The current and most used IT Service Management (ITSM) frameworks (ITIL v2011, CMMI-SVC, and ISO/IEC 20000) correspond to a rigor-oriented paradigm. However, the high dynamism in business requirements for IT services has fostered the emergence of agile-assumed ITSM frameworks. In contrast with the Software Engineering field where the rigorous and agile development paradigms co-exist because both paradigms are well-known and well-accepted, in the ITSM field, agile ITSM frameworks are practically unknown. This chapter, thus, reviews the main emergent proffered agile ITSM frameworks (Lean IT, FitSM, IT4IT, and VeriSM) focusing on the IT service design process category. This process category is relevant because an IT service is designed after its business strategic authorization and the IT service design determines the future warranty and utility metrics for the IT service. The main findings suggest the need for clear and effortless agile ITSM frameworks with agile design practices to guide potential ITSM practitioners to cope with the new digital business environment.
TopIntroduction
The modern management of the IT area in business organizations relies on the Service Paradigm (Keel et al., 2007; Gallup et al. 2009; Schiesser, 2010; Iden & Eikebrokk, 2013; Pilorget & Schell, 2018). IT area was traditionally managed with a technological resource view (i.e. focused on the technical operation of mainframes, networking, databases, applications, end-user equipment, and facilities) complemented with a functional specific view (i.e. operations, development, staffing, human resource, procurement, and administration) (Keel et al. 2007; Schiesser, 2010; Pilorget & Schell, 2018). However, in the last decade, a Service Paradigm (Gallup et al. 2009; Iden & Eikebrokk, 2013), which emerged mainly from Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (Levitt, 1976; Chase & Apte, 2007), and Marketing (Lovelock, 1983; Vargo & Lusch, 2004) fields, has permeated the IT management domain (Gallup et al., 2009).
A Service Paradigm from Industrial Engineering and Operations Management view (Levitt, 1976; Chase & Apte, 2007) proposes an updated concept of service from a non-designed and free-process and low-valued human activity framed in a boss-servant relationship, towards the new concept as a high-valued human activity that requires a previous design and structured process-supported implementation. In the Marketing field (Lovelock, 1983; Vargo & Lusch, 2004), a Service Paradigm occurred also as an update on the economic relevance from the diverse services sectors (i.e. Healthcare, Education, Financial, Legal, Transportation, and other ones) regarding the manufacturing ones (i.e. Automotive Manufacturing, Machinery Manufacturing, and in general any Goods Manufacturing), as well as a shift from a Goods-Centered Dominant Logic to a Services-Centered Dominant Logic, where a service is the primary unit of economic exchanges. In this stream of research, a service can be defined as the application of specialized knowledge and skills from some entities for producing valued outcomes in other entities (Vargo & Lusch, 2004).
From these two domains of influence, the IT management domain has adopted the Service Paradigm under the conceptual umbrella of IT Service Management (ITSM) (Gallup et al., 2009; Schiesser, 2010; Iden & Eikebrokk, 2013; Pilorget & Schell, 2018). However, ITSM focused initially on technical IT operation processes (i.e. IT service support and IT service delivery processes) (Gallup et al., 2009), but it evolved in a few years towards the full IT management area (Schiesser, 2010; Iden & Eikebrokk, 2013; Pilorget & Schell, 2018). Entire books on modern IT management topics (Schiesser, 2010; Pilorget & Schell, 2018) account for the inclusion of a Service Paradigm, as well as the emergence of specific ITSM frameworks such as ITIL v3/v2011, CMMI-SVC, and ISO/IEC 20000 (Iden & Eikebrokk, 2013). Service Management, in the ITSM domain, refers to the organizational capabilities used and applied to provide value to customers through the delivery of services (itSMF UK, 2012).