The IT Skeptic - APMG

Where's the COBIT 5 training?

skeptic — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:40:50 +0000

Here we go again. COBIT 5 is hot: the industry itches to get using it. APMG is signed up to roll out the training programme. The ITIL V3 training courses faced a similar situation a few years back. The ITIL training courses (also administered by APMG) came out later than promised, much to the frustration of an industry busting to put it to work. Now we see the same thing again with COBIT 5. Rattle your dags, ISACA and APMG!

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.

Breaking news: APMG to accredit COBIT5 training industry. Fort COBIT?

skeptic — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:02:54 +0000

In a press release today, ISACA announced

Four new COBIT 5 training courses will be launched over the next five months as the result of a new partnership between ISACA and APMG-International.

ITIL training fun and games at itSMFUK conference - and an end to competition?

skeptic — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 02:10:40 +0000

The IT Skeptic hears on the grapevine that the ITIL training industry may be having a few meetings of its own at the itSMF UK conference next week. And the topics of conversation may bear on the continued competition between Examination Institutes (EIs).

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 rising anger at OGC and APMG over ITIL and Prince2

skeptic — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:12:57 +0000

There is rising anger at the attitudes and tactics of OGC and APMG over ITIL and Prince2. Most people can't speak out because APMG hold them to ransom over their livelihood. But a few do.

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?)

OGC fix their trademark guidance for ITIL, Prince2 etc

skeptic — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:22:26 +0000

There seems to be a little common sense filtering through with OGC's trademark enforcement. [Update: no there doesn't. Stories coming in of obviously silly threatening letters being sent to owners of products - mostly books - that have ITIL in the name. One of the tales is in the comments below.]

ITIL exam transparency

skeptic — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 21:18:40 +0000

Continuing a series of reforms, APMG has released the ITIL exam statistics for the last three years.

APMG accredited ITIL examination institute Peoplecert copying intellectual property?

skeptic — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:20:40 +0000

[Updated 22/10/10 with more news, see end of this post]
[...and 23/10 with even more silliness from Peoplecert]
[...and so it goes on. Peoplecert seem totally incapable of understanding how copyright law operates.. how do they get to be an EI?]
[update 27/10: finally the content properly honours the original source, but it leaves us with two questions - see end of this post]

Not long ago the IT Skeptic told you about the appointment of the ninth ITIL Examination Institute (EI), Peoplecert, of Greece. Is this related to the ITSM-ITIL-PeopleCert website busily ripping off everyone else's web content without permission and using the trademarked ITIL swirl logo as their twitter picture? I hope an EI would have more respect for intellectual property. of course it can't be them because they are accredited by APMG and APMG audit their EIs so closely. Can it?

How many ITIL Examination Institutes is enough?

skeptic — Sun, 02 May 2010 19:44:12 +0000

In an announcement last week, APMG have appointed a ninth Examination Institute. Readers will recall these are the companies that are licensed by APMG and in turn accredit all the 350+ training organisations delivering ITIL training. The EIs also administer the exams using standardised question content but their own tests and their own delivery systems.

Is APMG an accreditor or a competitor for ITIL ATOs?

skeptic — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 22:00:00 +0000

For all those who have paid lots of money to be accredited ITIL V3 training organisations (ATOs), be aware that APMG-International the Examination institute (EI) - as compared to their parent APMG Group the official OGC accreditor of all EIs - is not directing any business your way if you accredited through another EI. You know who your friends are in the ITIL world.

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?

ITIL Software Scheme comes under more fire

skeptic — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:23:54 +0000

As I have said before, probably the biggest gun in the ITSM skepticking field right now is Aidan Lawes. Once again he has turned the flamethrower onto the ITIL Software Scheme, with a blistering post on his blog: "people with vested interests increasingly seem to find a ready platform for their propaganda... The software assessment service springs to mind as a prime example. Purported to be launched in the interest of the procurer, it seems to be much more in the interests of the small group (OGC, APMG and SMCG) involved in its secretive development." I'll let you read it there. Apart from agreeing with Aidan that a standard that is secret is lunacy (the kind of lunacy that only the British could invent), I'd like to pick up on some points that Aidan didn't address.

[Update: For the record, the IT Skeptic does not believe that there is anything illegal or dishonest about the ITIL Software Scheme. I do allege that it has been conducted in a manner that is inept, naive, unnecessarily secretive and without proper consideration for most of the stakeholders. It seems to me to be about as far from best practice in setting standards as one can imagine.]

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!

Prince2 2009 plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

skeptic — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:01:50 +0000

Sadly PRINCE2:2009 seems to be a scripted repeat of ITIL V3. Wholesale change is passed off as a minor revision. The public are assured that older certifications will still be of value and that the new certification is no big deal. Your Highness, don't alarm the peasants.

We went through exactly the same crap with ITIL V3, the - haha - "Refresh".

ITIL Software Scheme released

skeptic — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:04:57 +0000

[Updated 6 May to use correct link] It has arrived. As previously disclosed, the OGC has appointed APMG to administer a scheme to assure ITIL compliance of software.

BOK revisions breaking out all over: PMBOK 4th Edition

skeptic — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:22:24 +0000

We had ITIL V3 in 2007 (and 2008 and 2009 if you are talking exam syllabus), and PRINCE2:2009 (why not PRINCE3? - it was a sweeping rewrite). Apparently we have also just had PMBOK 4th Edition.

In both cases of ITIL V3 and PRINCE2:2009, OGC/APMG have cavalierly assured users there was little difference and they should happily continue to pay for the old exams up until the time it is no longer convenient for the training companies for users to pay for the old exams. And of course in both cases this was crap, with the new syllabus being totally different.

The new PMP exams are due June 30th. How different will they be?