Saturday, January 2, 2010

The end of ITIL v2 - or is it ?

ITIL v2 Exams will end this year - 2010. Late last year the timetable for v2 Exam withdrawl was announced by the APMG.

While the v2 exams may disappear from the certification plans for many IT professionals, it is not likely that this move will end the interest and focus that thousands of organizations have on the Service Support and Service Delivery version.

Organizations have invested far too much in ITIL to simply write off the culture change that they have managed and it is likely that the decline in v2 focus will have a NEGATIVE effect on v3.

Senior managers don't like to waste money and more importantly they don't like to be seen to waste time and money. When questioned, in the boardroom about the ITIL project for service improvement, I can see many CIOs explaining how the v2 work has paved the way for ISO 20000 certification. No mention of ITIL v3 as it will simply confuse and complicate the issue.

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Monday, September 14, 2009

I guess it was just a matter of Time - "update" to ITIL v3

In what must be considered a positive move for the original authors of ITIL v3 a statement has been issued that outlines how ITIL v3 is to be updated to be what, I imagine, it originally should have been!!

The statement is clear to point out that the "new edition" of ITIL v3 is not a new version, but there are some quite obvious issues that look like they are going to be fixed (finally).

Inconsistencies are the biggest issue. Inconsistencies in language, concept, terms, etc. Complexity of the Service Strategy book is another major hurdle that is set to be cleared.

The issues log for ITIL v3 contains 312 issues raised - that are to be reviewed by the change board for this project.

I wonder if TSO will make available complementary copies of ITIL V3 that made the investment in the books, CDS, etc. expecting to find a cohesive framework - which now, by the admisssion of the OGC they did not get.

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

What is the RFC Review?

The review activity is all about a first pass filter that will help to eliminate change requests that will automatically fail at later stages. The typical reasons for rejection are that the change is totally impractical (when assessed by the Change Manager or other nominated person), changes that have been obviously reworked versions of earlier rejected changes and those that are incomplete (“completeness” which can be defined by change types or for particular change models (or again, a degree of common sense may be applied).

What ever the reasons for rejection are it is important that the initiator is told the reasons and has the right of appeal (or re-submission, especially if the discrepancies are minor or just an oversight).

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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Considerations for recording and logging change requests

When it comes to Change Management one of the first activities to cover is the requirement to define just who is allowed to raise a Change Request. There is no correct answer, other than “who ever you define is permitted to raise a change”.

What can help in the definition is thinking about the levels or categories of change that could be dealt with by the process. This statement should be read with the awareness that operational change management can be dealt with by a much simpler process flow.

So in this regard, changes of major significance to the organization may be raised by more senior organization members. It may also be appropriate that such changes are accompanied by proposals that lay out the justification for the change in either financial or social terms (or both).

Another important point is that the change record itself can be continually updated throughout its lifecycle. The process flow may not show a return to the actual change request, but for example common sense would prevail that sign offs for testing on the change record cannot take place until the testing has been completed.

With regard to actual logging of change records there are a variety of mediums that can be used. Each will have its own idiosyncrasies and how they are used will have to be thought through, documented and then taught. It is vital that every change has a unique identifier – even if the change is rejected at the first review and any trigger document will need to be part of the change record to allow a more complete audit trail.

Tools that are used for change logging and tracking (especially when those tools integrate with other ITSM process areas (notably configuration management) will help to streamline and enhance overall change efficiency. It will however, be critical to control who can access such records and the tool should track who and when changes are made as part of the overall control element for change management.

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Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Competition heating up in the IP race !!

There is a massive struggle happening as I type regarding the complete ITIL v3 content, from the 5 v3 Volumes.

TSO the official publisher have long been the distribution are of the ITIL V3 materials, either directly or via their reseller channel.

Now another publisher would seem to have struck a deal with the OGC and is selling the equivalent material at a fraction of the price of TSO. Has TSO been caught napping or have they made some very dangerous assumptions regarding their distribution rights?

Only time will tell, but the next 2 to 3 days will see a power struggle behind closed doors that 99% of the IT Service Management communitity will never hear about.

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