Updated March 6, 2023
Difference Between ITIL and DevOps
ITIL vs DevOps is the comparison between two approaches for the software project delivery life cycle. ITIL is a framework for software service management that includes service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continual service improvement. DevOps is the process of collaborating development and operations team tasks for faster service delivery. DevOps lifecycle includes development, testing, integration, deployment and monitoring phases. ITIL works on principles such as aligning the IT works with business and service-oriented tasks for process improvement. Whereas DevOps works upon customer-centric, continuous integration and continuous deployment (CICD) architecture principles. ITIL and DevOps involve various job roles in the organization.
Head To Head Comparison Between ITIL and DevOps (Infographics)
Below is the top 4 difference between ITIL vs DevOps
Key Differences Between ITIL vs DevOps
Both are popular choices in the market; let us discuss some of the major difference:
ITIL can be called as a Framework for service management. The five-stage model defines:
- Service strategy: All managers take guidance and create a service strategy that ensures that the business can handle all costs and risks that are associated with it.
- Service Design: It is the stage where business requirements are converted to technical requirements for that service, and architecture is defined for the same.
- Service Transition: Here, all assets are managed so as to deliver a service together for integration and testing.
- Service Operation: This includes application management and technical support teams, which respond when an incident affects the business
- Continual Service Improvement: It is a reflective process that works with four stages to check the services are always aligned with the business needs.
DevOps is more of Collaboration, Communication, and Cooperation.
- Culture: Here, talented members are recruited to present them with different business challenges. They are allowed to experiment and solve these problems.
- Automation: When a team works in DevOps mode, they majorly work on automation. The repetitive tasks are automated, which frees up time for creativity in production.
- Sharing and Communication: One of the major disadvantages of ITIL is knowledge gaps. This can create a huge problem and affect the entire organization. DevOps actively avoid this by separating workers into the service delivery team and not the process team, which effectively collaborate and share information.
ITIL vs DevOps Comparison Table
Below is the topmost comparison between ITIL vs DevOps
| The Basis Of comparison | ITIL | DevOps |
| Basic Difference | ITIL is a framework that provides different ways in all aspects of end to end service management. It focuses on covering a spectrum of people, processes, products, and the use of all different partners. The different processes that are involved in ITIL are not specific to any organization. It is a framework that can be implemented by any organization and provides the organization with a framework to plan, implement and measure the different IT services. It was first published in1989 by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) in the UK on behalf of the Central Communications and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA). | DevOps is considered to be a culture that collaborates developers, testers and IT operations team, which help in deploying code to production faster. It uses automation and other repeatable ways. The word DevOps is hence a combination of development and operations. |
| Roles | There are various roles involved in service strategy. These roles can be defined as follows: 1) Business Relationship Manager 2) Demand Manager 3) Financial Manager 4) IT Steering Group (ISG) 5) Service Portfolio Manager 6) Service Strategy Manager |
There are different roles in DevOps as well, which are defined as below: 1) The DevOps evangelist 2) The release manager 3) The automation architect 4) Software developer 5) Experience Assurance Professional 6) Security professional 7) Utility technology player |
| Lifecycle | The ITIL lifecycle promises to provide the best approach for IT service management. There are five stages in the ITIL Service Lifecycle: Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation, and Continual Service Improvement. | The DevOps lifecycle consists of the following stages: Development, Testing, Integration, Deployment, and Monitoring. |
| Principles | The main objectives and principles of ITIL include: 1) Alignment of IT with business: This is the main objective of ITIL to be able to support the business in achieving its goals. This turns out to be the basic concept of ITIL, whose ultimate mission is to align what IT is delivering. 2) Service: ITIL does the work of grouping what IT provides to business as a service. It delivers value to its customers by providing outcomes and, in turn, achieve without bearing huge costs and risks associated when achieving these results. 3) Functions, Processes, and Roles: An organization usually is structured by its various functions. A function is a unit that performs certain activities and also is responsible for its outcomes. They are usually efficient and perform with specialization. Process improve coordination and also control the functions. It can be said as an activity that is interrelated and designed so as to meet a particular objective. |
DevOps, on the other hand, has six principles: 1) Customer-Centric Action: DevOps must be customer-centric as they are the ones who constantly invest in products and services. 2) End to end responsibility: The team members involved in DevOps need to make sure that they provide performance support until the life of the project comes to an end. This increases the level of responsibility and quality of products that are being made. 3) Continuous Improvement: DevOps has a focus on continuous improvement to minimize waste. It continuously speeds up the improvement of product or services offered. 4) Automation: This is the most important aspect of DevOps. This has its importance not only in development but also in the infrastructure landscape. 5) Working as a team: The roles of developer, designer, tester are defined in advance. All they need to work is in collaboration and as one team. 6) Monitoring: It is very important to monitor all processes and test all different procedures thoroughly in DevOps. |
Conclusion
Both are different paradigms they work to maximize IT performance at any organization. ITIL is useful to create standardizations both within and outside the organizations. DevOps, on the other hand, leverages human capital and promotes innovation. It helps in pushing releases faster to the customer and, in turn, make the customers happier. The chances are that both ITIL vs DevOps methodologies will offer something new and give you a starting point to improve operations and work better and faster.
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