ITIL's Bumpy Road - Part 1

A cocktail of civil servants and vested interests in a growing commercial market was always destined to end in tears, or at the very least take a very bumpy road. This was forecast by many commentators, and the latest developments tend to substantiate their predictions.

Civil servants are never likely to really understand market dynamics, and are consequently more likely to be swayed and influenced by those commercial forces in their proximity. Losing sight of what is in the best interests of their own methods and the tax payers is always a risk.

In the ITIL situation we have a massive international market and a very limited number of players circling around the OGC golden egg. APMG won that battle, but how equipped are they to manage an open rather than a closed market environment? Given that they were the chosen ones in the Prince2 market, it is not difficult to see why some people ask questions about the relative failure of Prince2 as a global force. The argument is that the Prince2 market is so tightly controlled, stitched up, and regulated that it simply doesn't work. It seems to run like a monopoly, but it isn't one. Hence Prince2 has not expanded as it should have done. Thus runs the theory.

Yet one of the major players in that situation is now at the core of ITIL? Yes, so no wonder some people think it could be a disaster.

THE FIRST ROCK
The first rock on the bumpy road has now appeared. EXIN and BCS-ISEB, the examination bodies for ITIL, whose licenses expires next year, have announced that they are to forge an alliance and create a new examination framework for ITSM, to embrace a number of methods, not just ITIL.

This is a truly significant development in this field, to say the least. A competitor certification scheme for ITSM is on the horizon to compete with ITIL. Given the relationship of both examination bodies with major players in the ITIL market, it is a development that APMG must be seriously pondering.

And what of the major representative bodies, such as the itSMF and the ITIL Community? Again there seems to be little coming from any of these to suggest that they have warmly embraced either the OGC's re-organization or APMG's rise to prominence.

It will be an interesting few months ahead, but at the time of writing, the future of ITIL looks far less assured than it has for a long time!