The IT Skeptic - Comments for "prISM"

As someone who DOES work for

Stuart Rance — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 21:55:13 +0000

As someone who DOES work for HP, I feel that the tone of your opening paragraphs is a bit unfortunate.

I agree that prISM does not yet have significant recognition in the industry, but I think it is a good attempt to get beyond ITIL certification to an assessment of what people have actually done.

If I wanted to recruit a service management consultant then I would look at their employment history, and the projects they have been involved in. I would be interested in things like their ITIL certifications, prISM accreditation and CISSP certification since these show that they have demonstrated their knowledge and competence to other people, but ultimately I would have to make my own judgement based on what they have actually done.

Stuart Rance FSM, FBCS CITP, CISSP

prISM won't work because nobody has heard of itSMF either

skeptic — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:46:58 +0000

My ITCP certification works for me - and worked straight away - because even though most employers hadn't heard of it, they had heard of the NZ Computer Society, and even if they hadn't heard of the NZCS they could guess that it was the industry-representative body.

When employers look to who stands behind prISM they are no further ahead. Who the hell are the itSMF? And what authority do they have to be issuing a broad professional certification?

ITIL Geekage

BucketRider — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 16:01:41 +0000

I agree - the ITIL Geeks (and I used to be one) need to widen their horizons. Technical Architecture, The End-User Experience, ICT Strategy, Productivity and Collaboration, Mobile computing using smartphones, Social Networking for business use, The Cloud and security concerns are not covered to any extent by the new ITIL 2011 - and these are real issues for us Heads of ICT who used to be ITIL Geeks (and still like to return to our comfort zone to debate things like Problem Closure categories occasionally)

Getting priSM recognized

Michael Imhoff Nielsen — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:07:56 +0000

Getting priSM recognized will take a long time. Other credential like initiative mentioned earlier have been around for many years and are know acknowledged within other narrow fields like security, risk and governance.

priSM doesn't have an ITIL focus, but embraces frameworks, best practices, standards etc. relevant for service management and the list is growing. That is the whole idea and maybe something that can bring itSMF away from the perception of being the "ITIL user group".

The difference between this initiative and ISM is that ISM was a local, one country (chapter) initiative whereas priSM is a global initiative. Exactly the reason for ISM to be closed down and people who want it to be transferred.

Generalist

skeptic — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 20:09:58 +0000

No matter how wide pRism spreads the net of other certifications, I think one runs the risk of being branded an ITIL geek. As the world.sobers up from its ITIL high I'm not sure that's a good career place to be, at least not down here in the real world. In the stratospheric business heights that some contributers to this blog move, maybe specialization is a good move, but I'm going to stick to being a generalist. It served me well working in software and it serves me well now.

Losing my religion

Lynn Jackson — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 13:25:16 +0000

Interesting that this organisation tries again to set up an institute for Service Management.

As an ITIL Expert and professional who has been using ITIL for over 10 years and am now finding that my expertise is in more demand now because I am also looking to Lean and Agile when I work. ITIL is not my only God and I won't be returning to the hide-bound past of ITIL accreditation.

My membership of the ISM was a waste of money, Clients had not heard of it and didn't care if I was a member or not. I don't intend to make the same mistake again.

the target or objective of PrIsM

skeptic — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:23:00 +0000

Hi Suzanne

I'm confused about the target or objective of PrIsM, as I'm sure are many others, and as i suspect even the pRiSm institute may be too. I'm pretty sure it started out as accreditation for ITIL Experts. Now it seems to be accreditation for IT professionals, or at least IT operations professionals. It seems pRISm is reaching out to an ever expanding range of existing certifications and accreditations to absorb them within its scope. This fits my point that ITSM is not a profession in and of itself but rather a perspective on IT operations as a whole, perhaps all of IT.

If PrisM is attempting to perform the same function as ITCP in NZ or CITP in the UK, then I can understand the need in the USA because they have never been able to amicably agree on one central body or one accreditation but we have no need of that in most other countries. The need is already addressed or can be addressed by a central IT organisation such as NZCS or BCS. ITSM is not the appropriate context for that and itSMF is not the appropriate vehicle, in any country.

On the other hand if pRISM is focused on ITSM as a specialised discipline, and the target market is approximated by itSMF members rather than the whole of IT, then i stick to my assertion that it is too much for such a narrow niche.

Thank-you for joining in on my blog of discontent and argumentativeness.

Skeptic "hearts" priSM

Suzanne Van NHove — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 20:46:12 +0000

Mr Skeptic…
I understand the love of controversy – and I’d like to optimistically suggest that, for a moment, we channel that energy to a project – say ‘world peace’ or maybe ‘professionalism in Service Management.’ In my mind, priSM solves the professionalism in service management issue, so let’s discuss!

First, I must thank you for acknowledging priSM (note the spelling!) – We must be making headway to land on your scope of discontent and argumentativeness. To all the volunteers (there are over 50 and growing who work a lot hours to support this program because they believe in it), credential holders (the numbers continue to climb), advocates, and supporters, a hearty “WELL DONE!” I hope you see this as an accomplishment and use it to continue to drive professionalism in Service Management forward.

Thanks for the opportunity to reply (more paranoid bloggers would not allow comments, of course). People will like what they see when they review this program for themselves, I believe. The ‘super-specialist’ and ‘super-gurus’ can be found in any profession, including the ITCP from the NZ Computer Society, but more on that in a moment. I know that you don’t believe that IT Service Management is a “narrow and limited specialization.” I know that you know that it is a wider brush that covers “building IT responsibly.”

priSM is new. It is developing. As with new concept, there are clearly needs for improvement and quite frankly, there have been many. Those improvements have come from experience of managing the program, comments from industry, and our stakeholders. We will continue to improve because this program is for the Service Manager and it must fit their needs, thus tell us what works and what doesn’t. priSM has a Global Advisory Committee that is chartered to do exactly that and improvements have been made due to their guidance and suggestions.

Your post mentions that priSM is ‘over-engineered.’ Hmmm. Write a program that drives the Service Management professional to address their practical experience, professional contributions, and education that is measurable, repeatable and delivers quantified results, each and every time. We took a very broad view of ‘Service Management’ so to be inclusive, shall I say, ‘a holistic view,’ across IT. As such, there seems to be an infinite number of activities and organizations to contact. What is listed in the priSM Handbook (v51, pages 10-14; available on the website) is an ongoing and continually expanding list for our priSM community to explore and experience. It clearly states that the list changes and the website (www.theprisminstitute.org) has updates and we encourage applicants and credential holders to submit new activities as there are so many areas to cover – how can we possible ‘know everything?’ I challenge you – apply or help us make this work and then apply.

‘ITSM is not a clearly defined profession.’ You’re right. Research tells us that there are common elements that characterize a profession (just do a Google on ‘professionalism’) and simply those common elements are: code of ethics, body of knowledge, research, continuing education, recognition as a lifelong occupation, leaders/philosophers, credentialing. Within IT Service Management, all of those elements are there (can I say you even fit under ‘leader/philosopher’?) except credentialing.

priSM answers that missing piece. There is a difference between a certification (ITIL® Master/Expert), a membership, an accreditation (presents a certificate of competency/compliance, e.g., ISO/IEC 20000 accredited organizations), and a credential. To make this simple, a credential is defined by a set of accepted criteria and awarded based on an impartial review and requires the credential holder to maintain (professional development). I’ll let you look up the others, but trust me, they are very different.

‘An effort by itSMF to gain some revenue for itself and add credibility to what we all do.’ Half right. It is about adding credibility; it’s about the formalization of a profession (see above). Gain revenue. This isn’t cheap and a majority of the work has been volunteer – so let’s not belittle those efforts. The priSM Institute® is a subsidiary and a separate company that must stand on its own. Any profit is going back to the itSMF Chapter who has credential holders. Revenue? Yes. But not more than the costs. Remember, unlike many other professional organizations, itSMF is a non-profit.

Near the end of your post, you suggest that one consider the BCS or ISACA. Both of these organizations are fully supporting priSM and we are finalizing the ‘reciprocity agreements’ with the BCS as I write. I have been in several conversations with ISACA along the same terms and we are moving those discussions forward. We have corrected the placement of the ISACA certifications. These organizations and many others see the value of priSM and the collaboration benefits.

Thanks for the ‘head’s up’ for the ITCP from the NZ Computer Society – I hope to open discussions with them. By the way, as in ITCP, isn’t your objective the following: “Certification is not the objective of ITCP. Professionalism is.” with a goal of ‘maturing ICT into a true profession’ (www.itcp.org.nz/about)? I downloaded the Certification Model (pdf by the way) and read the 92 pages. Excellent program and there are many compatibilities but also some clear differences. I will not make this a compare/contrast but I would like you to have a review of the priSM program and ask questions – I’m happy to address them!

Again, thanks for talking about priSM on your blog. I hope to win your enthusiasm over time.

Regards,
Suzanne

specialist

skeptic — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:53:18 +0000

As I said, I'm all for professional certifications. My profession is IT systems operations and strategy. If prism is geared to a small group who want to be more specialised than that then good on them, but it seems an awful lot of effort to pour into such a narrow niche as itsm.

Project mgmt is a crisplydefined professional activity. Itsm is not: it is a perspective on a wide range of activities . I think a general professional certification such as CITP provides as much assurance to a prospective employer - all my employers seem to think the same way.

Interesting thread. A

Visitor — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:33:51 +0000

Interesting thread. A Service Management professional requires broad array or skills and experience, many, if not all of which are acknowledged in the priSM credential. Understanding the ITIL framework is only one dimension of that, but as others have aptly pointed out in this discussion, there are other areas that one needs to be familiar with in order to understand the big picture: project management, governance, security, architecture, and IT Management in general. The list of attributable skills and experience to a priSM credential holder is dynamic and is updated continuously. As a ITIL Foundation certified professional, with no experience whatsoever, I can hang a shingle tomorrow and bill myself out as a consultant. I would argue that the company that hires me with these qualifications alone without further probing my background, experience and references gets what they deserve.

However, priSM fills a void that exists where there is no one place where an employer or a company seeking consulting assistance can go to to assure that an individual's certifications have been validated, experience has been accounted for and requirements for ongoing education and utilization of skills have been maintained. I personally have been asked on multiple occasions by companies that I interact with where they can go to verify professional credentials for ITSM job or contract candidates. The fact is that you can't even reliably go to OGC or AMPG to validate an individual's ITIL certification (if this were the only thing you were interested in).

So, as someone who has never worked for HP :-), I think there is value. As someone who has occasion to employ IT Service Management professionals, it gives me the opportunity to validate candidates - not a huge population to check on initially, but hopefully as others see the value of this credential, there will be. I imagine that IEEE and other professional credentialing organization were (and perhaps continue to be) looked upon with the same level of skepticism. But then most good ideas are born of skepticism, aren't they now.

E-Skills and ICT Professionalism survey from the EU

deaf-llama — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:50:00 +0000

A timely survey from an European Commission project on just this topic

http://www.ictprof.eu

Established alternatives - don't ignore these.

Visitor — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:21:18 +0000

British Computer Society (BCS) memberships (MBCS, CITP, FBCS) that include Continuous Professional Development (CPD).

ISACA qualifications CISA, CISM, CGEIT, CRISC (new) - all with CPD.

Both are available worldwide and well-established.

Seems far too narrowly focused.

CaryKing — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:09:04 +0000

It seems to me, at least right now, that this is an effort by itSMF to gain some revenue for itself and add credibility to what we all do. That makes sense.

I think, however, that over the next decade, IT Service Management will get very highly specialized to a much smaller group of producer companies - those that provide software and outsourced services.

Producing IT services would seem to be well understood at this point.
Governing, controlling and exploiting those services for company agility and benefit is not nearly as well executed.

Ian Clayton's USMBOK and Outside-In approach - Service Management as a whole - would seem likely to produce better outcomes for companies that consume IT services from these producing companies. And, Dean Meyer's Fullcost approach to creating a services budget with a costed catalog of services. Or, dare I say it, Charles Betz' approach to ERP for IT and Enterprise Architecture as a Strategy. Or, Westerman's approach to building credibility and trust for IT services.

As we move to a much more modular, outsourced, bought-services-driven IT environment - increased investment in a career in IT service provision would seem to also become more specialized.

On the other hand, those that wish to differentiate themselves so they can make a transition from a consuming company to a producing behemoth may consider such an investment worthwhile.