The future of ITIL V2 rests in your hands...

Thanks to The IT Skeptic for drawing my attention to this.  I've had my say - make sure you have yours!

Here is an opportunity to have your say on the future of ITIL V2. EXIN is running an anonymous poll of public opinion regarding the future of ITIL V2. Despite the Dutch error messages and the limited opportunities for additional comment, this is a worthwhile initiative. The ITIL Money Engine wants to kill ITIL V2 as soon as possible - add your voice if this is not what you want.

The training vendors know it is more efficient to only service one version, just as software vendors try to get you off old product versions. But bodies of knowledge are not software products. The IT Skeptic believes V2 should be supported until V3 offers credible alternatives to all of V2's benefits. In particular,

1. a phased approach to v3 is essential to provide that first step. ITIL V2 remains as valid and useful as it ever was, and a lot more accessible to new adopters than ITIL V3.
2. Experienced knowledgeable expertise in V3 is still rare.

The market - that's us - should resist pressure to force us onto V3 before we are ready.

Happy one month anniversary to me!

Well, today marks the first month of my new job and how the weeks have flown by without my making many blog posts.  I am so busy both at work and home that I just don't know where the time goes (well I do, but I'm not going to bore you with it).

After the first two weeks were primarily spent identifiying and meeting stakeholders, the next two weeks were focused around collecting the information for the development of the Project Initiation Document that had to be in on Wednesday 8th October.  I was able to use much of the input from the one-to-one stakeholder meetings I had but we also held a project kick-off workshop and used this to get ideas from everyone together to address things like objectives, constraints, risks, benefits, deliverables, and assumptions.  This proved very worthwhile as it helped create that shared understanding about the project and was a great input into the PID.

I actually had to write two of them, one for the local council project and one for the wider programme across all councils.  The more I worked on the latter one the more I realised it was really a programme definition document according to OGC's 'Managing Successful Programmes'.  I recently bought the book although I've not finished reading it yet so I was making a lot of reference to it as I wrote this document.  Nothing like learning through doing is there? ;)

Now that the first milestone is out of the way and I've developed the project plan that we will be working to, it's time to start making things happen.  I guess this is when the REAL challenge begins...

ITIL V3 Intermediate Level Syllabi Published and mini rant

 At least a year in the making, the syllabi for those intermediate exams are finally published.  Not that I'd necessarily recommend that anyone actually take them.  It's not that the Skeptic has gotten to me - it's the actions of those running the ITIL show that have.  I recently blogged about the ITIL Live Portal (ITIL Live Portal - Cheeky blighters!, ITIL Live Portal - Cheeky blighters, part 2, ITIL Live Portal - what DID they promise anyway?) and it has recently come out that the price for an individual person per year is £2500 (corporate concurrent user £5750)!  Who are they trying to kid?  As my partner so eloquently said, "How much? I could get a football season ticket for that!"

Remember, you don't need qualifications to do service management!  Anyway, for those of you who would like to go through the v3 churning machine - here you go:

The ITIL Qualification Scheme uses a system that enables an individual to gain credits for each exam they take. For a full definitive explanation of the Version 3 qualification scheme and credit system, please download the ITIL V3 Qualification Scheme.

Once candidates have accumulated a sufficient number of credits they can be awarded the ITIL Expert in IT Service Management.

There are four levels within the scheme:

• Foundation Level
• Intermediate Level (Lifecycle Stream and Capability Stream)
• ITIL Expert
• ITIL Master.

Syllabi for the Intermediate Level have been published and can be seen below:

Capability Stream

• Operational Support and Analysis Certificate Syllabus
• Planning, Protection and Optimization Certificate Syllabus
• Release, Control and Validation Certificate Syllabus
• Service Offerings and Agreements Certificate Syllabus.

Lifecycle Stream

• Service Strategy Certificate Syllabus
• Service Design Certificate Syllabus
• Service Transition Certificate Syllabus
• Service Operation Certificate Syllabus
• Continual Service Improvement Certificate Syllabus
• Managing Across the Lifecycle.

 Source: Best Management Practice

Starting from scratch...

Well, this week marked the start of a new role for me.  I'd always assumed that my next role would be that of a Service Delivery Manager - yet I have moved out of the operational IT environment and taken a leap into the business change environment.  I'm now a project manager on the business side (albeit with an IT background).  These days there is a lot of talk about how IT folk, CIOs especially, need to understand the business units that they support; what better way to do that than to take the plunge into said area?  Inevitably there will be ups and downs to go with the new challenges.  It all makes for the perfect personal development opportunity - and one that will get my career where I want it to go.

So... week one.  My objectives were to get a better understanding of the project(s) that I would be working on, meeting key people (potential project team members and primary stakeholders), and an understanding of the new environment I'd be working in.

Monday - I go through the usual induction stuff and find that everything isn't quite as expected with my new room or IT setup.  On the upside these small issues provided me with opportunities to get well acquainted with facilities and IT sooner than I had planned to.  Everyone proved really helpful and focused on getting what I need to do the job.  A positive day on the whole.  The only negative thing was that, although intellectually I knew that it would be hard moving from IT to the business side, I hadn't reckoned on it being so damned frustrating to find myself a 'user' and all that means, i.e. subject to user IT policies and unable to do all I am used to doing!

Tuesday - Main achievement of the day, meeting and picking the brains of the Contact Centre Manager who will be a key stakeholder in the integration project.  Obtained a wealth of information in a short time which all contributed to my weekly goals.  Once I got home I was missing the people I used to work with and elements of my old job.  Had to remind myself why I made the move and gear myself up for the next working day.

Wednesday - Very busy yet rewarding day.  Introduced myself to the IT managers and met with every member of ICT who was present.  Coming from IT myself, I know that without their support this project will be going nowhere fast.  I also met a potential team member who specialises in process mapping.  A skillset that I have some, yet limited, experience with so it's great to have someone around who is very passionate about the subject.

Thursday - At short notice I managed to meet the project customer (senior user) for a one-to-one prior to our formal meeting next week.  Very informative and useful - yet another person with great energy and enthusiasm.  Either there are a lot of those in this organisation or I've just been very lucky in meeting the few that are thus far - time will tell.

Friday - The first project board meeting with me present.  My one deliverable to show for the week thus far is a draft project organisation chart identifying programme board, project board, project team members, stakeholders and other interested parties.  The fact that I had met a lot of them helped.  I spent the afternoon in the contact centre getting to grips with the various systems in use and how they are used in conjunction with one another.  All very positive thus far - I go home tired and happy.


Conclusion after week one: Initial objectives achieved.  Coming from an outside organisation I have no credibility here; I am starting from scratch.  Spending time meeting people, making an excellent first impression, and gathering information about people and the organisation are all key if I am to be successful in this role.  Being me, I intend to be ;)

Government IT Profession Annual Conference

For those of you who are also public-sector IT professionals, you may be interested in attending the Government IT Profession Annual Conference which is being held from 30th to 31st October 2008.  Here is an excerpt from their e-mail invitation (available to those that subscribe via the cio.gov.uk website):

The conference will take place in Leeds, West Yorkshire, at the QueensHotel, which is next to Leeds railway station. The event will start with registration at 10:00 on Thursday 30 October, and finish at 14:30 on Friday 31 October. The conference will reinforce professionalism in the
way the government delivers technology and modern services. Workshop subjects will include citizen-centred services, IT skills analysis, an update on SFIA version 4, plus sessions aimed at CIOs and Heads of IT, Competency Groups and Implementation Leaders building the public-sector-wide IT profession community.

For further information visit: http://www.cio.gov.uk/itprofession/annual_conference

ITIL v3 Foundation Syllabus Review

There's been a lot of concern about the ITIL v3 Foundation syllabus, particularly around those initial exams where the emphasis on strategy was rather more than the delegates attending were expecting or found appropriate for their roles.  As I said previously, I think a lot of upset could have been avoided if it was just stated up front that the audience for v3 foundation is not the same as for v2 foundation.  Anyhow, after the initial changes to quiet the masses - there is now a formal review in progress.  See below and take part if you fulfill the criteria:

Following the launch of the ITIL V3 Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management in June 2007 and the Foundation Bridge Certificate launch in August 2007, it was always intended to review both syllabuses as part of APM Group's continual service improvement process.

Some of the initial concerns raised by students, Accredited Training Organisations (ATOs) and Examination Institutes (EIs) were addressed through an interim syllabus version, which was released on February 1st 2008; however, the full syllabus review process for the courses and certificates is now underway.

This formal review involves extensive consultation with a wide rage of stakeholders, including, but not limited to, Users, ATOs, Students and chapters of the itSMFI and ITIL training communities, to ensure that the syllabus meets the requirements of students, and also operational objectives in terms of scope and depth of topics covered. Stakeholders views will be gathered via a number of methods, including direct consultation, questionnaire and interview.
View the ITIL V3 Foundation (and Bridge) Syllabus Review Process (pdf)
The information gathered from the market place will be reviewed and analysed by a Syllabus Advisory Board, which is made up of representatives from the itSMFI, the Licensed EIs, the V3 Examination Panel and a selection of ATOs, all of which are nominated and/or elected to the Board. This panel will then be responsible for considering all feedback and making informed recommendations for improvements and changes to the syllabuses.

Find out more about the ATO Representative Election Results.
Foundation Syllabus Questionnaire
In order to collect the feedback and comments from all stakeholders a number of questionnaires have been developed. If you are from either of these stakeholder groups

• ITIL V3 students
• Accredited ITIL trainers
• ITIL examiners.

Please complete this questionnaire to provide us with your feedback on syllabus and exams.

Change Management Training Workshop - Phase 1

Hoorah!  On Wednesday afternoon I delivered a change management (based on ITIL) training workshop to the IT managers of multiple councils as they are working in partnership to deliver shared IT services.  I spent quite a lot of time preparing the materials for it as, knowing my audience, I wanted to be sure I had things they could take away and refer to when I'm not around and to consider which questions were likely to arise that I would need to answer.  The training packs were made up of some change management basics, process framework document, process diagrams, copy of presentation slides and a little 7Rs of Change Management laminated card.

I'd originally scheduled 3 hours for the session to allow for lots of discussion (again, knowing who would be present).  I surprised myself by keeping everyone on-track so that we actually finished in just over 2 hours.  I think this was due to a few factors,  My preparation headed off potential questions and that facilitation training continuing to pay off (thank you Cathy) ;)  My agenda for the afternoon was:

1. Purpose of session
2. Presentation - 'Let's Have Some Change Management - with a Dash of Pragmatism'
3. Normal Change Process (using process framework documentation)
   
4. Emergency Change Process (using process framework documentation)
5. Exercices (1: Name that change 2: Roleplay an emergency change with some curveballs throw in)
   
6. Wrap-up Discussion
   
7. Feedback forms (I believe in self-improvement)
   

I was expecting quite a hard time from some of them - so I was pleasantly surprised that each manager present was taking notes and asking pertinent questions.   The only negative feedback I had was that some of them think we should wait until we have the new ITSM tool in place before introducing change management.  As all you ITSMers out there will know it's crucial to get the process agreed, documented and tested before implementing it in a tool - so I'm not too concerned about this point (although it certainly would be great if a more appropriate tool were in place to support the process in the meantime (and no - this is not an invitation for vendor spam thanks!).

Only time will tell how effective or not the workshop was.  The next stage is rolling out training to all the IT staff.  It certainly achieved it's objective in educating them in the basics of change management, terminology, process, etc.  One of the feedback forms actually showed that they thought they knew a lot going into the session, then coming out realised how much they didn't know and have yet to learn ;)

It's times like this that I wish I would be there for the duration of the journey - letting go is never easy is it?