ITIL 4 and the human factor

The home office mandated by the Corona pandemic has become a big media topic. Above all, there is a debate about whether this new way of working is a curse or a blessing for those affected. Initial studies point to rather negative effects: loss of social contacts, the double burden of work and family, and the mixing of professional and private life are just some of the points mentioned. 

In IT, these are additional stress factors that make an already tense situation even worse: Digital transformation and agility have previously increased the pressure on IT staff to leave old patterns of behavior and thinking, and thus organizational silos, and find themselves in an ever-faster spinning world of uncertainty.

A 2019 survey by HR consultant von Rundstedt clearly shows this: constant change leads to stress, and burnouts are on the rise. 

At the same time, the study also points to a shortage of skilled workers, which was then clearly confirmed a year later in a study by ICT Berufsbildung Schweiz: Switzerland will lack 117,900 ICT specialists by 2028.

Where are the people in IT? 

ITIL? 4 now has to face these difficult challenges in the area of tension between Agile, DevOps, Service Management and IT Operations Management - and does so very well: While the human factor was practically non-existent in ITIL? 3, considerations about people in IT and their working methods and work culture are highlighted very prominently in ITIL 4:

- In the book "Create, Deliver and Support", cultural aspects of collaboration (Team Culture) and the organization of work (Managing work as tickets) are discussed in particular.

- The book "High Velocity IT" is very much about the well-being of employees in acceleration with topics such as Safety Culture, Stress Prevention, Lean Culture and Toyota Kata. 

- The book "Direct, Plan and Improve" covers Organizational Change Management, Communication and Modern Leadership.

Of course, ITIL? 4 did not invent these topics, but integrates experience and observation from years of practice in Agile, DevOps and Lean. And finally, ITIL? 4 makes it clear to all of us that the era of long timelines, annual service reviews and service and process development times of months and years are a thing of the past in service management. For this transformation to happen, management and staff need a new awareness of trial and error, collaboration, and incremental ways of working. 

The time of silos is ending.

This brings us full circle to the introductory remarks: In service management, it is also time to leave the silo and face new requirements. ITIL? talks about new skill profiles that have to be T-shaped, PI-shaped or even comb-shaped. So in addition to specializations, we should also increasingly have a generalist view on things in IT.

Conclusion 

Even ITIL 4 cannot prevent us from having to move out of our comfortable service management silo, but it does give us some good tools and practices to help us find our way in the new world of Agile, DevOps and High Velocity IT.