IT organizations are being called upon to provide the most mission critical of services – delivering and maintaining revenue-generating applications that are the face of the business. But a recent survey of 200 IT professionals from a variety of industries revealed an appalling lack of service management process and tool maturity within organizations. This severely impacts their ability to respond to the increasing pace of service demand from the business.

The survey’s key findings were as follows:

1. The business (92%) does not perceive IT as a true partner.
2. Development and Operations blame each other. Three quarters cited operations as a roadblock to agile development, and 72 percent cite development as not supporting the goals of operations. The research shows a clear divide between Development and Operations, helping to explain the aspirational popularity of DevOps this past year.
3. Inconsistent and manual ITSM practices are too slow for online, agile business. In particular, 70 percent reported poor release management processes.
4. Disconnected processes limit Development and Operations’ success. 72 percent revealed that operational change and release management, which are central to the Service Transition prescribed by ITILv3, were the most disconnected.
5. Rudimentary communication practices lead to limited visibility into planned changes. 60 percent cited they had “little to no” visibility into planned changes. Survey data showed antiquated communication practices such as email, spreadsheets and word of mouth are still relied upon for sharing critical and time-sensitive information about planned development of operational changes.
6. Poor reporting leads to inaccurate status updates to the business. Only six percent reported having shared release calendars across development and operations. Shared calendars add transparency to development changes, helping to ensure they are not missed.
   

The survey results indicate that it is time for organizations to take a more holistic approach to ITSM as prescribed by the five core publications in ITIL v3 – Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. In this new on-line world, it’s all about Service Transition, rapidly delivering services required by the business into operational use, and that’s exactly what’s reflected in the survey results.

Many organizations have recognized this challenge and are doubling down on streamlining service and release management, the Agile-ITIL interface.  Perhaps Matt Stratton, Director of Technical Infrastructure at Apartments.com, says it best.