The next big ITSM evolution - A pre-production environments service
Infrastructure management is a reasonably well established discipline, demonstrated by the fact that we now have version 3 of the pretty much unchallenged IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) best practice framework. Many companies have implemented the key support processes that enable them to manage the production environment in a structured and predictable way. In most cases there will be room for building on this foundation or intermediate IT Service Management (ITSM) platform. The thing that many IT managers and CIOs will have in their mind, however, is the diminishing return of further investment in this area.
So, what next? Increasingly I see organizations, especially those with mature production ITSM processes, showing an interest in their pre-production operations covering development, test and assurance functions.
The focus stems from a variety of factors, but essentially the business is starting to recognize the importance of these services in delivering agile, predictable and cost effective change. Traditionally there has been underinvestment in this area as the customer appears internal to IT, i.e. IT projects, it is therefore seen as a back office function and an unwanted cost burden on budget pressured projects.
It is the indirect costs, however, that senior managers need to concern themselves with. This includes delayed releases with the associated project budget overruns and opportunity cost to the business of not having the change, as well as the cost of poor quality releases and the efforts required to clean up the mess. Change often only happens as a result of a crisis situation and is often short lived.
But, some managers are getting wise to this situation and recognize that establishing some basic discipline in this area will yield a great return on investment, well beyond what they could achieve in the production environment.
In my next post I will be exploring some of the best practices and challenges that exist in transfomring pre-production services into an operation that really adds and retains value. What are your experiences in this area? What trends are you seeing? Would be great to hear from you...
