Just about everywhere I turn there’s some kind of discussion or article about “Changing the Culture.”  From one of the latest IT Skeptic’s posts (http://www.itskeptic.org/node/54) there’s a reference to a survey completed by Gartner that shows the number one hurdle of implementing ITIL is due to having to change the culture.  Don’t believe me?  Here it is:

If you read the blog post you’ll find that the IT Skeptic isn’t confident in the data, but I’m willing to bet that the part about culture is correct.  So when it comes to implementing ITIL, ITSM, DevOps, MOF, Six Sigma, LEAN, CMMI or any of the dozens of process improvement methodologies, it’s apparent that there’s an enormous task of just changing the way people think about how they function in the I.T. environment and how this impacts the value to the business.  This is probably why a lot of process improvement initiatives fail; it’s easy to change processes and technologies, but how do you change people?  I can definitely agree that the culture shock of ITIL is difficult for some people to comprehend since I’m fighting it right now in my organization, but it must be possible since other companies have succeeded.

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Started working in IT in 1999 as a support desk analyst as a way to help pay for food during college. Studied Electrical Engineering for two years before realizing biochemistry was more fun than differential equations, and so ultimately graduated with a Biology degree in 2006. Having (reluctantly) failed at getting accepted into dental school, embraced working in IT and has gone broke becoming an ITIL Expert. Likes to jog, sing camp songs, quote Mel Brooks movie lines and make dumb jokes and loves working for an Israeli tech company where December 25th is a regular work day.