The IT Skeptic - Comments for "Magic happens. BMC promise some magic ITIL."

Content Free...

kengon — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:59:03 +0000

I don't think you're being grumpy. Comment spam. There's no meat on those bones...

food fight

John Worthington aka MySvcMon — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 11:43:33 +0000

It's pretty close isn't it?

How about a 'Food Fight' section where vendors can savage each other and a users court of order where customers validate (or disprove) claims....wouldn't work but would be fun to watch...

we all have our favorite tools but it doesn't make us all fools. There just needs to be a separate space for that...

John M. Worthington
MyServiceMonitor, LLC

Informal vote please readers: IS THIS SPAM?

skeptic — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 07:06:45 +0000

What do you think folks? Useful contribution to the discussion or shameless comment spam? Am I just being grumpy?

it isn't one of those contributions

skeptic — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 20:56:19 +0000

Agree with all your points (being an ex-vendor too). Ken's paper has some good content in it but it isn't one of those contributions. It wouldn't be useful contenet to someone new to ITIL, in fact it would be very dangerous, because the good content has been seriously distorted to almost completely erase the work involved in scoping, developing and implementing process change.

Vendor white papers

Visitor — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 14:06:26 +0000

Surely no-one can be be surprised that tool vendor white papers ultimately have a sole purpose - to promote their specific tool as 'the answer'. As an ex-employee of a tool vendor, I am well aware of how this works.

Tool vendors often come under heavy fire... but they do contribute a lot to the industry, and if you can take the sales pitch within these white papers with a rather large 'pinch of salt', there is often quite valuable information in many of the vendors white papers.

What does annoy me though is when 'ITIL celebrities' align themselves with tool vendors to produce white papers etc. for large amounts of cash.

I do agree with your 'out-of-the-box' comments, there are tool vendors out there blatantly and wrongly positioning themselves as a 'shortcut' to ITIL. Which is a sure path to failure.

What's behind the hand waving...

Ken Gonzalez (kengon) — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 10:44:26 +0000

Skeptic,

I really appreciate your digging through the paper for the crunchy bits. Thanks for that. Your excerpt:

"Of course, technology alone cannot bring you the entire distance. There are still tasks left up to you. [snip] And you will have to personalize the solution to your particular environment."

Is particularly juicy. While many writers have offered similar caveats, how many have actually wrestled this one down to the mat?? As someone who has, I know that this is neither a quick or easy process.

From my perspective, I'd rather see the companies that I work with begin to address these cultural and organizational issues *first* and then use that to determine what supporting elements (technologies, processes, etc.) should be turned on. In this case, context is everything.

Unfortunately, at least for the time being, I end up arriving a little too late in my company's sales cycle to impact this. So, I end up sounding like a heretic. Such is the rough and tumble of the consulting business in a product-driven company. It's a risk I'm willing to take.

I think that anyone who promises an "out of the box" implementation of ITIL that is going to be driven by product is only setting themselves (and their customer) up for unfulfilled expectations. And that's deadly.

At least, that's my view from out here in the cheap seats... I could be wrong.

kengon

Pandora's Box

John Worthington aka MySvcMon — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:27:00 +0000

Truth be told, I've offered a 'NOC-in-a-box' in the past. Good marketing, but not reality. As an instructor and consultant in the ITSM space, I feel pretty safe in claiming that you're not likely to get 'ITIL-in-a-box' either.

BMC is a large, well respected player in the ITIL space; but let's face it --- they are a TOOL PROVIDER, suggesting that you can lead your implementation with a tool (their tool of course).

If it's THAT easy, then why not offer an (affordable) month-to-month subscription that I can (quickly) implement to validate these claims? (see Give your ITIL implementation a kick in the SaaS) While I pity the fool without a tool, a pandora's box is worse.

Tool selection has not radically changed (perhaps it should). It's still up to customers to separate claims from fact, visions from reality and price from cost of ownership. People, Process, Products....

The marketing blitzkrieg has begun, perhaps subtly (perhaps in this case not).

To be fair, the same goes for consulting services. Ultimately it will be up to you and your staff to implement 'best practice', and that's as much a people challenge as anything.

This from Wikipedia: "In modern times, Pandora's Box has become a metaphor for the unanticipated consequences of technical and scientific development."

Listen to the message, and know the messenger.

John M. Worthington
MyServiceMonitor, LLC