V3

Pierre Bernard over at Pink Elephant had a "personal rant" about "people «complaining» about the ITIL® V3 scheme" and "much negativity presently in various blogs and social media sites about the ITIL® v3 scheme". That'd be me, for one, so I feel compelled to comment.

itSMF International have released a remarkably frank document describing the ITIL V3 Update. It's also a bit odd: it carries the banner of itSMFI but it is unsigned and undated. And it doesn't answer the question it poses: "ITIL® V3 Update, what are the benefits?"

APMG have done the right thing by publishing the assessment criteria for ITIL compliance. I was tempted to say they had no option because the arrangement was so absurd. And it probably was the silliest thing in the ITIL world

It is confirmed from multiple sources that APMG have raised the number of students per instructor for ITIL V3 Intermediate courses from 12 to 18. [Update: well strictly speaking I shouldn't blame APMG, it is the almost invisible IQB, the murky body that represents all the snouts at the trough of training (and not to be confused with itSMFI's International Qualifications & Certifications ESC - the IQC)]. This is clearly recognition that ITIL V3 certification is not about teaching people anything, and will serve only to reduce the perceived market value of an ITIL Intermediate certification. Add to that the fact that this has not been announced to the public (as far as I can detect) and you can see that ITIL certification is all about the industry not the customer.

OGC released a Second Edition of The Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle Book on 12th May. It is too soon for this to be part of the "v3.1" ITIL Update. So is it a major revision? No errata, no change-log (of this book), no way of knowing if you need to buy an updated version or not. This isn't Mills and Boone - these are reference books. The lack of information is ridiculous.

Some time ago I purchased the official OGC ITIL book Building an ITIL-Based Service Management Department but I have not got around to reviewing it until now. Part of my slowness stems from my disappointment with the book, and partly I was holding off to see what others thought. I hold Malcolm Fry in high regard: I expected much better and I wondered if maybe I had missed something. Apparently not.

Fresh out of the pan today, the Scope and Development Plan: ITIL® V3 Update is released. (Thanks Liz for the tip!) I'm getting ready to leave for the Pink Elephant conference in Las Vegas (see you there! Come to my sessions, or see me in booth 203), so I may not get time to comment on this document. We all welcome your comments - leave them here.

TSO has appointed the four "mentors" for the ITIL Refresh Refresh (thanks servicesphere)

APMG have annnounced the ITIL Master certification.

Today we have a guest post from Peter Gerritsen who has written a letter to the ITIL Qualifications Board proposing some changes to the ITIL V3 qualifications scheme. I told him he has a snowflake's chance in Hell given what they went through to get the scheme to this point (I have plenty of experience of hammering on the doors of Castle ITIL). We are interested in your views: