There are some IT organizations that are using DevOps methodology but are wary of getting bogged down in ITSM procedures. But without at least some ITSM controls in place, organizations lose their focus on systematic customer engagement, making it harder for them to scale.

Other IT organizations believe that they're too large, complex and/or process-driven to adopt DevOps. Perhaps team members would like to give it a try but fear that their culture is too old-school and would not allow the disruption that DevOps usually brings. However, process is made for users, not the other way around, and an over-focus on process can keep customers from receiving the experience they need.

So then, DevOps and IT service management must not be mutually exclusive anymore. In fact, combining the two offers organizations ways to scale the enterprise and create agility while maintaining control of IT. They gain both speed and process controls. IT Service Management has to be re-imagined for that to happen successfully. By using technologies like AI/ML, ITSM has been re-imagined so much so that DevOps and ITSM are synergistic now. For instance, organizations can track and resolve incidents and create service requests and have them fulfilled in DevOps environments with AI-driven service management in minutes.

AI-Driven ITSM and DevOps Are Colleagues, Not Enemies

With the advent of AI, many such scenarios are made possible. Organizations for example can deploy an AI-driven digital agent available 24/7 to developers to use across multiple channels. Developers can create service requests for sandboxed environments and have them stood up or taken away and add additional capacity to existing development environments, in minutes. The digital agent would understand and classify the intent of requests using AI and resolve these requests automatically without human intervention. If there are approvals involved, such a digital agent will be able to seek approvals and still automate these deployments thus taking significant load off operations teams.

Similarly, incidents may be tracked in the operations environment, service tickets created and may be resolved by using AI-driven automation in matter of minutes. This would help bring much-needed agility in DevOps environments while following the best of IT Service Management practices.

DevOps doesn't eliminate the need for controls and data. Controls still need to be maintained and risks still need to be managed. AI-driven ITSM for DevOps brings new ways to achieve speed and control while driving value through the IT channel and supporting existing ITSM and DevOps initiatives within a company.

A More Perfect Union

DevOps and ITSM are not an either/or proposition. Instead, they need to be integrated so that the best aspects of each yield a result that is greater than the sum of their parts. Organizations will be able to scale quickly while maintaining process controls. Integration tools make this easier, as do AI-based digital agents. Essentially, there's never been a better time to bring AI-driven ITSM and DevOps together. Doing so will yield greater agility, speed, control and growth potential.