The IT Skeptic - TSO

The TSO bull is back in the ITIL china-shop: TSO issues take-down notices

skeptic — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:58:03 +0000

The TSO bull is back in the ITIL china-shop. Tweet this. The legal department of The Stationery Office (the publishers of ITIL) sent a letter to the publisher Lulu.com (not me) complaining that my book Owning ITIL® "contains the Intellectual Property associated with ITIL". This was puzzling. More than that, it was bloody annoying, as Lulu delete a disputed book without recourse, the big pussies.

It was especially annoying once I established just how trivial and vexatious the complaint really was. TSO are acting like a legal bully and the world should know it. Especially they should know it right now, as the Cabinet Office are negotiating the sale of ITIL's rights.

If this is Castle ITIL's idea of how to build a community, then ITIL's demise looks ever more certain. It is disheartening.

Book review: IT That Matters. Business porn.

skeptic — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 10:24:36 +0000

itSMF have published another ITSM pocket-book in conjunction with TSO: IT That Matters: An Executive's Guide to maximising [with an "s"!] the strategic value of your IT investment by Dennis Ravenelle (ISBN 978-0117080614). I'm an intellectual fan-boy: I recognise and respect superior intellect. I'm also a writer, and respect fine writing. On both counts I liked IT That Matters. And quoting Nirvana is cool.

In the end though, this is "business porn" like almost all ITSM books. I crave something I can use.

Why Free ITIL?

skeptic — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:49:36 +0000

Further to my recent post on Free ITIL, several people are still asking "Why?", so let me elaborate a little on why it should happen and why you should support the idea.

The online world is used to free content. In many minds, this has come to mean free as in free beer not free as in free speech, i.e. gratis not libre. This is unfortunate but not part of the discussion today. Here we are talking about free libre content. It is how the 21st Century world will work.

ITIL publisher TSO and accreditor APMG have their contracts extended two years by OGC

skeptic — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:23:06 +0000

OGC has renewed the outsourcing contracts for TSO to publish ITIL books and APMG to accredit ITIL training. And if I have this right, TSO defends the copyright and APMG defends the trademarked brand. The renewal is for two years - it could have been renewed from one to five years. It just feels odd being part of a supposed professional community and this is all we hear. This must be what it was like being a resident of a medieval estate: the news filters quietly down from the castle long after all is done and dusted.

The bull in a china shop

skeptic — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 18:14:22 +0000

I flushed out some interesting feedback by talking favourably about OGC's IP protection. ITIL depends on volunteers and it is a fragile arrangement. When those volunteers' first direct official contact ever with OGC or TSO or APMG is not a certificate of appreciation but rather a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer, that does not contribute to good will. Nor does it create the impression that we're all in this together, creating a body of knowledge for the public good. (When are you ever going to say thank-you, OGC?)

TSO embraces open public information

skeptic — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 19:48:38 +0000

I like to think I'm skeptical not cynical but some days it's tough. This latest initiative from TSO, OpenUp, has got me (and others) plunging into cynicism.

Dirty Deeds reprise - ITIL is clearly a commercial product not a community work

skeptic — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:08:55 +0000

Why did OGC get control of ITIL licensing content back from the British Government agency (OPSI) that is tasked with making government IP freely available to the public or at least free from monopolistic trading on it? Did TSO spit the dummy at the competition for their ITIL product sales? Or is it just that OGC are tasked with becoming a profit centre instead of a body for the public good? And where does that leave all the volunteers who so willingly contribute to the promotion and translation of ITIL? Who are they working for? We've had our share of commercial dirty deeds in ITIL's past but this latest lot may be the most troubling. (and check out this amazing video from the 1970s: AC/DC in their early days on Australian TV)

The IT Skeptic looks at ITIL Lite

skeptic — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 09:53:06 +0000

The IT Skeptic was pretty scathing of Malcolm Fry's first ITIL V3 Complementary Publication, Building an ITIL-Based Service Management Department. Personally I wouldn't buy it (again). Malcolm's second "official" V3 book ITIL Lite is different. It is worth buying just for Chapter 2: "a simple but effective approach to ITIL process engineering". I got several great ideas from it and the overall methodology is a good one. But ITIL Lite has several fundamental assumptions that many will disagree with. These assumptions will mislead an already confused user community, and I think they spoil the rest of the book.

OGC and TSO release ITIL V3 Update scope and development plan

skeptic — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:12:36 +0000

Fresh out of the pan today, the Scope and Development Plan: ITIL® V3 Update is released. (Thanks Liz for the tip!) I'm getting ready to leave for the Pink Elephant conference in Las Vegas (see you there! Come to my sessions, or see me in booth 203), so I may not get time to comment on this document. We all welcome your comments - leave them here.

Is TSO operating without a license to enforce copyright for PRINCE2?

skeptic — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:31:42 +0000

Is a British Government website inaccurate or is ~~APMG~~ TSO operating without a license?

TSO announces ITIL V3 Update mentors, and seems to have abandoned Incremental ITIL

skeptic — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:33:25 +0000

TSO has appointed the four "mentors" for the ITIL Refresh Refresh (thanks servicesphere)

Call for authors and reviewers for the ITIL V3 Refresh refresh

skeptic — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:54:43 +0000

All you budding ITIL authors, now is your chance.

Refreshes all round and no time to apply

skeptic — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:37:55 +0000

ITIL V3, PRINCE2:2009 (The-Framework-Previously-Known-As-Prince2), ITIL V3 New Edition... and now M-o-R:2010 and MSP:2010. Yes, OGC are calling for authors for Management of Risk 2010 edition and Managing Successful Programmes 2010 edition. Go on! How hard can it be? But you better hurry...

ITIL's online presence is a dog's breakfast

skeptic — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:58:37 +0000

TSO and APMG both maintain websites "on behalf of" OGC. TSO also maintains their own commercial site with a confusingly similar name to their "on behalf" one. Neither of them provide any user community- that is left to itSMF to do. Page ranks of pages are [corrected:] 6 or less, while for purposes of comparison the less popular ISACA quietly maintains a page rank 8. The Wikipedia entry is rubbish. ITIL's online brand presence is a dog's breakfast - ill-conceived and poorly executed.

Who now controls ITIL?

skeptic — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:04:23 +0000

Who now controls ITIL? Who sits atop this multi-billion-dollar empire and calls the shots? The real power behind ITIL is still fragmented, although one wonders for how long. The IT Swami predicts!

A few of our wealthier readers might now consider ITIL Live™

skeptic — Thu, 07 May 2009 06:25:26 +0000

I see the price of TSO's ITIL Live™ has fallen even further, in fact halved AGAIN. Since the £495 per annum fee now includes ITIL V3 Lifecycle Suite content - i.e. you get an online subscription to the books included in the price (normally £265 p.a. ) - some readers may now judge it worth considering, especially if the boss is paying. Quite a cut from the original £2,500!

The ITIL portal was originally going to be free

skeptic — Mon, 04 May 2009 10:12:00 +0000

Readers may have missed the comment a while ago that the ITIL portal was originally going to be "available to the ITSM community at no cost".

Deep discounts for ITIL Live™

skeptic — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:42:50 +0000

As predicted, they're doing it hard at TSO: ITIL Live subscription has been slashed BY over 60%, from £2,500 to £950 (not that's not for life, just for a year). Now it is just insanely expensive rather than hilarious. Given that we were originally promised it for free, I still think they have a damned gall.

And the itSMFUSA are peddling it for them with emails to all members. it is sold via the itSMFUSA shop, so hopefully itSMF thereby get a cut for all the free marketing. Wonder how the corporate sponsors of itSMFUSA feel about it.

We pointed out how silly the price was, compared it unfavourably with the McKinsey Quarterly subscription, and wondered how they hope to get any takers with such an invisible website. Now reality, and the recession, and competition, are finally biting for TSO.

Somebody let me know when they get below a hundred quid OK?

How is ITIL Live doing?

skeptic — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:21:33 +0000

I wonder how the ITIL Live website is doing. And where they get their customers from.

ITIL V3 Live is still coming - The IT Skeptic

skeptic — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 09:46:26 +0000

5:31 minutes (2.22 MB)

A podcast of the orginal post ITIL V3 Live is ... still coming, and VERY expensive

I see the long-awaited "ITIL portal" is showing off. It will go live on 10th November.