This blog was written in 2015. The OSA class was sunsetted along with all of ITILv3.  For a more recent perspective, visit our latest article on the importance of modern operational practices and the ITIL Practice Manager path on How to Align ITSM with Organizational Goals: A Step-by-Step Guide What if we did not build an operational support system to meet current business requirements?  That might sound a bit outrageous and contradictory to everything we have learned.  If you are a service provider, then you are aware that what we consider premium service support today could be accepted as the norm and sometimes can be outdated before it becomes a reality. The key to sustaining underpinning operations for any industry is in the constructs of the system. If we build a system to provide what the customer and business outcomes require now, then that is what we will have. The likelihood is that we will have a system that provides for a service that will ren...

Are you a manager or practitioner in the IT Service Management Profession?   Would you like to advance in your IT career?   Perhaps you have many years’ experience in IT and service management and would like to increase your credibility.   According to information on ITIL-officialsite, ”The ITIL Expert level of qualification is aimed at those individuals who are interested in demonstrating a superior level of knowledge of the ITIL Scheme in its entirety.  Achieving this level of ITIL qualification will benefit a candidate in both their personal and professional development, by aiding career advancement and progression within the IT Service Management field.  Candidates who achieve ITIL Expert level will also satisfy the prerequisite entry criteria for the ITIL Master Level; the highest level qualification within the ITIL scheme.” The ITIL qualifications scheme offers a modular approach to the ITIL framework. In this scheme, candidates are free to sel...

In 1911, Frederick Winslow Taylor initiated the modern practice of business management. In his work Principles of Scientific Management , Taylor put forth the idea that running and managing a business is a science based on data and proven methods, rather than a series of ad hoc, unguided and uncontrolled actions. Unfortunately, Taylor was a victim of his day and age. He had good intentions in putting forth “scientific management”, but based his ideas on some flawed principles. Taylor stated one these principles in this way: “Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit to handle pig iron as a regular occupation is that he shall be so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles in his mental make-up the ox than any other type. The man who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding monotony of work of this character. Therefore the workman who is best suited to handling pig iron i...