5 questions for John M. Willis

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2008-10-29 08:14

John M. Willis, a.k.a. Botchagalupe, or possibly a close associate of Botchagalupe, asked me to answer five questions which he posted on his blog, and to ask five questions in return. Here are my five questions for John. He works on Tivoli with Big Blue but if you can get past the vendor thing :-D John is a battle-scarred warrior of IT operations with a suitably hard-bitten view of the world that aligns well with my skeptical outlook. Enjoy his responses:

ITSM Watch reaches new skeptical heights on CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2008-10-28 21:36

ITSM Watch might do me out of business soon... but it is great to see some good IT skepticism. [Updated: fixed a link]

What's wrong with multichoice exams for ITIL V3?

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2008-10-28 07:28

APMG and the ITIL Qualifications Board are insisting on using multi-choice exams to certify ITIL V3 competence for Intermediate and Expert level qualifications. We have discussed this already across the blog but allow me to summarise the arguments against it here.

Crap Factoid Alert: one third of sites have completed a CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2008-10-23 19:49

Here is a high Crap Factoid alert from Chokey the Chimp:
We recently demolished the EMA paper on CMDB adoption but nevertheless the paper in question is being misquoted by bITaPlanet as saying that "there’s been a dramatic jump in the number of companies that have completed their CMDB, from just 9 percent in 2006 to one-third in 2008". This is nonsense but it is nonsense that is now turning up elsewhere. Be on alert and keep the CFirehose ready.

ITSM is over half a million people

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2008-10-22 21:19

Some recent stats point to lots of ITIL practitioners worldwide.

Recession Recession Recession Recession Recession Recession Recession Recession

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2008-10-22 20:31

Come on people, say it: "recession". Enough of "these troubled times" and "the current conditions". Stop tiptoeing around and face up to what will certainly be the biggest recession in our working careers and in the worst case the first depression since the 30s. Euphemisms only mask the problem and retard preparations. Batten down the hatches. And don't expect business as usual for ITIL.

COBIT Certified Service Manager: a cat amongst the ITIL pigeons

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2008-10-21 22:05

Here's hoping the upcoming (any day now, apparently) COBIT User's Guide for Service Managers is closely followed by a certification. Imagine "COBIT Certified Service Manager". Wouldn't that put a cat amongst the ITIL pigeons?

ITIL V3 Certification via online training is back on again

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2008-10-20 21:59

[This post has been rewritten. I got it wrong and it contained errors of fact. So one or two of the comments don't quite follow on from the revised text]

Call of a crow!!* What is going on in Castle ITIL? Is there a battle royal between vendor factions? The whole V3 Certification thing is lurching around like a pantomime donkey where the front guy has flatulence. e-learning is now in the syllabus (I am told but cannot confirm that it was not explicitly specified previously). This leads to a dire prediction for ATOs if Castle ITIL decides to cut out the middleman...

ITIL V3 love takes time

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2008-10-20 21:24

The IT Skeptic is not anti-ITIL V3. ITSM View suggests "There are plenty out there that are seemingly wanting to derail ITIL v3". I'm not one of them. Nor can I think of anyone who is. That blog post has the heading "Where is the love?". Let us not confuse reluctance to leap immediately into bed with active animosity.

The IT Skeptic rates five pineapples

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2008-10-20 08:33

One of our readers, Red Pineapple over at Thinking Problem Management posted a list of "blogs that rock" and was nice enough to rate the IT Skeptic at five pineapples, the highest rating so far.. or maybe the lowest, since pineapples represent problems (stickly and prickly see?). Check out the list - there are lots of interesting sites.

On the other hand David Wheeldon's statement that this (the Skeptic's) blog is "bollocks" is currently showing as "confirmed" on Red's myth-busting poll so not everyone agrees with Red :-D

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