The Skeptical Informer, 2008

September 2008, Volume 2, No. 9

I give up. Like many readers I would like to see ITIL certifications being a serious contributor to the professionalism of the IT industry, but I get the distinct impression this isn't going to happen. Foundation certification is a boom industry. The post I made on "ITIL Version 3 certification: seven sources of free ITIL V3 Foundation practice exams, and some ITIL Version 2 sources too!" has moved into the blog's all-time top 10 for popularity. People just want to get the ticket. The ITIL Intermediate and Expert (hah!) certifications are aimed at the same market. They aren't about making better practitioners; they are about selling certificates. They don't test ITSM; they test the holy books. The courses are built to be delivered by non-experts and marked by machines (You can't test an "expert" through multi-choice. And it is the usual Castle ITIL arrogance that says the questions are beyond challenge by real experts. It has already happened that written answers to ITIL V2 Manager's exam gave an alternate answer that was rewarded. Impossible under multichoice). And yet V3 Intermediate and Expert exams won't be available via Prometric, i.e. you have to sit a face-to-face training course first if you want to be examined. Why? Well it could be said it is to make sure you get the training you need. But I call that hypocracy. The exam should test the quality of the candidate, not the associated course. And if the candidate is too poor or remote to attend a course (think developing nations), or just smart and experienced enough not to need to, then they should have that option. So the real reason is evident to me: to maximise revenue to the training money machine. The trainees are complaining. The trainers are complaining. The ATOs are complaining. Even the EIs are complaining. But Castle ITIL shows no sign of even acknowledging the issue publicly (while busily hosing it down behind closed doors). They aren't going to budge on this one. It's all about the money now. ITIL is too big and too successful for it to be anything else. I don't see this changing. People need to accept that ITIL is a commercial product focused on financial gain for the ITIL industry. Play their silly games when you need the ticket. Learn the magic formulas that get you a pass. And understand the value of the certifications when they are presented to you on a CV. When you need to get the job done, use ITIL when you have to (usually politically) or it is best fit, and look for less-voracious alternatives otherwise. I've written about how the COBIT suite of publicatuions is a substantial body of knowledge now, and how it is increasingly pushing down from the overarching framework and audit criteria into ITIL's territory of the practical "how". Wait until you see the new COBIT's User Guide for Service Managers. We had some fun on the blog this month with vendors asking for a drubbing with some published bullshit (there are those who would say that adequately describes this blog but we try to stick to facts and we don't hide, disguise or abuse them). BMC and Forrester published some supposed research which was as laughable as it was misleading. Really the BMC paper was beyond the pale. You should heap scorn and derision on any BMC employee who tries to use this crap on you. EMA scored an own goal with numbers that suggest CMDB is successfully implemented in only a tiny percentage of sites. A firm called Interfacing technologies tried to spam the blog so we took a hard look at their ITIL "solution". I got email spam from a group whose use of the term ITIL was just silly. And ITSMWatch ran an artcle of mine under the banner "How Software Vendors Lie About ITIL Support " - even harsher than I would have been :-D Polls and competitions typically don't get a lot of response on the blog. (Congratulations to Mike Walter for winning the photo competition). You readers prefer to read - but I would really love to see some input from you on the latest one: Legends of IT. We could really have some fun digging out all the great yarns ('tall tales and true") from our past. And I'm giving away a $100 gift voucher. I know you have a story or two - please share. A few changes to the blog this month: a changed look, a tag cloud of topics, a comments browser, a CMDB widget, free IT magazine subscriptions for qualifying subscribers, a Dipity timeline, a thread for your favourite books, and you can post photos of yourself on "My Account". In fact you have a whole node about you now, we may look at allowing you to create a profile page on The IT Skeptic if anyone is interested? On a final note, personal tragedy once again affects those close to me, and reminds me that ITIL is only business, not anything important. Let's all keep some perspective on Father's Day.

April 2008, Volume 2, No. 4

Governance is the new kid in town. "Everybody's talkin' 'bout..." In a short period of time, I did an article for Novatica (coming out soon), my local ISACA chapter ran a governance think tank discussion, and ISO/IEC is about to release an IT Governance standard. Just like "management" and "consultant" and many other words, the IT industry is in the process of debasing the word "governance" to the point of meaninglessness.

The new ISO standard will force us to understand what governance isn't, which covers most of the current usage of the word, especially by analysts, commentators, journalists and of course vendors. Just as "managing" now means "doing" and "consulting" means "working", so too "governing" is coming to mean "measuring or monitoring or checking". Which it isn't.

Scuttlebutt: For those who missed it, Ian Clayton and the IT Service Management Institute® (ITSMI) have parted ways. Given Ian's bombastic style (the IT Skeptic is but a pale shadow) I guess it was only a matter of time before this happened, as every Institute needs an aura of conservatism and respectability. It would seem to be in the best interests of both parties, as Ian is free to say what he thinks and ITSMI can cosy up to the establishment. They'll need to sort out between them as to just who founded the Institute though... (Ian can now be found at Service Management 101)

This is a busy month for the IT Skeptic, attending the itSMF Netherlands conference. That may not sound like a big deal for you Northern Hemisphericals, but for we Antipodeans it is a long trek: 36 hours each way to be exact. Add a day to at least begin recovering from jetlag, and a couple of days to look around since I've never been outside the international zone in Amsterdam airport, and suddenly there is a whole chunk of April gone. As soon as I get back, my son and I will make our annual trip into the Southern Alps, so there's the rest of the month trashed. All this is the long way of saying sorry there is no review of comments from the blog this month. Please contact me if this deeply upsets you.

March 2008, Volume 2, No. 3

Is the ITIL world moving forward? It is hard to say. Sharon is busily doing stuff with itSMF International. She seems to be more transparent. She wrote a great Introduction to ITIL V3. itSMFI has a new website and a - gasp - forum! The Passing Your ITIL Foundation Exam - The Official Study Aid is out and despite a few errata is pretty good. Julie Linden hasn't found anything new to complain about in itSMFUSA. The V3 Bridge Syllabus has emerged. Half my readers thought the V3 Foundation exams were good.

On the other hand,

I still don't see much value out of itSMF International vs my other similar membership ISACA
Ivor Macfarlane seems to be toughing it out as Chair of IPESC despite howls of protest at his nomination (I like Ivor and we get on well personally, but I have to say this was a shaky bit of process by itSMF)
The certification industry still seems to have an attitude of f**k the quality of teaching! Maximise profits! An unregulated industry.
APMG have still lost accreditation as an accreditor as it were.

I am going to speak in the Netherlands soon on the future of ITIL. I'm a big believer in the little things as indicators of the big things. Right now all the little signs are mixed. That might indicate we are in a state of transition, and since it was pretty bad I'm hoping things are on the up and up. But right now I have to say I think my Visions of the Future of ITIL still hold: they range from decaying to disastrous, with a small glimmer of hope that ITIL will play nicely with other BOKs so some synthesis can result...but I doubt it.

February 2008, Volume 2, No. 2

New Zealand television news has declined so far that they think it news when some trashy pop tart re-admits herself to the nut-house. So when the Mickeysoft bid for Yahoo makes the 6pm headlines, it means something. When the battle royal between them and Google is drawn to the attention of the great unwashed masses, there is a message there. The trouble is I'm not entirely sure what it is. I do know that this kind of competition will likely be a good thing for the internet community.

We could use some competition in the IT operations BOK space. Right now there is only one game in town, ITIL. And it shows. It shows in the arrogance of the certification industry, who design training to suit themselves not their clients. It shows in the ITIL aristocracy, who think they can do what they like without reference to the peasants funding the whole circus. It shows in the user community, rendered apathetic through lack of choice or excitement.

What the IT community needs is a bloody good stoush, a cracking brawl between two competing bodies of knowledge. ITIL needs a challenger to keep it honest.

I had high hopes for ISO20000, but it seems too big, too abstract, too challenging, too something... The response to date has been underwhelming.

It could have been MOF, except for the Microsoft kiss of death.

There are multiple wanna-be challengers out there, but all lack something to give them serious momentum.

Perhaps IBM really will do something, like I once suggested in jest. Or ITSMBOK will find a heavy backer to give it some oomph. Or itSMF USA will break away, toss the tea in the harbour (sorry, "harbor") and do their own un-British thing.

Somebody, somewhere do something! This smug complacent decadence is infuriating.

January 2008, Volume 2, No. 1

Happy New Year everyone. December was a bit slow on the blog as I slogged away in a serious 24x7 operational role for the first time in years, but I look forward to a cracking 2008 now I return to fulltime blogging.

I had hoped that we might have the final seventh Executive Board member elected for itSMF International as news for this edition of the newsletter. But we don't.

We do however have the interesting spectacle of the itSMF International website transitioning to a new site. Spectacle? Well it wouldn't be itSMFI if it happened gracefully and seamlessly would it? The old site is gone, and hastily I might add. But the new site won't be ready until February. We have a "holding" arrangement in the interim.

So why did the old site have to shut down when the new one will be ready in a month or two?

Because itSMFI "have been informed that the current 3rd party support, for the current website, will be withdrawn from December 31st 2007." If you wonder what lies behind this, I have had indications that a key player in the ITSM world is withdrawing from the itSMF community, presumably in disgust at the shennanigans that I have been reporting on throughout 2007. That person provided the itSMFI with website hosting.

I suggest this is the tip of the iceberg. The IT Swami predicts:

More volunteers will be unwilling to contribute their efforts to an organisation that is so overtly supporting the commercial ITIL industry rather than the practice of service management, let alone the practitioners.

More practitioners will regard itSMF with apathy and disinterest as they see less personal value from it.

More and more, itSMF will depend on the contributions of those with a vested interest in doing so.

Sigh. There goes one of my New Year's resolutions, blown already.

Note for those paying attention: there is no December 2007 edition of the Skeptical Informer. I skipped it so that I now publish at the start of the month instead of a few days following the end of the month.

The theme for this month's pictures is of course "circus".