The Russians used a pencil !!

The story goes that at the height of the space race there were many operational issues that had to be dealt with regarding space travel and working in a gravity free world.

One such issue related to making notes and recordings on various readings, observations, etc.

The Americans spent countless hours and huge amounts of money to develop a "space pen" that would use specially designed "minature pumps" to force the ink towards the nib of the pen.

The Russians used pencils !!

Remember it's a story not the truth,; but as they say "why let the truth stand in the way of a good story?".

My point is that ITIL v3 seems to have been designed using complex concepts when perhaps simple ones would have been equally - if not more - effective. My most recent area of study in the Service Strategy text relates to the Service Portfolio Management activities of Define, Analyze, Approve and Charter.

The specific section in the book is not large, but it takes a long time to come to fully appreciate the point being made. You will eventually get it like I did and it is good stuff, but I wish the authors may have thought about a pencil, rather than a space age pen - I want my weekends back !