The Skeptical Informer, May 2007, Volume 1, No. 4

I don't think I'm obsessed. I am, in effect, a journalist. Not that I chose to be but that is another story. There is a huge vacuum of open discussion and debate around ITIL that this blog seeks to fill. The Refresh is the big story, the topic on everybody's lips right now, so I report it. Or maybe I'm obsessed. Let the readers judge.


I'd like to get onto some other topics actually but OGC and itSMF keep alternately leaving this void and then providing me all this great material. I look forward very much to the ITIL world becoming so boring that I can look at other topics on this blog, and go do a few other projects that might pay better :-)


You imply that I am delving into unimportant minutae. Tell that to the Japanese and the Canadians. I for one would be interested in the reasoning behind the change [of countries for the launch roadshow] and I bet they would too. It's called "transparency".

That is this month's theme, transparency: whether it be transparency of the process of creating ITIL V3; transparency of the decision-making processes behind ITIL; transparency of the governance of the vested interests feeding off ITIL; or transparency of governance of the association which is supposedly owned by us, its members (even if it does not, by definition, exist to represent our interests).



For those who wonder what the hell I am on about, go see if you can answer the following seemingly simple questions:

1. What are training vendors supposed to say to people who ask them for V2 training?
2. What are the new consistent rules for accreditation of training organisations for V3?
3. On what basis were the seven countries for the launch selected? Ask to see the minutes of meetings of the Board of your organisation, the itSMF, or of any other body runnign ITIL
4. What is the formal commercial relationship between OGC and itSMF and between TSO and itSMF? On what basis is itSMF organising the worldwide launch of V3 instead of OGC?
5. Why do the eight Global itSMF members (all poor, down-on-their-luck international mega-corporations) get deep discounts on V3 that go a long way towards paying back their subscription, while local branches carry the burden of servicing their staff without reimbursement from itSMFI?
6. What are the allegations against itSMF USA's last Board elections? How long has the Board really known about them before finally being forced to act?
7. What were the vote counts by IPESC for the V3 books, and what were the comments and discussions around them by the people who represent we itSMF members?
8. How was the architecture of V3 derived from the 400+ submissions? Can we see the submissions to draw our own conclusions about what the user community wanted?
9. What were the views of the reviewers of V3?
10. Where are the annual report and audited accounts of itSMFI?
11. Given that TSO is now a private operation owned by German banks, what is their contribution to the costs of the V3 Launch?

There is plenty more where that came from. The culture of ITIL's various organisations is trapped in the bureaucratic, secretive, patronising mindset of its origins. When ITIL is eventually displaced or absorbed by what comes next, one of the driving forces of the new model will be the open, inclusive, community-focused culture of the 21st Century. The new kids don't stand for that crap.



And the internet renders it impossible. I hope my blog will help prove that.

Editor's note: if you are new to the Skeptical Informer, the quirky nature pictures are in support of ITIL Version 3's nature-themed graphic designs