"AR Server is like that famous burger slogan, you can have it your way, as long as you write the code, yourself. If you don't want to follow ITIL, don't get ITSM, develop your own applications."
Isn't this the problem though? In many cases (including one we're going through right here at present) decision-makers (i.e. people with money to spend) want a customized solution but are either led to believe, or believe of their own volition that they can get that out of something like the ITSM suite (or any other ITIL-compliant solution). Attaching buzzwords like ITIL-compliant only exacerbates that problem. I'm all for standardization and best practices, but when people fail to understand the definition of OOTB, it starts to get frustrating. As an AR System Administrator, when it comes to decision making, I'm a peon. I may have the most knowledge of the product and our process in my work center, but guess who doesn't get included in the meetings? I think Norm's reference to people "fearful of change" is right on the money with this one. Try telling someone with money that needs to be spent, that dropping ITSM modules on top of a highly customized AR System application may not be the best idea. I'm sure we can make it work, but I'm far from convinced it's the right way to go, particularly when the only thing you're after is a fancy acronym. Michael A. McManus, SSgt, USAF Remedy Developer -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kevin Pulsen Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 10:00 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy ** The original question was asked about ITIL and ITSM 7. BMC is suppose to have ITSM 7 extremely ITIL compliant... how can one use ITSM 7 and expect the users not to follow ITIL in all areas of the IT organization? Yes, there will be many o-departments boasting about 'We don't need to follow ITIL, we are a different company and we do things differently here' True, a boat manufacturing company might be different from a mortgage broker, but business practices are pretty much the same across the board.... that's why ITIL was made! AR Server is like that famous burger slogan, you can have it your way, as long as you write the code, yourself. If you don't want to follow ITIL, don't get ITSM, develop your own applications. Anyways, if you want to use your head to get nails into a 2x4, go right ahead... I just think a hammer is 'best practice' Kevin P. **'Norm, Have you run into this situation: ". . . But then when you challenge those decisions by asking, "Why are we doing XYZ?" you get a very vocal and forceful, "BECAUSE ITIL SAYS SO!" If so, how did you handle it. If not, how would you handle it? Scott Parrish IT Prophets, LLC (770) 653-5203 www.itprophets.com <http://www.itprophets.com/> -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 10:19 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy Just a few observations on this point...please forgive me if I sound a bit sardonic. First, did anybody really need ITIL to tell them to do what Ben describes in the first paragraph--i.e., Service Desk (I refuse to call it that--it's the HELP Desk) should be the first point of contact for customers, incidents are overseen by the Help Desk, the Help Desk forwards incidents to appropriate groups, and the Help Desk follows up with customers once the ticket is resolved? I mean, come on--we were doing that 15 years ago (or longer). That's, like, Help Desk 101. Second, people repeat over and over again, "ITIL is just a guideline...a framework...some best practices...a guide..." That might be fine if you're the person making all the decisions about what the ITIL processes are going to be and how they will be implemented, but if you're just the *implementer* following the directions of a myriad of bosses who are all gung-ho about ITIL and about being "ITIL certified" you are not at liberty to use ITIL (or any other disciplined process framework flavor of the month) as you so choose. You do what you're told. Other people make the decisions, and oftentimes those decisions make little sense. But then when you challenge those decisions by asking, "Why are we doing XYZ?" you get a very vocal and forceful, "BECAUSE ITIL SAYS SO!" -----Original Message----- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Pancia Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:57 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: ITIL Remedy ** One issue many organizations face is taking ITIL for gospel. ITIL is just a framework/guide for organizations to use to define their own best practices. When you tag positions like Owner or Manager to the process it leads people to believe that these are physical positions when they are really functions of the process. Everyone is correct in saying that the Service Desk should be the central point of contact for customers. A function of the Service Desk is to oversee the Incident Management Process. However, an incident may pass through several support groups and these support groups are also responsible for following the process. The service desk is there to create a ticket (hopefully resolve too), forward to support groups when necessary, be the POC for the customer if the customer needs to call in for additional questions/status updates, and follow-up with the customer once the incident is resolved. Now with Remedy some of these functions may be automated within the system. Once a ticket is resolved an email or survey may be sent out to the customer, which would constitute the service desk contact to the customer. Also, SLAs and OLAs may be put in place to ensure that the incident is handled in a timely manner. This allows the system to take over much of the functionality of the process flow. So as you implement the ITIL processes look at a lot of the things in ITIL as functions that are performed during the process. Every person/group involved in the process needs to understand the functions and may be responsible for doing the function at some point in the process. This was one of the things that ITIL v3 tried to address and one thing that the writers will stress. Remember ITIL is just a framework/guide to help organizations build their own best practices. Just because the sample flow diagrams and functions are in the ITIL books does not mean that organizations have to follow them to a T. Use what works and makes sense for your organization. The more complicated you make a process the less likely it will be followed. ________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=51733/*http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ> __Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are" html___ _______________________________________________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: "Where the Answers Are"