“Innovation and ITSM are not opposing forces, they are strongest when they work together.” Rachael Elliot describes one project where success meant developers and service teams collaborating effectively.
In late 2025, I joined a client project as the service architect responsible for building an end-to-end service wrap for a new Microsoft 365 Power Platform Centre of Excellence (CoE). The goal was ambitious: establish the CoE, align it to enterprise operational standards, and successfully pass Operational Readiness Review (ORR) before the end of the financial year.
The project already had strong technical foundations. A Power Platform strategy had been approved, governance and guardrails were defined, and the technical design had passed assurance. The team consisted of highly capable developers who were passionate about delivering rapid, innovative solutions.
What they lacked, however, was experience with IT Service Management (ITSM), Service Design and Transition (SD&T), and the operational disciplines required to support enterprise-scale services long after deployment.
That gap quickly became both the project’s biggest challenge, and ultimately its greatest success story.
When Innovation Meets Enterprise Reality
The development team approached delivery with speed and agility in mind. From their perspective, the ability to build solutions in minutes meant traditional IT processes felt unnecessarily restrictive.
Questions commonly asked early in the engagement included:
- Why do we need lead time for deployment?
- Why can’t we just release directly?
- Why are there so many governance gates?
This is a challenge many organisations now face as low-code platforms become more accessible. Developers naturally focus on innovation and rapid delivery, while operational teams focus on stability, compliance, supportability, and user experience.
Neither side is wrong. The real opportunity lies in bringing both perspectives together.
Why ITSM Still Matters
One of the key lessons from this engagement was that ITSM is not designed to block innovation, it exists to protect the business and create sustainable services.
The organisation operated in a highly governed environment handling sensitive data. Existing ITIL-aligned practices, change enablement controls, and assurance gates had evolved over many years to reduce operational risk.
The Power Platform CoE could not simply bypass those controls because the technology was new or agile.
Instead, the CoE needed to demonstrate trustworthiness first.
By aligning with existing business processes, the team showed the wider organisation that Power Platform solutions could be delivered safely, securely, and with clear operational accountability. Over time, this built confidence and gradually shifted perceptions of what was possible.
That alignment also enabled several important outcomes:
- Integration into the organisation’s SIAM operating model
- Alignment to existing ITSM tooling
- Clear support ownership and resolver groups
- Defined demand and change processes
- Established service reporting and governance
- Long-term financial and operational planning.
Without those foundations, rapid delivery alone would not have created a sustainable service.
Developers Pushing the Boundaries in the Right Way
One of the most positive aspects of the project was the developers’ ambition.
They constantly challenged existing ways of working, questioned legacy processes, and pushed for more efficient delivery models. While this sometimes created friction, it also highlighted opportunities for the wider business to evolve.
For example, the team initially wanted to build their own Power App-based ITSM solution rather than use the enterprise ITSM tooling platform. While operationally unrealistic for Phase 1, the idea demonstrated genuine innovation and a desire to improve user experience.
Rather than dismissing these ideas outright, the focus became balancing innovation with operational maturity.
Together, we agreed a pragmatic model:
- Small and medium solutions could follow a streamlined Standard Change process with minimal lead time
- Larger or more complex solutions would require fuller SD&T engagement
- The CoE would initially align to enterprise governance while building evidence for future evolution.
This created a safe framework for agility without compromising operational standards.
Importantly, the developers began to understand that successful enterprise services are not measured only by how quickly they are built, but by how effectively they are supported, adopted, and sustained.
Building Collaboration across the Business
One of the biggest lessons for service architects is that successful transition work is rarely about process alone. It is about relationships.
At the start of the project, there was resistance from multiple areas of the business. Assurance teams felt excluded, operational teams were cautious, and the developers viewed governance as a blocker.
The turning point came through collaboration and inclusion.
A few approaches proved particularly valuable:
- Bring people into the journey early. Instead of waiting for ORR, transition review meetings were held months in advance with stakeholders across SD&T, assurance, operations, and support teams. This allowed concerns to surface early and avoided surprises later.
- Translate process into business value. Technical teams rarely engage with governance terminology alone. Explaining the operational impact, such as poor user experience, unsupported services, or unclear ownership, made ITSM far more relatable.
- Create shared ownership. The appointment of an official Product Owner became critical. Having a senior operational leader aligned with both the business and the developers helped bridge cultural gaps and reduce tension.
- Respect expertise on all sides. The developers brought innovation and technical creativity. Operational teams brought enterprise experience and governance knowledge. The project succeeded when both perspectives were treated as equally valuable.
Learning from Emerging Technology
Perhaps the most important takeaway from this experience is that new technology should challenge existing operating models. Power Platform was unfamiliar territory for the organisation, and naturally that created fear of the unknown. But innovation should not be resisted simply because it is different. Equally, innovation teams should recognise that enterprise governance exists for legitimate reasons.
The organisations that succeed are those willing to learn from both sides:
- Developers learning operational accountability
- Service teams learning how to enable innovation faster
- Businesses evolving processes based on proven outcomes rather than assumptions.
The Power Platform CoE successfully passed operational readiness with only one minor observation before progressing toward final operational readiness and project closure.
More importantly, it demonstrated something bigger than a successful project.
It showed that innovation and ITSM are not opposing forces, they are strongest when they work together.
Rachael Elliot
Rachael is a Principal Consultant at CGI UK. She is a highly experienced and qualified leader in IT operations, service design & transition, and service management. She partners with clients across sectors to deliver insight-led improvements and measurable business outcomes.
