Why ITIL is a fad but ISO 20,000 is a gotcha!

Steve Jenkin

Abstract

ITIL is God's Gift to the non-technical IT Manager: It lays out "Best Practices" for I.T. Service Management (ITSM) and claims to be "Documented Common Sense".

While all well run sites will be using the principles embodied in ITIL, ITIL training by itself won't change your organisation or outcomes. But does give those with certification better job prospects.

ITIL's deepest flaw is that it is "guidance" only, not perscriptive like a real standard and can't be audited.. Good ITSM is necessary for good I.T. Governance, so compliance audited of ITSM is required - which isn't ITIL.

ISO 20,000 is the standard derived from ITIL - so while it has teeth, there are a few hidden "gotchas" for organisations who embrace it.

The obvious "gotcha" is the cost of compliance and audit, both initial and the 3-yearly re-certifications. But there's other "gotchas" that will cause "more spin than substance" sites to lose certification.

Biography

Steve Jenkin first studied Unix in 1976. He's worked in organisations large and small, business, government, research orgs. and consulting firms in almost all types of IT positions.

Steve enjoys Sys Admin because of its broad scope, direct business involvement and the ability to make things happen. No two days are the same, and it's always an interesing challenge.

His most satisfying accomplishments have been saving failing projects, turning around difficult sites and getting high-profile sites to 100% availability and survive high loads, eg: 20 times design.

Extra mural activities are studying, reading, inventing (3 patents), trying to understand the unsolved mysteries of the Business World like 'Management' and driving hther and yon.

Lately he's been studying Accounting, and has come to understand why there's a global shortage.