ITSM

[updated 15th Nov] There was a lot of "Ding!Dong! The wicked ITIL is dead!" in DevOps and Agile, but finally the DevOps world seems to be rediscovering the value of ITSM knowledge, culture, and capabilities (and vice versa: a visible increase in influence of DevOps on ITSM). This will take you a couple of hours to work through if you watch all the videos, but please do.

I've consulted on many ITSM initiatives and it always seemd a struggle to effect improvement: all stick and no carrot; dragging horses to the river with no interest in drinking. My DevOps consulting these days is a different experience - of happy horses following willingly and drinking their fill. The difference between ITIL and DevOps is that DevOps works.

When establishing the relationship with an external service provider (outsourcer), why do we document a whole operating model spanning both organisations? The whole point of outsourcing is that the supplier should be a black box, with inputs, outputs and performance requirements. What we need to define is the interface between the two entities, to ensure the operating models of each one mesh properly together. Define the connecting cogs, or the plug-and-socket - choose your analogy.

This is more efficient: we don't redundantly document processes which already exist, and are documented elsewhere. It is more effective: we focus on the gaps, specifying the requirements for change in each organisation in order to connect their operating models.

It seems this is pioneering stuff: there is very little published on what an engagement model should look like or how to develop and use it. So I built one.

Amongst all the cool stuff at PINK14, there was one brief event the significance of which may have passed most people by. The future of ITSM whispered to me.

The Service Management Inaugural Congress (SMCongress) is the output of the "RevNet" event at the 2013 Fusion ITSM conference in the USA. As a few of you know, twenty-something ITSM thinkers got together in a room to see what would happen. This happened. It has been followed by some unlovely debate and a number of articles.

I had hoped SMcongress would pass me by, but it seems not. A number of you really want to know what I think about SMcongress, (especially those who would like me to say the things you can't), so here you go.

In summary, SMcongress is full of emotion and short on ideas, it lacks clarity or focus, it is addressing the wrong problem in the wrong way, and like all these collaborative "community" movements in business it is unlikely to come to anything. If it can be built upon to create focus, to get back to useful outcomes, and to address the real issues, then its passion, inclusiveness, and energy might be harnessed to some good. I offer here three concrete solutions to the issues of IT and ITSM that I think SMcongress should be focusing on.