skeptic's blog

The IT Skeptic on facebook

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2013-03-26 22:38

Mountains crumble, continents shift, species evolve, and The IT Skeptic gets a page on facebook. Personally I prefer Google+ but for those of you who use Zuckerbook, The IT Skeptic now has his own page, and I promise to try to keep the page alive on this crumbling ruin of a social network (like, facebook is so noughties). To do that, I need you to interact please, so come friend, like, post, tag, comment, and all those things you do on a social network.

Please Like the IT Skeptic on facebook

Service desks and spontaneous user combustion

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2013-03-24 23:24

There is much talk about users spontaneously creating their own communities for mutual technical support. This phenomenon of spontaneous user support is presented as a threat to IT. We're told that if we don't do something to engage these communities then they will render IT redundant. The absurdity of this shouldn't need explanation but apparently it does. I'll deal with that separately (I started here). Never mind the absurdity of the predicted consequences, does it ever happen?

The mad competitive scramble

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-03-21 04:05

ImageThe rate of change in IT is unsustainable, and is in fact a crowd hysteria. Just because the technology is changing that fast doesn't mean we have to, or can.

A major driver for that scrabbling rush is "competition". That is an over-used trump-card that needs some close skeptical scrutiny in all the companies playing it. Tweet this

Obtaining compliance for policies, processes and procedures

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-03-14 10:16

One of the great frustrations of improvement is getting people to do stuff.
From an email I wrote today responding to this question, here are some ways to get compliance - in increasing order of maturity. Tell me what you think of this model. What did I miss? What is already out there?

Where's the COBIT 5 training?

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2013-03-13 20:40

Here we go again. COBIT 5 is hot: the industry itches to get using it. APMG is signed up to roll out the training programme. The ITIL V3 training courses faced a similar situation a few years back. The ITIL training courses (also administered by APMG) came out later than promised, much to the frustration of an industry busting to put it to work. Now we see the same thing again with COBIT 5. Rattle your dags, ISACA and APMG!

Skep Chat 2013/3/13 - come hangout with the IT Skeptic

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2013-03-13 00:51

Here is the first online streamed Skep Chat, an opportunity to discuss recent posts on this blog

(see below for video)

Expect more of these every week or two... IF you join in to make them happen. Follow me on Google+ for notification of future such events, and then come hangout with us.

Vendor etiquette in the webiverse

Submitted by skeptic on Tue, 2013-03-12 02:43

At the risk of invading Chris Dancy's turf, I feel some vendors could use a lesson on what the online community expects. Let me share with you two conversations I've had in the one day, as case studies in how NOT to engage online.

Welcome to the Web Wide World

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-03-07 01:45

Welcome to the Web Wide World. Many readers of this blog are so immersed in the world that the Web has created that you take it for granted, but let's not. The flattened shrunken world of the Internet has this power to change lives. It strikes me every day, because I live it.

The New IT Age

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2013-03-04 04:00

We have a bit of a "New IT Age" - or is that "New Age IT"? - going on. I don't mean that like Charles Araujo's Quantum Age of IT, as a major transformation of how we do IT. I mean it in the same way as "New Age" thinking: i.e. a total abdication of rational or critical thought. Peace, love, dope, and brown rice ... and bad science. We haven't seen crystal IT or aromatherapy IT or holistic pyramid IT, but some days I feel as if it is just a matter of time. Tweet this.

Slow IT

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-02-28 01:28

Slow IT is a provocative name. It doesn't mean IT on a go-slow. It means slowing down the pace of business demands on IT so as to focus better on what matters, and to reduce the risk to what already exists. The intent of Slow IT is to allow IT to deliver important results more quickly. It does this by concentrating on the interfaces between business executives and CIOs. Slow IT highlights the importance of Governance of IT and of Service Portfolio in order to make the right decisions to do the right things in the right way at the right time, to maximise benefit and minimise risk. Slow IT challenges the hysterias and fads of IT to ensure that these results are really needed as quickly as we think they are. Slow IT is about trying to introduce more measured responses, to bring some sanity to the current dangerous madness that is organisational IT.

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