Five reasons not to rush into ITIL Version 3

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2007-09-14 08:09
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ITIL Version 3 has the IT Operations world abuzz. People are asking questions, worrying about the impact, revising plans, and hurrying off to do training that sounds like it may not be quite finished yet. There is no rush to go to ITIL3.

Chill out:

  • There is nothing much wrong with ITIL2
  • ITIL3 is too big with no help available (yet) on getting there
  • ITIL3 is too raw and nobody understands it properly yet
  • ITIL3 certification isn’t even ready yet, and
  • Only a small proportion of the ITIL community are advanced enough to need ITIL3

I expand on these points in my recent ITSMWatch article ITIL v3: What’s the Rush?.

Published in The Skeptical Informer, September 2007, Volume 1, No. 8


Comments

Submitted by Scott (not verified) on Tue, 2007-09-18 16:36.

There are just books

I don't see what the big deal is. They are just books. A great set of book but still just books. Geesh. Maybe there should be other "book" certifications. I could think of a few books that I would like to get certified on. I would certainly hire a book certified person. How about a fictual book? It could be about a perfect IT shop with perfect employees with perfect managers with tons of money.

Submitted by janvo on Wed, 2007-09-19 05:43.

More books...

I can agree with that. I am a co-author of a book around Governed Service Management™ (GSM) where we also tackle the subject around ITIL2 versus 3. I would like to share some sections with you...

ITIL version three (ITIL3) came with a redefinition of the previous version and adds value in existing and new process definitions. The attempt to bring ITIL closer to the business and practical implementation is well documented in version 3, but the old principles of ITIL2 remain the most solid explanation where GSM starts from. Further explanation would dilute the message according to the authors...

We will be honest with you on this section of GSM. The Performance of ICT has been named like this to express the word "Performance" in conjunction with "Governance". Where Governance caters for the long(er) term reasonable assurance of being able to repeat the performance (growth) on delivering strategic value during the next period, the Performance caters for the actual proof on how well the delivery is happening to date.
The actual meat behind the performance of ICT is mainly the Service Management concept, embodied through ITIL. But here we talk about the GSM interpretation of ITIL, where support is done on delivery of ICT services and based on the expectation to see returns for both ICT as the business. Yes, we can hear the true ITIL goeroes turn in their graves from pleasure. We see ITIL as it has been intended to be treated. Do we imply that the current ruling ITIL goeroes do not know what ITIL is supposed to do?
No, just that most consulting houses and vendors were to pre-occupied delivering ITIL2 “value” to their customers that they forgot to read the bl..dy book! And some started to re-invent ITIL2 into ITIL3, just to confuse the matter even more. But the crack of the matter is that most ITIL implementations end up in support, with (hopefully) some sort of business drive through the creation of an SLA. We see pain in support, no gain. Now, why is it then that we do base the performance on these ITIL experiences? Because the books contain more value when you actually read them and relate the message back to the initial value proposition of ITIL. Business value is “key” in service management, so let us analyse how business value can be derived by explaining our GSM ITIL thinking...

Ps. the book is NOT freely available. We distribute to our customers and those who can benefit from it, like our partners. Not our intention to create ITIL version 8, eTOM 11 or CobiT5.

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