The Famous Five Run Away Together

The nice folks at OGC must have had a giggle when they choose the cover designs for all the new ITIL v3 material.

On more than one occasion a passer-by has commented on the cover design for the "Vendor pre-release briefing" - "That's marijuana!!" one rather eldery woman commented.

It was of course my civic duty to enquire about her knowledge on such a topic - however, no answer was forthcoming as she tripped off to another destination.

But then I had a look at the covers of the "Famous Five" books that are flooding the market faster than a free iPhone giveaway competition.

X-ray images of Peas and Poppies, sea shells and starfish - there is a definite hint that the team were out to have a bit of laugh in choosing the designs.

I think the term "Famous Five" is very apt for the books. Those of us lucky enough to have grown up on the stories of Enid Blyton we will fondly remember Julian, Anne, Dick, George and Timmy the dog.

Just like "Five Run Away Together" we can understand our intrepid authors looking forward to their usual holiday at George' s home and tucking into Aunt Fanny's and Joanna the cook's delicious food !!

I'm just thinking that the designers of the covers for the new material were tucking into something a little bit more powerful when the concept was discussed. At least we're talking about it, so in that regard it's a great success.

Authoring over 700 books in her career we thank our modern day Enid B. (aka Sharon Taylor) who held those rascally authors at just 5 books.

;-)

George Spalding – the new ITIL Philosopher

During one of the lighter moments of the ITIL v3 Launch in London recently, one question to the author panel was “what are one or two sentences that I can tell my boss are the benefits of ITIL v3”. As expected the majority of authors used words like “integration, alignment, value, etc. etc.”.

However, George Spalding’s answer was a classic; “You can use ITIL v3 to guide you through ITIL without consultants”.

Amidst much laughter, I felt myself wondering if he knows something the rest of us don’t !! Of course Georges answer is fine as he is employed by one of the largest IT Service Management training companies in the world – Pink Elephant. And of course, guess what Pink DON’T DO much of – you guessed it “consulting”.

I wonder if George will have an equally clever answer when he is asked about the “official” ITIL Study Guides that the OGC plan to publish for every ITIL v3 exam. Will George still think that move (which is likely to hit education vendors the hardest) is equally amusing.

We don’t know the answer to the question – but if the global vendor community had to appoint a single representative voice – then I think they could do worse than George Spalding. The man is buoyant and energetic and he calls it as he sees it.

However, it is likely that whoever is involved with the development of the official study guides would not be a great supporter of such a Vendor OrganIzation Community(E) - or as I shall formally announce it the "VOICE".

ITIL v3 Launch - an emmotional event.

The suits were out for the official ITIL v3 launch in London. The 5th June 2007 marked the start of a global tour for the intrepid and brave authors of the “new and improved” material. As always Sharon Taylor led from the front – and in a rare show of emotion there was even a small hint of a tear when the larger than life George Spalding gave an impromptu , but heart felt acknowledgement of the work that Sharon has put in over the last several years.

I don’t think there would be anyone that would argue that the effort required to get v3 off the ground is enormous. Whether v3 will fly or not remains to be seen. However, the signs are positive – especially as there will be a live, on-going feedback mechanism that everyone can contribute to.

The involvement of the ITSM community for v3 does not appear to be lip service. There are genuine efforts to retain the high degree of user contribution that has characterized this latest version of the popular framework.