The OGC, as owners of ITIL, issued a statement on their website last week attempting to re-assure us all that the future of ITIL is safe.
I've received the most amount of e-mails I've ever received this week around the subject of 'Ownership' and 'Certification' - so I would like to highlight my responses and thoughts to everyone to help clarify the situation.
Please note, some aspects are based on the OGC's statement and some are my own opinion and therefore may not actually happen. I will differentiate between the two within the text below.
The first point is about the actual ownership of ITIL. There seems to be some confusion here. The OGC have quite clearly stated that the copyright, ownership and development of ITIL remains solely with the OGC. This is a fact.
Therefore the current ITIL Refresh (Version 3) project is still fully funded, active and continuing to make good progress. This can be evidenced by the recent "ITIL Scope and Development Plan (Part 1)", that was published last week.
In fact, we now know that the new five core texts can be expected around February 2007.
All this is clear and factual.
What's less clear is how the future of certification and training is going to unfold.
The OGC is in the final stages of awarding the new contract for the management of the ITIL certification and training schemes. The likely winner, subject to final negotiations, is the APM Group who currently manage this for PRINCE2 (again owned by the OGC).
The OGC have stated that, "The future for ITIL qualifications is subject to change" and "Once final negotiations have concluded the OGC will make a further announcement".
We can, at this stage, only speculate as to what these announcements are likely to include - however it's clear from the statement that the OGC's committment to full and effective participation from the itSMF, EXIN, ISEB and current accredited course providers remains. To what extent and the precise terms - is also unclear for ITIL Version Three.
Some personal thoughts on this area:-
1. ITIL is significantly changing. Although it's called a refresh, there are five new core texts coming along in 2007 and these are following a lifecycle (cradle-to-grave) approach. Therefore the current ITIL Foundation and Managers (Masters) Certifications are only representative of the current Service Support and Service Delivery texts (soon to become just one text - Service Operations written by HP).
2. There are bound to be new courses available such as "Introduction to ITIL Version 3" and also a more detailed "ITIL Version 3" course. It makes sense. The whole essence of this set of best practices is being "lifecycled" so there needs to be education and courses to back this up. Employers will want confidence that their people have the knowledge that represents the full extent of IT Service Management best practice. This will not be so if we just continue to focus on Service Operations.
3. Possible approaches include:-
a) 'Slightly' enhancing the current exams to meet the new lifecycle approach and offering an 'upgrade' course for existing Foundation and Managers certificate holders.
b) Introducing brand new, more radical, courses to cover the full detail of the new texts, rendering the old certificates as 'Version 2' compliant. Effectively meaning that employers can now determine between the current and new ITIL versions.
c) Modular approach (to compliment -b- above) whereby each of the new texts has it's own 2-3 days course and you can obtain certification as a 'Practitioner' in each of those.
Because revenue streams for 2007 are 'at stake' - I'm sure the many accredited course providers are 'rubbing their hands' right now at the delicious prospect of so many new opportunities to educate a growing number of ITIL'ists.
What's key for them is how the APM Group's new control over the courses and certifications will unfold. The APM Groups apparent business model (given they only have around 20 people) is to act as a knowledgeable 'broker' between the OGC and the itSMF, EXIN, ISEB and ACP's.
This interface will have to be paid for. I.E. the APM Group will charge for various aspects of (a) becomming accredited to provide training and (b) some kind of recurring fee for every candidate that takes a course. Licensing of the ITIL brand will also need to be considered.
I hope this article has gone someway to clarifying things, as they stand at this date, but I realise that there are many aspects that require further clarification.
Please click through to the resources below to learn more.
Resources.
OGC Website
APM Group Website
OGC's Scope and Development Report
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