However, if you can prove the seemingly contradictory goals of discipline and speed, dev professionals will come to respect your ops group as their partner, not an annoying impediment. As noted, many ops groups have change management in place. Ensure that the process is being executed consistently. Any changes performed outside the process should be identified and rectified immediately. Without execution compliance at or very near 100 percent, changes will continue to be risky and dev discontent with ops will persist.

To improve understanding, reduce prejudice, and improve perceptions, IT teams need to get better at communicating successes to the business and to other IT groups. Aim to adapt work practices to ensure greater exposure between IT silos and greater collaboration on new IT initiatives. This collaboration not only helps gain buy-in, but also improves the quality of the solution. App dev to IT ops integration benefits, but so does the business because delivered IT services are far better.

I&O leaders should extend ITIL and IT service management education and training to app dev and enterprise architecture in the context of why it's important to them and to the business service life cycle as a whole. With the 2007 introduction of ITIL v3, the framework is no longer ops-centric. It explicitly accounts for all phases of the service life cycle, including those driven and fulfilled by dev. This isn't intended to be brainwashing, but more of an introduction into modern thinking around IT delivery to meet business needs. The right approach will compel dev to desire a role in ITIL and not feel they're being forced into it.