The future of ITIL V2 certification

Currently EXIN offers exams for both ITIL V2 and ITIL V3 but the discontinuation of ITIL V2 is now being considered by the ITIL Qualification Board.

The Board would very much value your opinion about this matter.

The survey is here. It is anonymous and will take only a minute.

Here is an opportunity to have your say on the future of ITIL V2.

ITIL and Agile methods

Agile is about "individuals and interactions over processes and tools". Could agile methods an ITIL coexists?

It really depends on the way you decide to implement ITIL.

Whatever the agile method you are using (Scrum, eXtreme Programing, Unified Process, Evo...), you can't take and apply what you like and leave what you dislike.

With ITIL, before anything else, you *have to* do assessment and define what is making sense and what is not for your organization.
ITIL is not a method and will never be. Even if, in its 3rd version, ITIL is offering a much better cover on design and development, ITIL will remain a set of best practices.

ITIL and a non-waterfall method like Agile ones are not necessarily incompatible but you'll have to review your ITIL Release management and Change management quite deeply.

To keep it simple: ITILify agile but do not Agilify ITIL!

Events Alerts Incidents and Problems

ITIL v3 introduced Event & Alert management which goal is to set appropriate alert levels such that events can be acted upon before they become incidents, while at the same time avoiding alerts from insignificant activities.

Before going deeper, let's revise the vocabulary:

An event is a detectable or discernible occurrence that has significance for the management of the IT infrastructure.

An alert is triggered by specific events and needs immediate attention.

An incident is an event which is not part of the standard operation of a service and which causes or may cause disruption to or a reduction in the quality of services and customer productivity.

A problem is a cause of one or more existing or potential incidents.

So when the hard drive of a server reach 50% usage, an event will record the information for trend analysis. When it reaches 80% usage, an alert might be triggered. Once at 100% usage, chances are you have an incident and potentially a problem to be investigated.

What ITIL software do you use?

Recently, someone asked on LinkedIn "What ITIL software tool do you use" and got 24 answers.
Let me sum-up the tools that came up in the answers.

Mentioned more than once:

• BMC suite (and Remedy in particular)
• ServiceDesk plus

Mentioned once:

• Service-now.com
• Topdesk
• serverware.com
• Altiris
• Heat
• Track IT
• HP's assetcenter
• Assyst
• Axios
• Numarasoftware

Remember that there is no 'ITIL compliant tools' per se. When a vendor indicates that his tool is ITIL compliant, it indicates that it can serve a set of ITIL processes. The question remains whether it will support your particular business needs and whether you can implement it as part of an integral approach, covering the 5 "P's": People, Proces, Product, Partner (supplier) and Performance.

Let's also talk about Mobivox

ITIL is not all my life, and, I hope, not all yours.

From time to time we need to breathe some fresh air, meet other people, see other's challenges and bring back new ideas, contacts and sometimes business opportunities...

I use LinkedIn Q&A almost every day to learn from other companies, other environments, other industries and other Worlds.

I would like to mention an event in Montreal on November 27th that is also a great place to meet/discuss with people from other planets: the Startup Camp 3.

Among the keynote speakers, 2 dangerous serial entrepreneurs: Austin Hill from Akoha and Patrick Lor.

I'm not on the panel but I'll be happy to introduce you to Mobivox and Mobivox|PL, our platform, or talk about ITIL...

Just find me in the crowd (or email me prior to the event if you don't want to hunt).

ITIL and your career

Until recently, ITIL was about understanding the basics of Operational IT support and delivery processes. ITIL v3 is now providing a broader view on services lifecycles: Services Design, Services Transition, Services Operations.

If the foundation qualification is only a high-level overview that gives a basic understanding and appreciation of the ITIL best practices principles, it's slowly moving from a "nice-to-have" to a "must-have".

It is indeed a competitive advantage in your job search. In certain companies, ITIL can open doors that otherwise would have remained closed.

Remember that companies don't get ITIL certified... employees do!

Once time and money have been invested in certifying a department, and ITIL benefits start to show, it's very likely that new hires will be required to be ITIL-ready.

To me, no doubt that the demand will continue to rise in the coming years.

Here, in Canada, even IT recruiters are ITIL certified, which gives you a very smart way to start an interview...