skeptic's blog

An idea for how to handle incidents as requests

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2013-07-03 09:38

I've tried for years to argue that you don't resolve technical issues as part of incident workflow - they're problems. But I have to face up to the fact that I'm never going to win that one. So here's a gentler option that still addresses my concerns: the Request for Restoration of Service. Does this idea have legs?

Some thoughts on the Capita JV

Submitted by skeptic on Sun, 2013-06-30 01:54

As many readers will know, The UK Government and a British outsourcer called Capita have formed a joint venture (JV) to own and sell the whole "Swirl" best-practice portfolio, which includes ITIL and PRINCE2. The company (which remains nameless) exists from 1st July, and will be fully operational from 1st January 2014. This is the end-game (end of days, some would say) of a journey to commercialise these frameworks that started with the mysterious disappearing 1.1.1 five years ago. OGC was run by two of the highest-paid civil servants in Britain: you don't put highly-paid execs into a tiny backwater like OGC unless it is to return a profit.

Having met Peter Hepworth (JV CEO) and Chris Barrett ("opening batsman", read: running PR interference until the JV gets a formal PR voice of its own) at the SDI13 conference in Birmingham, I thought it was time to write down a few thoughts I have over the JV.

Trolls I have known

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2013-06-29 06:04

it occurred to me we haven't seen a troll on the blog for some time. I think this reflects the decreasing prominence of blogs: the trolling goes on elsewhere. The optimists amongst you might interpret it as demonstrating increasingly civilised behaviour on the Internet but somehow I doubt that. Anyway, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of the trolls of the past on the IT Skeptic blog.

In service support, changing the channel changes little

Submitted by skeptic on Mon, 2013-06-24 23:22

I'm all for improving the support channels, and social media can do that. But don't confuse that with any fundamental change in how we do - and ought to do - service support.

recent pics

Submitted by skeptic on Sat, 2013-06-22 00:55

Some recent snaps of the IT Skeptic and friends...

My apologies to Forrester

Submitted by skeptic on Fri, 2013-06-21 23:50

© Copyright Canstock Photo IncOops, sorry. I accused Forrester of repeatedly doing Chicken ITle articles, when in fact only the latest one was by Forrester and the previous instance - on Service Desk - was Gartner Killing the Help Desk Softly - or Blowing It Up.

news of IT's death is greatly exaggerated

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-06-20 18:12

© Can Stock Photo IncI'm not picking on Forrester, really I'm not, but they keep coming out with these Chicken ITle articles declaring the demise of something or other. Last time it was the service desk, [UPDATE: WRONG. Wrong. Wrong. Sorry no it wasn't Forrester last time, it was Gartner announcing the end of service desk. My apologies to Forrester]. now it is the whole danged IT department which apparently will be gone within seven years. Just like the previous article it is bollocks, and for the same reason: the article doesn't actually say what the sensationalist headline does.

Standard plus Case: the new way to think about service response

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2013-06-19 16:39

These are exciting times for the IT Skeptic: my new approach to service response - for most readers of this blog that means Service Desk - is getting a lot of attention and positive feedback. That's because it is simple, common sense, and low cost and low impact to adopt. If you do any sort of responding to situations - incidents, requests, problems, changes, events... - then Standard+Case will help you improve.

Slow business

Submitted by skeptic on Thu, 2013-06-13 12:17

Some links to discussion on "Slow Business" as a background to my work on "Slow IT"

Two new heads

Submitted by skeptic on Wed, 2013-06-12 10:18

No that isn't a reference to a hillbilly's baby. We've seen two announcements this past week of people heading up organisations owning major bodies of knowledge: the Capita ITIL-PRINCE2 JV, and ISACA. Somewhat of a contrast.

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