5 Predictions for IT in 2012

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Change is coming to both application development and IT operations. Organizations that recognize and embrace it early will stand to benefit most.  Based on Serena’s extensive interactions with leading IT executives and analysts, we are making five predictions for 2012.

1. Agile grows up. 
   Agile development will no longer be defined by sprints alone. In 2012, Agile will move from a development practice into an extended business process. This leads forward-looking organizations to adopt more modern release management solutions that alleviate the agile bottleneck that still exists at the point of application.
2. Release management becomes a CIO priority. 
   As its importance to the software organization grows, release management will no longer report to the apps or ops teams. Always struggling to “serve two masters” – apps teams prioritize velocity while operations wants stability – release management actually serves the business and therefore will increasingly report directly to the CIO.
3. IT Service Management (ITSM) gets a facelift. 
   Innovative new approaches to service management will gain a foothold in the enterprise and challenge ERP-like ITSM providers. Mergers and acquisitions within the market will also add to the dynamic nature of the space this year.
4. Outsourcing becomes survival of the fittest. 
   New ways to measure outsourced IT performance shift the balance of power from the outsourcer to the CIO, encouraging competition for outsourced IT (highest performance at the lowest cost). New demand management systems help CIOs identify and predict high performers and outsource accordingly.
5. New DevOps teams emerge. 
   Executive leadership will push for more collaboration between application development and IT operations. This transition results in the formalization of DevOps, while also giving these teams a stronger leadership position within the IT organization (in ITIL, known as “Service Transitions” organizations).

These and related trends make an orchestrated approach to IT a new enterprise priority. While most software delivery organizations today have many of the right tools in place, the biggest challenge will be orchestrating these disparate elements toward gaining new efficiencies across all of IT.