Introduction to Basics
Agility
Agility – The ability to respond and act faster! The Next Big Thing and its not limited to Agile in IT/Development alone. At a Bigger Holistic View Agility is all about faster responses to anything and everything. Lets start with my journey to set the context and the thought process by starting with the journey of ITIL.
ITIL initially started as a Procedure for Mainframe Maintenance, The Amount of Restructuring put into it is immense from where it is now. I would also state that the Current ITIL4 is incomplete. While there is lot to fascinate at the Journey of ITIL we should also look at Agile, it all started as a Programming or Developers practices but then no one picked it up to align to the bigger requirements. Even today the Agile Practices remain almost limited to IT and Development aspects when the requirement for Agile is to Grow up, Increase the Scope and Cater to the needs of Agility across an Organisation.
Why do we need Agility in Organisations
The Upcoming Revolution is more Volatile and Fast Phased, While we have New Technologies coming in – No one is daring to Use it. While Agile supports the thought process of Fail Fast, Are the Leaders ready to Fail Fast by Adapting the New Technologies? Not yet, right!
LKN did mention Agility and Faster Response is one of the Important Trait for Organisations in Industrial Revolution V or IR V as coined by LKN.
We would be heading to a New Industrial Revolution which needs Faster Responses to every decision, be is Operational or Tactical or Strategical else these organisations would loose out to its competitors. The Only Possibility to enable Faster Responses is to use IT to enable faster responses and the Emerging Technologies plays a Critical Role be it AI, AI Ops, Automation, RPA and Others; Each on of these contributes a lot to Enable the Digital Organisation of Future.
Do we have one Organisation currently whom we can see stepping towards to be tagged as a Digital Organisation who makes Strategical Decisions enabled by IT? Food for thought right? We are lagging behind! Yes For Sure.
Although Microsoft’s DeepCoder was called for Stealing Codes, We Openly do it in GitHub! Imagine a Huge Amount of Reusable Code enabling AI to right Programs, or Even a Non IT Example of AI providing all Decision Pointers to enable Strategic Decisions, From Finalising an Acquisition, Finalising a Partnership to Even contributing to Revenue Based Decisions or Even Production related Decisions! This does need IT inclusive of Emerging Technologies as a Back Bone! Isn’t it?
Are we there yet?
What to we need to be there?
How close are we?
I would laugh out loud! Not even one organisation is close or working towards enabling this and here is why I say that:
Agility only in IT is of no use! Agility should be in all facets of the organisation, IT is just one part of it. We need to enable and infuse IT in all functions. Be it making the right Hire for an Organisation or Be it enabling the right information for different scenarios or Be it enabling the availability of information to make all operational or tactical or strategical decisions – We don’t even know what data we need and what views we need at this point. We are at the very beginning and the Change required to be performed is scary for the leaders at this time!
I envision Huge Profitable Organisations to Operate with 4/5 Flat Hierarchical Employees who use reusable products and codes as an Output of Industrial Revolution V or IR V and Enabling this needs Leaders who aren’t scared to make the right ethical decisions and enabling the safety culture throughout the organisation.
ITIL4 has come a long way, but the entirety of it is still questionable to enable this, but does Agile cater to this no way for sure at this time. We still have Agile Coaches Questioning the Content of Agile for IT and Developers instead of contributing to the Bigger Agility Part of the Organisation.
So to get back to my Initial Thought Process of Educating ITIL4 Professionals on High Velocity IT, I wanted to set the Context so High Velocity IT is all about enabling Industrial Revolution V or IR V as coined by Lokesh Kumar Narayana or LKN where IT plays a major role not only within IT but being a backbone for the entire organisation facilitating all decisions operational, tactical and strategical thereby enabling faster responses to all kind of scenarios and making the organisations work and respond faster.
Basically High Velocity IT enables the Agility across the Organisation and for sure Emerging Technologies plays a Critical Role in it.
I only see Axelos/PeopleCert or ServiceNow close enough and in the right direction in enabling the Industrial Revolution V or IR V at this time.