The IT Skeptic - Comments for "Should you spend the money on ITIL V3 certification?"

IT trainers suck

skeptic — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 20:39:00 +0000

a troll or just venting?

I think it might reflect on the standard of some of the trainers. Too many IT trainers suck. Subject matter knowledge alone does not make a good teacher (though of course it is one component)

by posting about it on here?

Another Visitor — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 10:53:36 +0000

by posting about it on here? That should help you forget it faster.

Fail troll is has failed.

ITIL. The most pointless

Visitor — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:09:46 +0000

ITIL.

The most pointless load of management gibberish know to man.

What a waste of 3 days I'll never get back.

Now to do my best to forget everything about those 3 days.

Stranger in my own land

skeptic — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:06:00 +0000

You know, I have never yet got work in New Zealand on the basis of my being the IT Skeptic. No employer yet has heard of me in that role. I get work based on my past deliverables and my word-of-mouth reputation as Rob England, and I suspect being the newsletter editor for itSMFnz doesn't hurt :)

but because I'm the IT Skeptic? nah! "Who?"

Certification

Jan Vromant — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:44:26 +0000

Certifications have to do with credibility. If you are the IT Skeptic, your name is well known in the community where it matters, and you have the credibility to talk about ITIL with a level of authority that few others can match in your market.
I organized and paid for my v2 Service Manager's exam myself in 2001, and also paid for my v3 bridge in 2009 (including a flight). I don't regret it, and consider it an investment with a happy return.

RFPs

skeptic — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:59:23 +0000

My rule of thumb with RFPs is that most of them have already been won by whichever vendor - behind the scenes, unofficially - helped write it.

Don't necessarily agree

Cary King — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:37:39 +0000

Re: half don't differentiate - perhaps the individuals asking for these certifications don't fully appreciate the differences, but they do, for the most part, I think, differentiate.

Re: proportions. Vendor selling, as you well know, is partially about framing the prospects conversation in a way that is beneficial to one vendor over another. If the dominant vendor selling the prospect can frame the discussion by setting the agenda to that vendor's advantage, they win the sale.
That being said, I believe that vendor sales guys do, actually and for the most part, believe that the product they are selling will improve the customer's lot.

Prospects will, quite reasonably, look for evidence they understand of quality of the individuals they hire to be advisors or employees. Certification is such an indication.

I would argue that some of the traditional procurement processes that purport to enforce fairness are actually quite dysfunctional - the highly controlled RFQ process, which doesn't allow for actual discussion is, for instance, rife with problems. I really hate guessing about client issues and priorties - I'd rather give away a lot of free consulting in the sales process and get it right.

Cary King
Minerva Enterprises
Managing Partner
www.MinervaE.com

proportions

skeptic — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:46:55 +0000

" prospects include certification". What do you think of my rule of thumb that only two thirds want certification and half of them don't differentiate between V2 and V3?
And the proportions would be dependent on how much selling is word of mouth? And how many prospects are government, who have to dot the "i"s regardless?

Depends

Cary King — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:37:55 +0000

Depends, of course, upon your situation.

In our case, as a consulting firm, it is important because prospects include certification as part of their selection process.

For certain individuals in companies, the certification lends itself to the perception of expertise. That may help them quite a bit with providing leadership.

I recently attended the ITIL Service Manager to Expert course at the Pink Elephant conference in Las Vegas. What I particularly liked about it was the opportunity to give this a focus for a week and the opportunity to discuss some of these issues with a bunch of individuals that had a great deal to offer with their expertise.

One of the advantages of education classes vs. self-education is that one is forced to go through parts of the material that one might otherwise skip.

Cary King
Minerva Enterprises
Managing Partner
www.MinervaE.com