The Skeptical Informer, December 2009, Volume 3, No. 10
The newsletter of the IT Skeptic. All the IT skeptical news that is fit to print... and then some!
The IT Skeptic likes to think I'm not just a barmy troublemaker, that I actually give back to the IT community too, in a couple of ways: by introducing new ideas, and by providing a forum for evolving ideas.
I'm endlessly fascinated by the basic ITSM questions that generate great debate: ITSM is clearly not a mature science, whatever ITIL tries to suggest. So many questions are unresolved, left unanswered by ITIL or other bodies of knowledge. I've recently discovered just how awful LinkedIn is as a forum for discussing them: there is a lot of twaddle on the group discussions. Posts that are illogical, or ignorant. Posts that don't even parse or make any sort of sense. I've kept a tight editorial rein over the IT Skeptic blog: if someone posts rubbish I tell them privately and ask if they would like to recover some of their dignity; occasionally I just pillory them. As a result we get a high standard of comments and they constitute a more valuable resource than the original blog posts. I think we've all learnt from them and advanced our thinking on ITSM issues. Thank-you to everyone who has contributed.
Then there are the fresh ideas. Even the satirical book Introduction to Real ITSM had what I thought were a few good serious ideas. And the IT Skeptic blog has introduced quite a few more. Next time I get a chance I will tag a lot of them with a topic thread so they are all drawn together (and just maybe one day they'll be a book - that's about number 10 on the list of potential books). If my ideas suck, there is still strong debate around them by some of the leading ITSM thinkers.
This newsletter has passed 1000 subscribers which isn't bad but neither is it a lot when you consider the world's ITSM practitioners number in the millions. Likewise the blog gets tens of thousands of visitors a month but that isn't a lot either in that context. And there are some heavy duty minds I don't see participating in the debates on the blog - I'd like it to become the leading site for thrashing out some of these thornier questions - and the basic ones that still seem to be unresolved.
So do me a favour please: get a little evangelical. Tell a few colleagues and peers about the IT Skeptic. There's real value there in amongst the rock-throwing and other fun - lead them to it. I'd like more people to be getting that value - it would give my efforts more purpose. And sure, in tough times some extra income wouldn't hurt in justifying those efforts either.
I'm not looking back at the month that was this time, despite the temptations of all the infighting going on within itSMF. So here's to a new year. May the blog grow and contribute even more, to ITSM in particular and IT in general. You can do your bit to help that happen: this newsletter always has an invitation on the bottom to forward it to those who might be interested.
And may the new year be a good one for you and your business. May I be wrong in some of my gloomier predictions - I sure hope I am (but keep something in reserve in case I'm not, OK?).
Happy New Year!
P.S. This month's pictures are from some of my favourite places, courtesy of Google Earth. The Pukerua Bay winds are howling and I got the travel bug bad. Features
Playing "bush lawyer", I have been tracking down the terms under which OGC control the copyright to ITIL (discussed here recently). And it makes an interesting little story: ITIL was almost free. And I think maybe PRINCE2 is.
Every year the IT Skeptic website starts the New Year with our Awards. (You can see past years' awards here). This year we have quite a few, and even more than most years OGC seems to have swept the field:
Dear Wiz
The auditor pinged us for not creating a problem record every time we have a major incident. I've been through ITIL V3 and ISO20000 and I can't find anything that says we should. What do you think?
P***ed Off
A BOKKED post three months ago drew a lot of attention. It was about the disconnect between Incident and Problem Management in ITIL V3 Service Operation. [See also the ITIL Wizard stirring the pot about Major Incidents] I've just discovered a response to that post which has popped my brain with its simplicity and clarity
During two ITSM consulting engagements recently, I was reminded of a fundamental fact about ITIL – it works.
We stridently criticise ITIL – few more than me – because we want it to be better, and there is room for that, but we would not waste the breath and effort if it was not worth it. ITIL works. It is a useful tool.
It seems to me that the technoid's obsession with over-analysing and chasing perfection - what I call ETF: Excessive Technical Fastidiousness - is often applied to the definition of services.
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