As this is my first blog, a brief introduction: I am have been working in the IT industry for over 20 years. I started (like many of us) in desktop support, as opposed to development, and have fulfilled roles on the Service Desk and in 2nd line (Windows) support. My badge of honour is my Windows 3.11 Expert certificate (which is well-and-truly a retired service by now).
As part of my meteoric career path I became involved with projects, around either desktop or messaging (Exchange 4.5 for the archaeologists under you) before making the step to more or less fulltime ITIL specialist (can’t really use the word ‘expert’ as that qualification wasn’t available in those days of the late 90's). As the latter I’ve done anything from process assessment, design, management and improvement (mostly around Operations and Transition) but lately I’ve been almost exclusively doing training (at all levels). What is that saying again “Those who can’t …”?
About a year ago I started tweeting on the subject of ITIL and Service Management and now I’ve decided it is time to start a blog. Not that I think I have revolutionary ideas or the answer to all the questions; my late joining of both twitter & blogging serves as a testament to that. But in my 20 years’ experience I do think I have obtained some unique insights & ideas and if nothing else some funny anecdotes and analogies which are perhaps worth sharing. You’ll be the judge of this, so please let me know (yes, I’ll take requests!).PS: I am not an native English speaker, so please forgive any typos and\or other mistakes.
So my name of zealot indicates that I believe ITIL is the one, true way towards Service Management heaven. Or perhaps, much like religion, I understand that there are many ways which lead to this goal, but ITIL is my chosen path (I may get around to discussing some of the other frameworks, which I not so much denounce as believe have their own specific benefits).
This reminds me (and you’re correct, this is going to be the first anecdote\analogy) of my religion teacher in high school who drew two paths on the blackboard. One was a straight, wide freeway (or perhaps the highway to hell) and the other a small, winding path to heaven; and in between were connecting cross-roads. As the teacher explained, many people take the ‘easy’ route of the wide freeway (to hell), but all was not lost as at certain points (in their lives) they could still cross to the winding road to heaven. Perhaps not the easiest path, but worth it because of the destination (heaven). I guess conversely people can loose their goal and stray from the path of righteousness (the winding one) back onto the easy path.
I thought that if this was the case, I would take the fast, wide, easy freeway all the way until the very last crossroad, to then quickly get across and complete the last little bit of the winding road to heaven. Apparently this was not allowed. Perhaps this symbolises the attitude of many people to service management; they’re looking for the easy road whereas the only the way to service management nirvana is long, complicated and sometimes painful. ITIL (and me to a lesser degree) are here to guide you on this path. I hope you’ll enjoy these blogs and get some use out of it (or even just a smile).
the ITIL Zealot
May 2012
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