Beginning of the end for ITIL?

[George Parr]

Anyone read my latest Blog posting....??

Snip "They don’t yet have a CMDB"

I'll give my last Rolo to anyone who can show me somewhere that does and that works by the book(s).

[DodgyAgent]

I couldn't agree more. ITIL attracts bureacrats like flies to a cow pat. In the public sector especially I've seem a lot of low grade middle managers given ITIL manager responsibilites just to give them something to do and of course they make a balls of it all.

When ITIL adherence becomes an end in itself then one can understand the scepticism. The importance of ITIL is that people understand what it is supposed to do (which is to create a sense of planning, risk mitigation and discipline towards service delivery) and apply ITIL where approriate then it is a useful tool.
More importantly ITIL accreditation shows potential employers that you are less likely to have a maverick approach.

[George Parr]

When ITIL adherence becomes an end in itself then one can understand the scepticism. The importance of ITIL is that people understand what it is supposed to do (which is to create a sense of planning, risk mitigation and discipline towards service delivery) and apply ITIL where approriate then it is a useful tool.
More importantly ITIL accreditation shows potential employers that you are less likely to have a maverick approach.

Yep, I agree. Don't get me wrong I am not against ITIL, I have worked as a process manager myself, its just the dogmatic fools and the paperwork junkies who get it a bad name as Cojak alluded to. That and the obsession with the CMDB holy grail.

[Sysman]

Yep, I agree. Don't get me wrong I am not against ITIL, I have worked as a process manager myself, its just the dogmatic fools and the paperwork junkies who get it a bad name as Cojak alluded to. That and the obsession with the CMDB holy grail.

Not being versed in the acronyms of ITIL, may I ask what CMDB stands for in this context?

[NickFitz]

Not being versed in the acronyms of ITIL, may I ask what CMDB stands for in this context?

Apparently, it doesn't mean what it used to mean

[cojak]

It was at a meeting for a clientco with the Configuration Mgt team and the (completely our-of-touch) in-house process team.

The process team were insisting that the project be called 'Software Asset and Configuration Management' to the horror of the IT teams who knew that the SA Manager and the CM Manager hated each other's guts and would never agree to it (and neither would their powerful senior management).

Ooh the fun we had had in saying that while that might be a good target, our project already had it's objectives and that wasn't one of them.

Happy days...

[George Parr]

Not being versed in the acronyms of ITIL, may I ask what CMDB stands for in this context?

It is a theoretical concept. To visualise on a technical level think of a meaty Oracle box connected to an old MS-SQL 2000 server with a sprinkling of Access and Excel worksheets to glue it all together and you'll get a good idea.

[chef]

I'll give my last Rolo to anyone who can show me somewhere that does and that works by the book(s).

Singapore Government..

I expect a Rolo in the post..

[the_duderama]

I think people do need to remember ITIL is intended as a guide to running service management etc.

I've working in completly chaotic service envronments, and worked in totaly anal ITIL. Having to fill in some stupid forms is less of a hell than spending an entire day just trying to work out what the last guy did and how a power cut could have ****ed it all up so much.

[malvolio]

Not being versed in the acronyms of ITIL, may I ask what CMDB stands for in this context?

"If I turn this off, who is going to shout at me?"

A valid CMDB will asnwer that question. As George says, most of them can't.