Agile Service Management – A Practical Insight

In Agile Service Management – An Overview, the first part of this series, we established a basic understanding of what agile service management is about, and discussed the methods underlying the framework such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean, ITIL and DevOps in depth.

In the second part, we go deeper into the agile service management framework and show concretely, using project examples, how it can be implemented in practice.

Roles in agile service management

There are three central roles in agile service management: the Agile Service Manager, the Agile Practice Owner and the Agile Service Management Team.

The Agile Service Management Team (analogous to the Development Team in Scrum) consists of three to nine experts who work cross-functionally, without hierarchy and in a self-organised manner to deliver a finished increment at the end of each sprint.

The Agile Practice Owner (analogous to the Product Owner in Scrum) has authority over the practice backlog and is responsible for end-to-end results. They create, manage and prioritise individual elements of the backlog and their requirements for the ITSM process.

The Agile Service Manager (analogous to the Scrum Master) supports the other roles in fulfilling their responsibilities and tasks. They act as a «servant leader» – not as an organiser, but as a coach of the Agile Service Management Team.

Agile process development

An agile process offers as much agility and flexibility as possible and just as much structure and control as an organisation needs to achieve its goals effectively and efficiently. The advantage of this approach lies in the so-called «Minimum Viable Process» (MVP) or micro-process. This refers to the minimal execution of a process that meets the needs of customers with minimal effort and ensures feedback.

Agile process improvement

The goal of agile process improvement is to ensure the agility of service management across the entire value chain. Process improvements are not a one-off project, but should be pursued continuously and with a holistic approach.

Formal and indirect artefacts

• The practice backlog: a prioritised list of all requirements relevant to a practice, created by the Agile Practice Owner. Visible to all stakeholders.
• User story: a statement that describes, from the user's perspective, the wishes placed on a practice.
• Epic: a collection of related user stories that are worked through over one or more sprints.
• The sprint backlog: a forecast of which functionalities will be provided in the next increment.
• Increment: an aspect of the practice completed in accordance with the definition of done.
• Definition of done: a list of completion criteria for a shared understanding of when work is finished.

Sprint events

• Practice planning meetings: planning at strategic level with the aim of identifying the value of a practice.
• Sprint planning meeting (4 to 8 hours): defining the sprint goal and sprint backlog.
• Sprint (2 to 4 weeks): building an increment based on the elements of the sprint backlog.
• Process standup (maximum 15 minutes): daily planning for the next 24 hours; guiding principle «fail fast, learn fast».
• Sprint review (2 to 4 hours): review of the increment according to the definition of done.
• Sprint retrospective (1.5 to 3 hours): self-review of the team and planning of improvements.
• Microprocess planning meeting: focuses on a single, precisely defined activity.

Successfully implementing agility

It is fundamentally important to bear in mind that «agility» does not fall from the sky. Start simply and stay simple. The agile mindset must first be established within the organisation, which takes time.

To anchor the topic of «agility» within the organisation, the support of management is needed. Management must help train employees and create space to try out agile working methods in day-to-day operations.

For practical implementation, we recommend the following steps:

1. Define the scope
2. Define the team
3. Define the methodology
4. Fill the practice backlog
5. Begin with the first sprint

Closing words

Establishing agile service management sustainably within an organisation is not a sprint but a marathon – pun intended. But you need many small sprints to reach the next milestone. Agility also means continuous improvement, and by definition that cannot happen overnight.

Take your time, start small and expand what has proven effective. Essentially, you only need two things: management commitment and a team with a basic understanding of and willingness to adopt agile ways of working.