ITIL is not alone

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2009-03-26 20:28

The ITSM body of knowledge is fragmenting. ITIL is still the 600-pound gorilla, but it is less lonely, for a number of reasons.

Open Source is political: Blows Against The Empire

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2009-03-23 20:32
Open Source product groups are occasionally highly politically motivated - frankly some come from a socialist/anarchist viewpoint of wanting to bring down the evil capitalist system. Whilst I realise that capitalism has an image problem right now, open source tools will never prosper in business until they get aboard business.

The IT Skeptic Looks at ITIL V2 and V3 CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2009-03-22 07:25

The IT Skeptic Looks at CMDB - cover Out now, a new book The IT Skeptic Looks at CMDB

Available on Amazon for $9.95+p&p, this book lays out the IT Skeptic's arguments against CMDB as defined in ITIL. Get yourself a concise, structured discussion of why CMDB is a bad idea for most businesses, and what the alternatives are. Wave this book around at the next meeting!

There is a podcast summarising this book.

dev2ops blog

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-03-21 22:53

It's not often you find an ITSM blog that is thoughtful, useful, knowledgeable, suitably skeptical, and NOT written to regurgitate basic ITIL descritpions or to advance the ego of the blogger. (How many of those does the IT Skeptic fail on?). The dev2ops blog has been around for a couple of years, quietly providing value. The fact that it is focused on the trendy new infrastructure like cloud etc should not put you off. Much of it is just as applicable to the overlaps between development and operations in the real world. And it's a good read.

Should you spend the money on ITIL V3 certification?

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2009-03-21 18:38

There is a distinction between education and certification. If you want to learn about ITIL you can do that in several ways. If you want a certificate to say you have studied ITIL, is it worth it?

McKinsey on how CIOs should think about business value

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2009-03-19 22:52

For those who can afford $150 annual subscription this McKinsey article looks useful: How CIOs should think about business value.

(Incidentally you will get at least as much value for your money from a McKinsey premium subscription as you will by paying TWENTY FIVE times that much for ITIL Live. Makes an interesting comparison doesn't it?)

For those who are skint like me McKinsey kindly give a lot away from their teasers:

A new ITIL V3 online product changes the game

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2009-03-18 20:48

I don't normally "plug" products but this one is interesting because it puts a cat amongst the pigeons: Van Haren's Best Practice Online, the five ITIL V3 books online in full for fifty Euros per year. [update: this product has been withdrawn. here's why]

The IT Skeptic podcasts

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2009-03-18 20:00

The IT Skeptic seeks feedback on my podcasts.

Dreaming on a cloud - migration as an obstacle to cloud computing: an IT Skeptic Special Report

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2009-03-18 08:25

The IT Skeptic will look closer at cloud computing in 2009 - the concept seems to need some skeptical scrutiny. Or rather the concept is a pointer to the future, but the vendor hype around the present seems on shakier ground. Quite simply the idea is impractical in most business contexts. It is yet another technical solution to a business problem. Such technical solutions to non-technical problems often don't solve the original problem at all, tend to introduce more of their own, and almost invariably introduce greater complexity to be managed, but IT loves them. They offer a silver bullet OOTB fix to take the pain away - hard to resist. So it is with The Cloud. Take for example migration of existing applications.

How long will the IT recession last?

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2009-03-16 07:06

Newsflash for internet writers: The recession isn't over. It hasn't even really got going yet. Stop trying to talk the market back up. It doesn't work for real estate agents and it doesn't work for IT. Get real.

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