Why ISO 20000 Puts ITIL in Further Peril

The publication of an international generic standard for IT Service Management was always bound to change the landscape. Even ignoring other considerations, the fact that its scope is wide enough to over-arch the different frameworks gives it the higher ground in terms of applicability.

The defining diagram is this one, from ISO 20000 Central:



The key here is that the ITIL block in the triangle is actually INTERCHANGEABLE. It can be another framework such as MOF, or it can be a number of frameworks. It certainly does NOT have to be ITIL.

LONGER TERM
The long term impact of this upon ITIL in particular is likely to be profound. Consider the following: ISO 20000 offers ORGANIZATIONAL certification. This in turn means that it can be a driver for market differentiation, effectively a direct profit driver. The attraction of this to corporates is therefore very clear and obvious.

Now drill down a little deeper. As ISO 20000 can be used to leverage corporate advantage, when corporates are looking to train their ITSM staff and to support INDIVIDUAL level certification, what sort of scheme do you imagine will attract them?

You have got it: an examination/certification scheme that openly embraces ISO 20000 from the bottom up. Is that ITIL? I don't think so.

This is where BCS-ISEB and EXIN may have been extremely cute. Even in their very first joint press release they explicitly mention ISO 20000. When they create their examination and certification process they have the opportunity to fully embrace the new scenario and the new ITSM world. They can link their scheme directly into the corporate objective: directly into ISO 20000. Now that is one hell of a selling point.

This could spell REAL problems for APMG/OGC and their much more contained, inward looking, ITIL scheme. As time progresses, from an executive perspective, this may well begin to look to be a narrow proprietary MOF type diversion. This impression becomes even more acute when instead of seeking ways to open ITIL to the market and to the world, they apparently focus effort on the creation of the hideously titled "Intellectual Property Rights Board".

And whilst they continue to attempt to build these walls around the framework - the relentless tide continues to flow.

Gartner's ITIL Crystal Ball

Gartner, the research, advisory and consultancy giant, have recently weighed in with their own vision of ITIL's future. Curiously, it is not too dissimilar in some ways to the views outlined in an earlier post.

Quoted on VNUnet, Gartner's research vice president for IT management strategies states that "The appointment of APM Group has created a division in the IT service management community, with APM Group on one side, the original examination institutes on the other, and the community split between the two camps".

I would go along with that, although it is rather more complex, and I don't see too much support heading the way of APMG from the community. Maybe he meant a split and a splinter in support, rather than a split?

He goes on to state that "This will effectively create a parallel qualification scheme in competition with the official ITIL-branded APM Group scheme...". Indeed it will.

Equally interesting is the relative silence from APMG. Nothing yet through the press, and nothing through the major ITIL representative bodies or forums. Perhaps they are in a state of shock. At the very least they will now understand all too clearly that there is a world of difference between the ITIL market and Prince2.

And what of the OGC, who actually created this situation? I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for anything at all from them!