I’ve also given a lot of thought on how to join the lean values of agile with the accepted practices of ITIL. One of the biggest barriers to this, however, is the entrenched operations staff who view agile as the “new kid on the block” - not to be taken seriously, or, even worse, something which rocks the boat.

ITIL exists because the establishment takes extreme care of their infrastructure and their processes. It provides a secure starting point for a lot of IT staff to get their hands around difficult IT issues. But we all know that getting comfortable eventually means getting lazy.

Agile + ITIL is the best of both worlds - ensuring that there are no “established” processes by constantly challenging accepted beliefs and demanding continuous improvement. The points you listed are spot on!