ITIL versus the bible
Please don’t be offended by the word “bible”.
I am raised in a catholic environment. I only take this reference as the way I was brought up. This does not necessarily mean that I use the bible as the truth.When I was exploring the bible I found out that there was more than I bargained for. Nevertheless found words and sentences that I cannot compute.
This gave me the idea to explore other biblical ideas.
When exploring the Greek Orthodox, Koran, Buddhism and others I found a similarity. My conclusion is that we are all reaching out to 1 identity. The ONE who has the answers. Interpretation is the difference between them all.
Maybe a strange comparison but the same happened eventually with ITIL and especially with the interpretation.
I’m going to focus on April 2nd, 1982. The war between Argentina and The United Kingdom. This war is named the Falkland war, i.e. the war about?“?les Malouines”, if Wikipedia is correct. The next is an interpretation of my investigations and information I got from ITIL specialitst:
This next is based on information, but I cannot confirm the authenticity of it. If anyone can, please respond to this.
‘Our dear “Iron Lady” baroness Margret Hilda Robert Thatcher (first female prime minister of the UK) was struggling about the way this war was executed. IT was a relevant party in this. This needed to change. She invited the CCTA ( Central Computer and Telegraph Agency ) to come up with a solution on how communication could be improved within IT. The CCTA did an investigation within the commercial organizations on “How do you support IT”. Result was 45 books ( to be honest, I can only find the original 29 of these books) that describe the processes needed in an organization.’
ITIL and ‘the best practice’ was born and from here the story continues.
IT was at that point based on mainframes and if there was an issue, It happened at the mainframe. Due to the evolution of IT, IT transformed into a Server-client environment. What happened was that incidents didn’t occur on the mainframe but also on the desk of an employee.
?That was, as I see it, the first evolution of ITIL.
The difficulty however was that IT was annoying regarding to an organization. “We can do without IT. IT only cost us money.”
ITIL needed to change.
In general (according to ITIL 1, taking out the human factor and based on mainframes) On strategical level, IT was discussed on a golf-course. Environmental level, it was like apple pie. It just was. Applications and technical infrastructure was leading in the way IT was organized. (No wonder that IT was only seen as “just money, with no added value”)
There I was as a trainer. Coming from the mountain Sina? as Moses with my 10 processes and the 1 function. And it was a good explanation. Looking from the perspective of the operational level of an IT organization. Using ITIL as a guidance, but not as the law. I’ll get back to that later.
?The interpretation of “the best practice” lead also to other theories: looking at Lean (Six Sigma), Togaf, Prince 2, CMMI (+services) ISO, BSI, and a lot of others. Also taking into consideration the Theory of Mr. William Edwards Deming. Trying to fill the gap between the evolution of mainframe towards a Client-Server environment. The same goes for the tower of Babel. A mystic construction from the Hebrew bible. A story in the Genisis (11:1-9). The story about this tower van be an explanation of the reason why we talk different languages.
IT-evolution never stops.
Organizations are becoming more and more depended on IT. Now a days, I cannot come up with one organization who is not depending on IT. You only have to think about taxes and tax return, that you have to negotiate with the government
?There have been a lot of good initiatives in the solution we need to have in the tertiary sector that we live in. While looking into the evolution of organizations and I(C*)T we need to get more in control because we are depending more on IT.
(* I added the C on purpose, because C stands for Communication and that is still difficult within IT)
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The role of a CIO becomes more important in an organization. IT Does matter.
?For that reason ITIL needed to change. The strategic level became more important. IT is supporting an organization rather than being a cost-department. Organizations have to rely more on GOOD IT.?
The Idea was that all other theories should be embedded into ITIL.
IT needed to look at ICT from a more service delivering organization. Because IT needs to support more the Organizations outcomes. And there was my solution.
?In ITIL V3, other theories where taken into consideration and together the new version was completed. If you look closely to other theories, you will recognize the basics of them i.e. the 7 P’s of planning from Prince 2 in regards the 7-step improvement process in ITIL V3 CSI.
?Looking at ITIL V3 from a trainer-perspective, I first needed to adapt the whole of ITIL V3, but it gave me the answers that I missed in the V2 version from the practical experiences.
?Nevertheless, I still missed out the new improved organizations. Services where the number 1 answers in our tertiary sector.
?
ITIL4 was the answer.
That is: It is the missing link, i.e. the linking pin between Service Strategy and delivery of it.
?What I see now happening is the fact that we (ITILians) tried to fill the gap between strategy and the operational part of it.
I do not want to be non-understanding-ITIL-professional, but what I understood from the ITIL4 foundation training, is not anymore the hands-on training from an operational perspective.
?To be honest. ITIL4 is very good, although the trainings need some improvements. Operational employees benefit more from ITIL V3 foundation than an ITIL4 foundation. Higher Management will have an added value of ITIL4 foundation. But it will create a higher distance between these two than hoped.
Coming back to ITIL versus a “bible”, as written earlier.
ITIL will give you guidance, same as your bible. It is, how you interpret them in your organization. There is no wrong or right. Embrace your version and make it your own, but be aware. There are more people around you.
We have to make sure we are able to live together.
Eventually, we all talk the same towards the “one”.