CultITSM, Volume 1 Number 1, September 2008

Greetings and welcome to the first edition of CultITSM, the newsletter of the Real IT Service Institute, the careful custodians of Real ITSM.

You are receiving this newsletter because you are registered at realitsm.com as one of the prestigious EgoITSM Real ITSM Practitioners. Basking in the international acclaim of that status is benefit enough, but you also receive this newsletter at no extra charge.

Much is happening at the RITSI. We recently implemented OReckon, an open reckoning system. This means you can now assess yourself, your organisation, your software product or indeed your office furniture against the Real ITSM practices to measure your compliance to Real ITSM, your RATS. This service is also free to EgoITSM practitioners.

Note: the Board of the RITSI has recently launched an inquiry into the number of services offered for free. The Chairman of the Board has expressed his concern that this is contrary to the principles of Real ITSM and endangers the profitability of the member organisations. But at this point the service remains free so get it while you can.

RATS Assessment can be found at http://www.realitsm.com/assessment, unsurprisingly.

In other news, feedback from readers of Introduction to Real ITSM is 100% favourable (so far). Here is a sampling:

"We've just got the book by Rob England, 'Introduction to Real ITSM'.
It's amazing! We are reading it laughing out loud :)"
Oleg Skrynnik

"Rob England, the IT Skeptic, sent me a copy of his very hilarious and quite skeptical book, "Introduction to Real ITSM." It is a brilliant parody that exposes how convoluted service management methodologies and their related organizations have become. Enter the enchanted world of deathcycles, "wetware" (that would be you), and the Wright Cycle (guess-do-crash-fix). Even the footnotes are funny. However, much like dirty jokes written by contractors on the wall just before they are covered up by cabinets, there is some cryptic graffiti underneath the scarred and stained veneer of this book that offers some pragmatic wisdom if you think hard enough about it. I strongly advise against that though — just enjoy it, even if now and then you feel a bit of a sting. You will come out the other side a more grounded practitioner."
Terry Doerscher

"My copy arrived this morning. I haven't stopped laughing yet ;-)"
James Finister

"[My wife] read the introduction and said it was the first IT book that held her interest past page two"
Change Manager, postal service

"I experienced numerous moments of amusement, humor and outright hilarity, which made reading this book at my desk during work hours a bit difficult."
Bob Grinsell

Our final piece of news is that the book Introduction to Real ITSM is now available on Amazon. The Board greeted this news with mixed reactions. One potential buyer reported annoyance with having to register details with Lulu so this will be more convenient for those already registered with Amazon. On the other hand, your poor struggling author makes more if you buy from CreateSpace or Lulu.

But we can't fight the giants, so the book is now also available on Amazon.

Thank-you for your support of RITSI. May it bring you many benefits. If you have any ideas for developing any of the programs you see down the lefthand side of the realitsm.com website (PragmaITSM, CultITSM...), then please let us know - it could be a lot of fun.

Rob England
• RITSI Chairman of the Board
• RITSI CEO
• DogmaITSM Chief Architect
• PragmaITSM Chief Examiner
• FavorITSM Chief Assessor
• Webmaster
• Accreditation Agency (Two Hills Ltd) CEO