Holy Cow! I Thought ITIL Foundation Was Easy?

[OwlHoot]

Like most of these "systems" for doing IT, they are just a framework for your existing processes. Generally it's a pile of cack designed to keep somebody in a job.

I bet the MOD and NHS are heavily into it.

[mrdonuts]

Working on an ITIL project at the moment. Got the role with only an understanding of it. When I arrived and saw what the client had implemented told them straight that what they were doing was bulltulip!

It's dull boring bulltulip and has no use in the real world.

i thought you were a crystal reports guru, what does ITIL have to do with that ?

[gingerjedi]

I bet the MOD and NHS are heavily into it.

The MoD is at least, don't know about the NHS?

Now instead of having knowledgeable people who can fix things they have box swappers and a very limited standard spec of hardware and applications. Not much can go wrong but the functionality has is seriously reduced.

Another very expensive cost saving initiative.

[shoes]

Is it just me or does this kind of middle management procedure following check list instead of simply using your common sense bull make anyone else want to chuck it all in and go live in a tree?

[Sysman]

It sounds like a lot of hogwash to me.

But if mastering it and getting the certificates is likely to improve your rate, I'd stick at it and good luck (seriously).

I've been looking at IPMA at the moment and it's much the same.

Except I'm doing it in German. This brings added fun in knowing when and when not to use the English rather than German phrase. For yet more fun some English buzzwords seem to have morphed from their original English meaning.

It's all about the certificates. A couple of large companies here have mandated that from next year everyone in a PM role must be certified.

[malvolio]

Point of order chaps...

I learned ITIL from the people that wrote and the people who made it work orginally, like Don Page and Chris Armit. I've been working on ITIL-based process work for around 20 years. I did Foundation some 18 years ago (except ISEB have no record of it...) and have coached at least thrity people through the exam. ITIL works, it is basically common sense written down, just like Prince and SSADM.

V3 is not ITIL. The documentation is academic and divorced from reality. It is often contradictory. ?The idea of life-cycle management is fine, but it doesn't need or warrant the complexity that ITIL v3 gives it.

IMHO, V3 is to benefit the training agencies, who have added a whole extra layer of qualifications and require you to pass several exams on detail subjects rather than the old Managers, which was about making it all work. Compare the original map of ITIL - ten interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces - with Fox IT's "ITIL on a page" diagram - a whole sheet of A3...

Current client is knee deep in a V3 programme. Two years in they don't have a working Service Catalogue, nor a CMDB. They do have Chaneg Management (how, without a CMDB??), a pile of qualifications and projects to implement various modules... Meanwhile, I'm doing it for real with the support teams.

Anyone anywhere close to Service Delivery needs to understand the basics, and the best way to do that is on a Foundation course (not just reading the books, they're a waste of time, you need the discussion the course provides). Beyond that, I really wouldn't bother.

[dspsyssts]

Thanks for that input Malvolio, it confirms my suspicions somewhat.

[Sysman]

IMHO, V3 is to benefit the training agencies, who have added a whole extra layer of qualifications and require you to pass several exams on detail subjects rather than the old Managers, which was about making it all work. Compare the original map of ITIL - ten interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces - with Fox IT's "ITIL on a page" diagram - a whole sheet of A3...

I see a pattern here. During the recession of the early '90s it was ISO 9000 (coming hard on the heels of BS 5750).

[cojak]

Unfortunately I've been getting "do you have ITIL Expert" queries from clients, apart from the fact that I've been acknowledged by the authors in one of the V3 books. So I'm off to tick that box next week...

As for the books, there's 'The Official Introduction to the ITIL Service Lifecycle' and 'The Foundation in IT Service Management' which is all you need if you want to prep before the exam.

[malvolio]

The question still stands - how can you be an Expert in one module of an interlinked set of 15 or so, all of whom are interdependent? And let's face it, if your CV doesn't demonstrate adequate knowledge of ITIL. then whose does?

As usual we're suffering from box tickers driving a market they have absolutely zero knowledge in.