaboration, and value delivery.
Recognizing this shift, the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) - the most widely used ITSM framework - is undergoing its most significant update in over a decade. The development was crowd-sourced, with input from more than 2,200 IT professionals in various roles and industries. ITIL 4 represents a major paradigm shift for IT teams. What's new is that ITIL 4 transitions from overly prescriptive frameworks associated with traditional ways of working to a more flexible and adaptable approach. Rather than working with heavy requirements as in the past, ITIL 4 guides offer a more practical approach, integrating Lean, Agile, and DevOps concepts. Think of best practices such as continuous improvement, value streams, and visual boards. ITIL 4, through a shift from step-by-step processes to holistic practices, adopts an integrated approach to business management
In addition to the guidance provided by ITIL 4 Foundation, we share three useful principles to help you and your team move from being a cost center to a revenue generator and become a technology leader in the process.
When IT teams focus on ticking boxes and "business as usual," the never-ending stream of issues, defects, and incidents continues. Instead, prioritize working in alignment with long-term business objectives. Seek ways to streamline work by minimizing unnecessary tasks and maximizing value. The goal is to shift from "doing things right" to "doing the right things."
Tip: We recommend a familiar concept from lean methodology with value stream mapping. Visualize the end-to-end process so your team can identify waste, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities. It can be as simple as using a stack of Post-it notes and a conference room wall. You can map a value stream for any service, product, or process.
For example, your service desk is a good place to start. Think of every step from a service request to service delivery. This can help you identify where bottlenecks are and where automation can enhance your workflow instead of time-consuming, old-fashioned change control processes. Bring more collaboration and speed to low-risk change requests by automating them.
Most IT teams believe they use the "right" tools and follow the "right" processes but still can't deliver results. They spend time and money on complex tools with very little to show except for high costs and slow speeds. The problem is missing culture and practice. Shared values and attitudes allow you to build a resilient organization capable of adapting quickly. For teams that haven't yet embraced their values, ITIL 4 offers "Guiding Principles" like "Focus on Value," "Collaborate and Promote Visibility," and "Think and Work Holistically."
Teams should embrace adaptable practices and behaviors based on collaboration and transparency rather than insisting on rigid processes.
Tip: Creating an open and collaborative culture may seem daunting. Drawing from experiences working with thousands of teams, Atlassian has created the "Atlassian Team Playbook." Start by implementing a "Health Monitor" for team health, which provides a foundation for tracking progress and building trust among team members.
In more technical areas like incident management, a robust, team-centric incident management practice changes the way you respond to and recover from major incidents. Start building your practice using "Atlassian Incident Response plays," which cover everything from how to communicate without creating a plan to continuous improvement with Post Incident Reviews (PIRs).
It's no longer ITSM with Agile or ITSM with DevOps. ITIL 4 encourages an integrated approach that incorporates best practices from all working styles, including Agile, DevOps, and Lean. These methodologies allow teams to adapt as needed, focus on delivering good outcomes for the customer, and learn from failure.
Tip: Continuous improvement is one of the core components of ITIL 4. Rather than one major release, teams work iteratively with smaller two-to-four-week cycles. Implement faster feedback loops by learning, adapting, and building capabilities for later stages. Look back on retrospective meetings, a common practice in agile, to help teams think about and discuss what's working (and what's not).