Wow, now itSMF USA has TWO presidents.

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-06-27 22:11

Congratulations to Rob Stroud on his apparent elevation to itSMF USA President!! Well, at least according to CA Hong Kong anyway, who bill Rob's keynote at their upcoming CA Expo as

The Current and Future States of ITIL – Mr Robert Stroud, President, itSMF, USA and Director, BSO, CA

How to subscribe

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-06-27 08:28

I've had several questions about how to subscribe to notification emails from the blog, so obviously it is not intuitive.

You need to register and log in. Once you are logged in, you can click on the link below each blog post that says "subscribe blog" and you'll get notified of new posts by me. If you click on "subscribe post" you'll get notified of new comments on that post only. You get auto-subscribed to anything you comment on.

Where to officially report ITIL book errors: "behind a locked door marked BEWARE OF THE LEOPARD"

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2007-06-25 21:39

ITSM View has drawn our attention to the official "Change Control System" for ITIL (and presumably other) documentation on the Best Practice site owned by OGC, APM Group, the Best Practice User Group, itSMF and TSO. He has done a great public service by doing so, because nobody else has, least of all the ITIL books themselves.

McKinsey on IT Strategy; a combination of insight and gibberish

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2007-06-24 04:01

Most analysts produce a combination of insight and gibberish, none more so than McKinsey.

itSMF can be forgiven a little shaky governance

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2007-06-23 11:21

I guess ISACA are the governance gurus and itSMF can be forgiven a little shaky governance right? Why should every chapter bother with published accounts? In a tough year, of course an international team needs to meet face to face every quarter – there is only so much you can do with teleconferencing. Is there a best practice for a Board to extend its tenure, or even try to avoid elections entirely? And what’s a wobbly election process between friends?

Announcing the IT Skeptic's BOKKED: the Body of Knowledge Known Error Database, for ITIL et al

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2007-06-22 00:26

The IT Skeptic is pleased to announce the launch of BOKKED™: the Body of Knowledge Known Error Database.

With typical megalomania this is designed for any body of knowledge whether it be ITIL or COBIT or whatever, but the intent is obviously to first capture any errors we may find in ITIL Version 3 books. My books arrived this morning so I'm making a start. Please add Known Errors as you find them too.

Dirty deeds done dirt cheap. More on ITIL V3 discounting and how TSO screws itSMFI screws local itSMF...

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2007-06-21 09:50

The backstabbing and undercutting going on over the ITIL V3 book sales is good news for consumers, but less so for local itSMF chapters, or for those who'd like to see the ITIL world as a respectable place.

I can confirm that TSO sold direct to one or two of the Big Four vendors, causing orders with itSMF to be cancelled. The discount was reportedly 40%.

Now TSO doing the dirty on itSMF is good for consumers. With a bit of luck TSO might get into a price war with their own channels. It is not much sillier than what is going on now.

Don't get het up about ITIL V3 qualifications scheme; it is still a work in progress

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2007-06-21 09:19

A posting on the UK itSMF member's forum by Sharon Taylor, Chief Examiner, resolves a few issues with the ITIL V3 qualifications scheme, including the 21.5 credits issue. It also states that "this is still work in development and many discussions are taking place to ensure the final form of the scheme..." So perhaps APMG's announcement was a little premature, because it certainly didn't mention any further "work in development".

The key points of Sharon's post:

is TSO undercutting itSMF for book sales of ITIL Version 3?

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-06-20 22:27

When I went to university, we still learnt that wholesalers must be careful to respect their retail dealer network. Obviously the rules are all different now: rumour has TSO actively undercutting itSMF for Version 3 book sales. With friends like that who needs enemies eh?

The word is that TSO has cut deals direct with some of the itSMF Global members (we heard IBM and HP), giving them deeper discounts than itSMFI are offering. Can anyone verify this?

I guess itSMFI are doing it to the local chapters, so TSO figured why shouldn't they play the game too...

"Good IT Service Management is simply not possible without” a CMDB? Balls!

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-06-20 09:59

I just read Larry Cooper’s article in the latest DITY newsletter: A CMDB Runs Through IT. Larry’s assertion is that “Good IT Service Management is simply not possible without” a CMDB. My reaction: balls!

Syndicate content