My articles

IT is a business like any other line of business, so why don’t we run it as a business? If we look at other disciplines, we can find excellent examples of the application of governance principles. In the IT market, however, we seem to have forgotten to apply some of the most elementary business policies. Recent developments have shown the catastrophical effects that may follow from this. So let’s have a closer look at this, and take the first elementary step by answering “What is IT Governance and what is it NOT?” The answer may come as a surprise. And IT Governance may be less difficult than it seemed.

Een artikel in de AutomatiseringGids over denkfouten die worden gemaakt als gelijktijdig ITIL, ASL, en BiSL worden ingevoerd

One of the most ignored fields of IT management is Operations Management. It took ITIL until 2007 before recognizing it even as a topic, but we still lack a lot of information about the Operations Management process.

September 23rd, 2012 - I just ran into a LinkedIn posting where one of the members asked " Is Risk transfer become the contingency plan or it is risk mitigation plan?" This again confirmed my idea that people can't use ITIL as a management system.

An analysis of the differences between processes and functions in IT management, with references to ITIL practices. The first source that makes a formal difference between these two entities, now accepted more and more as one of the major 'features' of ITIL.

A model approach with very practical instructions for the assignment of responsibilities to process management and line management in one organization.
Component of the ISM Method Framework.

Analysis of a large number of applied IT management reference models against the standard of a 'method'.

Detailed description of the similarities and differences between both frameworks. Official ITIL Alignment Paper.

25 oktober 2012 - 'Het ultieme doel van de it is het ondersteunen van de business', een open deur voor steeds meer it'ers. De vraag is steeds: hoe krijgen we de it maximaal afgestemd op de behoeften van de business ('Business-IT Alignment'). Daarbij komt nu de vraag: 'Maar hoe komen we dan in control van de geïntegreerde informatievoorziening?'

Door de recessie vinden er verschuivingen plaats op de arbeidsmarkt. Het aantal zzp’ers neemt toe, in het bijzonder in de IT-branche. Maar hoe weten klanten dat zzp’ers kwalitatief goede aanbieders zijn? Het wordt hoog tijd dat de relevante brancheorganisaties oplossingen bedenken voor de kwaliteitstoetsing van zzp’ers, concludeert Jan van Bon.

March 21st, 2013 - In each training I give, in each project I'm involved in, in many discussions in LinkedIn groups, I run into the deep-rooted misunderstanding of projects and processes. The ITIL Life Cycle is not a life cycle but more of a PDCA, so therefore people are often lead the wrong way.

June 18th, 2013 - COBIT 5 clearly describes the COBIT process reference model as just "an example of a process model". It then says that any local process model would do, if it only covers the basic governance and management objectives: " In theory, an enterprise can organise its processes as it sees fit, as long as the basic governance and management objectives are covered.

June 14th, 2013 - In one of ITSM PORTAL's LinkedIn groups, an interesting question was submitted, on high level documents in TOGAF: "Traditionally HLDs have been associated with Waterfall (though it is not an architectural practice but more for SDLC management).

November 2nd, 2011 - Problem management is a very well known discipline (process) outside of IT. But they have a different name for it... People outside of IT have called it Risk Management for ages. Why have IT people ignored "outside" knowledge fo so long?

October 1st, 2012 - I'm puzzled. Looking at ISO20000, management commitment should be illustrated by "ensuring that the service management plan is created, implemented and maintained in order to adhere to the policy, achieve the objectives for service management and fulfil the service requirements".There shall be a " documented service management plan", including at least "the scope of the SMS".

February 12th, 2013 - During the last two weeks I've twittered a few times on the topic of "management". The tweets were retweeted several times, and I received comments that people liked them. It looks like "we may have something" here.

January 6th, 2013 - In one of ITSM PORTAL's LinkedIn groups (ITIL& ITSM Best Practice), the issue of Change Management (CHM) versus Release Management (RM) was brought up.

February 17th, 2013 - This lazy Sunday afternoon I was drawn into a discussion in a LinkedIn group, where John Gibert asked what would happen if ITIL indeed would be sold. John - being a member of the ITIL Advisory Group - started with some criticism on the way ITIL v3 was developed.

September 7th, 2011 - The latest version of ITIL is just a minor update - OGC says. Well, let's do a small test and look at one of the biggest errors in ITIL: missing the point with Problem Management and not recognizing that this actually is Risk Management.

September 2nd, 2011 - Every once in a while someone dares ask the old question "Need new helpdesk tool!". Then hell breaks loose. All the vendors that trace the request will jump it, explaining that there's actually just one tool that would do the trick for the poor guy who started this.

October 6th, 2011 - When I posted a question in one of the popular ITSM LinkedIn groups, a wide variety of answers was provided. This was the question: CHALLENGE: Describe "IT Service Management" in 140 characters - or less.

July 3rd, 2011 - Recently I was drawn into a discussion over the use of the RACI system. With RACI, the killer question is: "Can accountability be delegated?". A stupid posting on a late Sunday afternoon, because I was immediately challenged to provide my alternative for the RACI system.

February 27th, 2011 - We're all quite used to the Demand-Supply model, where we see Supply as "the provider", which makes Supply a service domain. But what about the Demand domain? Is that a service domain? And is it the same as "the Business" or is it an element of Information Management - servicing the Business?

August 29th, 2010 - Discussions about the difference between Incidents and Service Requests are as old as ITIL. And they are not resolved until the errors in ITIL have been resolved. ITIL simply is not a fully integrated implementable quality management system.

April 22nd, 2011 - Processes are always there. They may be very immature or impressively sophisticated. You may be totally unaware of them, or use them very explicitly to manage your delivery. But they are always there.The big issue is "are you able to make them work for you, in delivering the best services?"