The State And Direction Of Service Management: Progression, Deceleration, Or Stagnation?

"How do we stack up against our peers?" is perhaps the most common question asked of Forrester, and never has this information been more important for service management and automation (SMA) professionals. Forrester's third annual survey of SMA professionals, done in conjunction with the USA chapter of the IT Service Management Forum (itSMF), shows that since 2011, areas like process maturity, service catalog development, DevOps, and strategic thinking have improved, but not by much and not enough to keep up. Demand from the business is growing exponentially, while technology management's ability to support it is progressing linearly, and though service management is an integral part of IT, it is not immune to obsolescence. SMA professionals should use this benchmarks report to understand their service management program's status, strengths, and weaknesses and where they should focus future attention and investments to transform this borderline stasis into substantial progress.