The Skeptical Informer, April 2008, Volume 2, No. 4

Governance is the new kid in town. "Everybody's talkin' 'bout..." In a short period of time, I did an article for Novatica (coming out soon), my local ISACA chapter ran a governance think tank discussion, and ISO/IEC is about to release an IT Governance standard. Just like "management" and "consultant" and many other words, the IT industry is in the process of debasing the word "governance" to the point of meaninglessness.

The new ISO standard will force us to understand what governance isn't, which covers most of the current usage of the word, especially by analysts, commentators, journalists and of course vendors. Just as "managing" now means "doing" and "consulting" means "working", so too "governing" is coming to mean "measuring or monitoring or checking". Which it isn't.

Scuttlebutt: For those who missed it, Ian Clayton and the IT Service Management Institute® (ITSMI) have parted ways. Given Ian's bombastic style (the IT Skeptic is but a pale shadow) I guess it was only a matter of time before this happened, as every Institute needs an aura of conservatism and respectability. It would seem to be in the best interests of both parties, as Ian is free to say what he thinks and ITSMI can cosy up to the establishment. They'll need to sort out between them as to just who founded the Institute though... (Ian can now be found at Service Management 101)

This is a busy month for the IT Skeptic, attending the itSMF Netherlands conference. That may not sound like a big deal for you Northern Hemisphericals, but for we Antipodeans it is a long trek: 36 hours each way to be exact. Add a day to at least begin recovering from jetlag, and a couple of days to look around since I've never been outside the international zone in Amsterdam airport, and suddenly there is a whole chunk of April gone. As soon as I get back, my son and I will make our annual trip into the Southern Alps, so there's the rest of the month trashed. All this is the long way of saying sorry there is no review of comments from the blog this month. Please contact me if this deeply upsets you.