The IT Skeptic's ITIL Pipe

The latest news from Capita on the new ITIL joint venture

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:14:07 +0000

Peter Hepworth, who's starting his job as the ceo of Capita's joint venture on July 1st, will start reaching to the market first.

"My main aim is to meet with as many people as possible from the broad community, both in the UK and internationally. Listening to and talking with as many people as possible at this stage will help us shape how we work in the future and ensure minimal disruption to all parties during the transition phase. "

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And another new list: "Alternatives to ITIL"

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 11:55:49 +0000

In this 'connected universe', ITSM PORTAL uses list.ly for some of its content, as this new social platform enables us in creating a useful information base for ITSM experts.

The latest list we made is called "Alternatives to ITIL": a list of practical frameworks and methods that offer alternatives to ITIL, as well as additional guidance.

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New lists by ITSM PORTAL: ITIL blogs, ITIL jokes, and "Management is..."

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 20:35:15 +0000

ITSM PORTAL added three new list.ly lists to its assets:

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How to select a new helpdesk tool in 5 days.... or longer

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:46:42 +0000

ITSM PORTAL's long list of helpdesk tools (including the free tools) appears to be the start for a smart selection process, as described by Murali Ramakrishnan.

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Two new heads

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:18:49 +0000

No that isn't a reference to a hillbilly's baby. We've seen two announcements this past week of people heading up organisations owning major bodies of knowledge: the Capita ITIL-PRINCE2 JV, and ISACA. Somewhat of a contrast.

Practitioner Radio 42 - Becoming A Change Agent

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:11:18 +0000

Change Agents Leading The Charge For Positive Transformation When you hear or read the term “Change Agent” do you think of images of secret agents working behind enemy lines incognito working toward some secret purpose? Or perhaps your mind conjures up images of a flamboyant larger than life character such as James Bond who spends much of his time being seen in all the right places and playing for high stakes at a casino on the French Riviera? Or perhaps if you have a few decades of experience you remember the humorous Maxwell Smart with his Shoe Phone and Cone of silence. The truth may not be so Hollywood but the role of a Change Agent is part Leader, part role model and yes perhaps in part a specifically elected agent who has been chosen to infiltrate and bring about change from the inside out. Join guest: Rae Garrett, Chris and I as we discuss this interesting topic and how you be and select the change agents that lead the thin edge of the wedge of transformation. SHOW NOTES: Ultimate Answer to Life the Universe and Everything: summon Rae Garrett! Rae’s role – teach people to become change agents and become empowered. Teaching leadership. First show talking about creating change agents Key things people need to think about: nobody likes to be told what to think or what they’re going to change, if we expect people to embrace change make sure it’s their idea and we’re empowering them to do it themselves Are some people just not going to change? Troy – Western cultures can be more individualistic, some other cultures are more group orientated Practitioner Radio Episode 21 - Culture & ITSM Transformation Projects A change agent sets out to make an improvement and has to convince others it’s a good idea Usually people are different in home life than their work life Change agent needs to believe in the change to have any hope of inspiring belief in others Core Design Team Members and Change Agents If there is an influential peer group leader you have to get them on the team – respect and act upon their concerns Change leader may have to compromise to get this person on board Don’t always need the whole win straight away Awareness requires only that we pay attention and see things as they are, it doesn’t require that we change anything. There is a role for mindful contemplation How do we know what’s best for everyone? Barbara Coloroso – in parenting models extremes are not good (too unbending or too permissive) Key is creating a vision that’s inspiring enough that people do want to follow you Continually improving cycle Piaget said you have to help people get to disequilibrium then to get past that Key influencers can help get those who don’t believe they can make a difference on board Hardest thing can be unlocking the attachment to the past - Victoria Grady - Attachement Theory 1% rule – 1% of people online are change agents, 9% are influencers, 90% are observers Identifying those who are more impactful – what if you have no relationship with them? Figure out your platform – may be a middle-man or extra step needed to get to them Have to get a spectrum of people. Have to do stakeholder mapping – who plays what role Rae case study: company had a lot of upper leadership going to meetings, had to convince them they had to have the people who actually do the work in the meetings – they have the answers Go to the source of the thing you’re trying to change Rae Garrett’s thunderbolt tip of the day: Remember you are going to make change contagious. The people who do the work know the answers about what has to be improved. When they decide the change is a good one they’re going to keep the momentum going the change will be a reality. Rae’s, Chris’s and Troy’s Thoughts What Are Yours? “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” ~Mahatma Gandhi To subscribe to Pink’s Podcasts on iTunes

Interview with Chris Barrett, Director for the Cabinet Office & Capita Joint Venture.

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:49:58 +0000

Interview with Chris Barrett , Director for the Cabinet Office & Capita Joint Venture (name pending) to be formed in July 2013. The JV will support, develop and grow ITIL and PPM practices & communities globally.

Chris Barrett talks about the newly appointed CEO, castle ITIL, his experience, and the management team’s aim to engage with communities and training organizations globally.

Click here for the interview video.

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New CEO appointed for ITIL owner

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:05:54 +0000

Peter Hepworth has been appointed as the CEO of the new joint venture company Cabinet Office is forming with Capita.

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ITIL JV, BMC changes and free speech ITSMPROW Episode 57

Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:38:32 +0000

Discussion of recent news in the ITSM industry including ITIL sale, BMC privatisation and more

Leadership In IT Service Management

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 15:44:21 +0000

I’ve been observing a number of discussions recently - on a variety of social media platforms - about what we should look to for the reasons why we struggle to perform well enough in IT Service Management. I find it frustrating to see that people with strong opinions still believe it’s either the tools you use, or even the framework you follow. Really? You cannot be successful because your framework is restricting you? It seems to me we suffer from some strange disease these days where we’re always looking to assign blame elsewhere. We aren’t prepared to accept responsibility for our own weaknesses or mistakes. It’s always someone else’s fault! Back to IT Service Management - the most influential effect on whether your ITSM organization is effective or not has to be the roles you and your co-workers play. Specifically how well you understand your purpose; the quality of your decisions; and your resolve to make adjustments as you proceed through your plans. If the guidance in your chosen frameworks are compromising the activities you’re responsible for - then do something about it! And that probably does NOT mean you should throw the framework out. All frameworks today, including ITIL, are static and cannot reflect every single situation never mind the evolving environments we work within. It’s important to remember it’s YOU who has the brain. It’s YOU who makes the decisions. It’s YOU who needs to research your business drivers. And it’s YOU who ultimately makes the choices. An ITIL book isn’t in charge, you are! When we envisioned the “IT Service Management Leadership Forum” almost 2 years ago, we set out to help you understand how the world of IT Service Management continues to evolve, and what you should do about it. One of the techniques we use at the event is to encourage all participants to interact and share their experiences. It’s not just about listening to “chalk & talk” presentations from others. I hope you share an honest awareness of your role as a leader in ITSM. And you’re fully accepting of your impact on your organization’s success. Isn’t it exciting to think that it’s more about YOU than some inanimate tool such as a book or some software?! I hope to see you at PinkForum13!

DevOps CLD part 2

Wed, 29 May 2013 03:18:22 +0000

Part 1 of this series.

So, as we left off, I had a first draft DevOps Casual Loop Diagram:

I had the following exchanges with Rob England (the IT Skeptic) and Majid Iqbal (co-author of ITIL Service Strategy, 1st Edition):

As always I appreciate feedback and hopefully Majid and Rob will further their ideas here - the questions I have are:

Do we want improvements in Change Capability to lead to larger Changes?
How do we precisely distinguish between Stability and Availability?

In further looking at the diagram, I also become uncomfortable with the semantics of Change Risk. Risk is classically defined as probability * cost of occurence. I think that the cost of occurrence does NOT belong here. Only the probability affects availability. So, let's go with Change Failure. (I thought about Change Success but stayed with Failure as it works better for the practical implication below.)

Other thoughts followed. While I am unsure about a feedback loop between Change Capability and Change Size, there are clearly other reinforcing loops I was overlooking: Change Capability also enables higher Change Frequency, so it is a bidirectional relationship. Ditto for Change Frequency and Change Size. And finally, I began to see that there was a need to quantify the change backlog as a distinct entity not yet represented in the system (with all due respect to Occam's prescription to avoid non-proliferation of entities....)

Definitional note: "Change" in these blog posts is very generic, encompassing Project, Release, "as-practiced" Change, and so forth.

Notational note: Classic CLDs use two arrows, sometimes adorned by a "B" or "R" encircled by an arrow, to indicate balancing/reinforcing loops. Since I have no humility, I have invented a new notation for loops that involve just two entities - a bidrectional arrow adorned with either a "-B-" or "+R+", which has reduced the number of edges in the graph substantially. Of course, loops can involve multiple entities; my notation doesn't address that.

The first thing I recognize when looking at a dynamic model like this: as a human being, I can't understand it. That's why we use tools like iThink to simulate across many runs and various tweaks to the parameters. It's one thing to say (ala Sterman) that chickens and eggs are in a reinforcing feedback loop. But quantified, one starts to understand that there will always be more eggs than chickens, and that's a point at which CLDs start to fail and one needs full systems dynamics.

I've been tweeting back and forth with Majid Iqbal as I put this second article together. He raises a number of interesting issues:

are smaller changes better per se, all things being equal?
would an ability to handle large changes be beneficial, all things being equal?

I simply don't know. I do think for most organizations that large changes are problematic, and given the the intersecton of computation and complexity, there will always be strongly diminishing returns as change initiatives scale.

Finally, what's the practical outcome of this analysis? I think that the problem, the evil to be countered, lies in a truly reinforcing loop between Change Failure, Change Backlog, and Change Size:

Failed changes increase the backlog, which leads to the temptation to increase the change sizes ("batching" the changes together, because the delays are leading to scheduling collisions), which leads to more failure and so the feedback amplifies.

So, how do you break this? By managing for change capability (through techniques like automation), by deliberately increasing change frequency, and above all managing for change demand and execution - what in manufacturing ERP is called "release to production."

This is all conjecture. It's consistent with my experiences and the experiences I see reported. Have I identified the right set of entities? The right drivers? Am I postulating the right causality and dependencies? It would first vary probably by organization; every organization's mental model is different. But I still think that the essential intervention has to be somewhere in these core concepts.

============================

Background and commentary for those who are interested, and crediting my inspirations:

In the 2006-7 timeframe I found myself in a number of somewaht contentious debates on this blog and over on Rob England's itskeptic.org regarding the merits of value chains vs. value networks, especially in the context of the first edition of ITIL v3 Service Strategy. While I am still dubious of value networks , the exposure to systems dynamics was invaluable. I have emphasized system dynamics' importance to the EA community at presentations sponsored by both Troux and alfabet. I know of a few enterprise architects starting to dabble, but not nearly enough.

As I wrapped up my 2nd edition in early 2011, a version of that first diagram (the naive "change vs. stability balancing loop) was challenged by my friend Jez Humble, among a wide variety of excellent feedback he provided. Essentially, he said I had an outdated mental model and correcting it was essential to understanding DevOps. As he assisted me in this transition, I realized that there had to be a systems dynamics/CLD expression of what he was saying, an idea that I finally found motivation to document.

The Capita Interview - ITSM Weekly the Podcast Episode 111

Mon, 27 May 2013 08:00:12 +0000

Interview with Capita and G2G3 about the changes in store for ITIL since it became a joint venture

What role does ITIL play in ‘Running IT as a business’

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:44:46 +0000

A bit of context setting first: businesses are going digital in a big way and the majority of these businesses have highly intensive IT needs. Healthcare has electronic health records, telehealth and digitized medical devices; Utilities have outage management systems, mobile workforce management and smart meters; Pharmaceuticals have huge data management requirements – the list of industries becoming digitized is endless and IT needs to get its act together to support this.

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The future of ITIL and PRINCE2

Mon, 20 May 2013 22:08:24 +0000

The Capita/UK Govt JV is having a planning session on 23rd May. This is your opportunity to suggest agenda items. Don't mess about with paragraph numbering or translating into Bulgarian. Here's what I suggested.

How do we feel about ITIL being a commercial product?

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:14:08 +0000

ITIL has been sold (and Prince2 - the following discussion applies just as much to all of the "Swirl" products sold). It is a commercial product. No more half-way house with OGC outsourcing publishing and accreditation: they've gone the whole hog and flogged the Swirl suite off for the corporate shilling. (First example of this in the UK Government apparently and supposedly a model for more.) How do we feel about this new situation?

Practitioner Radio 41 - The Evolution & Children Of Service Level Management

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:23:01 +0000

Customer Satisfaction Is All About Strong Positive Relationships! As IT is emerging from its technology centric shell and stepping up to its role as a strategic partner and service provider within the business value system the roles required to manage this relationship have evolved over time. The evolution of ITIL from its first versions to the recent release of the 2011 edition have seen major shifts in the practices and processes supporting customer engagement and relationship management. Join Chris and I as we discuss this evolution of Service Level Management as it has spun off necessary practices such as Business Relationship Management, Service Catalog Management and Supplier Management. Show Notes: Good reactions to the last show on Scrum Biology and ITIL – two subjects you wouldn’t have thought go together Major change over last 3 versions of ITIL – what has happened? History of SLM – big shifts. In v2 service agreement was major part, also definition of a service, catalogue concept was there, customer engagement – used all to be part and parcel but was focused on process. Version 3 focused on service as the reason for all of this. In recent edition 2011e business relationship management was extracted but also promoted higher. What is the role of service level management now? Or is SLM a system comprised of 3 processes. Underpinning contracts still need to be done Become more of a back office supporting structure rather than on stage presence Processes seem to go from structural, to front & centre, to back office Gathering data, analysis, equipping the BRM by giving them the data they need to make decisions Should still be an accountable person (internal owner) for outsourced parts – accountability cannot be outsourced How do you get started? Start small. First agree that SLAs and BRM are important It’s all about leadership Don’t judge yourself too harshly for failing People sometimes don’t want to take on accountability because they think it’s an increase in workload – in fact it can be a reduction. It’s about clearly communicating your needs Brené Brown’s book on accountability: The gift of imperfection Troy’s Thunder Bolt Tip of The Day: If all these things evolved over time within ITIL why not look at the same thing for your organization For additional content on this subject: Practitioner Radio Episode 3 - Service Level Management and SLAs Practitioner Radio Episode 7 - The IT Service Catalog Practitioner Radio Episode 15 - Business Relationship Management “The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” ~John Russell, President, Harley Davidson To subscribe to Pink’s Podcasts on iTunes

A bulletin from the castle

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:20:36 +0000

I wrote last week about how we are in the dark over the new joint venture between her Majesty's UK Government and Capita owning the "Swirl portfolio": ITIL, Prince2 and assorted other IP products.

A bulletin (pdf) has fluttered down from the castle wall today.

The ITIL change of ownership – How the industry is taking it?

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:30:00 +0000

A supposed to be big news that didn’t make the expected kind of ripples in the ITSM domain recently was regarding the joint venture of Cabinet office with Capita which will have the joint ownership of Best practice frameworks like PRINCE2 and ITIL®. If you haven’t already, you can read the details of this joint […]

ITIL, Prince2, Capita and the Cabinet Office - in the dark

Thu, 09 May 2013 05:27:44 +0000

Lots of people are asking what the IT Skeptic makes of the recent announcement of a joint venture between the Cabinet Office and Capita to exploit the Best Practice Library. They're asking why I haven't made any comment yet. Two reasons: (1) I was off-grid for 10 days and (2) we haven't been given any information useful enough to draw many conclusions. Clearly the behaviour I call "Castle ITIL" will continue: you will be informed when they are good and ready to announce by decree, and until then the castle gates remain firmly shut. But I have been able to glean a few things...

Capita and ITIL: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Thu, 02 May 2013 22:00:46 +0000

The Cabinet Office has entered into a joint venture with the outsourcing firm Capita to develop the ‘Best Management Practice’ portfolio, which includes ITIL and Prince2.

For readers outside the UK the early announcements may benefit from some context.

The UK treasury is between a rock and a hard place financially so joint ventures that generate cash from government owned intellectual property, whilst allowing the government to hold (49%) of the coat tails of growth in the future is good publicity.

This explains why most announcements in the popular press or general IT press in the UK have focussed on the ‘cash generated for taxpayers’ angle rather than the implications for ITSM.

“The government expects to earn £500 million over ten years from the deal” Computerworld, 26^th April.

Unsubstantiated rumours from SITS13 suggest that APM Group/TSO, Pearson and EXIN/Van Haren were the other companies bidding for the portfolio.

Forgetting where it all started?

I have been interested to see industry veterans and ITSM spokespeople alike bellyaching about the irrelevance of ITIL after the announcement. I find this short-sighted nonsense similar to those irate individuals who get frustrated behind learner drivers.

Is ITIL the ITSM gospel? No. But it is the starting point and development path for a huge amount of individuals in the industry who work in ITSM yet don’t necessarily associate themselves with the ITSM industry.

Is ITIL perfect? No. But everyone has to start somewhere and as a framework for unifying an industry and generally raising standards I would say, in the context of other IT disciplines over the last two decades, it is true success story.

So what does the future hold for ITIL under the stewardship of Capita?

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

Capita – The Good

Capital Plc. is a FTSE 100 publicly listed company with 53,000 staff, which has shown good growth over the last five years despite a grim economic climate.

So it has exactly the right resources required to give the frameworks the attention they deserve. Equally, you could argue that Capita could easily write off the entire mess if it isn’t happy with it without batting an eyelid, but overall a well financed company on the up has to be better than a cash strapped government running the show.

A view echoed by Barclay Rae:

“We should view the investment opportunity as a possible means to further professionalise the approach and delivery of ITIL – moving away from the cottage industry to a proper business model. So hopefully this will mean a more professional and co-ordinated writing and editing approach for consistency, plus I hope e.g. we can see more clear business metrics and data that support the value derived from ITIL”

The UK government spun off the former defence research department (DERA) in 2001 in a similar fashion to form Qinetiq, which is now a FTSE 250 company, pocketing over £250m for the UK taxpayer on exit in 2008. So at first glance the model works if executed correctly.

Just before the announcement of the joint venture, Capita also acquired G2G3. This is a good sign according to Pink Elephant President David Ratcliffe:

“The timing of Capita’s acquisition of G2G3 – just days ahead of the announcement of the partnership with the Cabinet Office – looks to me like Capita may have their act together with a strategy for how to promote and deliver more valuable training in the ITSM field. I just hope I’ve read this correctly and am not setting myself up for a huge disappointment! (Fingers, toes and everything else crossable all crossed!)”

Mark R Sutherland of G2G3 is clearly pleased at the platform this provides his company:

“Capita’s strength, scale and global reach. As part of the Capita family, G2G3 now has access to resources that will help us strengthen and build upon our products and services and bring our latest innovations to life. We are clearly at a ‘tipping point’ with respect to our capabilities; the application of gaming dynamics and experiential learning across enterprise organizations is about to go mainstream – and we’ll be ready to make it happen.”

Mark also makes an interesting point regarding the ITSM industry as a whole:

“a chance to build a future for our industry which is based on community, collaboration and engagement.”

Stuart Rance with ‘Two speed ITIL’ and Stephen Mann with #Back2ITSM may perhaps now get some formal recognition. Is Capita listening? Let’s hope so.

Capita – The Bad.

So far so rosy?

Those outside the UK might not be familiar with the public image of Capita.

Capita does not have the strongest reputation. The satirical magazine Private Eye regular refers to ‘Crapita’ as an example of ‘failures and setbacks in the public sector’ and cynics will argue that Capita is an expert at winning tenders rather than delivering them (to be fair I hear this of all outsource companies).

Lost convicts, the CD with everyone’s inside leg measurements or accidently dropping the cat down the well – all archetypal Capita public bungles. Although you could argue that this goes with the territory of managing high profile public services (National census, criminal records, TV licensing, Major city call centre, health and safety executive etc.). As the saying goes: Where there’s muck there’s brass.

For an industry crying out for more collaboration and industry participation the last thing we need is a big faceless corporate. Especially, as Chris Evans points out, if they take an industry best practice framework and try to apply their own badge to it:

“When any large organisation is involved in something, they will exert a proportionate influence. Be it an alliance of countries/airlines/software companies, it is inevitable that they will want something out of the deal. My concern is that ITIL (specifically as it is my day job) which has always been ‘industry’ best practice, might slowly evolve into ‘CapITIL’ where the organisational thinking of the parent company controls the direction of the product. It is true that Capita as a services provider and outsourcer has a strong perspective on their market and that input will of course be welcome in future development but there is a risk that the model will lean towards their world and not the more holistic picture.”

Capita – The Ugly

Finally, it is worth considering the nature of Capita’s core business.

Capita is a Business Process Outsourcer. So Capita’s competitors might argue that a Burglar Alarm company just bought the Police Station (I’m sure there are more appropriate metaphors). The new joint venture will have a job on its hands to persuade the Accredited Training Organizations and others in the ITIL supply chain of the true vision and motives of the, yet to be named, joint venture company.

As Forrester Analyst Stephen Mann points out:

“Will other IT service providers still want to use something that “advertises” their competitors?”

As an eternal optimist I believe it’s a great move forward for the ITIL cult and ITSM industry as a whole. Exciting times.

For those with ITIL at the core of their day-to-day work – it might be worth considering the following over the next couple of months:

“All great changes are preceded by chaos.” -Deepak Chopra.

Image Credit

The UK Government reinvents ITSM

Thu, 02 May 2013 09:14:31 +0000

How exactly does the UK Government spend time and money building a "Government Service Design Manual" targeted at builders of the Gov.uk online services that only once mentions ITIL?

And how does Gov.uk think that essential public services like passports, BD&M, benefits, justice, citizenship and tax are going to run with "Resources for service managers" that barely summarise the syllabus of an ITIL Foundations course?

DevOps ideology and dangerous over-simplification, that's how.

The Information Revolution ITSM Weekly The Podcast Episode 109

Thu, 02 May 2013 08:51:28 +0000

Special guest David Cannon gives his views on ITIL, IT as a business and what he sees as the information revolution, plus talks about his move from BMC to Forrester

New owner for ITIL and the BMP Portfolio

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 09:32:20 +0000

ITIL goes commercial

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:51:33 +0000

The UK government decided on ITIL's future. Rights will be sold to a UK provider, but the government will participate 49% in a new joint venture with the new ITIL owners, Capita.

In the press release the government talks only about profits for the UK tax payer, the profits for the two parties in the joint venture, and the profits for the employees of this company. Not a word about the community that developed ITIL in the first place.

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A Fairy Story

James Finister — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:56:00 +0000

Once upon a time a teacher was telling the children in her class a fairy story. Oddly the story begins the same way as this one, with those same magic words

"Once upon a time there was a lonely Princess living in a castle. Once she had been a much loved Princess, but her fairy godmother hadn't been to see her for many years, her mother had died. Her father, the King, really didn't have much time to spend with her. Her brother, the Prince, didn't have much time for her either, and mostly when they met they squabbled over words.

It is true she did have some friends, who lived in the forest, the fawns and the dwarfs, and she would go and visit them, and they would tell her how beautiful she was, and that she really was very useful to the kingdom.

Then one day the King announced he'd found a new wife, and she was coming to live in the castle, in fact he'd already given half the castle and all the kingdom to the new queen, the poor Princess's new stepmother.

Can you guess how the story ends, children?"

She waited. Sure enough two hands stuck up in the air. One belonged to the sweetest girl in her class, and the other to the noisiest boy you could ever imagine. Because she was a good and caring teacher, and wanted everyone to have their say she really really wanted to let the boy go first, but the because she was also a really really nice person she decided to ask the girl first

"Please Miss, was the new step-mother really the fairy godmother, and did they all live happily together ever after and did all the fawns and all the dwarfs come and live in the castle and wait on them hand and foot, because she was beautiful, but she still remembered they were her friends so she would spend lots of time playing with them still, and were they happy ever after, and was everything in the kingdom wonderful for ever and ever and ever?"

The teacher smiled and was about to say "Yes, yes that is just how it was" but then she remembered the noisy boy still had his hand in the air, and being a very very good teacher she knew she had to ask him what he thought happened next.

"Miss, Miss did the step-mother turn out to be really really evil? Did she make the Princess do all the chores and make do with old clothes? And did she make the King get off his throne so that she could sit on it? And did she send men out to round up all the fawns and dwarfs, even the right gobby midget, and make them work really really hard and not give them any hamburgers to eat or any time off at all, and did she make them do the really really really hard work like spellin and sums and stuff? I bet she didn't want to marry the King anyway, I bet she really wanted to marry the Prince"

The teacher really didn't know what to say, because in her heart she knew that whilst the little girl had told her how the story really should end, she knew the little boy had told her how most fairy stories really do end, when they don't take out all the nasty bits.

That night when she got home, to her ordinary little house that was nothing at all like a castle she asked her partner what she should have said.

"Well I think you should have told them it was all very strange for the first few days, and then they settled down and became a typical family, that sometimes they were very happy, and sometimes they were very sad. Sometimes the step-mother did bad things she should have been sorry about, but wasn't, and sometimes the Princess was spiteful, because she could be. Then there were days when the sun shone, and everybody laughed."

The teacher smiled "But what about the dwarfs and fawns?"

"Oh, the boy was right about them, they still get dragged into the kitchens and made to do all the hard work, but the girl was right too, because they weren't unhappy, because they loved the Princess and only wanted what was best for her."

So there you have it.

Now what do you think REALLY happened?

Now, close your eyes and wish really really hard.

It is pure coincidence that the Capita ITIL deal was announced today.

No Change? No, Change!

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 11:03:35 +0000

ITIL & PRINCE2 Sold By UK Government To Capita - is this the opportunity we’ve been waiting for? This morning we learned that the long awaited decision about who the UK’s Cabinet Office has chosen to enter into a joint venture partnership with for exploitation of Best Management Practice IP has been announced. Capita is a successful UK IT services organization who have a long track record of delivering education services to the IT industry. You can read the details of the announcement here and here. Just a few days ago Capita - who have a history of acquisition as part of their growth strategy - bought out G2G3, a respected training organization specializing in business simulations in the area of IT Service Management. To me, these two moves mean that the ITSM industry now has the opportunity to fully embrace the mission Pink has promoted for many years - to “Translate Knowledge Into Results”. To date, the ITIL & PRINCE2 training and certification “ecosystems” have been focused on delivering “foundation” and “expert” theory to the ITSM masses. Pink has been part of this too - as one of the world’s largest suppliers of ITIL education services. But our efforts to make ITIL training, in particular, more relevant and valuable through experiential learning instead of the “just sit down, shut up and listen” style of education has been extremely challenging. The effectiveness of “learning by doing” instead of “learning by listening” is self-evident once you participate in experiential training sessions, like those provided by G2G3 and GamingWorks. Pink has worked with both of these organizations over the years, but because the official ITIL & PRINCE2 certification schemes have not (as yet!) embraced this type of learning, it’s been something of an uphill struggle. Despite the constant criticisms and faux pas over the years, the official certification schemes have such a lot of clout. Ironically, the closest we ever got to experiential learning in ITIL was the original ITIL certification course - “The Service Manager”. The whole 10 days of training revolved around a simulation of an ITSM organization where participants role-played their way through the development and operation of the 10 core service management processes. Later iterations of ITIL certification courses dropped this approach for the more “chalk & talk” format of learning. So we now have hundreds of thousands of ITSM professionals around the world who know a lot about WHAT ITIL is, and few who know HOW to use it. The timing of Capita’s acquisition of G2G3 - just days ahead of the announcement of the partnership with the Cabinet Office - looks to me like Capita may have their act together with a strategy for how to promote and deliver more valuable training in the ITSM field. I just hope I’ve read this correctly and am not setting myself up for a huge disappointment! (Fingers, toes and everything else crossable all crossed!) While the official statement today states that it will be business as usual (so a HUGE sigh of relief from the existing Examination Institutes and Accredited Training Organizations) I can only see this being the case as long as it takes to develop and introduce new and more relevant training and certification offerings. I’m not being cynical here, but optimistic! Watch this space.

That Was THE Show That Was

James Finister — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:36:00 +0000

I would love to talk about this year's Service Desk and IT Support Show that has just finished at London's Earls Court.

Actually I would love to be able to talk about anything, because after two days of intense, insightful non-stop discussion about all things ITSM I've completely lost my voice.

The other downside of such a packed two days is trying to package all my thoughts into a blog, but here goes anyway:

A major change this year was that Gartner have become the headline sponsors.This was one of several factors that seems to have led to a shift in the audience away from operational support staff and towards decision makers. There were a lot more suits wandering around than in previous years. The vendors at the exhibition certainly seemed to feel this was a positive change, and as Martin's blog highlights the vendors came away feeling very optimistic, The exhibition provides real ROI for the exhibitors compared to other shows where the exhibition is more of a side show to a conference.

Having said that the quality of the conference programme is constantly improving, so much so that this year even Kaimar was relatively happy with it, although that might be because he was one of the presenters. I know I wasn't alone in having to make hard decisions about which sessions to go to and it was particularly great to see so many international speakers, like Kaimar, Kathryn Howard and Daniel Billing.

Daniel Billing

We were joined for the pre-show preview podcast by Jeff Brooks from Gartner and his two key note sessions were excellent, though I wonder if some of the audience went away disappointed because he didn't spoon feed them simple answers - for the simple reason they don't exist. You can hear more of Jeff, and what he talked about, on episodes 55 and 56 of the podcasts that we recorded live from the show and which will be available soon.

Jeff Brooks

Jeff also chaired an entertaining and provocative panel session on "Who is murdering ITIL?" There was a long list of suspects to be considered, and I could probably have added a few more, but I think there was a general feeling that the current ITIL training has a lot to answer for. It raised a few issues that I think might deserve a blog post of their own.

Who Murdered ITIL? The Usual Suspects

A highlight for me was Andrea Kis's presentation on getting the Service Desk involved in Business Relationship Management and her message that every interaction with the business is important and that what happens in those micro-interactions is far more important than creating an ITIL based BRM "process". Andi also held her own in a debate with Jeff on the podcast that had the rest of us rolling on the floor.

Andi Kis ready to wow the crowds

For the third year running I found myself not having the time to do the exhibition justice and I didn't get to speak to many of the vendors I had on my "must see" list. In part that is because those that I did see I spent a long time with, having in depth conversations. As usual Ian Aitchison from LANdesk and Pat Bolger from Hornbill both stood out for their insights into the wider issues of ITSM. As already mentioned the vendors went away feeling optimistic about the market, and many have picked up, as we have at TCS, that some customers are becoming much more pragmatic and outcome driven in their approach and less fixated on ITIL and artificial maturity levels. Incidentally here is a tip for a few vendors: I head up the service management consultancy team in Europe for one of the major IT service providers - you might want to try actively seeking me out and engaging with me at these events.

Not for the first time at UK events it was disappointing that the twitter stream was dominated by the same old faces, yes, mine included, and vendors. I'm sure a lot of value from some of the presentations deserved to be echoed to a wider audience. Certainly if you have time I would recommend looking at some of the #SITS13 tweets.

Several people commented on what a difference social media has made to their experience of this event over the years and that was certainly true this year. Tweets and facebook posts from last year's show along wtih the podcasts had certainly helped raise the profile of the event overseas and I lost count of the number of nationalities present at the #Back2ITSM dinner on the Tuesday night. Mind you most people there had lost the ability to count anything. by the end of the night. Both new and old visitors commented that being able to meet up with connections made via #SocMed and then being able to directly access their wider networks added real value to the experience and I'm sure a lot of people made many new connections. Incidentally Sophie Danby from Ovum deserves a special mention for organising the dinner and helping the networking process. Perhaps next year the dinner will become a more official event.

So that's it for another year, though I've found a willing volunteer to write another "First time visitor's perspective" piece which should be appearing soon. As always a massive thanks to everyone who made the event so worthwhile and enjoyable, and a special thank you to Gartner and Laura Venables for their support of the podcast posse.

Practitioner Radio 40 - Using Agile / SCRUM for ITSM Projects

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:00:29 +0000

Sometimes Rapid Incremental Improvement is More Important Than Game Changing Transformation At Pink my team and I have the privilege of having several conversations a week with customers who want to improve their ability to deliver customer value via improved practices. However, before offering advice we have learned that it is important to ask questions and listen carefully to how organizations want to improve. For example: In many cases the company we are talking to has a time sensitive goal of moving everyone in IT off a current tool or should I say collections of processes and tools onto a common process and 1 new ITSM tool in as short a time as possible. No matter how you look at this type of goal it represents a Major Transformation that will mean significant and rapid change for everyone within the scope of the project. However, there are times where the focus is on achieving rapid incremental improvements (Quick Wins) focused and prioritized based on the “Customer Value Perspective” not internal IT efficiencies or major systems upgrades. In the latter example a more Agile approach to change is perhaps a better fit. In fact the this scenario is a perfect fit for an AGILE / SCRUM approach to Process Improvement. Join Chris and I in this episode of PR Radio where we look how organization’s can leverage this popular development and project methodology in respect to ITSM Projects. NOTES: Pink-washed: overwhelmed, fun Scrum in 10 minutes video Scrum is a development methodology Agile is a principle in product development that looks at short sprints to get small packages print or production ready TLC told us in the 90’s - don’t go chasing Waterfalls! Prince2 says check back every big block but Scrum focuses on even smaller sets of tasks – sprints and releases Figure out your release then evaluate User stories drive product backlog and wish list Daily meetings – Kanban /scrum meetings Easier to measure success - quantifiable Focus on value – outcome for customer. What have you done for me lately? Prioritize tasks by customer need / pains Voice of customer is not usually a natural skill for IT people Outside-In thinking Assessment and recommendations should be written with customer in mind Look at short term, mid-term and long term releases Transformation is very different to incremental improvement – transformation is about fast, over-arching change, whereas incremental improvement is about getting better by making small changes Design, build & deploy in pieces rather than all at once Suits our ‘distracted’ society. We’re all in constant change Different people suit different methodologies – not necessarily either / or A sprinty spark (or a sparky sprint) can get you moving If it’s not about the customer it’s a waste of money See book Run, Go, Transform Dev and Ops aren’t used to thinking about end customer value – more asset optimization Could apply Scrum to personal human objectives Do we consider ourselves when putting customer first? Moving the family across the country is a transformation – moving schools, new house, address changes, insurance, jobs etc everything pretty much has to be done all at once. It would be possible to do it incrementally but it would take a lot longer. Some things are not suited to scrum approach. Scrum is good when you have little budget – make small changes you can do yourself, bit by bit, build momentum as it proves value and get buy in Troy’s Thunder Bolt Tip of The Day: consider using an agile scrum methodology to achieve your continual service improvement goals, especially when you’re after incremental improvement Troy’s and Chris’s Thoughts What Are Yours? We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee. ~Mariam Wright To subscribe to Pink’s Podcasts on iTunes

Do You REALLY Care About The Environment But Do Also You Want MORE Of What We Have?

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:36:59 +0000

At the beginning of this month we launched our e-materials strategy for all education products. In a nutshell, what this means is we no longer automatically provide printed manuals & handouts for our courses. Instead we load everything up to a server and give students the ability to download the materials and choose whether to continue to access them electronically on their own devices, or print them (in a variety of formats) themselves. So we’re not taking anything away, in fact we’re giving the customer more options to chose from in how they take delivery of their materials. Even though this strategy has been launched across all our education products this month, the concept is not new. 1. All of our courses in Self-Paced Online format have only ever used e-materials. 2. All of our courses in Instructor-Led Online format have also only ever used e-materials. 3. We have not provided hardcopy reference materials for our special events and conferences for a number of years now. (The sad sight of abandoned 3-ring binders in hotel lobbies around the world gave us the message loud and clear - people don’t want to carry half a ton of paper on their flights home!) We provide access to all session materials, along with audio recordings, on a special web server before and after the events. Not only does our e-materials strategy save paper and shipping resources, but it also provides our customers with a number of added value items: The opportunity to access materials on a variety of platforms, in addition to printed form if desired. Because we use a web portal for delivering e-materials, we can now make available much more in the way of complementary materials and resources. For example, the actual files in PPT format to reuse back at work in shorter presentations to co-workers, or to replay and refresh their learning. The e-files are made available for download soon after the student signs-up for the course. So materials can be reviewed well in advance of showing up in the classroom. In the classroom, if the student now brings along an e-reading device (laptop, tablet or smartphone) it means they can access a lot more material than they typically would if they only had hardcopies with them. For example the complete set of ITIL books, or the materials from previous courses they’ve attended. We can quickly update files when necessary, so students can be assured of a better quality and more up-to-date set of materials. All this sounds good to me, because you can: Download the materials to your favourite device well in advance of attending the course! Get a heads-up on what will be covered in the course and pre-read to your heart’s content! Cut & paste the PPT files to your heart’s content! If you want printed materials - fine. “Here they are, review them and print whichever sections you want in whichever format you chose!” So far the response from our customers is encouraging. Most people see the sense in this and have either seized the opportunity vigorously with a good natured “About time too!” or have adapted quickly because they’re BYOD buffs already. But I guess I’m not surprised at some of the cynical remarks I’ve heard too: “Pink is cutting back and not passing the cost savings on to us!” “My employer doesn’t allow me to print!” (Really?? We’ve heard this more than once, so I guess it must be true.) “Our firewall won’t allow us to access your e-materials portal.” I shudder to think what other missed opportunities must exist out there when a big company restricts employees from printing or accessing useful services via the web. The truth is this isn’t motivated by a goal to cut costs. In fact when I look at what we’ve spent on constructing the tools and resources to make this work, and the ongoing promotion, maintenance and management - I’ll be happy if we’ve managed to avoid increasing costs! Our goal has been two-fold: 1. A desire to conserve precious natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint. It just seems like the right thing to do, even if in the grand scheme of things our impact is relatively small. 2. To take advantage of e-world technologies to provide our customers with more choices and more resources. Handing out bigger (and heavier) books is just not a viable option. So I ask the cynics - “Do you REALLY care about the environment? And do you want MORE from Pink?” Come on, give me a “Yes!” and a “Yes!”

On This Day In ITSM History

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:31:43 +0000

At the end of March, 1997 the 1st Annual IT Service Management Conference and Exhibition (Pink97!) was almost 9 months away. More to the point, it hadn’t been planned, or even thought of yet! If memory serves me right, we came up with the idea of the Conference some time during the summer of 1997. When it came to fruition it was a single track event with a small table-top vendor exhibition in the lobby. The whole thing was introduced, delivered and wrapped-up in just 2 full days in early December at the Holiday Inn on King Street (now the Hyatt) in Toronto. A grand total of 61 people attended! I only have about 20 very grainy photos of that event. This is one of the best(!) showing me explaining the original ITIL Certification scheme (ah - life was so simple back then!) I mention all this only because today - a little over 11 months before the 18th Annual IT Service Management Conference & Exhibition at the Bellagio in Las Vegas next February - we already have more confirmed attendees than that final total from the 1997 event. Just goes to show you how far we’ve come. Not just in terms of the level of attendance, but also in the planning window. In recent years initial planning for each Conference begins 2 years out. In early 1997 no one would have signed-up 11 months in advance for a Conference to be presented by a strange new company with the not so serious name of Pink Elephant. Whereas in 2013 there are many who are familiar with, and value, the Annual Pink Conference, and they are so sure they’ll be there next year that they’re prepared to commit so far in advance and take advantage of the special Early Bird deals we provide. This year, register by April 19 and we’ll pick up your hotel bill for 3 nights at the Bellagio. That’s almost a $1000 value - more than the registration fee for Pink97! We’ve come a long way in 18 years, eh?

Practitioner Radio 39 - Service Orchestration

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:14:47 +0000

All Good Orchestra’s Need A Common Score In Order To Play In Harmony Or Else They Delivery Cacophony The power of a good analogy is that it allows someone to describe a complex and sometimes conceptual idea in a simple manner that most people can understand without interpretation or detailed explanation. This is in essence the principle behind the term “Service Orchestration”. First: Consider the premise that today’s Enterprise IT functions are made up of a mixed group of diverse suppliers (internal and external) and becoming even more diversified and complex as we integrate cloud and online services. Second: Now ask yourself’s how in the world will an organization keep all these moving parts synchronized in order to play their designated part in the larger value service system or even get them moving in the same direction? To achieve this desired result you need three key critical success factors: Strong IT Leadership that believes in the principle that all players in the IT value system need shared values, priorities and practices in order to deliver service in a harmonious fashion. A defined and shared IT Operating Model outlining they key elements of the Demand, Plan, Build, Run Value stream A set of Enterprise IT Governance Roles that will play the role of “Conductor” for all the various parties participating in the Service Orchestra Join Chris Dancy and I Live at Pink13 as we explore these key principles: Show Notes: Recorded in front of a live audience at Pink13 PR - 19hours of audio! ‘Outcome Leasing’ is happening Need harmony between suppliers Even Enterprise Architecture is struggling Is information actually used? Essentials for an orchestra: 1 conductor 2 a common score Conductor must understand the full score Not everyone has to be involved in writing score Who is the conductor? Don’t blame the supplier when you haven’t got a common score Not likely to get this right first time Orchestras within orchestras but no-one wants responsibility for the entire picture Must be built for change The Service Lifecycle Value Stream is a ‘score’ The IT Operating model is the score at a Management Practice level The Service Management Office has to be broad thinking Systems thinking essential – everything is related to everything Organizational Design Challenges stemming from the Industrial Revolution / task specialization CMDB is different now – it’s a system diagram of relationships Number 1 issue is lack of systems thinking Fixing the bigger problem creates the value No-one is managing above the domain level Without a common score and conductor you won’t make music anyone wants to hear And the band played on… Troy’s Thunderbolt Tip of the Day: you have to understand and manage the larger system for generating value to delivery service orchestration Troy’s and Chris’s Thoughts What Are Yours? “Sometimes there is a 36-piece orchestra going off in my stomach.” ~Willie Nelson To subscribe to Pink’s Podcasts on iTunes

2012 ITIL Exam Statistics

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 14:30:56 +0000

APM Group has released their ITIL exam statistics for the whole year 2012. I have compiled their statistics and present them with a little more context. ¹

ITIL Foundation

Over 263,000 exams were administered in 2012, up 5% from 2011. Over 236,000 certificates were issued.
This number finally exceeded the previous annual high which occurred in 2008 at 255,000. Annual exam registrations have climbed steadily since the global financial meltdown.
Overall pass rate was 90% in 2012, up steadily from 85% in 2010.
We have witnessed a shift in geographic distribution of Foundation certificates. North America’s representation in the global certificate pool dropped steadily from 25% in 2010 to 21.4% in 2012, while Asia’s has risen steadily from 29% to 32.7%.
Using unverified but credible data from another source that dates back to 1994, I estimate just under 1.5 million ITIL Foundation certificates have been issued total worldwide.

ITIL Intermediate

Over 3,700 ITIL Experts were minted in 2012. No V2 or V3 Bridge certifications were issued.
Just under 54,000 ITIL V3 Intermediate exams were administered in 2012, up 21% from 2011. Over 42,000 Intermediate certificates were awarded (including MALC, which qualifies one for ITIL Expert).
The pass rates averaged 79% for the Lifecycle exams, and 78% for the Capability exams. Individual exam pass rates ranged from 75% (SO, ST) to 83% (SS).
Pass rate for the MALC (alt. MATL) was 66% in 2012, up steadily from 58% in 2010.
Of the distribution of Intermediate certificates, the global shift was even more striking than seen in Foundation. North America’s representation of certificates declined from 32% in 2010 to 20% in 2012, while Asia’s rose from 12% to 24%.
Europe’s representation of Intermediate certificates held steady at 47%.
Although interest in the ITIL Expert certification via MALC continues to climb, it will not exceed on an annual basis the 5,000 ITIL V3 Experts minted in 2011 via the Managers Bridge exam until 2014 at the earliest, based on historical trends.

Click on a graph to expand

¹ Unless otherwise indicated, numbers are rounded to the thousands.

What ITIL Certifications Mean to Your IT Management Practices

Rich Hein — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

ITIL is growing in demand and some employers are paying a premium for certifications and experience in the best practices methodology, but the first question is what exactly is ITIL and is it right for you or your company?

IT Service Management Moves to the Cloud

John Moore — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

As organizations become decreasingly skeptical about the cloud, they are increasingly willing to outsource ITSM to a SaaS provider. Doing so lowers costs, improves flexibility and easily accommodates ITIL framework principles.

Practitioner Radio 38 - Pink13 Preview Show

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:10:36 +0000

Looking Forward With Great Anticipation & To An Amazing Event! On today’s show Chris and I invite you to a Pink13 Preview - Trailer with our Special Guest George Spalding who shares his inside knowledge about the must see elements of this years IT Service Management conference. Show Notes: Chris’ Trivia: what happened this day in January 2011? Pink11 video went viral – social media Episode 22 recorded at Pink12 was 2nd most listened to ever Practitioner Radio Ep39 will be recorded live at Pink13 on 18th Feb – Grand Ballroom, 7.30am Pink13 Schedule Attendance this year looking good Social media: @theITILexperts also @Pink_13 for live updates Hashtag #Pink13 for all tweets Streaming keynote sessions live! Increase of HE and government organizations attending Re-invent for new generation Different speed tracks needed Pink getting into training on frameworks Reasons for attending change year to year IT is still trying to do more with less – EFFICIENCY Heroism doesn’t scale well! Accommodating wi-fi for multiple devices Can you really be in two places at once and take it in? Adapting events to the multi-tasking, multi-device era Bobble heads are back! George’s Thunderbolt Tip of the Day: Pink13 – be there or be square! Troy’s, Chris’s and George’s Thoughts What Are Yours? “Part of show business is magic. You don’t know how it happens.” Sammy Davis, Jr. To subscribe to Pink’s Podcasts on iTunes

Practitioner Radio Episode 37 Trains, Tunnels and Plate Spinning

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 17:14:28 +0000

Managing The IT Service Portfolio Can Sometimes Feel Like Spinning Plates The only constant in the universe is Change! This is certainly true when we look at managing the incoming business Demand for IT Services. The question then becomes how do we effectively manage the volume of change through the value stream of “Demand, Plan, Build Run”. The answer is not very well if we organize and manage this value stream as separate IT disciplines and practices which is the reality for most organizations today. Rather than focusing on establishing an operating model that looks at the full supply chain flow most organizations will optimize these three areas as individual silos with very tenuous connections. Join Chris and I as we speak to our guest speaker Jack Probst about the concept of an IT Factory and the critical nature of an IT operating Model. Show Notes: Jack: Itsmf USA President Elect for 2014 Plan, Build, Run – define who does what Ep19:

A Brief Look Inside PinkSCAN Online

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:08:37 +0000

Taking A Look At PinkSCAN Online For those of you who may be interested in Pink Elephant’s Online ITSM Self Assessment Tool I have recorded a screencast this weekend while checking out the cool new features of Camtasia for Mac 2.3 Show Notes: Blog Article: Deploying vs. Documenting Best Practices Blog Article: Why Bother With Process Assessments Pink Online Webpage “He who knows others is learned; He who knows himself is wise.”~Lao-tzu, Tao te Ching

Them and us - again

James Finister — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:07:00 +0000

Just over a year ago I wrote a blog about about how unhelpful and judgmental some of the perceived divisons in the ITSM world are.

Sadly as 2013 begins it seems that it is once again open season on consultants and our contribution to the ITSM community.

Oddly I'm finding that most of this criticism is couched in language that sounds more like consultancy speak than anything that I've heard from any consultants over the last year. As a result I must admit I'm finding it hard to understand what exactly it is we stand accused of, apart from not being practitioners not talking about things that practitioners perceive to be of immediate use to them, and generally dominating the conversation.

Whilst I do understand some of the frustration, perhaps it is time for a bit of a reality check, or at least a more balanced point of view.

I'll admit I have limited time for "consultants" who fall into the category of instant expert., and that some of the criticism has them in mind. It might be the company I keep, or just that I avoid Linkedin discussions, but I don't see as many of them as I used to.The majority of consultants who have high profiles in the ITSM community aren't of that sort. Neither are they pure blood consultants who came straight in to a mainstream generalist management consultancy before the ink was even dry on their MBA. The majority of the ones I know have all spent time at the coal face. Not only that but having become consultants doesn't mean they are no longer involved in real world ITSM. Moving from client to client and solving ITSM problem after ITSM problem they probably see more of the wider real world than the average practitioner. Trust me, not many ITSM consultants spend their days getting called in to have cosy chats about blue sky thinking with CxOs over tea and biscuits.

I have to come clean and admit that I did spend several hours this week doing the blue sky thinking, but it was with analysts, not CxOs, it was challenging in a good way rather than cosy and there certainly wasn't time to grab a garibaldi. Don't forget that I'm lucky enough to work for a company big enough to absorb the overhead of sessions like that; many consultants in smaller companies or running their own companies effectively have to do all their non-client specific thinking in their own time and at their own cost.

Meanwhile my teams were getting their hands dirty......

....you see, that's the other problem. I can't tell you what my team have been doing for two very important reasons. The first is client confidentiality and the second is protection of IP. Those limitations are very, very real. So there is a whole raft of stuff I could have shared with you over the last three years that I'm just not going to. Again this is even tougher for those in smaller companies where clients are more readily identifiable and IP is hard won. In the early days of the itIMF, before the second I got substituted with ans S, I was amazed at how often people expected to get free advice from consultancy companies just because they had made the inquiry via the itIMF office rather than directly.

So since I can't talk about what my teams are doing, let's get back to the blue sky thinking.

I get the feeling people think that debates about whether a process is right or wrong is akin to debating how many angels can dance on a pin. And if at the moment you are at the bottom of a deep, deep hole with your budget slashed, your staff unhappy, your customer screaming and a service desk tool that isn't fit for purpose I can understand why you feel like that., and why some of the discussions might look more like a display of competing egos rather than anything of practical importance.

Be kind, rewind. As I said most of the consultants I engage with in public have a background as practitioners, but with the luxury, and it is a luxury, of being to step back a little to take in and analyse the big picture. We see people blindly following a process workflow just because it happens to be in a book, and not questioning if it is right for them, or even if following it comes at a net cost. We see people implementing "silver bullet" solutions, and we see people looking for that sense of comfort that comes from doing what everybody else is doing, Above all else we see people doing these things and not even realising it is what they are doing.

And we see what happens as a result.

That is why we debate some of these things. We would love to tell you some of the specific experiences that have led us to think the way we do - but that would mean revealing things about past and present clients and that wouldn't be professional. If what we are saying seems to conflict with your own pet theory it might also be worth checking whether we've seen other people try and put that theory into practice.and seen what happened next. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

Peter Brookes posted an interesting quote today

"The wise do at the beginning what fools do at the end.":

I'm not accusing anyone of being fools, but sometimes people are saying things that aren't obviously important or useful to you today, but might come to be highly significant down the line.

Do consultants dominate the ITSM SocMed channels too much? Almost certainly.We aren't paid to be shrinking violets and we are passionate about what we do. We do hate silences , so if there is a gap in the conversation ti is likely to be a consultant who rushes in to say the first thing on their mind. That's probably why I don't get invited to so many parties these days. Equally though we are passionate about uncovering and encouraging new voices from the practitioner community.

In fact I briefly considered writing a section about what ITSM consultants would like to see practitioners bring to the SocMed table, but I think that would be to misunderstand the community every bit as much as the blogs criticizing consultants. Instead I'll just say this:

Practitioners give what they available to give, just as consultants do.

Remember, recognise and respect our differences and we'll all get along just fine.

Ten ITSM Articles that you haven't read

James Finister — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 21:40:00 +0000

For the simple reason they are still in my drafts folder.

1.The Road to Hell : Why pundits who with the best of intentions dumb down advice and distort reality for those starting out in ITSM ultimately harm us all.

2. The Enemy Within : The danger from ITSM trolls in the community and in your organisation

3. Slafail: Brandon Lane discovers the pitfalls of SLAs as a silver bullet

4. Warm Bread Roles: How your customers really judge service and easy ways to impress them

5. A Passage to India : An insight into the culture of Indian based IT suppliers

6. ITIL Isn't Theoretical Enough : Why ITIL would benefit from an underlying set of precepts and application of the scientific method.

7. I Had a Dream : We are surrounded by non-IT paradigms for ITSM but prefer to try and re-invent the wheel

8. Mr CMDB Imperative: The night I met Glenn O'Donnell

9. Knowing Me Knowing You : The importance of constantly rediscovering your customer

10. The Only Way is Ethics : Philosophy and ITSM

ITSM Predictions for 2013

James Finister — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 21:58:00 +0000

Last year’s post on my predictions for 2012 turned out be very popular. So I guess it is worth taking time to look back and say where I was right and where I have yet to be proved right.

I’m going to make a smaller set of new predictions for 2013 because in some ways I think we’ll see more evolution than revolution.

So how did I do last year?

1. Service Integration

I predicted this to be big in 2012, and it was.

If you didn’t notice this then it is probably because many of the deals that were done in this domain remain under wraps for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that a lot of SI is being driven by commercially sensitive big business changes within the organisations that are adopting it.

I’m glad to say that TCS, and my team in Europe in particular, have been at the forefront but the reality is that SI remains relatively immature within the industry and so my follow on prediction for 2013 is that you will begin to see collaboration across suppliers to develop a standard framework for SI to make life easier for suppliers, third party advisers and for customers.

2. Service Architecture

My prediction was that we would see a realisation of the fundamental importance of understanding of how systems and IT services map on to business value networks and a higher profile for OBASHI and the emergence of a new breed of top down architect.

This was certainly backed up by my experience of the year as it unfolded with many of the deals I worked on being built around a joint ITSM and Architectural transformation. OBASHI has certainly become part of the IT lexicon even if many of us haven’t yet reached a final conclusion about its usefulness

3. Service Design

Sadly this was one of my misses. ITSM seems intent on remaining resolutely inside-out with the customer experience bolted on to the solution rather than driving the solution

4. Shadow IT 2.0

Perhaps it is just my perception but as the year has progressed I’ve seen a real shift away from “we won’t support BYOD” and towards “BYOD is a reality, so how do we support it?”

We’ve also seen a rise in consumer orientated cloud solutions which I suspect will have far-reaching implications for commercial use of the cloud.

My 2013 prediction is that we will see an increased number of SI deals where both the provisioning of the service and the business involvement in the management of services will be key factors , and a lot less fear and denial.

5. Service Desk 2.0

There is no doubt in my mind that 2012 is when self service came of age. It was notable at this year’s SDITS show that there had been a real sea change in people’s attitude towards it. It is also clear that it is very high up on the business customers’ wish lists.

In the UK the SDI seems to be going from strength to strength and becoming a much more authoritative and innovative organisation, building on the excellent foundations that have been established in recent years.

There is still a lot of work to be done in freeing up preconceptions and constraints about the role of the Service Deck that belong to the last century.

My 2013 prediction is that this will prove to be painful for the ITSM community and for individuals working in the Service Desk, but ultimately will prove to be empowering.

6. Soft Skills

I argued that in 2012 people would” become a clear differentiator between service providers. When times are tough you turn to those you can trust to see you through the hard times.”

Again I can only speak from my own experience but time and again prospective clients echoed this message. Not only that but I suspect several incumbent suppliers have had a wake-up call as they have lost out to suppliers prepared to put effort into building relationship.

It was interesting as well to see the positive response Matt Burrows got whenever I saw him present on SFIA this year .

My prediction for 2013 is there will be a real focus on non-IT professional skills within the Retained Organisation, such as vendor management.

7. Hard Facts - Hard choices

I said “ IT in 2012 is going to have to be able to objectively support every spending decision it makes There are going to be some very hard choices made as a result. There will be real pressure on internal IT to demonstrate how it is adding value, and a shift towards outsourcers providing the bulk of utility IT services on a wholesale basis. Remember though, like quality, cheapness comes at a price.”

So just substitute 2013 for 2012 and it will hold good for next year as well.

8. ITIL is so 2011

OK, I’m not sure if when I wrote this prediction I knew quite what Aale Roos had in store for us with his approach to Unlearning ITIL, or as he might say

“Älä kuuntele kaikkea tuota hullua ITIL juttua”

Nor did I see the violently emotional reaction this would provoke, primarily in those with British blood and of a certain age. I’ll be honest I don’t think it showed us in a good light, especially when other countries seemed to get where Aale is coming from.

I’ve inadvertently become a bit of an apologist for Unlearning ITIL. Unfortunately I think many who are criticising it are not listening to what is actually being said, and are defending aspect of ITIL based on what they would like to be true about ITIL rather than reality itself.

That reality is that ITIL, and the current official ITIL training, isn’t really that useful to those who most need it. That is those who are just starting out on the ITSM journey and need sound basic advice, and those faced with new ITSM challenges associated with new technologies and delivery models.

My predictions for 2013 in this are that we will see more ITSM activity that pays no more than lip service to ITIL, increased interest in COBIT5, and some increasingly angry comments from people who really should be worrying about their blood pressure these days.

9. A New Kind of Event

My prediction was “ Don't expect to see an out and out revolution in 2012, but do expect to see some of the established ITSM events asking some hard questions of themselves and making a real effort to adopt to new realities with more interaction, more ways for those who can't attend in person to participate. “

I always find it hard judging ITSM events in retrospect. As I’ve said so often on the podcasts I’m very aware that I’m not the target audience for most conferences, but I think this came partially true.

The big new event, at least as far as the ITSM social media community was concerned was TFT12, which did indeed set out to be intrinsically different and it will be interesting to see where the concept leads.

10. Same Old Same Old

Oddly enough if I messed up anywhere with last year’s predictions I think it was in this section, except that Stephen Mann’s blog remains very popular and yes we had some major outages in the run up to the holidays.

New Predictions for 2013

Notwithstanding what I’ve said about Stephen Mann’s blog I think we are seeing the death of the individual consistently influential ITSM blog. There is still some very high quality material being pushed out on blogs, but day to day ITSM reading for many will be based on the ITSM communities with blogs only attracting interest when a post is particularly important.

I have a suspicion, and it is no more than that at the moment, that cost models capacity management and contract management will be hot topics. I’m also tempted to suggest that 2013 will be the year of IT Governance as a truly mainstream topic.

And remember if these things don't happen in 20123 it doesn't mean I'm wrong.

It just means I'm still ahead of the curve, for yet another year.

For two alternative views of 2013 I recommend Stephen Mann's Challenges for 2013 and the musings the ever amusing IT Swami shared with Rob England.