More on “ITIL Certification of S/W Products”
Just been directed - via the Twittersphere - to an article stating that “ITIL certified products are no magic bullet”. I couldn’t agree more.
The writer - Michael Lohr of Tripwire - gives an excellent analogy of how snow tires can be a big help in winter driving conditions, but if the driver is irresponsible or not qualified the snow tires alone are not going to save you. (I’m paraphrasing). I couldn’t agree more.
Getting back to ITIL, he then goes on to say “My fear is that companies will buy these so called certified products thinking they have bought the magic bullet to solve their ITIL project but instead they’ll skip the hard part which is designing the processes for their organization. So instead of a magic bullet they’ll just shoot themselves in the foot with a real bullet”. I couldn’t agree more.
But then he makes the statement “How does buying a certified ITIL product help with the implementation of ITIL? I’ll give the simple answer – IT DOESN’T!” I couldn’t DISAGREE more.
That’s like saying snow tires DO NOT help when driving in snow. Of course they do - as long as they’re used by someone who also knows how to operate a vehicle in winter driving conditions.
I’m really in violent agreement with Michael when it comes to putting the emphasis on smart people working with good processes and reliable tools. The tool isn’t the magic bullet - it’s the smart people using good processes.
So how does an “ITIL certified” tool help?
Well, going back to the snow tire analogy .... would you be happy if your tire manufacturer simply stuck a “snow tire” label on an ordinary tire? Probably not. You’d expect there would be some kind of industry recognized definition for what makes a good snow tire. And it would help if you could trust someone who was independent of the snow tire manufacturer to document the criteria and do spot checks.
“Yes - this tire meets the standard needed to be called a “snow tire” - we know because we’ve assessed tires made by this manufacturer!”
That’s what we’ve tried to do with PinkVERIFY for the ITSM tool world. We’ve never said that if you buy a tool on the PinkVERIFY list you’re assured of operating a best practice ITSM environment. That’s like saying “Drive with these snow tires and you’ll never run off the road.” You wouldn’t trust anyone who made that false promise, would you? All we say with PinkVERIFY is “Look at the list and you can be assured these tools meet our standard for “ITIL compatible” - the rest is up to you!”
So just in case you haven’t got the message here, I think both Michael and I agree, you need three things:
1) Smart people working with
2) Good processes enabled by
3) Appropriate tools - probably from the PinkVERIFY list.
And I put them in that order very deliberately!
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“How does buying a certified ITIL product help with the implementation of ITIL? I’ll give the simple answer – IT DOESN’T!” (Michael Lohr)
David - you’re right again! Of course it helps. It may not solve all problems or be a magic bullet, but it certainly helps.
Plus, I’ve never met a single IT person who thought that once they implemented an ITIL-certified tool, they’d be following ITIL best practices. Nor have I met any who skipped the designing of processes for their organization after implementation. Have you?
Posted by Michelle Lange on 07/23 at 09:59 AM -
The problem is that everyone loves the idea of a “magic bullet”.
In truth, very little in this world is that simple. You can’t go to a vendor and say “I’ll have 2 pounds of ITIL processes please with that tool”. You actually have to think things through, make some decisions, plan, re-think a bit more, adjust, re-think, execute, re-think, adjust, etc.
ITSM S/W tools used to be just a way to increase efficiency - and to some extent could even be optional. Not any longer. You NEED good tools to be manage reliable IT services. But OOTB tools and OOTB processes are never going to happen. Tools at least need to be configured, and even if they direct you towards following a good process - you have to explain it to the folks who’ll be working with them, and they have to understand, buy-in and comply. You can’t get those folks OOTB!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 07/24 at 09:10 AM
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