The IT Skeptic - classic Skeptic

Internet I gave you all the best years of my life

skeptic — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 01:29:27 +0000

The world is full of those chasing fame and fortune on the internet. The glittering lures of e-commerce, Adsense and cult-herodom draw them from far and wide, looking for easy money, good hours and groupies. It is not like that.

Talkin bout my digital degeneration

skeptic — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:49:46 +0000

The My Generation generation faces the Me Generation: a world populated by Digital Natives, and the prospect of their digital degeneration.

Frameworks they are a Changin

skeptic — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:15:36 +0000

The itinerant folksinger Rambling Kid Realitsm is like many outspoken protesters: he upholds the long association between radical ideals and dubious personal hygiene, and he has only a vague grasp of actual facts. That said, we reprint here his latest protest song Frameworks they are a Changin' for you to make of it what you will...

Come ITSM people
Wherever you roam

Song for Stevie

skeptic — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:00:42 +0000

A transcript of a recent performance by the famous and fragrant folk music performer Rambling Kid Realitsm, of his popular number "Home on the Range":

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, saddle-down down in your seats now and share with me this sad ditty about a broken-hearted compu-geek, lost in the bowels of an office building, chilled to the bone amongst cheerless racks of servers, locked into the server room. He pines for the open range of his home WAN with a LAN in every room and wireless to the skies, where he can run barefoot through the root passwords and administrator privileges, free to trash and crash and rebuild on his lordly whim, king of his domains. Oppressed by evil managers who cut down his privileges and block his passwords, he weeps at the pain their soulless quest for reliability brings upon him, and slumped behind the storage array he sings this sad lament....

Executive support and rabbit stew

skeptic — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:51:12 +0000

When IT advice is being handed out, by frameworks and books or by the chattering internet, there is much talk about the importance of having "executive support". It is tossed about in lots of contexts that involve cultural change or process improvement - my own one just happens to be ITSM: ITIL V3 etc. This is one of the most repeated glib statements in the IT world. What if you don't?

A CMDB is like a Swiss bank account

skeptic — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:12:42 +0000

I have an analogy for CMDB - it is like a Swiss bank account. Allow me to paraphrase some of the conversations I've had around CMDB:

Pass the ITIL Foundation exam in six easy and (almost) free steps

skeptic — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:42:14 +0000

If you know something about IT operations (not just development) and your IQ is in triple figures then passing the ITIL Foundation exam should be no big deal and no big investment. (If in doubt, read the testimonials in the comments below). Follow these ~~six~~ ~~nine~~ ~~eight~~ seven steps:
[updated 14/4/2015 ]

ITIL Software Scheme comes under more fire

skeptic — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:23:54 +0000

As I have said before, probably the biggest gun in the ITSM skepticking field right now is Aidan Lawes. Once again he has turned the flamethrower onto the ITIL Software Scheme, with a blistering post on his blog: "people with vested interests increasingly seem to find a ready platform for their propaganda... The software assessment service springs to mind as a prime example. Purported to be launched in the interest of the procurer, it seems to be much more in the interests of the small group (OGC, APMG and SMCG) involved in its secretive development." I'll let you read it there. Apart from agreeing with Aidan that a standard that is secret is lunacy (the kind of lunacy that only the British could invent), I'd like to pick up on some points that Aidan didn't address.

[Update: For the record, the IT Skeptic does not believe that there is anything illegal or dishonest about the ITIL Software Scheme. I do allege that it has been conducted in a manner that is inept, naive, unnecessarily secretive and without proper consideration for most of the stakeholders. It seems to me to be about as far from best practice in setting standards as one can imagine.]

Why the USA is unsuitable for offshoring

skeptic — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:39:15 +0000

There is much talk about the dangers of offshoring.

ITIL 101 for software vendors

skeptic — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 05:04:49 +0000

We recently discussed how too many software vendors stretch the facts when claiming ITIL support. Giving them much benefit of the doubt, we thought they might be confused. if so, here is ITIL101 for software vendors to help straighten them out.

ABC Cafeterias

skeptic — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:14:45 +0000

Too many software vendors stretch the facts when claiming ITIL support in their products. Perhaps they misunderstand ITIL.

The Folly of the Crowd

skeptic — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:51:29 +0000

There is much excitement about the potential for Web 2.0, in particular what is known as the Wisdom of the Crowd. Wikipedia becomes the repository of all knowledge, Google search statistics are the zeitgeist of the times and MySpace is the face of the world. Page rank is a measure of authority. Corporations appeal to the public for solutions to problems. The ivory tower is replaced by the democracy of the commons; the proclamations of the cathedral displaced by the hubbub of the bazaar. Not so fast.

Do we have to do ITIL to do Service Management?

skeptic — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:48:21 +0000

[Updated 28th February 2009]
Of course not. To look and listen around the IT industry these days one would think so, but there is actually more than one game in town.

im so xcited by the iPhone

skeptic — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 23:08:44 +0000

The IT Skeptic’s little brother is so excited by the iPhone he wrote an article about it.

ITIL is the hitchhiker's guide, COBIT is the encyclopaedia

skeptic — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:16:36 +0000

As the IT Skeptic digs (happily) deeper into COBIT, I ponder the difference between COBIT and ITIL. In my simple layman's mind, ITIL is the hitchhiker's guide, COBIT is the encyclopaedia, rather like the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Encyclopedia Galactica.

Top 10 reasons NOT to implement CMDB

skeptic — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 10:52:35 +0000

This article has been podcast

OK I'll bite. One of the nice folk at Evergreen, Jill Landers, posted "Top 10 reasons to implement a CMDB". I'll do the right thing and not quote it in full here so you need to go read that first. Then you can enjoy my "Top 10 reasons NOT to implement CMDB"

A visualisation of how ITIL Version 3 transforms ITIL version 2

skeptic — Thu, 17 May 2007 03:22:19 +0000

If you are a visual person like me you may find a diagram helpful in understanding just what ITIL Version 3 means, what has changed. The diagram has been moved to here (it's still free!).

The king's method of writing a new decree: how OGC does ITIL V3

skeptic — Sun, 13 May 2007 21:23:04 +0000

This article has been podcast.

This recent comment on this blog "the OGC could have done a better job of communicating during the process" comes from someone - if it is who I'm pretty sure it is - who is well placed in the ITIL "elite". That is my #1 point in all my ITIL V3 postings.

All this British public service "you'll know when we decide it is time to tell you" stuff is not how new versions of all standards/frameworks are developed, and I don't think it is best practice.

Sharon Taylor's five common myths about ITIL Version 3

skeptic — Sat, 12 May 2007 08:46:24 +0000

This article has been podcast

At the US Pink Elephant conference, Sharon Taylor, the Chief Architect and Chief Examiner of ITIL, listed five common myths about ITIL V3. I thought I'd make it clear that none of them came from this blog.

Is Microsoft attempting to patent CMDB?

skeptic — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 22:36:29 +0000

A recent patent application appears to indicate that Microsoft is applying to patent CMDB. This issue is not attracting the outrage that it ought to. Next time you see your Microsoft rep, ask him/her WTF they are up to. And if you get anything like a rational answer, post it here so we can all understand.