Great insights into process

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-02-07 20:34

Today I'd like to share with you a quote from someone I consider the greatest business thinker since Drucker, greater even than the authors of Service Strategy. I am of course referring to Scott Adams.

IT Skeptic site worth assessed

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2009-02-06 07:12

There is a website that provides a commercial resale value for URLs. I'm delighted to learn that this blog's URL, itskeptic.org

The itSMF website misses basic information

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2009-02-03 08:23

Whether you are a newcomer to itSMF or a member, there are some fundamental things the itSMF International website does not tell you.

Delivery of COBIT User's Guide for Service Managers is slipping waiting on ITIL approval?

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-01-31 00:13

Delivery date for the COBIT User's Guide for Service Managers has slipped to "first quarter of 2009". (You may recall the IT Skeptic suggested this book will "put a cat amongst the ITIL pigeons").

The IT Swami's Predictions for 2009 and ITSM in Recession

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2009-01-25 07:28

The IT SwamiThe IT SwamiLate last night as I worked at my computer, I looked up at a sound in the normally quiet cul de sac that houses Two Hills World Headquarters Tower. From the back door of a police car tumbled the IT Swami, closely followed by his swag, which appeared to have been hurled rather than just fell. The police car then drove off while he picked himself up and examined himself for broken bones, or perhaps it was just some exotic late-night yoga - he does subscribe to strange practices.

In a familiar routine, I raced downstairs to hide the good whisky and cognac before he got to the doorbell. I slipped the smaller ornaments into a cupboard and put the kettle on. I knew he would need a coffee to sober him up.

Terminological debasement: a committee becomes a board

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2009-01-21 08:16

In a recent announcement from APMG, the IT Skeptic identifies a troubling new terminological debasement trend. Apparently a committee is now a board. We had the Combined Strategy Board, the ITIL Qualifications Board. Now we have the Foundation Review Project Board. Come to think of it, ITIL has been doing this for a while: since when was a CAB anything but a committee?

Crap Factoid Alert 370 percent ROI from ITSM

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2009-01-20 10:28

Chokey the Chimp warns of a moderate Crap Factoid in the wild, with our old friends at BMC claiming a 370 percent ROI over 30 months on implementation of BMC's ITSM v7. One would struggle to swallow that kind of number from any business case, but given BMC's recent high-level bullshitting, Chokey definitely calls "CRAP!".

ITIL Prime

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2009-01-19 23:10

It has come to my attention that somebody is claiming that ITIL Prime was one of the sites removed from this blog for copyright violation in their ITIL Foundation exam preparation questions. This is entirely untrue. If I find out who started this rumour I hope for the opportunity to discuss it with the perpetrator out back in a carpark. Not only is the allegation untrue but it is clearly false on two counts:

  • we list only free sites - ITIL Prime is by subscription
  • we clearly state the sites were subsequently taken down as a result of my complaint to their hosting company

The CMDB Federation is a brilliant piece of vendor marketing smokescreen

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2009-01-15 09:21

[Updated May 2009] The CMDB Federation standards initiative must be the most over-hyped vendor marketing smokescreen ever. Whenever anyone raises the bogeyman of proprietary CMDBs, the vendors wheel this one out as the future promise of interoperability. It is pure vendor double-talk. It solves little and is taking forever to appear anyway. It solves little because the standard defines only how management tools can pass data between them- nothiong about what they pass. I bet the much-trumpeted demos seen so far involved data massaging and informal backroom agreements beyond that dictated by the standard in order to get it all to work. I am highly skeptical (surpise!) about the likelihood that this standard would enable or even faciltiate anything useful in a real-world implementation.

The Pillars of ITIL

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2009-01-09 14:53

ITIL started out as just the books, but it is much more today: it is a movement, a professional group, and an industry. A great deal of activity goes on in promotion and support of ITIL worldwide. Much of it is ungoverned and ad-hoc. There are many pillars of the house of ITIL and OGC governs and manages only four.

Syndicate content