In the IT world, there are a lot of different paths to take. Mine, though conventional enough in its beginnings, is increasingly becoming unconventional. I believe this is a good and important thing. Here, then, is my approach to my own career. (more…)
Blog
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ITIL adoption numbers – a critical review of one interpretation
A while back, one of my fellow students questioned to what extent ITIL has been adopted outside of the UK. He cited a source, which claimed that the adoption was very low. This assertion was based on a single statistic; the Global TSO book sales figures. The original blog post can be found here.
I immediately wondered at the truth of the assertion, as I know that ITIL has been widely adopted in Norway. I decided to perform a PROMPT analysis:
Presentation:
The statistics are presented in a clear and concise way. However, there is no information about what metric is used, and whether it corrects for anything at all.
Relevance:
There is reason to question the relevance of the statistics cited, for a few reasons:
It measures a single metric; total sales of books about ITIL from a single publisher
The data appear to be presented as percentage of total sales, and do not appear to correct for the size of the different markets, relative to each other
The data do not take into account that there are several publishers of literature about ITIL
Objectivity:
The language is neutral and measured. I find no issue with objectivity.
Method:
There is reason to question the method. There is no information about how the data was collected, which means that we cannot verify whether the methodology was appropriate. In addition, we cannot know whether the data is representative, which I find that there is reason to question, as the statistics only cite sales of one publisher, and does not appear to correct for relative market size. There is also the possibility that the sales listed as UK also includes UK vendors shipping out of the UK. Lastly, there is no information about whether the information is print-only, electronic-only or print and electronic sales.
Provenance:
There is reason to question the provenance. The author of the article itself is clearly identified, but that’s where provenance stops. The author does cite a source (ITSMF UK), but he does not give a citation for the actual stats, which means that we cannot verify the numbers or the metrics they represent. We cannot identify the authors of the information, nor verify how they were published.
Timeliness:
There is reason to question the timeliness. There is no information about when the data was published. However, the information does cite what periods it relates to, and the information appears to be recent enough to still be relevant. Still, more up to date information seems likely to be available.
In conclusion, the blog post clearly fails five out of the six PROMPT criteria. In particular, I would argue that book sales over a relatively short period of time is a poor metric for how much or little impact any given technology has had in any market, as printed books are not the only way to learn about a given technology. -
Defining the objectives of a project
Roughly put, we can say that all projects must deliver: (more…)
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Project Management: Three ways to look at stages
My journey towards a Bachelors degree continues, now with the OU Module M258 (IT Project and Service Management). As I continue to study the module, I will write down my thoughts on various subjects. Like with my first module, TU100, these will all be collected under a category for easy reference. This time, unsurprisingly, the category will be M258.
These days, I am making my first serious foray into the world of Project Management, as I am studying the Open University’s module M258 (IT Project and Service Management). From working with the first chapter of our assigned text book I have gleaned the following three ways to look at the stages of a (software) project:
The basic overview (more…) -
Exporting members of an Active Directory group
A while back, my boss came to me, asking me if I could get him an export of the users that are members of two groups in Active Directory. For the purposes of this blog post, let’s call them “OfflineUsers” and “Software Access”. As it turns out, this is pretty easy to do. Here’s how: (more…)
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Accessibility – the way to combat piracy
Software, music and movie piracy has been a more or less constant topic of discussion over the past ten or so years, usually led by special interest groups representing the three industries (in the U.S., these are the BSA, RIAA and MPAA, respectively). I agree that copyright holders should be paid their due, and have no problem paying for the media I use. The main problem I have with the arguments the copyright holders and their interest groups are using, is that their argument is one for the pre-internet age, when the options available were watching live TV, recording live TV, or buying the show or movie on a cassette or DVD.
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the NRKbeta doctrine
At earlier points in time, I have mentioned that I follow NRKbeta, NRK‘s sandbox for technology and new media. Today, I simply want to quote something they wrote a long time ago, which has been coined as the NRKbeta doctrine: (more…)
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Endorsements and Recommendations on LinkedIn
I am a fairly active networker, and use LinkedIn as a platform with which to keep track of my resume and coworkers past and present. In conjunction with this blog, it has landed me at least one job, and it’s a great tool.
LinkedIn has two seemingly similar features that I feel do two very different things: Endorsements and Recommendations: (more…) -
Fixing “The security database on the server does not have a computer account for this workstation trust relationship”
When working in a corporate environment with Active Directory, you may, from time to time, encounter computers that users cannot log on to, as they receive an error message saying:
(more…)