The IT Skeptic - culture

how much nice is too much?

skeptic — Sun, 14 Jul 2019 09:58:46 +0000

How much nice is too much?

Climate change

skeptic — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 19:55:52 +0000

Media are awash with hysterical (and not as in funny) misinterpretations of the recent IPCC report, all of them along the lines of "we have 12 years to save the world". I'm as concerned about climate change as anyone, but the apocalyptic bullshit over the latest IPCC report only discredits the real science. It's not saying anything like we have only 12 years to save the world.

Two questions to ask

skeptic — Tue, 04 Apr 2017 19:29:55 +0000

Here are two questions you can ask yourself, or you can ask any person or team, to challenge them to change the way they work:

Can you show how your work will be better in a year?
We want to know whether there is any improvement programme, or any bandwidth for improvements, or even any culture based on improvement.
Can you keep working in this way indefinitely?

The corporate yoke

skeptic — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 04:19:32 +0000

The symbolism of a company-branded lanyard and ID card hung around my neck is too potent for me. I'll do all I can to avoid wearing it. When the only option proffered is a logo-covered lanyard - no belt clip option - it says it all to me.

Don't try to change culture

skeptic — Sat, 05 Jul 2014 12:10:35 +0000

Should you try to change culture?

Fix change not ITIL

skeptic — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 22:03:04 +0000

Fix the way we change ITSM behaviours, not the models of that behaviour. ITIL is near enough.

Runaway emotion

skeptic — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 15:12:23 +0000

Business is not about emotion. That is not to say it has no place for it. Business is about humans interacting to a common and productive purpose, so clearly emotion has a place. But it shouldn't rule us. We make a space for intuition, instinct and passion, but we structure and guide business with rational thinking.

Thoughts on SMcongress and the future of ITSM

skeptic — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:03:30 +0000

The Service Management Inaugural Congress (SMCongress) is the output of the "RevNet" event at the 2013 Fusion ITSM conference in the USA. As a few of you know, twenty-something ITSM thinkers got together in a room to see what would happen. This happened. It has been followed by some unlovely debate and a number of articles.

I had hoped SMcongress would pass me by, but it seems not. A number of you really want to know what I think about SMcongress, (especially those who would like me to say the things you can't), so here you go.

In summary, SMcongress is full of emotion and short on ideas, it lacks clarity or focus, it is addressing the wrong problem in the wrong way, and like all these collaborative "community" movements in business it is unlikely to come to anything. If it can be built upon to create focus, to get back to useful outcomes, and to address the real issues, then its passion, inclusiveness, and energy might be harnessed to some good. I offer here three concrete solutions to the issues of IT and ITSM that I think SMcongress should be focusing on.

People first in ITSM

skeptic — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:53:30 +0000

People first, in priority and in order.

Getting IT development to support production - a people problem

skeptic — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:29:02 +0000

A LinkedIn discussion which I have now lost (LinkedIn having one of the worst search capabilities on the planet) asked about how to get Development to provide Level 3 support to Production incidents. It's a people problem.

Binder-chuckers

skeptic — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:01:51 +0000

The problem with too many ITSM consultants is that they are binder-chuckers. ITSM consulting is not about inventing a process. It is about enacting cultural change.

Executive support and rabbit stew

skeptic — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:51:12 +0000

When IT advice is being handed out, by frameworks and books or by the chattering internet, there is much talk about the importance of having "executive support". It is tossed about in lots of contexts that involve cultural change or process improvement - my own one just happens to be ITSM: ITIL V3 etc. This is one of the most repeated glib statements in the IT world. What if you don't?

Some IT is about someone else's money. Some IT is about keeping people alive. It's different.

skeptic — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:13:04 +0000

Sometimes IT really matters. It feels different.

IT professionalism

skeptic — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:24:32 +0000

Worldwide there is an overall IT professional accreditation spreading, in the UK (CITP), Europe, the USA, Australia and other places. Not before time.
For too long IT managers have accepted poor documentation, subverted change control and general ill-discipline from IT technical staff simply because they held the sacred knowledge about the technology under their care.
The understanding is emerging that the long-term health of IT depends more on professional behaviour: good process, good data, good record-keeping… a good culture amongst the staff. There is less patience with the prima-donnas and the cowboys.

Change the People

skeptic — Sat, 23 May 2009 08:38:41 +0000

Here's a great post “It’s The People Stupid”. I almost agree with it, but I think the writer talks around the most important point: “Change The People Stupid”.

Why do we waste money training people in ITIL? Just More Crap

skeptic — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 21:14:25 +0000

It greatly concerns me the huge numbers of people being sent on ITIL Foundation training. Given the cost of ITIL certification, I suggest companies who send staff on theoretical ITIL training - other than the small number actually involved in designing the transformation - are wasting their money. The real target group for that theoretical training are the specialists and consutants. My recommendations are:

Community, Activity, Environment

skeptic — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:59:58 +0000

My original article Community, Activity, Environment is no longer available at the original website so I am reposting it here.
The IT industry does not have a good track record for introducing new things. Projects fail, products don’t fit, results are unexpected, users are unhappy. “People Process Technology” is a useful model to help us do better, but it gets ignored more often than it gets applied. The IT Skeptic suggests redefining it to new terms will improve its acceptance. If we apply it more, we should have less IT failures.

People, Practices, Things

skeptic — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:59:18 +0000

My original article People, Practices, Things is no longer available online on the original website. It is reproduced here. I later proposed an alternate model of Community, Activity, Environment.

People people people people process process technology

skeptic — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:26:42 +0000

Change is about people. Without people, change doesn't happen. Without their assent, buy-in, cooperation, enthusiasm and effort, change doesn't happen. it seems this can't be said too often. The latest survey from McKinsey Quarterly Creating organizational transformations (McKinseys being an analyst firm whose crap factoids are less crap than most) says it all:

IT has no respect for or understanding of customers and users

skeptic — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 02:53:06 +0000

Let's have an experiment. View the following cartoon from GamingWorks' ABC, Attitude Behaviour and Culture, and then tell us your response to the statement "IT has no respect for or understanding of customers and users":