ITSM vs. ITIL vs. DevOps

The right IT framework begets effective collaboration and oversight. As such, many organizations mostly find themselves championing either ITSM/ITIL or DevOps. However, committing entirely to one approach or the other can be problematic or ambiguous.

ITSM, ITIL, and DevOps are not mutually exclusive; each has its own goals and functions. Here you can look into how they relate to one another:

1. ITSM

ITSM is a strategic approach to IT management, with a focus on delivering value to customers. ITSM clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of every individual and department with regard to IT services. It allows for increased productivity, lower costs, and improved end-user satisfaction.

2. ITIL

ITIL is?a?framework for ITSM?that provides detailed?best?practices for IT functions to align with an organization’s business goals. ITIL stands for IT infrastructure library. It is one of several best-practices frameworks for ITSM, providing the necessary tools and techniques to deliver IT services effectively. The ITIL framework has been through several iterations, with the latest referred to as ITIL v4.

3. DevOps

Similar to ITIL, DevOps is an IT framework. But where ITIL helps streamline service management with a heavy focus on customer satisfaction, DevOps is the practice for bridging the gap between development and operations. It unites the Dev and Operations teams, with the goal of improving communication and collaboration within an organization.

It allows for continuous application delivery, reduced expenses, shorter development cycles, and improved cooperation between departments. DevOps often incorporates SRE (site reliability engineering), which further supports DevOps goals by allowing engineers to automate operational tasks and address incident management.

4. Misconceptions in the IT industry

DevOps can replace ITIL

“We don’t do ITIL anymore, we’re a DevOps group now!”

The problem is that it simply isn’t true. Because while IT departments may move away from ITIL training and process silos, they still need to do some aspects of service management. Operations. Support. Governance. Costing. These are essential business functions and DevOps doesn’t give us process guidelines the way that ITIL does, so chances are even shops that crow from the rooftops that they’re DevOps-only now are still following some ITIL processes or principles.

DevOps = CI/CD, and automated delivery

While DevOps does include continuous development, integration, and automated delivery, that’s not all it has to offer and it’s not necessarily the core of the practice. Most of the context and ethos behind DevOps is simply about moving away from old divisions and working together with mutual respect and a no-blame culture.?

That collaborative approach can improve all manner of business metrics even if your team hasn’t fully embraced automated delivery or continuous development yet.

ITIL/ITSM is always documentation-heavy that slow teams down

There are way too many instances of ITIL being misappropriated as “the rules,” rather than guidance, open for interpretation.?The truth is that ITIL is what your team makes it. If it feels rigid, that was a choice made somewhere along the way. And it’s a choice that can change.

ITIL is best seen as a starting point for understanding complex IT processes that most businesses have to manage. It’s a road map, a guidebook. Not meant to be the only way, but meant to give us the context we need to make decisions and run our IT teams as effectively and efficiently as possible.

ITIL/ITSM is only for large companies

It’s true that large enterprises have led the charge on ITIL. But that doesn’t mean small businesses don’t or can’t benefit from the guidelines. Businesses of all sizes need to know how to handle change management, major incidents, and knowledge management, among other foundational business tasks that ITIL lays a foundation for.?One major outage is all that could take a start-up down.