Red Hat IT plans..

Thank you for the post. I will say that this is a lot more open communication than many years ago (though that was because we were in constant firefighter mode).

As someone who has been going through various ITIL training lately.. I can say it does look good and can make a difference because it is stuff that most people do but forget because we are usually in firefighting mode. And when we forget.. we usually have to go back and do it again.

The main concern to deal with is when we get to the point we feel we have to have proper change/incident/problem management before we can make a pot of coffee in the morning (I have seen ISO projects go this way.. it becomes paperwork driven because too many people get in the wrong mindset... they can only see the swamp without alligators and other people can only see the alligators.)

The second issue is that a lot of us in the IT industry are used to being the Scotty: Under promise and over deliver. It sounds like customer service... but it can also cause dependency issues where people know that you will somehow deliver a miracle because you have always done things you said were impossible before.

ITIL is about promise exactly X and deliver exactly X and only charge for X. which allows you to then say you will do miracle Y but it will cost you Y. Which makes sure that you don't overwork people.. but again you have to be careful of going too far along that way. IT people do not want to feel that they are working at McDonald's where everything is scripted down to how to lay out the fries.

As with any process change, it has to be watched closely because people have a tendency to go too far without some sort of external governance (just like an engine.. you have various governors to make sure it doesn't go too slow or too fast).

Anyway, thank you for being so open about this. I can point this out to other CIO's.