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.

Change is in the air... (times2)

Well the dust hasn't even settled and OGC is at it again.

Our mighty powers - the Office of Government Commerce - have announced the "Refresh requirements for Prince2".

OGC has announced the requirement for a "cyclical update" on Prince2 and M_o_R (Management of Risk), as well as programme management (MSP).

Citing the last major piece of work on Prince2 happened in 2002 (minor updates in 2005) the statement indicates that the main outcomes expected for the project are:

1. Updated to reflect evolutions in Project Management
2. More accessible framework (less 'red-tape').

I'm sorry, but this reeks of another money grab that will be forced upon an unsuspecting audience. Watch for new publications, new certifications, new just about everything.

I pity the poor folks that are ITIL and Prince2 champions.

EVOLUTIONS in Project Management... what evolutions... I remember a saying.. "THERE ARE NO NEW FUNDAMENTALS".

The cave men hunted in packs - it was a project. Telling me that there are some evolutions in project management is like saying "we're designing new concepts for living well". There are no new concepts for living well; eat healthy, take some exercise and rest.. sure there are a few more basics, but not many.

There are no new concepts, no new fundamentals that cannot be mapped towards something that already exists in some form.

It is seriously getting time to look at alternatives that -although not guaranteed to be static - have a higher degree of difficulty to change. International standards spring to mind.

ISO 20000, Exin's SQMF program; could all be potential ways to save what little hair IT professionals may have as they face this new onslaught of seemingly unprovoked change.

The OGC press release states the input from "public consultation" as one of the drivers for change. Please give me the details of this "public consultation" I would be fascinated to do the numbers on this "public consultation".

Was there a marked increase in complaints and issues with what existed?

Surely, to undertake such a massive operation would require "significant" challenges to what was current; and then an even "more significant" public consultation. I am talking in the region of thousands of people to be consulted in the hundreds of thousands that would have an interest.

What were those numbers? OR - as I suspect is it all a bit immaterial - the change is going to happen, new books, new certification schemes; all the things that pry open the IT budgets of the many organizations that have adopted Prince2.

It's another victory for the bean counters; but one that must have people starting to think about the pattern that is emerging.

I guess, when you have the market cornered for defacto standards then you can do what you want. However, as mentioned earlier, this may be simply the excuse that IT professionals have been looking for to move to national or international standards (e.g. ISO 9000, ISO 200000, ISO 27001, etc.)

Best Practice Change Control System

The Best Practice Management website offers a KNOWLEDGE CENTRE.

One of the intersesting sub menus there is the CHANGE CONTROL SYSTEM.
This is a central collection point for errors, issues and challenges for all 5 core volumes of ITIL version 3 and other OGC titles.

Once you have registered you can raise issues or change requests against these OGC titles. Issues or changes could include Grammar, Printing Errors, Spelling, Observations and Requests for Change.

IT professionals need to be aware of the official path for registering issues, complaints, errors about OGC's work.

Just one small letter TELLS the whole story !!!

Isn't it funny when you find the actual evidence of what everyone has been talking about - but no one has been able to actually identify.

There has been enough blogs and articles written over the past several months to stretch the full length of the itSMF member list regarding the "commercialization" of ITIL with the new Version 3.

Note: the spelling of commercialization is a realization (another "z") that organizations (one more "z") based in the USA are keen to read material that is written is US English - not UK English.

In fact, some will say that the real blocker for ITIL shooting to fame in the USA is due to the perception, based on fact, that ITIL is a British invention - so it won't be accepted.

Your intrepid reporter has an interesting comment. The new version of ITIL is written in US English. Organizations, realize, recognize, specialization.... Catalogue reamins with a "ue", but both spellings are common in the US.

Would others have noticed this small - but enormous change !! I think that it was meant to sneak under the radar, but the smallest of changes can often have the greatest consequence (positive or negative).

So, there we have it, for all those original British authors it seems that another treasure of the British Isles is to be Americanized !!

Will this simple last letter of the (American :-) Alphabet be the real key for acceptance in the United States.?

Will the OGC be renamed as the Office of Governor of California in the US versions, will there actually be a UK English version, a US English version, an Australian English version, etc. ?

I don't know, but I will be waiting with baited breath to unwrap my new books and find the answer.

5th June 2007 - Who will be on the invite list ?

June 5th 2007, London - looms as a 'red letter' day for the "ITILites" amongst us.

The "offical launch" of the framework version 3. Bit like the Olympics, with the official publication date being set at the 30th May.

Who will be on the invite list? Well for one, your intrepid ITSMer will be there and will be able to rub shoulders with the rich and infamous of the ITIL world.

Stay tuned for a full briefing. However, I have heard tell that there are speeches from OGC (expected), TSO (expected), APMG (interesting, but not unexpected)..... notice who is missing from this list - Exin and ISEB.

It seems that not all Examination Institutes are created equal... it obviously pays to have won the OGC contract for Managing the ITIL certification scheme.,,, you get invited to all the good parties (just like the Oscars).