ITIL | The IT Skeptic

Separation of incident and call

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-09-12 19:36

From time to time, a consultant is in the position of explaining and justifying fundamentals. Recently I was describing how incidents are not the same thing as calls, that every call is not a new incident if the same user has already called about the same incident previously, that it is more effective to record the call history on the same incident. I went to three sources of "best practice" for support - there isn't any.

OGC revising ITIL again

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2009-09-11 07:05

Just when I asked whether there was any change to ITIL V3 books, out comes Project requirements for an update to the ITIL® core publications. OGC say "scope of change is gradual and not too extensive." We've heard that before.

ITIL V3 Service Operation disconnect between Incident and Problem Management

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2009-09-07 08:40

There seems to be a major disconnect between ITIL V3 Incident and Problem Management.

Pass the ITIL Foundation exam in six easy and (almost) free steps

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-09-05 05:42

If you know something about IT operations (not just development) and your IQ is in triple figures then passing the ITIL Foundation exam should be no big deal and no big investment. (If in doubt, read the testimonials in the comments below). Follow these ~~six~~ ~~nine~~ ~~eight~~ seven steps:
[updated 14/4/2015 ]

Confusion around Best Practice in ITIL - Foundation exams questions unfair

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2009-08-30 06:03

Recently I sat the ITIL V3 Foundation exam. Studying for it, sample questions show that there is now officially a distinction between "best practice" and "good practice" and it is worth a point in the exam to know the difference (and it was!). But I don't know how a student is expected to know about that distinction in meaning. In fact I think the questions are totally unfair.

Is ITIL KEDB so important or should we always look broader?

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2009-08-18 01:34

A discussion on LinkedIn prompted me to comment that KEDB is a subset of knowledge management for service desk. I think it is important to take a broader view and provide access to more general information about solutions to incidents and resolutions to requests, not just workarounds to known errors. I've seen folk micro-design that one bit without considering a more generally useful system. I never quite understood why ITIL seems fixated on KEDB, giving it a disproportionate amount of attention vis-a-vis the more general support knowledgebase. Thoughts?

Confused change management in ITIL V3

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2009-08-16 10:35

I believe ITIL has aspirations beyond its station. ITIL is an operational framework for IT production environments. So long as it knows its place and sticks to it, all is well. But every now and then it gets an inflated view of its own importance and starts poking into the development aspects of IT, or worse still the strategic ones. This is an example of the latter, where the book is confused between operational and strategic aspects of change. The forums are littered with confused postings.

Say it ain't so!! ITIL V3 Incident and Problem processes do not determine the affected service

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2009-08-12 03:15

This BOKKE (body of knowledge known error) has been posted for a day or so, hundreds of views. I was sure someone would say "no you idiot, service impact analysis is right here" but not one. It seems to be true.

Does ITIL V3 Intermediate certification need reform?

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2009-08-02 09:18

Memo

To: the ITIL qualifications/certifications/training industry

From: we the unrepresented punters paying for this circus, a.k.a. candidates

Subject: one more pissed off customer

How to find free ITIL V3 Foundation training

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2009-07-30 22:11

Update: sadly, these videos have gone from YouTube
Personally I find learning from online videos even harder than learning from online webpages ("ooh look an incoming email..."), but for those of you who can stomach death-by-video this might be a good option for you to study free for your ITIL V3 Foundation course. This post has compiled and sorted a bunch of videos created by Marco Cattaneo and alerted me to the set, but you can also access them on Marco's own playlist on YouTube.