Unbelievable, it’s December already
... again.
I guess it is only fitting around
this time to conclude this year of blogs with a seasonal topic. In this case
the ghosts of a Service Management Christmas.
The
Ghost of Christmas past: Service Management
Let’s take a moment to reflect on
and celebrate the achievement of Service Management!
Being a zealot, I come from a time
when service management was literally unheard of, and we were pretty much preaching the
good news. Since then there wouldn't many (IT) companies left today who aren't at the very least aware of the service management principles. And whilst it may
not be perfect (far from), there is a certain acceptance.
ITIL is past the hype-curve. Although
this poses new challenges (in the ‘through of disillusionment’), at least we've left the inflated expectations and start seeing for what it is: a descriptive
guidance (not a goal in itself!).
And let's not forget (despite my
earlier mentioned ‘zealot’ status) that there are more flavours in the service
management universe: COBIT has matured to be a complete framework, AGILE and
LEAN are in demand and ‘golden oldies’ like PRINCE2 retain their value. No one
framework is king, they all excel in their own areas and we now realise that
‘mix-n-match’ is the name of the game.
The
Ghost of Christmas present: AXELOS
For those of you that are still
unaware of this: Capita has purchased 51% of the ‘best-practice’ portfolio of
the British government, and together they have created a joint venture called
Axelos as the IP-holder, accreditor etc. This has brought a lot of uncertainty
to those currently ‘involved’ in the ITIL world (or PRINCE2, or MoR, or…): Exam
Institutes, Accredited Training Organisations, consultants and the like.
So far Axelos has been saying all
the right things (listening to the market, minimal/no immediate change, invest
in product development, including alternative training products -read gamification-).
But their actions have been less ‘insightful’: a £10 Foundation Exam app and a £1,000 ITIL maturityassessment all indicate a more expensive
future.
Of immediate concern is now the
training accreditation and examination. Exam royalties are rumoured to triple,
but to-date no official pricing has been announced. With APMG relinquishing
their role as the accreditor on 1 January (and becoming ‘just’ an EI) there are still a lot of
unknowns: no copyright clarity, reaccreditation requirements (or timeframe) …
Whilst the market may hardly notice
this, I think it has put most things ‘on hold’ of the past year, hopefully to
restart again when the takeover has been completed.
Which brings me to
The
Ghost of Christmas future: ITIL 2015
This may be a case of wishful
thinking: but with 6 months development, starting in the middle of next year,
followed by a 6 months review and fine-tuning period; we could have a new ITIL
in the middle of 2015 (giving me 6-months leeway ‘til the end of that year and the need for a different name).
And what an opportunity for Axelos
to get it right and position itself in the market as THE premier service
management framework provider. A few things that I’d like to see:
·
Real
language (no bull): focus on the concepts\outcomes of ITIL, not the theoretic
definitions. After all, ITIL is descriptive.
·
Consistency:
link all books, all processes and loose the ambiguity where possible. For
instance is CSI a process or not?
·
Integration:
clarify the co-existence of ITIL with various other frameworks (overlaps, strengths
…)
·
Focus
& expand: ITIL has built a name in Operational processes (loosely including
the Transition ones), so whilst Service Strategy is certainly important, it is
unlikely organisation will adopt this ‘as-is’. Instead focus on the strengths
of the operational process and expand the offering with more templates,
(implementation) cases and support. People are always looking for a silver
bullet and whilst ITIL will never be that, it can provide more guidance than
its current 5 publications.
I get all warm feelings thinking
about this, sign with me
Jingle bells – service management
hell – ITIL’s on its way
Oh what fun – it is to write – a
process manual
Wishing you all the best for the upcoming
holidays and 2014!
the ITIL Zealot
December 2013