skeptic's blog

The Emperor Still Has No Clothes: no evidence for ITIL

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-02-21 01:30

We still call ITIL "best" and we still put up business cases for millions of dollars to implement it, yet there has never been any empirical scientific research to show that ITIL does better than, say, astrology as a framework for IT processes.

"The Emperor has no clothes. Where is the evidence for ITIL?" is the second-most-viewed entry on this blog. Now an updated and revised version has been published as an ITSM Watch article.

We have a date for publication of the ITIL Refresh

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2007-02-18 08:23

According to both itSMF and APMG, TSO have announced that the five core publications that together comprise Version 3 will publish on 30th May 2007.

ITIL reform needed: not letting the money changers and hookers into the temple, just some sort of protestant reformation

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2007-02-16 01:03

The latest ITIL Refresh newsletter reveals that OGC sees keeping the community informed as the same thing as keeping the community involved. This is an elitist patronising attitude so typical of British government in general and OGC in particular. It is time ITIL went from a closed to an open community.

The Service Delivery Tool gap?

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-02-14 19:57

A recent article raises the interesting question of why there are far more Service Support tools than Service Delivery tools. The IT Skeptic knows why. The underlying assumption of the article that I would skeptically challenge is that there is a role for Service Delivery tools.

Here is an article that raises the interesting question why there are far more Service Support tools than Service Delivery tools.

Acoustic shock syndrome – don’t employ nervous anxious people in your call-centre, it will cost you

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2007-02-14 08:47

The IT Skeptic takes a break from ITIL and talks about call-centre absenteeism.

The CMDB boundary problem: stop chasing this technological rainbow of a unified CMDB repository

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2007-02-12 20:39

No matter how much you store in a central CMDB repository, there will always be some data somewhere else. Don't fall for all the vendor vapourware of federation tools. Stop chasing this technological rainbow of a unified CMDB repository. These are not technology problems. Fix the congiguration management process, then apply technology to the process if it helps.

A great article on how technology does not fix process in CMDB

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2007-02-08 21:26

Here is another source, George Spafford, saying that tools are not the solution to configuration problems, change process is. As I have said, technology does not fix process. People Process Technology, in that order.

Some things are more important than ITIL

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2007-02-06 07:59

If it seems the IT Skeptic has been a bit quiet in January this is why:

Book review: "I Think Something is Missing From ITIL" by Ian Clayton, reviewed by the IT Skeptic

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2007-02-05 05:00

Recently the IT Skeptic was given a review copy of the book “I Think Something is Missing from ITIL” by the author, Ian Clayton. While the influence of Clayton’s ongoing scrap with the ITIL powers-that-be colours the book and gives personal or negative content too much space, it still forms a powerful critique of ITIL, and even more importantly a fascinating set of ideas for where ITIL should be.

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