ITIL v3: Passing the Skeptic’s Test
- Sunday, July 6, 2008, 17:44
- Exam Topics
- 1,544 views
- Add a comment
The notoriously tough IT Skeptic takes a hard look at v3 — and likes it! (Well, mostly.)
I tried to hold off commenting on the recently released ITIL v3 core publications until I had read all the books thoroughly, including Sharon Taylor’s Introduction, which is still coming. But I have to say it: My first impression is that these are excellent books.
As discussed in a recent review of the Service Strategy book, it will take considerable time to really digest these books and their implications, and to test the chisel of theory against the cold hard rock of reality (none more so than the Service Strategy book).
But first impressions can be drawn now and they are good ones.
The books are beautifully designed (as a matter of personal taste I’d have chosen a slightly less aggressive bullet style). The colors and fonts are easy to read. The layout is fresh and clear. The covers are pretty. Printing is crisp and the paper quality excellent, though I question how long the covers will stand up to the kind of service some of us will be subjecting them to. But the binding seems pretty strong.
The content is laid out logically and to a consistent plan between books.
Some of the books have a lot to say. One hesitates to pick on Service Design, given the pedigree of the authors, but it is a big book. The objective was for the books to be the last word in ITSM best-practice, not a pocket guide. And that they are: simplification will be the order of the day for many sites. The world awaits an ITIL for Dummies book. We can leave it to time and the community to decide how much of the content is debatable opinion and how much generally accepted practice.
Okay, Enough of That…
The other question for the world to put to the test is how practical and useful the books really are. I had mixed feelings. On the one hand these are a superb comprehensive reference. On the other, the depth and sheer volume of material will be a challenge for many organisations. What a demand there will be for consultants to interpret and apply it all!
The other thing I’m not sure about is whether we have more or less advice on risks and problems and how to deal with them than we did in v2. There are practical tips scattered throughout the books, but the formal discussion of risk and problems is pretty light in some of them, e.g. Service Operation, of all books, devotes just five pages to the organized discussion of challenges and risk. Service Design has just one-and-a-half!
One assumes the authors figured they covered it all elsewhere, but people are not going to read these books cover to cover: they will refer to them. “Challenges and Risk” is one of nine standard chapters for all the books. It should not be tossed off in a couple of pages, as they all did except for Service Strategy.
Donwload Free PassGuide Braindumps-The Most Realistic Practice Questions and Answers,Help You Pass any ExamsThe “Implementing” chapters are equally anemic in the four books that have it, except for Continual Service Improvement, which has good stuff.
Implementing ITIL is a meta-lifecycle: a lifecycle for the lifecycle. As such, the core books “accidentally” have useful material on planning, design, cultural change, etc. that is as applicable to implementing ITIL processes as it is to implementing services. Additionally, a good case can be made for a complementary book devoted to the subject, since much of it is generic across all the core books.
I found the books light on practical examples. One particular disappointment for me was the Service Catalogue example in Service Design. It is trivial, banal. Sure there are going to be “value added” examples on the internet and all sorts of complementary content, but we may end up wishing the books were not so theoretical. If you are going to put samples in, make them robust ones.
While we are on the topic of Service Catalogue, I wrote recently about how it is the pivot to the whole wheel of ITIL (to borrow a metaphor current in v3). Service Design gets stuck into the subject, fixing a huge hole in v2, but it is curiously coy about one essential aspect of the Catalogue: as a selling tool.
It uses dry terms such as “the customer view”. It acknowledges there are business and technical versions of the Catalogue, but the business version is not treated as what it is: a brochure. If IT is to operate as a business and meet business on its own terms, marketing is an essential activity that does not feature in these books except for Service Strategy which addresses it head on. Or maybe I haven’t found it yet.
Perhaps my biggest objection to v3 is the continuing insistence on a CMDB, or rather a CMS as it is now, which is an even more complex system of multiple CMDBs. I’ve written before about how CMDB is a technology solution to a process problem that only serves to line the pockets of the tools vendors and send poor ITIL implementers on a fool’s quest.
ITIL is admirably vague on the technological underpinnings of process in all areas except this one. It is high time the processes were designed without this requirement either. Just like service desk, good processes in other areas can work without much configuration technology. They just work more efficiently and effectively with it. I had hoped v3 might improve the situation, but it seems only to have compounded the complexity.
These issues aside, the books are a wonderful addition to my library. Three hundred quid is a lot to pay, but most users will be spending somebody else’s money anyway, and I’ll get my money’s worth before the covers give out. To all those who worked on these books: Great effort folks! Thank you.
The IT Skeptic is an ITIL professional and active itSMF member who, for editorial reasons, prefers to remain anonymous. More thoughts from the IT Skeptic can be found at his website. The IT Skeptic’s latest project is BOKKED: The Body of Knowledge > KnownError Database, where you can record errors you find in books > just such as > ITIL Version 3.
High quality IT Certification Training Exam Questions, Study Guides and Practice Tests are in Downloadable PassGuide Testing Engine,Successful for IT Certification or Full Refund for you.Contact Us:Sales@PassGuide.com|
Type |
Exam Bible | New Questions & Answers |
Latest Updated |
Download link |
| All Certbible 's Exam Dumps |
597 |
1 days ago | Available |
PassGuide Training Materials & Practice Tests
About the Author
Free Certification Exam Download has written 10018 stories on this site.
If you have any doubts about legality of content or you have another suspicions, feel free to contact us:CertGuard@Gmail.com
Write a Comment
Gravatars are small images that can show your personality. You can get your gravatar for free today!
