Tuesday, June 23, 2009
OGC Accredits Licensed ITIL Software Assessors
A Need Will Always Find A Way!
From the earliest days of speaking and teaching about ITIL around the world a common question has always been asked of the bright-eyed ITIL champion, trainer or consultant.
“That’s really interesting but what tools support this model?”
It’s not surprising really! Apart from the fact that we who work in IT are generally enamored with our gadgets and technologies, there really is no getting away from the very real need for integrated IT Management tools. Lets face it, to even get close to the level of process integration, measurement and workflow that ITIL processes hint at you need some serious automation.
It is for this very reason that 10 years ago Pink Elephant developed an independent ITIL software assessment method called PinkVERIFY, which owes its birth and invention to necessity. Simply put – PinkVERIFY does two things:
- Describes the requirements for tools to support good IT service management, on a process-by-process basis.
- Lists tools we have “verified” to meet those requirements for each process.
However it was not our initial desire to tread this path alone, we first approached both the OGC and ITSMF about providing this service but at that time they showed no interest. David Ratcliffe describes the drivers and history well in his blog post “Why PinkVERIFY?”
For the last decade it has been a lonely road and as you can imagine we have received our fair share of praise and critique from our advocates and detractors but a key point is that we continued to develop PinkVERIFY, always publishing everything openly so that anyone could see how the method worked and suggest improvements. The value of PinkVERIFY is attested by the fact that today we have over 30 IT management vendors, who have voluntarily submitted their tools for “verification”; and presence on the PinkVERIFY list has become an essential requirement for tools to make the short-list on many organizations RFPs.
However as ITIL itself has matured over the last 20 years the value of what PinkVERIFY promises has now been acknowledged by the bodies that govern the ITIL framework. The big news is that on May 1st 2009 the OGC launched a program to officially recognize that there’s value in assigning an “ITIL badge” to software assessment services such as PinkVERIFY. Note that OGC has NOT developed a software assessment service itself, but has simply established criteria and requirements for how software assessments should be done by organizations which offer this service. (This is exactly how the “official” ITIL education programs are promoted – OGC sets standards and training organizations apply to be accredited to deliver programs that meet those standards). So, organizations, like Pink, who have an interest in conducting software assessments for IT Management tools can now apply to be officially recognized as licensed assessors under this new software accreditation scheme and the vendor and practitioner communities can then have confidence that OGC has undertaken some diligence on their behalf, ensuring that the software assessment scheme has some merit.
Well, we always knew that PinkVERIFY was useful – the vendors and practitioners have been telling us so for over 10 years! – but it will be nice to also have OGC’s blessing too, and so Pink Elephant has submitted an application to OGC to become accredited under the new software assessment scheme. I look forward to posting again in a few weeks with an announcement that PinkVERIFY has been recognized by OGC and that Pink Elephant has become a Licensed Software Assessor.
1st May 2009, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, UK… The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) are announcing The ITIL® Software Scheme - a new software endorsement scheme which allows software tool vendors to submit their ITIL based software tools for assessment to a Licensed Software Assessor….
In order to become a Licensed Software Assessor, an organisation must successfully pass an audit. They can then assess tools and forward recommendations to The APM Group. Licensed Software Assessors must meet eligibility criteria and include certain core assessment criteria within their assessment models. They are monitored to ensure they are working to standards set by OGC.
Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours?
“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time.” Arnold H. Glasgow
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