[LINK] Is it really that good?!

[grove at zeta.org.au]

Hi,
I have been thinking a lot about my job recently.  Marghanita's thread
has obviously got me started.   That and the fact that I am now located 
in a dead end office, away from the rest of the people I work with, due to
our office being relocated 50km away to another campus and I do not drive
an automobile.  As I have some current health problems, as well as some 
serious health issues with my partner, I am on a work plan that means 
that I now work only 4 days a week and am reserved from traveling to the 
new location until January or so.

My few experiences traveling out there tell me that once my "work plan" comes 
to an end, so in effect will my career here, at <some_uni>.

So, while sitting in my dreary little office on my own, an outposted team
of one, I am able to sit back and take a 20,000ft view of things and I 
am not so sure that IT departments all over the world aren't being had.
That or I am turning into an obsessive nutjob..... :/

At my workplace, we have implemented ITIL, ITSM and ServiceNow all as 
the tools and methodologies within the IT workplace.  I am not so sure
these work as well as they are being sold.  I note the plethora of 
doucmentation writers, Project Managers and Consultants, all cheerfully 
going about and organising us all into neat little siloes that fit the 
view of the world according to the Version 3 manual.

And, watching commensurately, the systems administrators and technical 
folk finding far less to do, as I mentioned in my thread the other week.

And so I find myself reading an email this morning, regarding minor 
changes, BAU and so on.  All are now wrapped inside "Processes".

And in this email is the helpful information vis:

>> - All Standard Changes have their own RFC template and must have an 
>> associated Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).  Every time a change of this 
>> type is performed, it must be logged using the appropriate template. 
>> No additional approval required.
>> 
>> - Minor Changes must be logged as an RFC every time - no exceptions. 
>> These are approved by the Team Leader.  It is very easy to request that a 
>> given minor change be converted into a “Standard Change” within the system 
>> (you would do this whenever you feel that a given minor change is something 
>> that will keep coming up on a regular basis).
>> 
>> - Normal Changes (two versions) go to CAB for approval  We currently have a 
>> two-step approval process for these – first step is “approval to build” the 
>> change, second is “approval to implement” the change.
>> 
>> - Emergency Changes – generally urgent changes. Before going to the 
>> Emergency Change level, consider whether the change potentially fits the 
>> risk profile of a “Minor Change” because you are able to authorise minor 
>> changes yourself, meaning that you can get these through the system just as 
>> quickly as an emergency change in most cases.
>> 
>> - In theory, staff should now not be making any changes unless:
>> - they are part of a CAB approved set of Operational Changes 
>> (BAU Activities), or there is an RFC associated with the change logged in to 
>> ServiceNow.

So, looking at what I am doing today, I now feel utterly paralyzed with 
a need to do something, but feel I cannot, as the tasks I want to do would 
actually take less time to implement than logging into the system and 
going through "The Process".  The risks in what I am doing are nil.  I am 
just writing shell scripts, partly for work purposes and partly as 
"entertainment" and enabling and clearing up the Lights Out systems on 
various servers.  Basically logging in and clearing old logs etc and 
resetting the processing &c.

But getting bored with that and I decided to see (and here is the nub of my 
missive), if there were others that felt as strongly about these methodologies
as I did and if there were those that had been affected by them some how 
and had the same mistrust of them as I have started to.

And you know what?   This must truly be a first because, no matter how 
far I search on Google, I can find barely any mention of how these 
methodologies have had a negative impact on IT or the technical staff that 
work in the field of sysadmin and similar.   This has to be first.  If 
I type into Google, for example "hate <apple|microsoft|coca cola|foxtel>" etc, 
the searcher would be bound to find hundreds of listings, blogs, sites
and so on, dedicated to a negative feeling about these products or services.

But a similar search for "ITIL" or "ITSM" and so on, seems to produce 
nary a whimper. Yes there are blogs and sites, including "IT Skeptic", which
on the surface appear to be critical of these methodologies, it in fact
endorses them and the arguments put forward against them are weak.

Time and again when I went looking at various sites attempting to arm myself
and cheer myself up with criticism of these processes, it indeed seems 
to be a never ending cheer squad for these methodologies.  It is like 
the Internet has drunk the kool-aid and even those who are mildly critical 
always seem to end up supporting them by the end of the entry.

Now, I am not searching out Conspiracy Theories, I supposedly have enough of 
that with Cory Bernardi and his links with the American Legislative Exchange 
Council which is a tale for another time.

But I do find it strange that a methodology
could have so many supporters cheering it on, with hardly a skerrick of 
critique, on teh interweb, which usually has a forum for critique, concern 
or even haters of <insert_meme_here>.

Am I truly going loopy in my too-cold room at the end of the corridor - are 
these methodologies that brilliant that everyone truly adores them so much?
Is it possible that ITIL and the associated gubbins is truly a panacea 
for world peace, or is it that tightly bound up in trade marks and copyrights
and so on, that it is impossible to write about negatively in any context
and get away with it?   I was going to mention something about it being 
similar to Scientology in that regard, but thought better of it...

I am concerned, because everything I thought I knew about the Internet is 
coming apart!  I thought I would find a kindred spirit in a blog or forum 
somewhere, but it seems that the pickings in this area are truly scant. 
Usually on the web, you can find a site that is totally vehement about 
something, but ITIL seems to only invoke feelings of "mild annoyance"
in the zeitgeist of a Google Search.

Are people studying these methodologies replaced by a doppelganger when 
they attend one of the many F2F forums or conferences or are their minds 
fried in some sort of C'thulu type thrall after reading the 800 page 
Red & Blue books of incantations?   Or am I marginalised and sad, so I must
stop this internal dialogue and instead embrace the voices in the office
saying "join usssss, join ussss"?   Am I doomed?!


Thanks for reading this far in my Friday Rant. 
I assure you I am completely sane....  :/

--