Introduction

Scope, purpose, audience, and foundational context for the Open Agentic ITSM Framework

The Problem This Framework Addresses

ITSM practice was built for a specific operating context: human analysts reading queues, applying judgment, executing steps, and documenting outcomes. The frameworks, metrics, roles, and governance models that govern IT operations today were all designed with that context as a given.

That context has changed.

Agentic AI systems do not assist humans in performing ITSM work. They perform ITSM work. They detect anomalies before users report them. They correlate incidents across infrastructure layers in seconds. They execute remediation workflows, update configuration records, draft knowledge articles, manage approval chains, and close tickets, all without waiting for a human to initiate each step. In early enterprise deployments, organizations are already reporting reductions in Tier 1 ticket volume of 60 to 90 percent and mean-time-to-resolution dropping from hours to single-digit minutes (Kolagani, 2024).

This is not a feature upgrade to existing ITSM platforms. It is a structural shift in who, or what, performs ITSM work. Every process, role, governance model, and metric that assumes a human at every decision point must be reconsidered.

The ITSM community has no shared, open standard for how to navigate that reconsidering. This framework is that standard.

Scope

The Open Agentic ITSM Framework addresses the transformation of IT Service Management practices as agentic AI becomes an active participant in ITSM workflows. It covers twelve core ITSM practice domains as defined by ITIL 4, along with the application design standards, governance requirements, and measurement models that enable and govern agentic participation.

In scope:

• All twelve ITSM practice domains: Incident Management, Problem Management, Change Enablement, Service Request Management, Configuration Management, IT Asset Management, Knowledge Management, Service Level Management, Capacity and Performance Management, Availability Management, IT Service Continuity Management, and Release and Deployment Management
• Application design standards for agentic environments (Agentic First, API First, Automation First)
• Agent governance: access, audit, human-in-the-loop, accountability
• Agentic adoption measurement
• Community governance for the framework itself

Out of scope:

• ITSM platform selection or vendor evaluation
• AI model selection or benchmarking
• IT Operations Management (ITOM) practices beyond their intersection with ITSM
• Application Management and development lifecycle practices beyond their direct interface with ITSM agents
• Certification, credentialing, or compliance determination

Relationship to Existing Frameworks

This framework extends and adapts established frameworks; it does not replace them.

ITIL 4 provides the organizing structure for ITSM practice domains and the Service Value System reference architecture that this framework adapts for the agentic context. Organizations already working within ITIL 4 will find this framework compatible and additive.

TOGAF informs the structural organization of this framework. The distinction between Fundamental Content (core principles, models, and domain guidance) and Series Guides (specific application guidance) mirrors how TOGAF separates stable, foundational concepts from context-specific application.

OpenAPI and similar open standards provide the governance model precedent: a vendor-neutral, community-governed specification that any organization or vendor may implement, extend, or build upon without restriction.

This framework does not require prior adoption of ITIL 4 or any other framework. Its guidance is applicable to any organization managing IT services, regardless of which frameworks they currently use.

Audience

IT leaders and architects who need a strategic framework for evaluating and planning agentic AI adoption across their ITSM practice. This framework provides the conceptual foundation and domain-level detail to inform investment decisions, operating model design, and governance structures.

ITSM practitioners and process owners who need to understand what changes within their specific domain as agentic AI is introduced. The domain pages in Section 4 are their primary reference.

Technology vendors and platform builders who need a shared vocabulary and design standard for building interoperable agentic ITSM capabilities. The Application Design Standards in Section 5 and the Governance model in Section 7 define the requirements that agent implementations must satisfy to be considered framework-aligned.

Consultants and advisors who guide organizations through ITSM transformation and need a vendor-neutral reference to anchor their practice.

Framework contributors who want to extend, improve, or apply this guidance and contribute their experience back to the community.

How This Framework Is Organized

The framework follows a TOGAF-inspired structure with two layers:

Fundamental Content covers the concepts that remain stable regardless of organizational context or technology choices:

• Guiding Principles (Section 1)
• Evolution of IT Operations (Section 2)
• Agentic Service Value Model (Section 3)
• Domain Analysis across all twelve ITSM practices (Section 4)
• Application Design Standards (Section 5)

Applied Guidance covers the practical requirements for operating, measuring, and governing agentic ITSM programs:

• Metrics and Measurement (Section 6)
• Agent Governance (Section 7)
• Vendor Landscape Reference (Section 8, community-maintained)

Intellectual Property Statement

All content in this framework is independently derived and offered to the public without IP encumbrance. Contributors to this framework agree that their contributions are made freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, without assertion of proprietary rights over the contributed content.

This framework incorporates observations and analysis drawn from publicly available research, industry publications, and practitioner experience. Where specific sources are cited, attribution is provided. No contributor may incorporate proprietary, confidential, or IP-encumbered material from any third party into this framework without explicit written permission from the rights holder and disclosure to the community.

See the IP Policy for the full contributor IP agreement.

References

Dumas, M., Milani, F., & Chapela-Campa, D. (2026). Agentic Business Process Management Systems. arXiv preprint arXiv.18833.

Kolagani, S. H. D. (2024). Agentic Automation and Work Flow Orchestration in Enterprise SaaS: Effects on Ticket Resolution Time and Employee Productivity in IT Service Management. International Journal of Science and Advanced Technology (IJSAT), 15(4).

Maes, S. H. (2026). Agentic Smart ITIL, And The Disruption Of The Market Of Conventional Enterprise Applications. Stephane H. Maes’ Blog on WordPress / Multi-Agent Research Notes.