In most IT businesses, responding to the business changes in a manner that not only maintains the steady IT infrastructure and at the same time provides quality services that meet the business needs. This demand in the IT business world brought us different methodologies with the same business end goal in mind – DevOps and ITIL.

While DevOps and ITIL complement each other to some extent, they are constantly evolving to meet the organization’s demands. Some are still confused about the uses of each methodology let alone use them with each other.

 To stand steadfast against the competitors, and to properly utilize these in the right way, organizations encourage their employers to get ITIL DevOps certification and ITIL Foundation certification training.

Quick overview of ITIL and DevOps

We all want Information technology to real value to the business with a promising outcome. To get that “value” we are often eager to apply the methodologies like ITIL and DevOps without understanding the basics. To help choose the right framework which meets the companies’ demand and solution for the problem?

Here’s a brief overview of ITIL and DevOps.

DevOps

DevOps is the amalgamation of development and operation which was first introduced by Patrick Debois. The said methodology focuses on the “development” and “implementation” of the entire software development process. Furthermore, the usage of DevOps is not restricted or exclusive to software development.

As DevOps focuses on automation, the test and deployment process speeds up bug fixes in every step of the development process. With the inclusion of automation, DevOps offers a secure environment for software development.

Moreover, DevOps’ overall approach is to accelerate the development process by delivering releases in a short time and more time to market by utilizing the continuous Integration and continuous deployment have expand the delivery process. The significant approach also promotes collaboration between the teams involved in the project.

ITIL

ITIL or Information Technology Infrastructure Library is described to provide the set of ITSM set of guidelines with practical approach (instructions) which can be applied anywhere in the IT department.

These sets of guidelines are easy to understand which you can customize as per the needs of the business.

ITIL is a framework with a well-designed systematic approach which boost the customer relations, offer information services to help companies deal with risks, and provide productive practices to help the organization grow and adapt to change.

When compared with other practices, ITIL is an organized procedure which primary focus is on the implementation of IT services to meet customer needs and standardize requirements of the business.

With several improvements, the latest release of ITIL 4 will continue to focus on process automation, and IT integration within the everywhere in the enterprise.

ITIL 4 has updated their guiding principle which are:

• Focus on value which is not only restricted to the user and customer experience but also on the employees.

• Design for experience while utilizing the existing resources. It is better to improve with what you have rather than starting from the scratch. This practice is also cost-effective for the business.

• Avoid bombarding the changes all at once but progress iteratively and start small to easily manage them with quick delivery.

Furthermore, the latest version of ITIL promotes collaboration between IT and other department as now many sectors depends on the technology to complete the work which meets the current IT demand. Customer input is also given a great emphasis as it is now much simpler to comprehend consumers’ reaction to the services given.

To provide the IT staff with the better knowledge and skill of ITIL, it is recommended to get certification and proper hands-on training. Getting ITIL DevOps certification or ITIL Foundation certification will allow to showcase your skills and credibility in the said field which you can later use for the benefit of the organization.

Now that we have covered the basic idea about the two, let us move on to the connection between DevOps and ITIL.

ITIL and DevOps: Are They Forever in Conflict?

Companies often spend a great time selecting ITIL or DevOps when they should smartly analyze the problem and adopt the framework which best suits the companies’ need.

Let’s see if they can coexist or will remain forever in conflict with each other. First, we will discuss how each approach different problems with their own way of solutions.

• Breaking down IT silos

DevOps still focus on breaking down the silos. People who worked in the field of information technology know how work can get complex which involve knowledge silos. Before the introduction of DevOps, the existing nature of “siloed” within an organization had made it time consuming and hard to communicate and perform efficient collaboration work.

DevOps offer automation and promote team communication with quicker release and early bug fixes.

However, in practice, ITIL approach to knowledge silos is not of any benefit.

Therefore, if knowledge is not your area of expertise, a effective DevOps methodology is your best bet.

• Bug fixes and Release Time

DevOps points to a faster and systematic way to develop software. DevOps practice working in collaboration with the other teams. Therefore, the development team communicates with the Quality assurance to accelerate delivery time by fixing the by early detection and fix of bugs, and ultimately more time to market the new release.

Whereas ITIL has a defined set of guidelines for software delivery. It’s centralized on the integration of the delivery process with other business processes. This in result gives DevOps the upper hand as it has general principles that allow the developer to repair and retest the application in a short time.

• Lack of Communication between Management and IT

Lack of communication anywhere in the industry leads to failure to fulfill the business target goal.

DevOps requires and strongly promotes communication between the teams of development and operation while addressing the issue of silos.

In this case, ITIL process involves set of rules and responsibility for each team member.

In the end, being careless when implementing certain methodology give rise to more problems than solutions.

Now let’s move forward to see how they are compatible and if one can be used with another.

Are DevOps and ITIL Compatible?

Although ITIL and DevOps come from different school of thoughts, both aim to keep information technology aligned with the company’s business need.

The real issue stems from failure to understand how each function and if they can provide and integrated approach to information technology management.

Most of the time, the two practices are considered as mutually exclusive but this is nothing more than a myth. In the world of IT, both can work well as the end goal of each is different meanwhile avoid creating the hindrance for each other. ITIL helps in organizing the process of business management services while DevOps enables the team to work together by automating the work for both the development and operation teams.

Furthermore, the basics of ITIL and DevOps are similar in terms of promoting better collaboration and improved productivity.

It can be said that DevOps methodologies negates some of agile aspects while ITIL lean towards the Waterfall model.

Although ITIL and DevOps may put forth different concepts for ITSM, both can be used to boost company’s performance. The best way to understand each practice is by getting ITIL DevOps certification so that you have better grasp of each methodology.