Newer is not always better, ITIL® v3 Foundations Exam
| By Ron B Palmer 7/18/2007 @ 1:33pm |
 |
This past Monday, July 9, 2007, I had the privilege to sit for the ITIL® Foundation exam with a group of my peers. I am very happy to say that I passed and unhappy to say that my score was not a result of my intimate ITIL® version 2 knowledge. The exam content was very different from the ITIL® version 2 exams that I have seen. (I have worked with EXIN for some time reviewing Foundation Exam version 2 questions.) I did not leave the exam feeling that very many important concepts were covered.
There was a very productive and passionate conversation following the exam. Many of th... [Read More]
Comments (0)
The Service Breakdown Structure
| By Ron B Palmer 7/6/2007 @ 7:17pm |
|
In reading through the discussion of the Service Catalog in the ITIL® Service Strategy book, I ran across a phrase that reads, “It is in the Service Catalog that services are decomposed into components; it is where assets, processes and systems are introduced with entry points and terms for their use and provisioning.” This sentence brings to mind a topic that I often discuss with my students and that I had hoped might be in the ITIL® version 3 books, a Service Breakdown Structure (SBS). So far I have not seen this idea discussed in any detail.
If you have any for... [Read More]
Comments (0)
Relearning: ITIL Version 3
| By Ron B Palmer 7/6/2007 @ 1:41pm |
|
As a self-proclaimed expert in the field of IT Service Management and ITIL® I find myself in the awkward position of having to relearn my area of expertise. I can finally sympathize with the ITIL version 1 experts who gave forum answers that contradicted ITIL version 2. I fondly remember thinking that these people should get with the program and learn the new materials already. To be fair though, I took the Service Manager class just as the version 2 materials were released.
ITIL version 3 is a significant change in format if not in content. Much of the version 2 guidance rema... [Read More]
Comments (0)
Defining success for ISO 20000, Section 9.1
| By Ron B Palmer 1/2/2007 @ 6:42pm |
|
There is significant confusion in the ITIL community about the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Configuration Management. Some people believe that the CMDB includes every database and data-store used by IT to manage systems (I was formerly in this camp.) Others believe the CMDB is made up of only hardware and Software Configuration Items (CI). Many find themselves somewhere in the middle with fuzzy boundaries around what is and is not part of the CMDB.
In the past this has been something of a philosophical discussion. However, with the introduction of ISO/IEC 20000 ... [Read More]
Comments (4)
Companies Should NOT wait
| By Ron Palmer 11/29/2006 @ 4:10pm |
|
Ann All, of the IT Business Edge writes in her
blog:
If you are thinking of undertaking an ITIL initiative, it might be best to wait for the dust to settle between the APM Group, the organization recently appointed the new ITIL accreditation body, and the two groups that were recently responsible for accreditation. Gartner says that a disagreement among the three bodies could result in confusion and even “a parallel qualification scheme.”
... [Read More]
Comments (0)
Putting Configuration Management in its Place
| By Ron Palmer 11/26/2006 @ 10:28pm |
|
I feel guilty every time I teach ITIL Configuration Management. Even though I’ve taught hundreds of students the foundations of ITIL and more than 95% of them pass the ITIL Foundations Exam, I still feel a twinge of guilt. Why would I feel guilty about teaching a core concept of ITIL? The simple answer is that students will waste significant resources trying to implement ITIL Configuration Management with little or no return for their investments.
Every time I teach this material I rack my brain trying to find ways to directly tie Configuration Management to business value... [Read More]
Comments (1)
The CMDB: A Money Pit That Creates No Value?
| By Ron Palmer 11/20/2006 @ 11:11am |
|
The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is the most expensive and wasteful dead end in ITIL. The name itself entices technology managers to ITIL implementation failure like moths to a flame. ITIL with its metrics and management concepts is just so much fluff to most traditional technical people and IT managers. It is an unfathomable set of theories with nothing ‘real’ for technical people to grab onto, everything that is except the CMDB. A configuration management database, now that is something that IT can build.
This is how the money pit is birthed, a desperate... [Read More]
Comments (4)
What is next for ITIL and IT Service Management
| By Ron Palmer 7/25/2006 @ 7:52pm |
|
The ITIL community is in a state of confusion at the moment. No one seems to be quite sure what the OGC is attempting to do with this move. I personally am not sure what all of this is going to mean for ITIL. What I do know is that IT Service Management is here to stay and it is up to the ITSM community to keep it alive and grow it into a respected professional discipline.
ITIL is a good collection of best practice but it does not introduce any specific new concepts or ideas. All of the recommendations within ITIL are ba... [Read More]
Comments (0)
Is ITIL becoming a propriatory framework?
| By Ron Palmer 7/25/2006 @ 7:27pm |
|
This announcement is part of a post on the APMG website.
"Friday, 21 July 2006, High Wycombe, Bucks, UK…………. At 4pm GMT on July 20th 2006, APMG signed a contract with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) to become the new accreditation body for ITIL®."
See the comments on the ITSM Portal Website.
Comments (0)
Can an MBA become a programmer in two weeks?
| By Ron Palmer 7/19/2006 @ 1:56pm |
|
Today, I had a discussion with a customer about expectations for training. The discussion went something like this.
If a very smart MBA with little or no computer science background took a two week intensive computer science course would they then be qualified to design, build, implement, and run a complex IT system? Most IT people would immediately answer that there is no way that this person would be qualified to do this.
The training would be very valuable to an MBA who needed to manage a technology organization but would not qualify them to build and implement the technology. They simpl... [Read More]