As demand for digital technology grows, practitioners are under increasing pressure to design, develop, run and support digital systems and services. ITIL®4: High-velocity IT aims to help practitioners understand digital transformation and to guide them and their organizations towards a more integrated state between business and technology.
People depend on digital technology. The societal and economic impact of digitally enabled organizations is unprecedented, and these organizations demand a significantly different way of working. IT service management often leans towards control, but digitally enabled organizations are based on complex and intrinsically unpredictable systems. These systems are uncontrollable at lower levels of granularity, so traditional management instruments such as specialization, prescriptive processes and performance targets do not work. Action at the sharp end has to be based on professional judgement and an understanding of the nature of the systems in which the practitioner works. Practitioners therefore need appropriate ‘high-velocity IT’ ways of thinking and of working.