skeptic's blog

Book review: Defining IT Success Through The Service Catalog, and some other catalogue books

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2012-12-23 05:26

I like Defining IT Success Through The Service Catalog. I use it.

The ERP for IT fallacy

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2012-12-13 20:17

factoryThere is a school of thought that takes the idea of ERP systems (Enterprise Resource Planning: monolithic integrated systems for running all of a business from operations through to HR to financials) and applies it to IT. The suggestion is that these concepts are fractal: if they work for the organisation as a whole then they can also work on a smaller scale for the IT department and the IT systems and services.

Recently the idea of ERP for IT has had some attention again. We need to stamp it out. Tweet this

TFT12 virtual ITSM conference

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2012-12-08 07:51

As the dust settles on the TFT12 virtual global ITSM conference, what can we take from it and what does it mean for the future?

Risk taking

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2012-12-03 09:35

In the last few decades it has become fashionable to adopt a higher risk profile in pursuit of flexibility, agility, competitiveness and ultimately higher profits. We are told by the experts that risk can be managed, mitigated, hedged. We all know how well that turned out for the financial industry in the 1980s, again in the 1990s, and again in the 2000s. Are we learning yet?

The hard fact about a higher risk profile is that sooner or later you will crash. Just because you got away with it last time doesn't mean you will next time.

We all tut tut about those evil bankers, and then we go and do it in IT.

Service catalogue and service request catalogue

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2012-11-25 02:54

Both service catalogue and service request catalogue matter - the order in which you address them and the relative priority you give them depends on the circumstances. Don't fall for the hype around service request catalogue right now. Click to tweet this.

IT archaeology

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2012-11-22 10:36

Every tool, document, data or process must have a system sustaining it. Don't leave all your hard work to crumble into ruins. Tweet this

Imagine using the internet as knowledge

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2012-11-17 21:56

What a dumb idea; directing user search to internet videos to solve IT technical problems.

How interpretation of statistics can distort any picture

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2012-11-15 01:10

Marketing people are masters at giving distorted - sometimes downright misleading - interpretations of statistics. And often the numbers themselves are crap in the first place.

Evolution not revolution

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2012-11-11 11:53

What is this IT obsession with revolution? Revolution is destructive, counterproductive, the source of much pain. The destruction which evolutions wreak can set communities back by decades. Revolution is to be avoided at all costs. The intelligent and civilised way to move forward is evolution: building on the work of others, retaining value and knowledge, growing, changing incrementally.

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