Crap Factoid

a back-of-an-envelope re-analysis of Forrester and BMC's own CMDB research

This post has been podcast.

[Updated June 2009: the paper, entitled "The Total Economic Impact of the BMC Atrium CMDB Solution" is here.]

Several readers argue well that ROI is not the right measure for a CMDB, but nevertheless management want to know what they get for their money, and BMC's own research suggests "not much".

Crap Factoid: CMDB saves $1M - The IT Skeptic

7:22 minutes (2.96 MB)

A podcast of the original blog post Crap Factoid Alert: CMDB savings of more than $1 million per year .

This is a CATEGORY 1 Crap Factoid alert from Chokey the Chimp at the IT Skeptic's Crap Factoid Warning Service. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Be on EXTREME danger alert for CF "CMDB savings of more than $1 million per year". BMC and Forrester are shovelling it.

Crap Factoid Alert: CMDB savings of more than $1 million per year

This post has been podcast.
This is a CATEGORY 1 Crap Factoid alert from Chokey the Chimp at the IT Skeptic's Crap Factoid Warning Service. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Be on EXTREME danger alert for CF "CMDB savings of more than $1 million per year". BMC and Forrester are shovelling it. [Update: the IT Skeptic's own assessment of the numbers here.]

Crap Factoid Alert: "ITIL is non-proprietary"

Please everybody look up "proprietary" in the dictionary and understand that ITIL is proprietary. I can't believe that every single ITIL vendor is illiterate, so I have to think they are spreading a Crap Factoid. And boy! how it is spreading!

Crap Factoid alert: Fifty percent of all CMDB projects fail due to inadequate planning.

Chokey the Chimp was happy we weren't seeing any CFs in May, but I knew something would come along, and I might have guessed EMA would oblige. I might also have guessed it would be CMDB-related.

Why Crap Factoids get believed

We have an interesting discussion thread going on the suspension of critical faculties in the face of analyst research, and especially on the desire for it to be true. Cognitive dissonance and denial have been suggested as two causes. The IT Skeptic explores some ideas.

Minor crap factoid spotted: "nearly half consider ITIL very critical to achieving their goals"

The IT Skeptic's Crap Factoid Early Warning Service lists the following Crap Factoid as mild, so Chokey the Chimp is staying at "high" risk, but watch out you don't step in this one. Relatively harmless but still smells bad on your shoe.

Gullibility: the extraordinary spread of crap factoids on the internet

Readers may think I'm exaggerating about the spread of crap factoids. Back at the end of 2006 we spotted the crap factoid "ITIL reduces costs by up to 48%". This one was particularly pernicious because it had the Gartner name behind it, which gives it a CF multiplier of 2. Where is it now? Let's see.

IT analysts produce crap factoids - The IT Skeptic

14:03 minutes (5.64 MB)

This is a podcast of the original article IT analysts produce crap - what to look for in analyst "research"

Analyst crap factoids as memes: nobody thinks any more

There are a couple of fundamental causes underlying the success of analyst crap factoids as memes [a meme is an idea that propagates through the species like a gene].

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