This month I return to the approach of picking the most interesting comments from across the blog, and I am going to try to restrain myself to cherry picking instead of harvesting. This is not easy: I have often considered some sort of award for the best comment of the month but the quality of comments on this blog is so high I can never pick a winner. Thank-you to all the excellent contributors.

People

INFORMATION vs. RELATIONSHIPS | J J Prunty
...organizations don't run on information. They run on relationships - relationships with members, customers and suppliers and relationships between peers and colleagues. Information matters; but it's the quality of the relationships through which information is exchanged that ultimately determines the success of an organization...The mission is now shifting from "networks" - that enable people to better communicate to "worknets" that become a new organizational medium to innovate...
Codswallop | Lite Headed
...ITIL 3 has gone off into the life cycle of a service and along with most things has not paid sufficient attention to people, if we got the psychology correct then the need for process and rules would diminish...
Any project needs a business justification | derry
...ITIL is like Communism/Socialism - it is the greatest thing on the planet on paper and makes perfect sense. BUT...start involving people in it and the whole thing inevitably becomes corrupt - because people are corrupt, want power and influence, and don't want a service to work as basking in reflected glory isn't half as fun as, or full of kudos as, being Red Adair.
Why does the World Wide Web work? | Charles T. Betz
If it is the basis of human nature not to want to follow rules, why does the Web work?...I'd suggest it is because of a minimal number of non-optional constraints, coupled with an obvious value proposition....It's not about the process. It's about the benefits that become obvious through following the process...
Improving should be part of the job | ITMaturity
...Improvement programs are challenging, when you make it a program. When it is part of the day-to-day work to improve efficiency (first task, how to create time for further improvement) then it becomes much easier...
[and much more GREAT stuff on cultural change and process improvement on that thread]

iPhone

Myndless | MySvcMon
...I have an iPhone...the web experience is still likely to make you blind...
You can't pull a cow through a drainpipe | skeptic
You can't pull a cow through a drainpipe. The millions of WAP-enabled phones in the world have already proved that.
I've already got a phone that plays mp3 and browses the internet. As you say BFD. My phone has a 3.5" screen. And runs Windows. And it is too small to do business on. The iPhone doesn't change jack.
The iPhone | Alan Nance (not verified)
...Let's not knock marketing to the uninformed as a way to change the game and Apple does that better than anyone else...
[and much more discussion of the iPhone on that thread, for the three of you who haven't heard more than enough about the iPhone already]

CMDB

There is a difference between skepticism and cynicism | Charles T. Betz
"The whole idea of a system as large as SAP is a geek's fantasy, an idealist's nonsense." Oh -wait a minute - what was their stock price again? Some of these comments are crossing the line and don't seem very well informed...
Any project needs a business justification | skeptic
...You and I have debated this point before. I don't say CMDB can't be done in the physical sense; I say it can't be done within reasonable and justifiable expenditure of money and resources. Anything is possible. We can put a man on the moon but I wouldn't advise any company do it as an advertising stunt...
Public statement about IT management controls! | cotswolddave
...People manage despite lack of data, lack of process, lack of clear roles etc. - they still do their best with or without a CMDB. It takes a marketeer to say that grey is actually the brilliant white we have been looking for. With a reasonable CMDB implementation things are slightly whiter...
[and plenty more on CMDB on that thread]

ITIL3

small and silent changes | avallesalas
Suddenly, something has shocked me: ¡¡ they are talking about Service Management!! not about "IT Service Management"...we can now change the whole name of this thing from ITIL to SIL (Service Infrastructure Library)
ITIL v3 Relevance...everything old is new again | Glen Notman (not verified)
...If you used the whole library in the past, the new library is an evolution of a concept. But if you thought ITIL was just Service Support and Service Delivery, then you are having a paradigm shift...does anyone out there see a driving business case or desire for the Strategic elements[?]
Trick is to invite more people to the party | Jonathan Walls (not verified)
The new content in ITIL v3 is not new information in the marketplace - just new to the framework. Wise companies and vendors will look to experienced staff (irrespective of whether they have an ITIL background or not) to fill the strategy boxes, and use the ITIL v3 framework to set the context for discussions. Any strategist worth paying money for should not have a problem taking the Service Strategy book and using it as a starting point to present their standard consulting / planning approach in a light well suited to IT management...Yes, some people from an ITIL background are going to end up trying to teach experts in e.g. enterprise architecture to suck eggs, and will do themselves and their companies no favours in doing so...
And those tied to tools/technology | Langbard (not verified)
...claims of 'look we can implement our Cure/Hunting Bird software and that will help you do Strategy at board level' are going to look pretty silly. My guess is that the big consulting firms (who already have plenty of C level access) will simply remarket their current offerings as 'ITIL v3 conforming' and use their board level influence to sell them...
More than semantics | jimbo
...If you have consultants continuously on site over a period of years you might want to question what they are doing. If, on the other hand, they spend three months a year working with you then that's probably a good sign.
Indicator of what? | Visitor (not verified)
...Someone forgot to tell the ITSM community that, between 1993 and 1999, TQM fell from the third most commonly used business tool to the 14th, and declining fast. (The disaster called BPR speaks for itself.) I’m not disappointed ITILv3 did not further embrace this legacy...
Buy the ITIL3 books | ITMaturity
When ITIL2 was launched it got a lot of criticism from the community: we just started to implement ITIL1. The books were not particularly well written...Looking on the discussions on ITIL3 reminds me of that time as well. Pretty soon there were other, better, writers that wrote comprehensive books on ITIL and those became popular...

proof

The nature of proof | Visitor (not verified)
- Confirmation bias/errors: we focus on pre-selected segments of the observed and generalize it to the unobserved. "If org performance improves after an ITIL implementation, then ITIL raises org performance."
- The narrative fallacy: we fool ourselves with false causality because it makes sense and fills our thirst for a good story, as Taleb explained. "The ten most successful CIOs implemented ITIL. Ergo, if you want to be a successful CIO, implement ITIL."
...if someone is putting necks on the line with models that take risks by predicting something that can be proven wrong, I'd call that science.

Certification

Liz Gallacher Freelance | Liz Gallacher
I have always been able to say that people leave with a practical next step in mind, about how they will apply it back at the ranch. V3 does not and will not give them that. If the Foundation course had been extended by a day, we could have covered it all properly. I have very real concerns that companies will not see the value in the training any more...As for the managers certificate being replaced , and complex multiple-choice being the new approach...it should not be too much to ask that an expensive managers qualification means that the holder is able to respond to the sort of requests they might get in their workplace...
I really hope I'm right. | skeptic
...it is high time the IT industry in general and ITIL in particular had some robust qualifications beyond some facile multi-choice at the end of a few days lecturing labelled as training. Oh wait, that's what they've turned the Manager's into isn't it? I had a lot of respect for the fact that the old Manager's exam was one of the few real exams in the industry. Now we've dumbed it down to the illiteracy levels of the new market: the USA...
bachelor of ITSM | jvbon
...In the Netherlands we've already seen several bachelor and higher curriculae for IT Service Management since a couple of years...
What about the pin? | Ray (not verified)
...I'm not sure the certification is that important to me. I'll let you know if I retain that view after losing a contract because of v3 certification.
We'll know the new pin colours soon | skeptic
..the day I get my Manager's cert is the day
a) I can't get work without one and
b) there isn't a cheaper and more effective use of funds to get work
Yanks have the attention span of a TV commercial | skeptic
When i did my V2 Foundation - from Pink Elephant - it was 3 days. It is only in recent years it has been shortened to two by some providers in some countries. Since this seemed to coincide with the expansion of the US market, the cynic in me says this is because Yanks have the attention span of a TV commercial. (Ever notice how American TV programs - especially the "hard" ones like documentaries - explain the story so far all over again after a commercial break. Why is that?)
[Actually although I can never resist insulting my American friends, I wonder if the dumbing down of V3 certification is more driven by a desire to increase sales than any specific characteristics of the Amerrican market...perhaps]
V3 Foundation Flaws | Visitor (not verified)
...V2 [Foundation] therefore follows the curve and reflects what's actually happening. V3 Foundation unfortunately places everybody in the same boat and becomes a theoretical exercise with no context or link back to the real world. It is all theory with no anchors nor, from what I can see, does it necessarily reflect best practice. It has become an exercise in 'wouldn't it be great if...'...
And where does this go next? | HenryGale
...Considering the push by 'the powers that be' to encourage the idea of the IT Professional, an individual who takes recognised qualifications that are understood and respected in the market place, this has frankly made our 'profession' look distinctly amateurish, as we cannot even be seen to agree a suitable measure for our own skills.
[and much more great discussion of certification on that thread]

itSMF

don't be too hard on itSMF | skeptic
don't be too hard on itSMF, leastways not until we have the full story. lots of volunteer orgs run on trust. My recent experiences with ISACA suggest that itSMF has been a bit more casual than others but historically that was part of the charm of ITIL. it is easy to see how the stakes could creep higher and higher and catch the organisation unawares when the inevitable corruption seeps in. And right now we are looking at one rogue... Who's to say this is unique to itSMF? And why not be more disappointed with whoever scammed their way onto the board than with those who were trusting enough to let it happen?...
[yes it was really me who said this]
Not likely... | kengon
...about being hard on itSMF USA -- by paying my dues, I have a right to be as hard as I want. At some point, I may decide to send my dollars and attention elsewhere...

And...

I'm turning into a post-modernist | skeptic
"A model will always be the model-builder's view of reality."??? Arrgh! Help me Mommy, I'm turning into a post-modernist!!

Tablets of Stone | Lite Headed
...there needs to be some investigation into Moses’ influence on ISO 20000, where did all that ‘thou shall’ come from?

TO ALL THOSE WHO COMMENT ON BOKKED | skeptic
please also vote on BOKKEs so they will float up or down. Just click the stars. You need to login or register to rate items: sorry for the inconvenience but I'm a little sensitive about vote stacking at the moment :-D
...Please also rate the BOKKEs so the ones we all disagree with or think wrong or trivial will sink. (I will be on the lookout for dummy voting - there's a bit of that going around)

Skeptical Empiricist | Visitor (not verified)
If the reply begins with something like, "Well, in my 20 years of experience...", the following quote has a nasty habit of coming to mind:

"But in all my experience, I have never been in any accident...of any sort speaking about. I have seen but one vessel in distress in all my years at sea. I never saw a wreck and never have been wrecked not was I ever in any predicament that threated to end in disaster of any sort."

E. J. Smith, 1907, Captain, RMS Titanic

This article has been podcast

OK I'll bite. One of the nice folk at Evergreen, Jill Landers, posted "Top 10 reasons to implement a CMDB". I'll do the right thing and not quote it in full here so you need to go read that first. Then you can enjoy my "Top 10 reasons NOT to implement CMDB"

This post has been podcast
ITIL Version 3 tells us how to run, whilst ITIL version 2 tells us how to walk. Many sites are only ready to learn to walk, so what then to do about the good ideas introduced in Version 3? Do we add a little 3 to the mix? or will that only cause confusion?

[Updated] ITIL V3 Foundations is clearly designed to meet business requirements of those who will be selling it. Does it also meet the needs of those paying good money to attend? Let the debate begin.

Here was I worrying about whether I had enough ®s on my ITILs, while out there on eBay there are people perpetrating the most appalling copyright violations and abuses of trademark. Here are a couple of examples. To the two thousand or so of you who bought stuff from these guys: SHAME!