Monday, June 30, 2008
Additional Thought From The Pink Perspective 2008 Events
During our travels, we heard more than once the opinion that the revised ITIL V3 certification scheme is just some kind of giant “money grab” scheme concocted by the various bodies and vendors who have an interest in education and certification.
I can understand why some people may feel this way. All I can tell you is Pink is not part of any conspiracy. Not only that, this whole revision of the certification scheme is costing us a lot of money! Not only do we have to develop new courses, we also have to retrain ALL of our staff (every Pink employee is put through ITIL Foundation training - even back-office staff working in Finance, HR and Administration). Anyway, I’m not looking for any sympathy - just wanted to clarify that Pink certainly doesn’t look upon this revised certification scheme as a “money grab” opportunity!
Friday, June 27, 2008
BMC Receives First PinkVERIFY ITIL V3 Certification - Not One, but TWO!
A big pat on the back for BMC! Not only do they have the first TWO products in the PinkVERIFY for ITIL V3 list - but the scope with regard to number of compatible processes is particularly impressive.
In the “old” V2 scheme the most processes that any product supported was 7. Now we have BMCs “Service Desk Express 9.6” supporting 7 of the processes; and their “Remedy ITSM Suite 7.0” supporting 11 processes. Well done!
You can learn more by going to the PinkVERIFY page on our main web site. Click on the “PinkVERIFY Toolsets” link on the left side to see the chart of products and their respective support for each process.
More software vendors are in the pipeline for ITIL V3 PinkVERIFY status - so watch this space for more updates!
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Friday, June 13, 2008
Deja Vu All Over Again!
Mulling over the survey results, as well as thinking back to some of the comments I heard and conversations I participated in at the recent Pink Perspective events, I’m beginning to formulate some conclusions in my mind about a number of issues. Over the next few days I’ll document these conclusions in further blog posts.
For now, here’s my first observation:
People are generally ambivalent towards the ITIL Expert level in the V3 certification scheme. Many people stated it would not be their goal because it would take 3-4 years to attain (at a rate of 2-3 courses per year). I think that level of certification will quickly be positioned in the marketplace as a certification for consultants, and practitioner’s will set their sights lower - on no more than 1 or 2 Capability certifications.
In fact, this positioning is very reminiscent of the original V1 scheme! In 1992, the first certification was the Management Level (Service Manager) and this was initially intended for consultants. In 1996 the Foundation Level was added as a pre-requisite. The following year an alternate to the Management Level, the Practitioner Certificates were introduced. Deja vu all over again!
If you’re a consultant you’ll really need the ITIL Expert Certificate to prove your credibility.
If you’re a practitioner you’ll really need the respective Capability certificate(s) to help you understand how to function well in your role.
The Results Are In!
The following link will provide you with the consolidated Pink Perspective survey results from all the cities we visited in the past three weeks:
Pink_Perspective_2008_Consolidated_Worldwide_Survey_Results.pdf
Some initial observations:
It’s clear that over 90% of the participants are currently involved in an ITSM improvement project. This statistic is not a surprise.
The top two areas of focus, possibly not surprisingly, are Service Operation & Service Transition. Less than 10% of organizations are focusing on Service Strategy. In addition, many people elaborated in conversation that they are starting their Service Design processes with the Service Catalog.
“People issues” are still the most prevalent challenge as confirmed by the responses to questions 2, 5 and 6. Perhaps surprisingly, “Executive buy-in” was the least challenging - that’s got to be a good thing, right!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Pink Perspective 2008 - Worldwide Survey Results
Thanks to the hundreds of you who came out and participated in our Pink Perspectives held in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Chicago, Seattle, Calgary, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Dallas and Toronto over the past three weeks! We’ll now compile all the survey results and prepare a consolidated view. Watch out for another posting in the next day or so.
We’ll also summarize all the questions and issues that cropped up. We’ll provide some initial responses and opinions from Pink, as well as the official responses from the likes of OGC, APM Group, etc. as soon as they’re available.
Can I have my pin please?
This question was also asked at the final Pink Perspective in Toronto today:
“Certificates from V3 classes currently say you have passed the exam and that is it. Will there be new certificates issued with the new certification name? And will we receive pins?”
(Pink’s view: We believe that new certificates will be issued. We’ve also heard that pins are on the way! We’ll give you more details as soon as we hear.)
Pink Perspective 2008 - Toronto
The final North American Pink Perspective event was presented today in Toronto.
Here’s the presentation and survey results:
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
One course isn’t enough for me; I want a whole bundle!
Here’s some opinions expressed by attendees at this week’s Pink Perspective events:
“It would seem to me that there would be a great deal of redundancy between the Service Lifecycle and Service Capabilities courses.”
“The delayed timing of the release of the v3 education scheme has had a significant impact on companies adoption curve of ITSM objectives.”
“Do you see Pink providing a packaged product bundle for the ITIL Expert designation (Published paths and product bundles)?”
(The honest answer is that we haven’t considered bundling courses together as a package, but we’ll give it some thought!
“The audience for the ITIL Expert certification seems to be consultants rather than practitioners.”
(Pink’s view: we agree!)
“The investment and funding for full V3 funding is not there after just putting my company through a V2 ITIL awareness effort.”
“Does Pink have any benchmark data about how many/type of people should have certain levels of education and certification. Would this change from an organization starting their ITIL journey versus a world class organization, etc?”
(Pink’s view: There’s no benchmark - officially - but you can equate a person’s role in the organization with specific levels of certification. For example: General Process workers should have an awareness level of the Service Lfecycle (Foundations Level Certification); Process Owners & Managers would benefit from an Intermediate level knowledge and certification from either the V2 Practitioner or V3 Capability certifications; Service Managers & Program Managers really need a more complete knowledge of the framework and how it relates to the business. This knowledge would come from either the V2 Service Manager or several of the V3 Lifecycle/Capability modules as well as the Managing Across The Lifecycle. It is unclear if role knowledge and certification would change as an organization’s ITSM process maturity changes. Ideally, the more complete knowledge people have at the outset can only be beneficial. In reality, people gain more experience and knowledge as time goes by - that’s self-evident, of course - and at the same time it’s to be expected that more formal education and certification will happen over an extended period of time, especially the way the V3 scheme is structured! It is important that you do some hard thinking before you get started on any path for education and certification. What’s your ultimate goal? What are your priroities now? etc.)
Pink Perspective 2008 - Dallas
George and Troy were in Dallas today. Here’s the presentation and survey results;
Dallas_Pink_Perspective_2008.pdf
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Pink Perspective 2008 - Philadelphia
Here’s the presentation and survey results from today:
Philadelphia_Pink_Perspective_2008.pdf
Monday, June 09, 2008
Pink Perspective 2008 - Washington D.C.
Today was Washington D.C. for George and Troy.
Here’s their presentation and survey results:
Friday, June 06, 2008
I love ITIL so much I want to mix up V2 and V3!
Here are the comments and questions from the Town Hall session at the Pink Perspective events this week in Chicago, Seattle, Calgary and San Francisco:
“I don’t believe the exam for the V3 Manager’s Bridge accurately reflects one’s knowledge of the V3 Lifecycle.”
“Can I take the V2 Service Manager and then the Managing Across The Lifecycle (instead of the Manager’s Bridge) to get the ITIL Expert? I have the 17 credits.” (The answer is no, sorry. You need to pick either the V2 path or the V3 path; you cannot mix them.)
“I want to take the Managing Across The Lifecycle course with just the V3 Foundation as a pre-requisite - can I do that? I’m not interested in the ITIL Expert. I just like the look of the Managing Across The Lifecycle course.” (Pink Answer - Hmmm! Not sure about this until the syllabus for the MATL course is published in a few weeks time. On the face of it there’s nothing stopping you from doing any certification course without the necessary pre-requisites; it just means if you were to write the exam, you wouldn’t be awarded the certificate regardless of whether or not you passed. Having said that, the EIs expect the ATOs to check that students have the necessary pre-requisites as the entry requirement to each course, so I’m not sure how they’ll view us allowing people to do what you’re suggesting. It may be that someone who doesn’t have all the pre-requisites is going to be ill-prepared to participate effectively in the course. This lack of preparation could have ramifications for the trainer as well as the other students who have to put up with someone who’s not qualified to be there. But we’re starting to jump to conclusions here, so let’s check with APM Group and see what they say. Watch this space for a follow-up from the EIs.
Pink Perspective 2008 - San Francisco
If it’s Thursday, it must be San Francisco for the Pink Perspective. Visit the survey results at:
San_Francisco_Pink_Perspective_2008.pdf
Next week George and Troy will be in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Dallas and Toronto.
We’ll continue posting the results of the information & stats we gather each day. After Toronto we’ll post a consolidated report showing:
1. The percentage of organizations working on ITSM improvement projects
2. The priority areas they’re working on within ITSM
3. The challenges they’re facing
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Pink Perspective 2008 - Calgary
On Wednesday, a Pink Perspective was held in Calgary.
Here’s the presentation and survey results:
Calgary_Pink_Perspective_2008.pdf
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Working At An ITIL Service Desk?
You need to check out Dr Jim’s blog!