Tuesday, September 22, 2009
About the recently announced ITIL books updates from OGC
Most of you probably know by now that the OGC has announced they will update the ITIL V3 books.
The updates will correct spelling and grammatical errors of course (and hopefully). The updates will also look at correcting inconsistencies between books where some statements in one book contradicts one in another book. In addition the structure for certain books will be adjusted. I am thinking of the CSI book where section 4.1 is about 14 pages long with no subsections. Then section 4.1suffers from the same illness and goes on for 8 pages. I know my Pink Elephant colleagues Gary and George wrote the book. This is an oversight. In their defence, the book was reviewed by over 50 people and this was not corrected. I am not here to pint fingers. Errors and mistakes happen.
I am actually delighted to hear about this revision. I just have a few concerns
1. Who are the people making the corrections?
2. Will they consult the original authors to ensure the revisions are consistent with the authors’ intentions?
3. How many errors, omissions and changes have been identified?
4. Will the reviewers add their own spin to the material?
5. Will the reviewers modify the material to what they believe should have been there in the first place?
6. Will the reviewers remove material they believe should not have been there in the first place?
7. Who is reviewing the change requests to ensure they are indeed valid and are best practices?
8. What is the target date for the new versions to be available to the public?
9. How will this affect the Qualification scheme and the exams?
10. Will the examiners be given enough lead time to amend the syllabuses and questions if necessary
11. Will there be sufficient time to test and pilot the revisions to the syllabuses and exams?
12. Will this in turn allow the accredited training organization (ATO) sufficient time to update their course material?
13. Will this affect the ITIL compatible tools on the market or about to hit the market?
14. Will there be regular communication updates from the parties involved to the IT community at large?
15. How will the revisions affect the translations for the glossaries and exams?
16. How will the revisions affect the mapping between ITIL and various other frameworks and methodologies?
17. How will this revision affect the complementary guidance books already published or being written presently?
By the way if you want to see the current request for changes for the ITIL v3 books, you can ego to the official ITIL website, sign up and view the requests. Just a word of warning, there are RFCs for other frameworks and methodologies as well so it takes a while to sort out the ITIL ones.
Please visit the Change Control System on the Official ITIL Website at:
OGC’s Change Control System link
Or you can thank your truly and download the attached spreadsheet that ONLY contains the ITIL related RFCs. Let me add here that if the OGC received requests and suggestions via other means such as email, I do not know if they are part of this list. This list is accurate as of Friday September 11.
RFC_log_for_all_ITIL_v3_publications.xls
P.S. I have a few other concerns but they are politically incorrect for this blog
Positive feedback about ITIL - What is your feelgood story about Service Management?
There are many naysayers about ITIL and ITSM, some more vocal than others of course. . There are the very public ones and the ones that quietly undermine things. There are many so-called “horror” stories; I lived through a few personally. I know it is human nature to prefer to talk about and point out negative “stuff “far more than positive things. I am positively certain there are far more good stories than bad stories about Service Management. I read a long time ago that people will tell up to eleven people about a bad story and in turn these eleven people will do the same. In a very short time, 122 (11 x 11 + the originator) will know about the bad story. This story has very likely taken on more horrific features along the way.
On the flip side a person only tells 2 or 3 people about a feel story which, unfortunately does not go any further. Hum! 122 people who heard a bad story vs. only 4 who heard about a good story.
Then, of course, in these days of blogging, twittering (?), instant messaging, it is easy for people to start a discussion and for people to get dragged down so deep everyone loses sight of the original point, things get out of control, tempers flare and people write things they should not.
However, I know there are real and positive success stories about Service Management. The proof is simple, look at the various organizations presenting their case studies at various Service Management Conferences.
“Marketing Plug Alert”: Pink Elephant has many interesting case studies coming up at our ITSM conference in Vegas in February 2010!
So I am challenging everyone out there to provide a positive story about how Service Management helped you personally, your team, your organization. The result may be as simple as finding the root cause of a problem to better collaboration and communication and of course saving money.
Come on. Take a few minutes and tell us about your positive story. Make a difference and be part of the solution. Let us start a new trend and flood the ITIL airwaves with positivity.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
What if services did not exist?
A service is something that someone offers you instead of you doing everything from the proverbial “A to Z”.
Now imagine a world without services.
We would only have products available to us then, would we not?
Let us start our little scenario.
Imagine being a lone castaway on a deserted island with animals (a few predators to make things interesting), edible vegetation, and sources of potable water. You have absolutely no technology, no mobile phone, no computers, no GPS, nothing that requires electricity or batteries. You could argue the sun and the wind are sources of energy but there are no solar panels and no windmills.
You also have no tools at your disposal, no hammers, no screwdrivers, no saw, no knife, no spoon, no fork and especially no all-purpose, all-everything Swiss Army knife. You do not even have any personal hygiene products of any kind (sorry). You are the sole person in a pristine primal world. There are no ruins, no secret cache of anything. In fact, you are the first person ever to set foot on this island. By the way, there are no search parties looking for you either.
There are no services at your disposal. There are no products at your disposal.
You now have to do everything yourself. You cannot purchase anything for there is no one to sell you anything and there is nothing already made. You cannot barter for the same reasons.
Everything you need, you have to build from scratch; your tools, your shelter, your clothes, your fire, your fishing gear, etc. You have to pick your fruits from the trees and bushes. You have to pick or dig up your vegetables. You have to kill animals and prepare all by yourself if you want to eat meat. The same goes for seafood. You have to do day for as long as you stay alone on the island (and I am keeping you there for a few years).
By the way, Mother Nature is not providing you with any services here either. That philosophical discussion is totally out of scope of this scenario.
What the above scenario illustrates is that everything we can produce, offer, sell, barter, exchange, or purchase (no stealing allowed!) in our current world is a service.
You may call that service whatever you like. The fact is, a service is service is a service.
Whatever we purchase from others is a service because someone else has taken on the burden of the ownership of specific costs and risks. We require that service for a particular reason (call it a goal, a vision, or an objective if you like).
Let us assume you need a can of beans. You go to the grocery store, to the appropriate shelf, go the the csh register and pay for the can of beans. However, you did not have to till the soil, plant, irrigate, harvest, ship, transform, distribute and put it in on the shelf. You did not have to negotiate any contracts or build anything. Someone else did it for you.
Let us assume you need petrol/gas/fuel for your car. You go to the gas station, pump the gas into the tank, pay for the gas and on your way you go. However you did not have to search a suitable oil field, extract it from the ground, ship it to a refinery, refine it, and distribute it. Someone else did it for you.
In both examples, other departments and functions are involved as well, marketing, sales, advertising, human resources, management, warehousing, distribution, production, accounting, contract negotiations, investments, building maintenance. In the above examples, the organizations may be a huge single corporation, a conglomerate or a group of small companies doing work for the next one in the chain. all has to pay taxes, mortgages or leases, electricity, gas, air conditioning, heating, personnel, contractors, telecommunications, office supplies, etc.
In the 1800s all documentation, record keeping, contracts, shipping manifests, were done on paper. Computations were done on paper or with a abacus or in your brain. Communication used the means of the day such as riders on horses, coaches, ships, and plain old walking.
Today we are a tad more sophisticated but the concepts have not changed. The tools used are different, the speed is different I’ll grant you that. However, instead of writing on paper, we use various electronic devises more and more powerful each day.
Did I forget about IT in this story? Of course not! it is simply a different form of record keeping and means of communication. Look at what you business does (i.e.: you lines of business) and these are your services. Yes, you will have supporting services and sub-services and systems and applications and hardware and middleware and firmware and networks and wires and wireless and many other components.
IT is directly providing services to the other departments making up the organization. They are indirectly providing services to the external customers when an employee needs to use a computerized device to do their work whether they are directly customer-facing or not. IT is also providing services to the external customers in the form of the website, the self-service kiosks in retail stores, gas stations, parking lots, airport kiosks, etc.
IT is providing a service to the external customer when…
...the delivery person comes to your door with a package from grandma,
...someone dispatches someone to execute a task; emergency personnel, law enforcement, plumbers, taxis, etc.
...we use our credit cards or an RFID tag at gas station.
...a manufacturer uses RFID tags when shipping goods to a merchant.
...you watch television or use the phone
...a store associated uses a cash register
...an HR person surf job sites to look for employees
...business does business
“A service is a means of delivering value to Customers by facilitating outcomes Customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks.”
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
Certification, Designation, Diploma and Qualification
There still seem to be some confusion about the ITIL® qualification scheme and the certificates one can achieve.
Let me explore the definition of a few words first (in alphabetical order); certification, certificate, designation, diploma and qualification. Please note that I only used the part of the definition relevant to this discussion. The definitions are from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
Merriam Webster online dictionary
Certification
Pronunciation: \ˌsər-tə-fə-ˈkā-shən\
The act of certifying: the state of being certified
Certify
Pronunciation: \ˈsər-tə-ˌfī\
1: to attest authoritatively: as
a: confirm
b: to present in formal communication
c: to attest as being true or as represented or as meeting a standard
4: to recognize as having met special qualifications such as of a governmental agency or professional board within a field e.g.: agencies that certify teachers
Synonyms certify, attest, witness, and vouch
Certificate
Pronunciation: \(ˌ)sər-ˈti-fi-kət\
1: a document containing a certified statement especially as to the truth of something; specifically: a document certifying that one has fulfilled the requirements of and may practice in a field
Designation
Pronunciation: \ˌde-zig-ˈnā-shən\
2: appointment to or selection for an office, post, or service
3: a distinguishing name, sign, or title
Diploma
Pronunciation: \də-ˈplō-mə\
2: a writing usually under seal conferring some honour or privilege
3: a document bearing record of graduation from or of a degree conferred by an educational institution
Qualification
Pronunciation: \ˌkwä-lə-fə-ˈkā-shən\
3 a: a quality or skill that fits a person (as for an office) e.g.: the applicant with the best qualifications
Using the above definitions, we can now better define the meaning of the ITIL® qualification scheme.
The ITIL® Qualification scheme (a quality or skill that fits a person) awards certificates (a document containing a certified statement especially as to the truth of something; specifically: a document certifying that one has fulfilled the requirements of and may practice in a field to the people). The Examination Institutes award certificates to individuals who after attending an accredited course provided by an Accredited Training Provider (ATO), achieves a passing mark (or higher) for an examination based on an established course syllabus. The only exception for the mandatory attendance to an accredited course applies to the Foundation certification.
The Examination Institutes award the ITIL® Expert certificate to an individual who successfully completes the requirements for this certification. See the Official ITIL® Website for details.
The Examination Institutes will award the ITIL® Master certificate to an individual who successfully completes the requirements for this certification. Please note this certification is still under development. See the Official ITIL® Website for details.
Upon receiving any of the eleven currently available core ITIL® V3 certificates, individuals do not achieve a designation. They cannot use the course acronym as if it were a designation. The successful candidate can list their achieved certifications in a curriculum vitae (CV) or résumé.
The ITIL® v2 – v3 bridging certifications and the certification schemes based on the previous versions of ITIL® do not provide any designation either.
Please note that the certificates are not diplomas. However, many universities around the world now include ITIL® courses as part of their curriculum. So who knows?